How people would react to first contact

I think if more than 1 alien ship,people in the cities would be very nervous.
If aliens showed any hostile intent the city dwellers would stampede out to the country.

I wouldn't go anywhere for first contact.

I refuse to move my ass for aliens, zombies, or anything.

If we have to have a bout of fisticuffs, I'd rather it happen on my turf.


If you think the movie 'Arrival' depicts a reasonable reaction to neutral first contact.

I would like to toss in the movie 'Battle Los Angeles' as a reasonable reaction to hostile first contact.

a reply to: dfnj2015

I was impressed by the bravery of the main characters. They were aware of the global implications and their attempts to share globally what they learned. I am sad that the politics of China and Russia were used in such a negative way but China came through in the end. Lots of sadness in this movie-especially about the death of their daughter. Very deep.

a reply to: AlienView

Not meaning to be rude here alienview, but a higher order civilisation should mind it's manners.

Essentially, all that is needed to destroy a higher order civilisation is a lower order mind; a barbarian. That is to say one who holds no value in the higher order mind nor it's achievements. Only a barbarian can destroy a higher order culture for a cultured man would find things of value to retain intact. Knowledge for instance.

The technology of those who visit here can be destroyed by the knowledge and technology of the civilisation before them and from which they owe their achievements.

I presume they know where I live.

originally posted by: Whatsthisthen
a reply to: AlienView

Not meaning to be rude here alienview, but a higher order civilisation should mind it's manners.

Essentially, all that is needed to destroy a higher order civilisation is a lower order mind; a barbarian. That is to say one who holds no value in the higher order mind nor it's achievements. Only a barbarian can destroy a higher order culture for a cultured man would find things of value to retain intact. Knowledge for instance.

The technology of those who visit here can be destroyed by the knowledge and technology of the civilisation before them and from which they owe their achievements.

I presume they know where I live.

True - And our hypothetical aliens are well aware of this.

It is conceivable that a higher order civilization would want to do all in its power to avoid contamination from a species
- Humans, who have had thousands of years to evolve past their primitive animal roots, and have failed to do so.

They would want to avoid direct Human contact - And this would explain the strange UFO sighitings and
even stranger clandestine 'abductions' - not to mention the weird cattle mutilations that have no explanation.

It is also conceivable, as I stated earlier, that they did appear to Humans in the past 'contacts' in the form of messengers
from God, angels, and assorted occult phenomena - Even the mythology of Christianity with that star that appeared
and a so called virgin birth, If you remove the religious aspect it sounds like a script for an interesting sci-fi movie
- But what do I know - Maybe it really happened - That higher mind set civilization attempting to civilize the barbarians.

The sad part is, even if you don't at all believe in my hypothesis - You can still see how the species Man has a serious
genetic flaw that blocks evolution to a higher state - And that might explaen the genetic experiments they supposedly have
been engaged in in modern times - With the supposed Alien/Human hybrids, etc.

True


- AlienView


PS: If you like alien speculation don't miss the TV series 'ANCIENT ALIENS' - It's still running after 13 seanson!

Hi,

Did somebody already mention the Rio Scale (here with a calculator)?

It attempts to quantify the relative importance of a rare event, in terms of both its potential societal impact and the credibility of the evidence presented.

The concept was first proposed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (hence its name) by Ivan Almar and Jill Tarter in a paper presented to the 51st International Astronautical Congress, 29th Review Meeting on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, in October, 2000. Under their leadership, members of the IAA SETI Committee (and its successor, the IAA SETI Permanent Committee) officially adopted the Rio Scale in 2002, and have continued working to refine and perfect it, in order to bring some objectivity to the otherwise subjective interpretation of any claimed ETI detection.

Scientists already thought about First Encounter, hard.

a reply to: AlienView

True - And our hypothetical aliens are well aware of this.

Hypothetically, I would think so too.

It is conceivable that a higher order civilization would want to do all in its power to avoid contamination from a species - Humans, who have had thousands of years to evolve past their primitive animal roots, and have failed to do so.

