Aliens Myths: 5 Big Misconceptions About Extraterrestrial Life

Wow I can't believe this thread is still going...

reply to post by Astyanax

You are reading 'psychology' into what a more perceptive reader would see as a plain statement of historical fact.
---
If we ever encounter a civilization more advanced and powerful than our own, it will almost certainly be to our detriment.

The history of early human explorers has little bearing on the way aliens would behave if they stumbled across our planet. We have many very advanced societies on this planet now, and we understand our place in the Universe much better than we ever have before. We have advanced nuclear weapons capable of destroying vasts amounts of land but we refrain from using them except in extreme situations. We don't go around exterminating the lasts tribes which live in remote forests, in fact many people travel into those forests just to meet and learn from the tribes people. They are very primitive and simple people, they would be extremely easy to exterminate and wipe of the face of the planet if we wanted to... but as developed nations we now know better than that, we have better morals and ethics, and we refrain from hurting them because we see them as conscious people with feelings and emotions. It would be completely unfair of us to use our power and technology to manipulate and hurt such simple and unprotected people.

So to base your whole argument on the actions of early human explorers who's lives were conducted in virtually lawless primitive societies is absurdly naive. Furthermore, you have no solid basis for claiming such an encounter would be "almost certainly" to our detriment. Yes, it's possible they will do us harm... but no one can really say with certainty what the outcome will be because guessing their motives for coming here is a very hard and difficult problem with a wide range of probabilities... as I said to nightbringr, the misconception is really that anyone can claim to have a firm answer for either case. Neither you nor me can claim to know with a solid certainty what they will do if they encounter us, and we are both wrong for trying to claim one side of the argument when neither of us know, and neither does Hawking.

See, this is where we diverge. If they are capable of FTL speed interstelar travel, they are probably so far advanced to us that they would view us as nothing more than a curiosity. They same way we view a new species we discover. Yes, there will be those who want to protect said species, and there will be those who want to use it for whatever it can provide. After all, beyond our perhaps (perhaps not) unique DNA and local flora and fauna, what could we offer them in terms of collective human knowledge? Nothing.

That's exactly what I said before. We would be a curiosity to them, not any type of target or threat. They will simply study us and learn what they can from us and then perhaps move on to something else. And to assume they would have nothing to learn from our collective human knowledge is vastly niave of you, you don't know that and neither do I, but I highly doubt you are correct about that. Even though we may "abduct" and experiment on some of the animals we research, that does not count as an aggressive attack on our species, especially if they let the people go after they're done with them. That's no different from the way we research different species, it's not an attack on that species, they remain perfectly fine. And if you are implying they might eat us or something like that then once again I will say that is highly implausible. Especially if they came here to study us... we don't treat self-aware beings with feelings and emotions the same way we treat instinctive beasts. We have a sense of empathy because we know what it's like to fear death and feel pain.

And a highly intelligent person can and will pick fights if it furthers their own gain. We see this all the time with corporations. These people do highly questionable things to further their own lot in life. And they are not stupid. Say what you will about the morals of CEOs of large, mulit-national corporations, but they are anything but stupid. The point being, yes. Intelligent people can do extremely reprehensible things in order to further their own lot in life.

You are right, what I should have said is a highly wise person. They only fight in self-defense. There is a difference between being wise and being smart, I'm glad you pointed that out. A person can be extremely smart but not very wise, many scientists are like that. One of my arguments is also that any advanced species will be wise enough to know war isn't the answer to any problems. If we continue to fight and kill each other like we are now, we will not last on this planet. Eventually we are going to get into huge conflicts between nations and our most powerful weapons could end up exterminating all of us. And who knows what sort of weapons we might have in the future, we may develop technologies capable of destroying entire planets. That is why I believe any species who has survived long enough to master FTL travel must have the wisdom required to understand the futility and stupidity of war, at least war between members of their own species. And I simply don't believe any species who can't travel FTL will ever find or reach us.

Everywhere we look, survival of the fittest produces the fittest. The same should be quite natural for any alien race. They would not have become the dominant species of their own planet without bloodshed.

Actually, survival of the fittest has much less bearing on our species than what it used to have. Many nations now treat most people of any illness using the tax money of other citizens. Many people who can't work for some reason don't go hungry and don't die because they receive the tax money of other citizens. Many children with large genetic defects are allowed to live and allowed to breed with other people. Our success on this planet is hardly related to our thirst for blood, we are the most dominant species on this planet because we are the most intelligent. No other species can match is in terms of intelligence, and that has allowed us to develop technologies and advanced solutions to problems which other animals have failed to utilize. Now we have many regulations in place which ensure we protect certain species and to ensure we protect the environment. We also have laws in place which ensure we don't hurt other people or discriminate against certain people.

reply to post by rebellender


Sorry to take so long to respond. That's my point exactly. Mankind's biggest fear regarding alien visitation is that they will not regard us as a moral lifeform, and would destroy us. They will certainly be peaceful with each other, but whether we rank high enough on their scale of morality is the source of much fear subconsiously I think.

Peaceful? Yes. Completely passive? Probably not.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Myth 6: People think they know the intentions of Aliens.


In regards to They won't come in peace:
1. Most likely they will first come for scientific reasons or gather information on us before doing anything. Therefore, if they come for scientific reasons than it might not be good for those who end up as Human Lab rats. Plus I hear they are fond of @nal probes


BTW scientist are not the kindest people to their test subjects.