Debate: Should We Fear or Welcome Alien Contact?

as far as I can tell we should fear it.

A.) there are no massively obvious signs aliens exist out there. No signals, no ships, etc etc. All we have is logic, which tells us there should be. Therefore, all the folks out there who did exist got wiped out for some reason, so fear it. Or they just don't want to be near us, so fear them again. What if we go find them?

b.) There is a higher probability of finding species with intelligence more like Neanderthals then humans due to the fact that it is not likely the series of disasters that creates us can naturally be repeated elsewhere. This would make them less knowable to human ways, and thus we should fear them.


C.) the most likely situation is that we are the superior ones mentally sand physically, just not technologically. This would mean we should fear it because we may do to them what we always do: seek to control them, rule them, and probably exterminate them. We can all act like high and mighty morally perfect people ere, but the truth is that the common human would want to remove those out there sand seek to make the universe like themselves.




It is highly likely that humanity will explore space and colonize space by machine means, only ever leaving this rock when we feel like it, with a few maned exploration vehicles out there maybe. It simply is more likely we will be isolationist explorers than anything else, and this is simply more reason to fear our own exploration out there. We might not go right into there and make first contact. We may first seek immediately how to control a new race.

It would be reckless and stupid to assume an extraterrestrial species were benevolent, or incapable of having some sort of detrimental effect on our civilisation. Fear of the unknown is not some idiotic trait holding knuckle-dragging humans back - it's an essential evolutionary instinct designed to preserve the species. Caution must be the default position - if you've got a pseudo-spiritual utopian hard-on for First Contact then that's alright for you, but there are billions of men, women and children on this planet who deserve their lives to be treated with some kind of care.

Hawking's essential point is of course correct: that you must always be careful when dealing with unknowns - especially what Donald Rumsfeld would call unknown unknowns - and that a small portion of enthusiastic Contactees should not be allowed to unilaterally dictate a whole planet's interstellar diplomacy.

Contact with extraterrestrials could prove harmful to humanity in all kinds of ways - they needn't be acid spitting, laser shooting mutant squids with a penchant for epic destruction. They might just be highly intelligent liars. They might be cold, calculating intellects that operate in their own long-term interests. Think of the way we behave with other creatures on this planet - it would be ludicrous to have human beings be hostile to chimpanzees, for example, but that doesn't stop us destroying their habitat if it suits our priorities. We're more intelligent, so we prioritise our own agenda. It's nonsense to suggest any alien race capable of interstellar travel would necessarily have evolved past evil - they'd probably have evolved past large scale war, yeah, but friendliness, peacefulness and open-heartedness are not advntageous evolutionary traits: ruthlessness, cold logic and selfishness are.

Fear extraterrestrials? Not necessarily. But proceed with EXTREME caution when dealing with them and DON'T trust them. That's not hicksville scare mongering, it's the only sensible and morally tenable course when so many innocent lives could be at stake.

there is a saying in swedish that goes like this "efter sig själv dömmer man andra" translated to english it is something like this "you judge others based on your own personality" and that tells me that hawking with hi iq or not, it is a judgement based on our history an our values that beings from another planet would be hostile and greedy, its nothing that says that an alien species has those values and will wipe us out just because our history is like that.
sorry for the bad writing
peace

Before we consider Aliens as either hostile or peaceful, good or bad we need to start thinking about how our own Governments are hostile to the people. Allegedly our certain Governments are responsible for killing thousands of their own people for reasons like oil, money and power. Police are being reported daily in our societies for beating people, stealing, corrupting data, hiding evidence and general criminal behavior. Our politicians have stolen OUR money, property and land for their own needs and replaced it with Bills and Acts to make us fear terrorism and such like.

But let me ask you this.? How many people on here have actually been on a Plane when it was held up by a terrorist? I suspect NONE or maybe 1.

Then let me ask you how many people have been assaulted or felt fear on their own streets or neighborhoods from the influx of immigrants? I suspect thousands.

So do we really need to fear Aliens? I suspect that its our Governments and so called "leaders" that need to fear Aliens because they will be the first ones to be destroyed enslaved and treated just like they have been treating us. I suspect that the way to control the people of earth is through fear and what better way than to make an example out of our leaders and demonstrate their power. So, its our leaders that need to FEAR contact with Aliens, not the normal person, at least not immediately. And in any fact, watching our leaders, politicians and those who work for them get what they have been dishing out would be worth enslavement, torture and what-ever these Aliens have in mind for us.

