What if there was life out there, just not as intelligent as we thought?

What if in the next 50 year's we did find other exterestial creatures on other planet's? That were in a primitive stage of development. Could we trust ourselves to treat them with the compassion they deserve or would we simply treat them like all other inferior creatures on our planet and do what the hell we like, with them.. Would we have the right to infiltrate their habitat simply because we are intellectually superior?

What makes you think we are at the top of intelligence though? I know thats not what you wrote, but it was what you were thinking when you wrote what u did.

I dont see your point, I'm not saying were the most intelligent species in the galaxy, i'm just pointing out the fact there may be more primitive life forms out there in the galazy. how would we react with the propisition of being able to play god.

Originally posted by shrunkensimon
What makes you think we are at the top of intelligence though? I know thats not what you wrote, but it was what you were thinking when you wrote what u did.

this is what i find extreeeeemely annoying about the forums... why can't someone just ask a question? or were you trying to be funny?

i think.....
we would treat inferior life forms in the same way we treat everything that is already on THIS planet, as humans we like to think we are superior, and that we can use other life forms for our own gain, we would probably tear them apart to see what theyre made of, then see how we could use them for our own good, until someone came along and said "hey, give the little guy a chance", some songwriters and popular performers would combine forces to create support for said beings, and they would get limited protection...... its not really human nature to leave things alone is it. (thats my theory anyway)

Well, that's kind of the conundrum that aliens run into when they come to earth,isn't it?

[edit on 22-2-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

What kind of track record have we so far?
Wouldnt that indicate what kind of abuse wed be capable of?
There is hardly A LIVING THING WE DONT HUNT TO EXTINCTION, OR RESCOURCE OF IMPORT WE WONT DESTROY FOR

I don't think we'll be advanced enough in 50 years (without help) to make it to a star system where there is life of even rudimentary intelligence. You can pretty much rule out the 9 (or is it 8 now?) planets in our solar system, unless a species has evolved underground on one of the Saturn or Jupiter moons. The distance to the next star system with planets is quite far I believe. I suppose if life can exist without air and based on something else besides organic compounds then all assumptions are out the window.

Hopefully, by the time we do reach a distant planet that hosts intelligent life-forms, mankind will have evolved into a race that wants for nothing except exploration for exploration's sake. Maybe I'm too "Trekish" in my hope for the future, but it feels better being optimistic day-to-day than cynical.

Originally posted by liftingtheveil
What if in the next 50 year's we did find other exterestial creatures on other planet's? That were in a primitive stage of development. Could we trust ourselves to treat them with the compassion they deserve or would we simply treat them like all other inferior creatures on our planet and do what the hell we like, with them.. Would we have the right to infiltrate their habitat simply because we are intellectually superior?

Short answer, yes. Intellectual superiority is a perfectly good reason to dominate another culture or species. In fact, isn't it the moral duty of the intellectual superior to use their brains to help other creatures improve their lives and possibly provide us with a cheap source of food for our growing population?

I think in this situation, it might be a good idea to ask, "What would Hitler do?"

Originally posted by shrunkensimon
What makes you think we are at the top of intelligence though? I know thats not what you wrote, but it was what you were thinking when you wrote what u did.

thats because he wrote "What if" not "we would or we should".
please restrain from posting your own arrogant comments without reading the question thuroughly. He is marely after other peoples opinions on his thoughts.

Originally posted by liftingtheveil
Would we have the right to infiltrate their habitat simply because we are intellectually superior?

I think we would be justified in studying them..should we just sit around and use our warp drives for bigger and better Indy 500's?

Originally posted by liftingtheveil
What if there was life out there, just not as intelligent as we thought

I'm sure that there are life forms out there that are far more intelligent; that are much less intelligent; that are water based; that are energy based; that are pan dimensional; that are pure good; that are pure evil; that are just like us; that are nothing like us; etc etc etc

As far as exploiting them .... I'm sure we'd study them but to exploit them as in slavery or something like that, that wouldn't make economic sense. Heck .. the biggest thing is that we are using up our own planet so we may need to go and populate theirs. Survival of the fittest and all ...

Obviously, we behave the way we do because what we are, not where we are and so forth i think it is fairly safe to say that we would not treat off world entities any different.

Also, it is a matter of perspective. Most people on earth see earth´s habitants as "us" and "them". Like "them" people in iraq and "us" people in the US depending on where you are located. Pull the camera back far enough and you will only see earthlings as "us", pull it even further back and you will start to get a more correct perspective on the galaxy...there is no "us" and "them", there is only "us".

Deep down i believe most people have a mechanism which is aware of this and also due to this mechanism life on other planets will be treated no differently.

Man am i rambling today or what?!

If we had the ability to travel to distant planets in large numbers and found life that was similiar to us in say the stone age or middle ages i think we would most likely invade them and take over. Then we would either kill them all off or use them as slaves. Why? because that has already happened many times on Earth and it was humans doing it to other humans so i would think aliens would be even less accepted.

The way many people are with animals on this planet, I guess people would eventually eat the animals on other planets too lol.

I personaly think that there are quite a number of intelegent life forms out there in the galaxy that are in various stages of development. Some are just figuring out fire some have figured out FTL travil.

Unfortunatly for us knowing how humans are we probably would exploit a naive culture if we found one in the galaxy. Thats just the way humans are.

Originally posted by whatukno

Unfortunatly for us knowing how humans are we probably would exploit a naive culture if we found one in the galaxy. Thats just the way humans are.

Once we get off this rock I don't think we'll be nearly as aggressive.We need a habitat.Once that is secured via expansion(primarily artificially created)we won't need to attack others imo.

Someone has to be first to evolve, it is a scientific certainty.
If we are the first to reach this level of technology, then we are going to remain alone in the universe until we develope the technology to change our view.

I think we all share a common hope when it comes to UFO hunting. We hope we were not the first, and there is someone out there who can tell us the real story of the universe.

I would like a advanced species to come here in peace and give us a few million year jump start, but I would still be totally satisfied just knowing there was at least another culture that made it as far as we did if not further.

...we would try to cram our ideas of religion down their throats.

And if they were less than excited about it, we would hold some "Holy" inquisitions to weed out the "good life" from the Heretics. Then we'd burn 99.9% of them at the stake for refusing to convert to our beliefs.

Or, Heaven them if certain other religions got a hold of them first and they refused or couldn't grow beards. Or refused to wrap their equivalent of Females from head to toe. Or refused to "fix" their Female's genitals so they couldn't enjoy relations with their male mates.

But that's just one persons opinion

...brings up another possibility.

What if aliens were visiting us, and they decided that we were too backward to know that we were following flawed religious beliefs and decided to give us the chance to convert to their beliefs or be burned at the stake?

What if we were BOTH wrong?

I bet God would be a little annoyed in either case.

Originally posted by liftingtheveil
What if in the next 50 year's we did find other exterestial creatures on other planet's? That were in a primitive stage of development. Could we trust ourselves to treat them with the compassion they deserve or would we simply treat them like all other inferior creatures on our planet and do what the hell we like, with them.. Would we have the right to infiltrate their habitat simply because we are intellectually superior?

Reply to the topic, I believe that there is no cap on intelligent beings in our universe. Sure some sytems may have primitive life forms and others may have vast numbers of intellegent life.


The one thing that compels me is how people precieve that human beings are the most intellegent beings in our universe. I have no proof but I believe there is life out there so much more intelligent than us. Beings with so much knowledge they would be considered godlike if they were human.