"Through the Wormhole" - Will We Survive First Contact?

The new season of "Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman" premiered recently and the first episode of this season asks, "Will we survive first contact?"

Here is a youtube link to the full episode: LINK


The first half or so follows the Stephen Hawking claim that aliens will likely be hostile, while the rest of the program talks about different methods of making first contact. I was disappointed that it didn't bother to explore the possibility that aliens might not be hostile. I still hold by my personal belief that advanced evolution favors empathy. Humanity has come a long way from solving every issue with violence, and the majority of us value life. But nobody could answer for sure.

I believe the show airs on Tuesdays on the Science Channel in the United States. I think the next episode also has to do with aliens as well since it is "Are we Alone?" month on the Science Channel.

Website: Science Channel - Are We Alone?

I watched last night. I thought it was pretty well done from a scientific point of view. I too, agree with you, on being disappointed on the aliens might not be the bad guys, lack of direction in production.

Is it just me, or does it seem like every show featuring the possibility of alien contact, always focuses on them being the bad guys, and us the good guys. I would like to see a little balance in how people are being programmed to fear contact.


Des

reply to post by MrAndy


I tend to agree that advanced civilizations would favor non-violence in their nature and are very reserved and calculated when violence is used at all if ever. Violent or malevolent civilizations would destroy themselves before they would be able to progress and advance to interstellar travel.

The resources and energy expenditure spent on war/violence/destruction would cripple any attempt of advancing their civilizations progress into space and ultimately be inefficient. They would be forced to cancel space programs and ground their shuttles while they prepare and participate in thermonuclear war that will set them back to the stone age if they even survive at all...

Much like...actually....exactly like where Humans are this very second...

There is no doubt about it. There is intelligent life in the universerse. Will they every find earth? Well if they havent already then they will in the future, its just a matter of time. We emit so much information into space! I dont know about them having to be evil though.

I also agree they will favour non-violence. I can't see how a race of beings could even come here with that thought. Seeing as we are smaller than a grain of sand in the grand scheme of things. I would think it would be highly doubtful they would come here expecting a fight. Although saying that, I would not expect them to not defend themselves should we be hostile to them and in my mind this is probably then most likely outcome. Jeepers, I can't even walk down the street at night without abuse on my own planet!

I'm thinking that if life is as common as we may discover, and the Universe is as vast as it appears...then we will almost certainly find good and bad out there as we get off this rock. Something tells me that as we've become a beacon of "I Am Here" with our broadcasting since the late 30's, we're probably attracting some of each too. I suppose it's a question of which is here, which may be coming and how that all plays out well outside our view (in all likelihood).

Something tells me we most certainly have an enormously high view of our own importance though. I'll bet it's more curiosity for what suddenly started broadcasting radio and other frequencies out in this part of space than any malicious intent to start with. The rest is what we make it....if it happens, IMO.

I am inclined to believe Earthlings would be the agressive ones...look at how we treat each other! I cannot imagine we would see a "War of the Worlds" scenario, as we would attack first..ask questions later! All without the approval of Congress, too! It's a beautiful planet, but if I were an extraterrestrial, I'd vacation elsewhere.

That's probably why we haven't seen the "Second Coming".... fear of humanity.

I think its most probable that an artificial intelligence network will ineivitbly be developed and used by all the species that live within a galaxy. Like our electricity and phone lines. When we make first contact it will be with the networks security system.

Originally posted by Destinyone
I watched last night. I thought it was pretty well done from a scientific point of view. I too, agree with you, on being disappointed on the aliens might not be the bad guys, lack of direction in production.

Is it just me, or does it seem like every show featuring the possibility of alien contact, always focuses on them being the bad guys, and us the good guys. I would like to see a little balance in how people are being programmed to fear contact.


Des

There's a reason. It's called we're being programmed for project bluebeam. Look it up.

I agree with the idea that any civilization that only has itself to compete against would most likely be "good" but what about planets with 2 or more competing races?
Imagine you had a planet that experienced something like our like WW2 but instead of countries you had different races, huge leaps in technology would be made and the race would be programmed to see other sentient beings as competitors and not necessarily friends.

Just playing devils advocate here, I believe and hope for our sake any advanced aliens would be benevolent

This poses the question. If we don't destroy each other before we achieve interstellar travel will we become conquerors?

