Alien Military

I'm thinking about all the supposed Alien visitations. There are reports of jets chasing after UFOs and the whole Battle of Los Angeles incident.

I'm wondering if a highly advance alien race would have a military or even need one.

We've all seen Star Wars and see cool looking space ships blowing each other up in space, but I have a hard time believing that can even be close to reality.

For instance, if a race was advanced enough to fold space/time, convert energy to mass and vice versa and didn't blow themselves up they would be a highly peaceful race. Why would a race like this need a military?

Because if they were advanced like you say, so advanced that they are peaceful, then they must realize there are not so peaceful civilizations. No matter how peaceful you were, you would be a fool not to have some sort of defense.

Not knowing any Alien races all I can say is this, we all think they are peaceful, and that being peaceful means NO military.
But IF you ARE peaceful you can still have a military, but not like the military we have on this Planet, look at our military from any country ( especially the US), we develop KILLING weapons, things designed to ELIMINATE the opposition, and the opposition develop the same, so we strive to design more powerful and destructive weapons.

Now a 'peaceful' race can have a military but instead of developing weapons that kill , you can have a few , but you create better DEFENSES, force shields and such, things bullets , projectiles , even radiation cannot penetrate.

Now say we have a confrontation between us and the Aliens, they have shields , we have bullets, you get the scenario of the film Independance day, where the Earth military fires all its rockets, bullets even a nuke and the Alien ship is safely tucked away behind its forcefield, safe in the knowledge that sooner or later they'll run out of bullets and rockets and you can either mop up with your own forces or simply turn up and say " You've tried to stop us, you've failed, now what are you going to try?".

A 'peaceful' race would im my limited experience of Alien culture ( i.e NONE ) would simply let them batter their shields , and then after they've exausted their resources , explain to them " we came in peace, but because you were scared or paranoid, you fired upon us, but we forgive you, now we can either help you or leave, its your choice?".

Peace only comes after a struggle .

Maintaining peace requires vigilance , and a military

I read a good quote on ATS somewhere ,...

"those that turn their guns to plowshares ,

... end up plowing for those that didn't !

I'm reminded of a Jack Handey quote.

"I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it"

Even if an alien race did decide to convert its swords to ploughshares it would surely be prudent to maintain at least a small defence force, especially if the lessons that nature has taught us here on Earth regarding the harsh battle for survival also ring true in interstellar space.

My first post so I hope I don't get eaten alive

As our earth civilisations advance through the ages we didn't abandon warfare and militarism, quite the opposite, instead we developed greater and more powerful killing machines, often in the name of peace of course

It seems to me that if we accept the basic premise of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the vastness of space then we must accept that many variations of that life must also exist? Can we make an assumption that amongst all that life there will not exist a species (or many species) hell bent on domination in order to enrich their particular civilization at the expense of all others.

In my personal opinion the chance of a visiting civilization coming here to pillage and plunder are at least as high as the chances of their coming to spread enlightenment. I know this assessment is based on historical human behaviour but that is all I have access to....

I want to know the truth as much as anyone. I don't believe for a minute that the PTB are not concealing information from us, what worries me is if the concealment is with collusion of ET races then what does that say about their ultimate intent? Not really the actions I would expect from an advanced enlightened species here to save our planet....

If they are here and are cooperating with world militaries y guess is that they have already demonstrated superior offensive capabilities.

My 2c.

KYR

Something that I can't grasp is the advance civilization's motive.

What do we have that's worth pillaging and plundering. All the resources on this planet can probably be mined on the countless planets in our system. Assuming this civilization is a Type 3, they have harnessed the power of black holes, etc and therefore need no more physical resources.

Can't a civilization be advanced enough to not need any significant military? Millions of years from now, are civilizations going to be shooting each other o would it be more of psychological warfare? (like manipulating a civilization to wipe themselves out).

Interesting....

It seems to me that any "group" of beings would surely form a military. One is never the answer when defending home ground.

if a race is so advanced that they are peaceful that does not mean that it is peaceful to other races, they might just be peaceful among there own race and hostil towards others. hard to say what the reasoning is behind it, but look at dogs as an example they can be great around other dogs but try to kill every cat they see.

Why does high technology equate to peace?...

We're light years ahead of what we where only 80 years ago yet we are in many ways more aggressive and war like that we where then.

Also Peace doesnt mean a lack of military, its what that military is used for... my country is effectively neutral and pacifistic, we've helped and are helping in small ways in current engagements, but apart from that we dont and never have or will be aggressive to any other nation, yet we have an active standing military... which for the most part is used in the region as peace keepers or emergency personal during natural and man made disasters.

Given the fact people have been killed or immobilized, by Alien tech, both ship and hand held through either self defense or actual aggression shows they have military type hardware. given they also seem to have defined roles (scientists, engineers, doctors), why wouldnt they have a military... it might not act or be on the same level as our own... but to think they wouldnt is a little niave, and regardless of how peaceful they are... foolish to think so.

Advanced tech and 'understanding' doesnt mean peaceful intent... and dont let anyone tell you otherwise... and this is coming from the mouth of a pacifist. I hate the idea of war, but I aint stupid enough to be blind to it.

'Know Your Rights' is on the right track, i mean in many ways the problem lies with our own millitary... there often so damn twitchy, greedy, or paranoid, you could show em an alien toothbrush and they're first thought would be... is it a weapon!

No, I disagree with most replies.

If they were truly that advanced they wouldn't have the need for a full-time dedicated military. They would have the defensive technological know how to create systems that would simply disable lesser weapon systems.

Disable Nuclear armed missile or fighter jets war fighting electronics etc.

Hmmm,

I wonder...

reply to post by SLAYER69


That is what I was getting at. If they can covert mass to energy then physical weapons would do no good.

Does anyone know of any good books or websites that discusses this at a reasonable level?

In my opinion, any type of advanced civilization would have some defenses. Maybe not outright offensive types, but they would logically be prepared to defend themselves from whatever they may encounter in the vastness of the cosmos, that is only logical. In regards to our weapons having any effect on them, I doubt it....If they have mastered physics enough to travel from star system to star system than likely they know how to defend themselves from simple civilizations like ours. Of course it would only be in defense more than likely, but the fact is I highly doubt any civilization that is part of a greater cosmic being is outwardly aggressive and abusive of its technologies. Any that abused it's native power would likely be dealt with by another advanced civilization that makes sure everyone is treated fairly......IMHO...

But militarily, yea we are not even CLOSE to what they would have to have(even for self defense) at that level of evolution...

I know that the question has already been put forward, but I would like to ask once again; What would bring people to the conclusion that a highly technologically advanced race would have to be peaceful? Are those who support this stating that in the last 200 years, in which time our planet has advanced exponentially, we have become a more peaceful world? I hope not, because that would make you incurably delusional.

While there may be peace loving species who are advanced, I would be willing to bet that there are likewise worlds that are equally advanced who want nothing more than to conquer every planet they come across.