Of course we should not fear alien contact. Due in part that it's already happened. Many many timess already throughout our existence. I'm sure that their not to pretty on the eyes but I'm more worried about them being involved with our corrupt powers that be. If they wanted to help us evolve in consciousness they would. But their far more untreated in using us as pawns for exploitation of our resources.
Even with all the "global warming" which was created by TPTB to initiate changes in our climate to make our world inhabitable for aliens.
We are aliens ourselves and that's why it's inevitable for us to have mass contact

Ultimately I can only say, "I don't know."

Even if we make several extremely large assumptions based on the evidence we can derive from our own evolution (that intelligent life evolves late in the habitable periods of planets, that complex intelligent life must be carbon based, that all technology that is possible will emit radiation that we can detect in nature, and that they would have to posses technology allows FTL interstellar travel to reach us,) it's virtually impossible to predict what their nature, behavior, motives, means of communication, hierarchical structure (if they even have one,) ethics (if they have them,) reasons for contacting us, how they perceive us (are we fellow sentient beings with which to establish communication, or are we little more than insects to them? Do we even meet their criteria for the term "life?" Do they even have such a term or make such distinctions?) or intentions.

They could literally be anything from fellow intelligent beings seeking only exploration, contact, and communication, to hive-like collective consciousnesses with no concept of individual "rights," ethics, or empathy, to space-faring animals who have evolved the means to travel such distances without true intelligence as we would define it.

We have literally no way of knowing whether they would "come in peace" or not.

Personally? I think knowing that we aren't alone in the universe is worth the risk. But I can't honestly say for certain whether that's truly wisdom or hubris.

If they wanted to "destroy us"'as hawking claims they could, they could have done it centuries ago to prevent us from advancing. Now that we have the ability to nuke the world 20 times over if anything they should working with us.

What if our first real contact with aliens was with a timid race of peaceful beings? I think they would be the ones to fear us. Our warmongering leaders would take advantage of them quicker than you can say "technology".

what if all aliens are beutiful ladies looking to mate, id say fear not, on the other hand what if their an all male spieces, yikees , but than again, i am male will the femails of this planet goo yikees, damn im confused
peace

Originally posted by conspiracydude
If they wanted to "destroy us"'as hawking claims they could, they could have done it centuries ago to prevent us from advancing. Now that we have the ability to nuke the world 20 times over if anything they should working with us.

This makes me think of the long history of pretty reliable cases where UFOs disabled nuclear weapons at various US military bases. That's a pretty good indication they're benevolent.

This makes me think of the long history of pretty reliable cases where UFOs disabled nuclear weapons at various US military bases. That's a pretty good indication they're benevolent.

Not really. It's a pretty good indication they're able and willing to tamper with our weapons systems and potentially remove our ability to defend ourselves.

Well there is a simple way to find out;

- If the ET is "bad" they will destroy us and take us all as prisoners
- If the ET is "Good" they will help us evolve

so until that day there is NOTHING to worry about, enjoy your life, since we can die the next breath we take! Life is just to short to worry... it will play out the way it's meant to. My personal thought is that the if the ET were bad we would be all gone by now, so i'm leaning on them being much more evolved then we are... so they must be good!

Yeah but if ya let one in then there goes the planet.
greenies up and down yer street all the kids on zyme carrying ray guns in their waistebands plus all the broken down spaceships on peoples front lawns.
This is of course only an example.

They are already here.
We have nothing to fear.
They want nothing more than to see us become enlightened.
They want us to reach our full potentials, and to save our planet by ourselves.
As such, they will only intervene with our progress if we are about to annihilate ourselves and/or the planet; either of those situations would prevent us from ever reaching enlightenment.

They do not abduct us.
They do not torture us.
All traumatic experiences with "aliens" are actually black operations conducted by a transnational secret military, utilizing alien reproduction vehicles and genetically engineered beings / programmable lifeforms (aka PLFs). These scare-tactics are performed without governmental oversight or approval. The government is utterly unaware that the secret military exists, and that it is carrying out such horrifying missions. The fear they generate guarantees continued military funding in the absence of significant ongoing worldly military threats. When there appears to be an unending threat from "out there", the funding keeps flowing. It's completely self-serving.

