So They Showed Up In Orbit - What Do We Do Now?

a reply to: MysterX

minutes? 

(think H.G. Well's red Martian weed, crawling over the land at a rapid pace colonising and usurping all Earth based life) 

I think we'd take action pretty quickly to rid the Earth of all traces if we could.

Dreamcatcher, a Stephen King book had a similar plot.

Basically the greys had been sending colonisation ships to Earth since the late 40's, they release spores in a location and from the spores grow "crap weasels" that are like primitive worms that can bite and infect prey or other areas. Greys are the more advanced of this species.

The "fungus" is telepathic, so infected life forms can be controlled and the higher consciousness within the hive mind of this fungus/aliens can jump from host to host.

I'm sure they made a film based on the book with the same name.

So why would anyone show up?

The more I think about it, the more I have to ask myself: are the reasons we think of all based upon human behavior?


I have to say I think that the answer to that question is a big

YES

Curiosity, exploring, adventure, conquering and yah, even genocide.....that's us, all us.

But does it mean alien beings out there will be like that too? Are some of these traits universal in order to develop intelligence?

If not: we might not understand or know what motivates them, or will always lack the ability to communicate.

In some ways I think that scares me more.

a reply to: eriktheawful

The more I think about it, the more I have to ask myself: are the reasons we think of all based upon human behavior?

Even as I was writing my previous response I felt the fleeting need to mention psychology. I didn't because that would have expanded my response far more than what was appropriate for the question being asked.

However, there is no reason for us to believe that our reasoning and motivations are logical to them.

So why would anyone show up?

No one has. I think we have to ask ourselves why no one has yet.

Curiosity, exploring, adventure, conquering and yah, even genocide.....that's us, all us.

Survival and exploration/expansion. I think the need for survival would drive most species that would hurl themselves into the uncertainty of the cosmic wilderness.

But does it mean alien beings out there will be like that too? Are some of these traits universal in order to develop intelligence?

We only have one frame of reference for high-intelligence. That said, exploration and curiosity are observable traits in almost all species on Earth. Certainly this is true of mammalian species.

If not: we might not understand or know what motivates them, or will always lack the ability to communicate.

The observable universe follows the same laws of physics in a uniform manner. What is to stop biological evolution from following a similar blueprint for efficiency and intelligence required for the kinds of undertakings we engage in as Humans? Is there a reason to believe aliens would really be radically different?

a reply to: eriktheawful

Hmm I will have to check that one out. I just finished all of Nivens known space books. I wish there were more. I read Beowulf's children thinking yes another known space book. Although a good book I was disappointed at first.

a reply to: Crumbles

Always loved Niven's stuff.

Check out World Out Of Time and the Integral Trees series. They're not part of his Known Space series, but were great books.

originally posted by: enlightenedservant
a reply to: eriktheawful

There is now some sort of extraterrestrial craft parked in orbit above us........ What do we do now?

There is no "we". Humans have no common language, and our international alliances don't mean much of anything, especially when we have leaders who want to defund them. So at best, we'd work through the UN to come up with some common response. But most likely, every powerful country will play lip service to a joint international response while actually trying to get that craft for itself.

Scenario One: It's a probe!

I fully expect that every country with a space program would try to send some craft to go collect this probe in secret. But publicly, the UN Security Council would probably order various "monitoring" programs to see what this craft was capable of (while giving their member countries with space programs the time to try to collect it). Whichever country got it would probably try to test & then reverse engineer it, while others would use their special ops to either try to steal the probe or steal the data about it. At worst, the most powerful countries would work on backroom deals to share info that was recovered.

Scenario Two: It's manned. They are explorers or scouts

LOL Most likely, some of our xenophobic national leaders (and generals) would instantly see them as threats and try to have the manned craft destroyed. They don't even want human foreigners in their country, so why would they want galactic foreigners here? In all seriousness, that's what I'd expect from some national politicians and the MIC.

But I think a nice twist would be if the manned craft quickly lands in a country that isn't a global power, like Namibia or Peru. If the ET's chose some of these countries as their official check-in stations, things would get really interesting. On one hand, I'd expect the global powers to try coercing the Namibians/Peruvians into doing things their way. On the other hand, the Namibians/Peruvians wouldn't need to listen to the current global powers if the space tourists shared enough powerful technology with them (or set up outposts in their countries for "protection").