We have been dreaming of alien invasions since we could conceive of space travel. Will we carry out those thoughts when given the means to do so?

Are we a race worthy of the stars? It is likely that any sentient race profiling us would not think so. The second we made that leap into space to colonize, we would be taken out. I would not let some primitive monkey men go around conquering my neighborhood or even theirs. Look how we look to Iran for example when they seek nuclear technology for peaceful purposes. We automatically think they can't go without making a nuke if they get even the chance.

It really sucks for the rest of us that would be part of that world where man is beyond the barbaric problem/ military solution scenario we have been subjected to since our leaders had reason.

I agree with you OP. I don't see a race of cosmos-traversing beings as having any hostility towards us, although you never really know until you meet them.

But here's a crazy what-if; Say on some other planet, the only species of beings are Dinosaurs. What if these dinosaurs, over years of evolution, obtained the intelligence to move out into space? What if these space travelling Dinosaurs were getting low on food on their home planet, and they stumbled upon Earth........

How's that for an epic SyFy Channel cheapass movie?

To the OP I will answer your question and I say yes.

We have survived countless first contacts, and there were some casualties , the Mayans for example.
There have been many incursions by aliens on this planet, most of the time we were the aliens ourselves, but if we go out there with ill intent and conquest in mind then we really will get a spanking from the established civilisations out there, and if we get contacted first and they try to take over we will most likely kill ourselves off first in our fear.
Otherwise lets see whats out there, evil begets evil like the saying goes, we go out in peace and we will have no trouble at all, let them make the first move and see what actions they give, actions speak louder than words apparently.

While I tend to agree that a species of intelligent beings would have to over come fighting each other to advance enough for interstellar travel, there are some things to consider:

What if they are Xenophobic?
What if they simply don't care about other species?

One of the things we are assuming here is that their thought process is the same as ours. Why would that have to be? Their intelligence, reasoning and logic could be as alien to us as their biology.

Here is another idea: The species that contacts us didn't earn their way to interstellar travel, but instead had it handed to them.
Several science fiction writers (yes fiction, but the idea is still there) have written stores where an alien race is war like and aggressive, because as a young race, they were contacted and used by a much more advanced race, that had interstellar travel.
The young, war like race was able to rebel and take over. They now have their hands on very advanced technology, but they have not had that time to learn wisdom of using said technology.

All speculation of course, but just keep in mind that not only is the universe big enough to have everything we can imagine, it's big enough to have things we have not imagined too.

reply to post by MrAndy



I believe you are absolutely correct, in fact we are related to them.
So hopefully we've learnt to ask questions first....at the very least.

Courage is what the human population needs when we do meet them, nothing more

i don't think they'll be the hostile ones either. i always tend to believe that it'll be us who'll get defensive with our very very limited knowledge on what could be out there in the vast universe.

suppose we are the cat and aliens are the human; since she goes ape because she's scared.

Maybe the thought of them being peaceful in nature is so appealing because we see everyday just how destructive and murderous we humans are. The thought of something else traveling untold distances and then arriving here to control, enslave or eradicate the human race is like thinking about #ting your pants in public…not a good thought.

The Spanish Conquistadors even though they were technologically advanced (relatively) and had plenty of resources still had no qualms over violently stomping out the meso-american civilizations and taking their land for themselves.


I understand the argument "why would these aliens want our resources if they are so resource-rich as to be able to have interstellar travel?" My answer to that is maybe the earth is very similar to their own planet in the way of atmosphere, gravity, air pressure, magnetic field, etc, that they may want our whole planet so they could colonize it.

Perhaps planets exactly like the earth and their own home world are not that easy to find, so when they come across one, they take it.

as long as there are living ships, dethroned aquatic life, warrior races and cold blooded cousins of homo sapiens

i think we will manage

reply to post by Soylent Green Is People


Yah. I think if it were say, a massive fleet, their whole civilization let us say, living in space and not on planets. To them planets are not where you live, but resources to be utilized.

I know that sounds like the movie "Independence Day", but think about it, that could be another scene: to them, plants are just like what oil, coal and natural gas are to us: a resource to be used up, and then you move on.

While it would be nice to believe that they would not be hostile towards us, just keep in mind that they could. We won't know until (or if) they get here. It could be they show up, and we all go dancing in a field of flowers together......

Or, it could be just like a scene in "Independence Day"