I must reiterate: real ETs are not the ones hurting people.
At this stage of evolution, Humans are dangerous.
When we set foot on the moon, there was a welcoming party of ETs who explained that NASA could continue scientific research, but that we would not be permitted to damage other planets until we had reached a certain level of enlightenment.

By the same token, just as WE are not permitted to harass other planets, neither are dangerous beings permitted to harass Earth and its inhabitants.

There is a kind of cosmic police that enforces these "quarantines".

Originally posted by Risen
This makes me think of the long history of pretty reliable cases where UFOs disabled nuclear weapons at various US military bases. That's a pretty good indication they're benevolent.

Not really. It could easily be interpreted as a very aggressive stance, essentially them letting us know that they can render our defenses completely useless any time they desire. It sends a very powerful message that any contact will be absolutely on their terms and that we have no choice but to submit.





[edit on 4-5-2010 by vor78]

We should not fear the ETs... we should instead fear our governments, military industrial complex and all forms of religions, who are nothing but control instruments...phycological prisions devised to "manage" the sheeple! All you have to do to come to this conclusion is study our history deeply, that´s all!

Well, since I know just a wee bit about Aliens I have been in the presense of I will share my thoughts.

From what I know this Planet is PROTECTED there are good and bad Beings but there are also misunderstood Beings.

As a whole I have seen mostly good Beings in the Universe and the Human race is known as stupid but with an intelligence Species. They know we are hostile but they also know there are many good Humans and it is these good Humans that let this Planet to continue with Human Life. It is the hope that the good will turn things around and bring this Planet back to the way it is meant to be. Earth is observed 24/7 the ships are all over such as in our waters, under our grounds in our skies. When in our skies you will only see them when they slow the ships they move way to fast for us but as you know night vision and infared and maybe untraviolets help in detection.

The way Humans do things is interesting and they study us they don't think like us or carry themselves like us even though in many ways they resemble us in certain ways.

Many Species can not breathe Oxygen and others can only breath thin air for short periods.

Many children have been born from Humans but they can't survive here it is the hope that one day the atmosphere will change so to enable Humans and there Starchilden are able to live together I don't see it in this lifetime.

They will not allow the Human race to destroy this Planet they consider it their's and as far as Stephen Hawkins goes when it comes to this subject the man has no idea.

I say let it be and move on with your life the ways things have occured is the way it is whether liked or disliked.

I will say from what I know at some time within my lifetime a real disaster is going to happen that could have caused another extinction but they are working on adjusting movements in Earth that would create this extinction event. There will be much disaster coming in the years ahead off Brazil and the entire hump of Africa back and forth along a long stretch of the Mid Atlantic Ridge Magnetic Anomalies should occur and when the big one comes the P-Wave will tell all.

This may not occur for years but you should feel it in your bones something isn't correct with Mother Earth. There will be more Volcanic eruption but watch for when they happen at the same time, massive Tsunami's will occur many will perish and the New Beginning will surface.

Remember the meek will inherit the Earth.

2046 is the your New Beginning.

Sorry for the rant in a rush and no one will believe so what the heck that's why I can write this and as I said Stephen Hawkins what a joke.

I wish to make a valid point here everyone:

If you looked down on to this planet and saw how hu-mans treat other humans, say how much greed and corruption there was all in the name of a bit of paper that doesn't really mean anything outside of the planet, and if you tune in to the news of this planet and see the death and destruction that hu-mans are capable of. Would you visit in peace?

My gut reaction on this is that a certain alien race has been working with many countries of this earth for over 50 years we are in the state we are in now because of an agenda that agenda has to do with control, control of the entire planet. However, I get the instinct feeling that there is something coming this way to either challenge these 'powers' for our safety or to challenge these 'powers' for our slavery. Either way we are their prize.

Dislosure is happening, just not how we thought it would.

I wonder how people would react after finding out that the leaders of their countries are indeed something other than human?

[edit on 4-5-2010 by franspeakfree]

reply to post by Myuzik
wow, I would like to have some of what your smoking!

Originally posted by johnmalkovich

This makes me think of the long history of pretty reliable cases where UFOs disabled nuclear weapons at various US military bases. That's a pretty good indication they're benevolent.

Not really. It's a pretty good indication they're able and willing to tamper with our weapons systems and potentially remove our ability to defend ourselves.

Defending ourselves, heh

We'd only be adding more deadly radiation to our own environment, and harming ourselves. Nukes are stupid that way.

I also seriously doubt a nuclear missile could hit any aircraft capable of thousands of MPH in the first place.