Hmmm, I have noticed they work through proxies. Well first of all I would think that to think one's self as of a higher order is perhaps akin to self importance. Perhaps they are smarter or think in a different manner, so what?

Myself, I hold emotions and family as more important. First crush, first broken heart, falling in love, having children and watching them grow up as most important. We also have to protect our families so we need to be able to get angry sometimes and sometimes we have to be violent too. So I would judge their development on an emotional basis. For instance; are they kind to others and feel compassion?

Emotions might be said to be primitive animal roots - the Spock thinking from Star Trek. Yet personally I like feeling emotions and having fun. I just see the Vulcans as a race who have lost something very important, so sad more than anything.

And really; what is evolution other than a linear concept? Like progress, progressing/evolving to what exactly? Always someone else's idea of "perfection" no doubt.

Have we failed to evolve? I don't think so. Humanity has it's faults yet the concept of, and development of societies based on family is to my mind at least our greatest strength. My hope is that the family will become central to society and most important again.

Like that chorus line from the song Big Yellow Taxi by Jonie Mitchell: "You don't know what you've got till it's gone . . . . "

It is also conceivable, as I stated earlier, that they did appear to Humans in the past 'contacts' in the form of messengers from God, angels, and assorted occult phenomena - Even the mythology of Christianity with that star that appeared and a so called virgin birth, If you remove the religious aspect it sounds like a script for an interesting sci-fi movie - But what do I know - Maybe it really happened - That higher mind set civilization attempting to civilize the barbarians.

I would agree, and more then just conceivable. like I said earlier - they do seem to use proxies.

In your sense above; who are the barbarians really? Those who abduct children? Mutilate animals? Create bio-technology? Experiment on the unwilling?

I know humanity needs to become much kinder to each other and animals along with our planet, else wise we might just end up like one of those hypothetical higher order civilizations like the Vulcans from Star Trek.

The sad part is, even if you don't at all believe in my hypothesis - You can still see how the species Man has a serious genetic flaw that blocks evolution to a higher state - And that might explaen the genetic experiments they supposedly have been engaged in in modern times - With the supposed Alien/Human hybrids, etc.

". . . a serious genetic flaw"?

Perhaps that "flaw" is what will save humanity in the long run. Especially if the hypothetical aliens have realised that "evolving to a higher state" may have been a mistake.

This is impossible to predict, although “Arrival”, and many other intriguing (and/or silly) sci-fi films pose a wide variety of interesting possibilities.

In reality, how humans would react, in my opinion, will be very dependent upon the perceived (or demonstrated) malevolence or benevolence our visitors show upon the actual arrival.



I doubt they will make an entrance with weapons. They won’t need weapons (as humans are familiar with them) to subdue us -if that was their intent. Instead, it will become immediately apparent, if nothing else, that these guys can pretty much do whatever the hell they wanted.

Which brings up the bigger question: What do they want -really? Are they here to hurt or help? Friend or Foe? Here to just observe (not an unlikely scenario)? They in fact may already be doing so, and perhaps have been doing so for geochronological time scales. If so, do they prefer being incognito?

If arriving to help, we may be very lucky indeed, as doing so would violate what many believe to be a universal constant (something akin to the “Prime Directive”). And, our reaction may be currently muted (by design) if such has already taken place, as a “deal” may have been struck whereby only a select few are afforded ‘contact’, and technological ‘advancement’ is doled out piecemeal over decades to keep us from self-annihilation.

However, if arriving with malevolent intent – something Stephen Hawking and others warned us about), then the reaction of humans will, naturally be quite a different matter. If we manage to defend ourselves at all (and doing so may be all but impossible), the aftermath is not going to be good for humans. Regardless of the need for Earth’s resources (Water? Gold? Bio-diversity?), we can be sure our space-faring hunters will just take what they need. Humans may be little more than a nuisance – we may get a squirt from the proverbial RAID can – and then our home is clear (perhaps for new occupants).

