Is it possible for a militaristic extraterrestrial civilization to exist?

We are a highly militaristic society, and we exist. The problem would be too much focus on weapons. We put all of our eggs in one basket. It would be a boring group of aliens. Too much conflict and drama to get anything done, therefore not a lot of relationship building.

ImaFungi
reply to post by AncientShade

 

I am just claiming that all the technology and weapons can be created without actual war. If it is obviously seen that defense is important, then there is no getting around the need to be prepared to defend, I am stating that I believe all weaponry could have been developed without actual war.

Exactly. One can easily imagine a technological species who live in a star system with a higher asteroid density than our solar system and as such would have more asteroid impacts on their planet than the earth.

They would have totally different motivations for developing radio, radar, nuclear weapons, lasers and space travel which would have NOTHING to do with global conflict among themselves on their world and everything to do with defending themselves from a natural threat.

So, you don't need war to develop technology. All you need is motivation.

reply to post by JadeStar


The people who developed the atom bomb werent necessarily weapons experts, it just so happened at that time the government had a great excuse to give the smartest minds of the time infinite amounts of money and resources to probe nature for knowledge and implementation of that knowledge. When ever I hear it stated that war is good etc. because it is necessary for progression and technological development, I recognize it as a complete logical fallacy, and in all reality nothing more then propaganda, an advertisement for the military industrial complex. Imagine if NASA had the military defense budget. Imagine if instead of foreign nations building their own militarys and space programs and leeching never ending money from their populous, the brilliant minds and vast resources of the world were pooled together to more easily and efficiently achieve innovation and common goals, well I guess an example of this is the international space station.

ImaFungi
reply to post by JadeStar

 

The people who developed the atom bomb werent necessarily weapons experts, it just so happened at that time the government had a great excuse to give the smartest minds of the time infinite amounts of money and resources to probe nature for knowledge and implementation of that knowledge. When ever I hear it stated that war is good etc. because it is necessary for progression and technological development, I recognize it as a complete logical fallacy, and in all reality nothing more then propaganda, an advertisement for the military industrial complex. Imagine if NASA had the military defense budget. Imagine if instead of foreign nations building their own militarys and space programs and leeching never ending money from their populous, the brilliant minds and vast resources of the world were pooled together to more easily and efficiently achieve innovation and common goals, well I guess an example of this is the international space station.

actually it's not like we wanted anything to do with those wars in the first place. remember we were isolationist back then. war may be crappy option but sometimes it is the best of a bad lot. and you always want to be prepared in case you do have to make that choice.

if an alien race has managed to survive say, a million years longer than us.

a death star capable of blowing up whole planets, is not unrealistic. the weapons such a race would have would be far more devasting than anything you can think of.

another weapon which works by harnessing gigantic asterioids and directing them towards an enemy planet.

reply to post by SkuzzleButt


Or much much smaller and easily deployable but such a development would only be likely in an extremely xenophobic or territorial race or possilbly a hive like race, the other races would be unknown and therefore dangerous so they may opt for the attack is the first and best defence stand.

Such races if prevelant would account for a dramatic drop off in the number of sentient species and even living alien ecosystems as well as arguably providing a reason why we have so far OFFICIALLY never received any artificial signals from outside our own solar system that we could detect, this in turn may indicate that any transmitting race becomes an object for annihilation by concievable more than one race and such may actually give them a moment's breathing room while there prospective predator's argue it out and try to annihilate one another.

If their civilization is space faring...their militaristic (or non-militaristic) ideals would hardly matter.

There is very little technical difference between a tool and a weapon. Their basic tools would harness/utilize more energy then our species.

peck420
If their civilization is space faring...their militaristic (or non-militaristic) ideals would hardly matter.

There is very little technical difference between a tool and a weapon. Their basic tools would harness/utilize more energy then our species.

The only difference between a tool and a weapon is motivation.

Good example here: www.dvice.com...

reply to post by JadeStar


Well yes. All I am implying is that war can be a motivator, so can be survival.

We should however also remember that a race changes its point of view many times during its evolution as a species. It is by no means that we will always be as we are. We might become more but there is no saying in what more actually mean. We are also unfamiliar with the future.

While it is of course hopeful that many aliens species have transcended beyond war; there might be those who have reason to direct themselves at war or might even experience war as transcending in itself. The question of the topic-starter is if we believe their might be aliens militaristic species out there and I do believe there might be. They can have various reasons for their choice. Shouldn't we for arguments sake assume their might be, rather then shooting off the idea based upon human moral principles?

There is no real reason to believe that base pursuits of power, wealth and riches will disappear merely because we believe that transcending means losing those pursuits. Such a view is merely a human view based upon the whispering of theocracy and philosophers that are in the end merely human. Shouldn't it be our goal to try and imagine those views that we deem as extreme, inhuman even maybe? Rather then taking a human idealistic vision and claiming it to be the inhuman standard we should all strive for?

But i digress. I believe there might be species out there that might be militaristic. Some of them might be warring with themselves and others with others and yet again others might have a militaristic society but not fight wars at all. They might just do everything based upon command, ranks and regulation based upon a deep need of extreme order. If you look at it that way then our species is already halfway in a militaristic path; most of us already have a 9 till 5 mentality and follow the laws of our countries, jobs and families.

If there is one truth in all life, no matter how seemingly insignificant that life-form may be, it is this

ALL LIFE WILL FIGHT TO SURVIVE

I stated in an earlier reply that life cannot survive and evolve without an organised military, and micro-organisms are no exception to this rule. Before an organised military can be formed, a colony must be established.

A virus may enter your immune system as a single cell, but it will quickly multiply, attack the hosts antibodies, mutate (evolve) to mimic the host DNA, therefore no longer being viewed as a threat by the hosts anti-bodies, and then spread deeper through the body.

How smart is that.

A virus can alter it's DNA structure to mimic that of its host, so that the host's antibodies don't perceive it as a threat.

Now that it has been accepted as a part of the host, the virus can now ruthlessly kill the antibodies and migrate deeper into the body without fear of reprisal.

INFILTRATE

IMMITATE

ASSIMILATE or ANNIHILATE

EXPAND and EVOLVE