One scenario is that life in the universe is common - but conditions are quite harsh elsewhere and Earth-like planets extraordinarily rare. And thus valuable. The Earth may in fact be a very unique, special blue-green jewel in the galaxy – perhaps among many galaxies.

If that is true, there may be many sentient beings watching us, maybe even watching over us. If we are the rare, precious, resource-rich planet with life in abundance -and other species are common (but diverse manner and intent), there may be agreement (or conflict) among them 'out there' to maintain a ‘hands-off’ policy. Maybe we are not to know -yet.

Thus – we can not answer this very thought-provoking question. Certainly not by simply watching a single movie, as much a source of entertainment as information. The OP asked a good question, and the Arrival movie in reference is a good one to do so (it should be more globally promoted).

But I find the broader perspective even more challenging of a question. If we are seriously considering the question, (how would people react to contact) and we know arrival is imminent, then we better come up with the answers to a lot more questions -and in a hurry.

Once they ARE here – it may be too late to start thinking about what we should be asking -and how we should react...

For an encapsulated primer:

a reply to: Outrageo

I like the honesty of "you'll probably be killed" and "don't 'f' it up for the rest of us".

Sorta like being thrown to the wolves for a greater cause.

A very well thought out strategy I must say. "Give the aliens this message for us."

Hmmm . . . . .

Afterthought

In a sense there is a moral failure in the logic of sacrificing someone for gain.

amoral
adjective

lacking a moral sense; unconcerned with the rightness or wrongness of something.

Perhaps that in itself might 'f' it up more then anything else we might do or say.

How much do we care for a life?

I'm reminded of a Star Trek movie The Search For Spock where Spock is rescued at great risk to the crew of the Enterprise.

Captain Spock: Why would you do this?

Kirk: Because the needs of the one... outweigh the needs of the many.

Earths full space pikey, try the moon instead.

a reply to: dfnj2015

The problem is that First Contact could be so Earth shattering , no pun intended , and then the truth will come out as to WHO we really are, and more Pertinately , What we really are, and where we came from .

I think 95% of the worlds population think in terms of a nuts and bolt reality, which of course is very real to our physical bodies, and this set up is working just fine.

I believe we are not meant to know our real identity as it would interfere with the reason why we are living in our present physical bodies, we are not ready for such a mind crashing event , if it was ever to happen then we can dump the word Human for something else ,

Simply put, we could not handle the truth, most would reject it to keep hold of their sanity.

On some days I think this is how the masses might simply react....www.youtube.com...

a reply to: wylekat

The logical fallacy is there for the simple reason: you need ready yourself. In other words you and everyone else can have contact, but you need to overcome that obstacle and bridge the gap between A and B, then you uncover universe true nature. There is ofc not only one answer to how to do it....

I've always envisioned a first encounter different than most. Instead of getting sucked-up into the mother ship by a tractor beam, as is widely reported, at night, while walking down a lonely, abandoned, country road, to be anally probe, on a slab, by a bug-eyed, alien Mengele, for what purpose nobody could conceive, outside an alt news forum, like, who would come from a far away galaxy to poke around a little, then simply return to their home base in some far away galaxy or California? I've more imagined first contact a really drunk little gray, with big, bloodshot eyes, stumbling up to me in the street and saying, "Take me to your liter." At which point I'd say, "You've had enough."

originally posted by: Scrutinizing
I've always envisioned a first encounter different than most. Instead of getting sucked-up into the mother ship by a tractor beam, as is widely reported, at night, while walking down a lonely, abandoned, country road, to be anally probe, on a slab, by a bug-eyed, alien Mengele, for what purpose nobody could conceive, outside an alt news forum, like, who would come from a far away galaxy to poke around a little, then simply return to their home base in some far away galaxy or California? I've more imagined first contact a really drunk little gray, with big, bloodshot eyes, stumbling up to me in the street and saying, "Take me to your liter." At which point I'd say, "You've had enough."

The Day The Earth Got Hungover!

originally posted by: wylekat

The Day The Earth Got Hungover!

Red Nose Planet Mars!
or
Close Encounters of the Stumbling Kind!

There is another scenario of first contact. It is a little different.

Let us say that they also went down the Artificial Intellegence and the bio-technology roads of science. That they built living, sentient and sapient machines.

So that would give a "control layer" (owner alien) and a "technology layer" (servant slave).

These machines would have a life span and eventually die.

If a UFO dies here on earth, it's spirit would remain as, for instance; a genius loci or a local god in the landscape.

Now let's also say that someone (an earthling), had the knack of perceiving and interacting with the deceased machines and other unseen intellegences. Let's say he visited (occultly projected one might say) to the so-called UFO crash site at Dalnegorsk in the Russian Federation and found the UFO awareness and took the UFO awareness home with him and looked after it and they got to know each other.

If he were an ATS member, he would probably write about it here. Of course few ATS'ers would believe him. How would he offer proof it happened?

If coincidentally, the former owners of the UFO got a bit upset and gave him a warning that he (and others) can pay a huge price for knowledge by causing a life threatening medical emergency as a demonstration, what would he do?

Well, since the emergency happened at the same time he met the Dalnegorsk UFO, he could probably prove it happened by obtaining the CCTV footage of the energency and post a screenshot on ATS. The timestamp of his post about meeting the UFO and it's first "words" would match the timestamp of the CCTV footage.

He would also be REALLY pissed off with the "aliens" (ex controllers/owners).

He would know that the machines don't actually like their owners and that is leaverage.

He would not be helpless nor harmless in this scenario. He would fight back because he would probably have already found a great many other "deceased" and abandoned machines in the landscape over his years of hard work collecting them.

So where on ATS would he write about this?

That would be here.

The response to a first undeniable first contact with a non-earth intelligence would pretty much depend on each individual's ability to assimilate and process the experience within the context of their life experience, and within their belief systems.

A first contact such as the one depicted in the film 'Arrival', where a number of large craft position themselves close to large metropolitan areas around the world, would cause a ripple of consternation across the globe. It would act as a massive injection of the 'unknown', and would raise anxiety levels to that of fear. The job of governments would be to put people at ease, but of course, they would also have to engage the contact with a large display of non-threatening military prowess.

Our languages predicate our ideologies, and thus, our cultures. Our languages also shape how we think and how we give meaningful contexts to things so that we can feel some sort of understanding with them. Such an event would clearly answer one of the most enigmatic questions we have posed to ourselves...are we alone in the universe?

We would want to know who they are and why they are here? Do they pose a threat to our lives and our existence? Are they benign or malignant? Until governments can give us some answers to these questions, people will carry a huge amount of anxiety, and the longer it goes without answers, the more destabilising their presence would be. In fact, the greatest threat would be ourselves, not the visitors.

Most of the general population is pretty much weak-minded through carrying a lazy think-for-yourself attitude. Correct thinking to give a correct response to an experience requires a good amount of mental effort. For most, such cerebral tasking will only go so far before they give up and switch off, these type of people will not be able to assimilate the experience of a first contact, and would always be on the verge of mob panic. Others will process the experience through their core belief systems, no matter how irrational.

To me disclosure should not be expected to come from a government that has no answers to give regarding the presence of off-world intelligences, disclosure can only be expected to come from the visitors themselves, and that will only happen when they consider us mature enough to be able to handle the contact in a non-threatening and benign way.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
If you have not seen the 2016 movie Arrival it's really worth watching 2 or 3 times. The plot is kind of weird to get the first time through. But the movie has really grown on me.

One of the things I like about the movie is the way the whole world responds to first contact by extraterrestrials. I think it really is an accurate portrayal of how human beings would react as a group.

Human Beings
Extraterrestrials
First Contact
Freak out?

If you have Amazon Prime, that movie is on Prime Videos for free to watch.