I could also see the global powers wanting to keep the ET's in those countries in case they turned hostile, had major infectious diseases, etc (as in, I'd expect them to use the Namibians/Peruvians as a quarantined testing ground). Either way, I'd still expect intelligence agencies and/or special ops to try to steal any data from the situation.

Scenario Three: It's a colony ship

I fully expect war here. Like I said in the previous scenario, a lot of xenophobes and warmongers don't even want human immigrants. So why would we expect them to accept these galactic immigrants?

But once again, I think it would be incredibly interesting if they chose either a country like Namibia or Peru (like in the last example) or if they chose a barren area like Antarctica or the ocean floor. I'd still expect a lot of fearmongering about "Earth is being invaded!!! Oh noez!". And I'd still expect a war. But it would be far more interesting.

Another possibility is if the ET's were very physically similar to random animals on earth, like penguins, whales, or octopus. If they were & still chose to settle in the oceans and/or a place like Antarctica, I doubt it would matter as much. There would still be war, but that would probably be because human industries like large scale fishing operations would complain. Then again, if they tasted good, we might just start eating them lol. It would also be interesting if they were large scale burrowers, but I'd imagine the mining and petroleum/natural gas industries would lobby for war in that scenario (to protect their resources in the ground).

Scenario Four: Say Hello To Our Overlords

War. But this time we'd be instantly obliterated. If they had the technology to travel across the galaxy or to a separate galaxy altogether, then our technology would be practically stone age tech to them. It would be like a bunch of furious frogs trying to stop an invasion of one of our powerful militaries: a completely one sided beatdown.

There are always some people who'd be willing to sell out the rest of us in order to either continue living or gain favor with the ET's. So they may survive for a while. But most of us would probably die. Hopefully, they'd avoid destroying the countries that aren't global powers, because I'd be heading to one of those "underdeveloped" places.

THIS

a reply to: eriktheawful

A reasonable assumption would be that whatever or whomever they are...they are here for something. If we look at it from a human perspective...they would be here for resources. We have clorophyll, we have gold, other precious metals..

If we are in the way...do they trade? Or do they take it?

Do they test us to see if we're worthy of interaction? (ALA Southpark: the Pinewood Derby episode?)

Another way of looking at it is that they are benevolent beings at least in appearance ( a la "To Serve Man" from The Twilight Zone.) Personally, if they are benevolent or harmless...they would probably stay as far away from our system as they could.

I believe that the way humanity will respond will be violently, even if it means our demise. "The only way you're getting my gun is by prying it from my cold, dead fingers." Because humanity, even in the face of adversity, whether real or imagined, always seems to manufacture hope. Our strength is such that we are amazing at finding weakness and exploiting them...but what if we cannot find a weakness? What if our leaders sell us out in hopes of retaining power?

Perhaps the infiltration will be so subtle that we won't notice it...perhaps a "new" strain of an old virus? Perhaps a DNA mutation induced by environmental changes?

So what will happen? Anyone's guess...but there are multiple scenarios that could play out.

Scenario Five, classified government project aliens don't exist.

originally posted by: ketsuko

But ... those who are artists and artisans who produce the unique produce of our planet and its cultures. They have the skills that take lifetimes to learn and hone and cannot be so easily absorbed. The humble potter, the grandmother knitting, the ballerina, etc. - these are suddenly people of worth because they have skills and techniques to produce objects unique to the universe.

What if they don't like dusting nicknacks? What if they place no value on material objects? Don't have a mouth to drink coffee? Only see the universe through Extrasensory perception,or infrared? Or just turn out to be minimalists? Or everything of earth just smells foul to them? Or they are pure energy? Or don't chase trends?

Well, I'd lose all faith in a tax system that devote all it time and resources to weapons, that couldnt shot down some so called Balloon in the 1940s in l.a that caused a # load of friendly fire,an high enough anixety people would die of from heart attacks.

Don't piss of the Faeries or feed the Dragons.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Scenario One: It's a probe!

Some have already experienced this in an intimate way.
Study the probe as best as we can.

Scenario Two: It's manned. They are explorers or scouts

Establish a parameter, and start communications. We need to find out what they want.

Scenario Three: It's a colony ship

Place them in the middle east. They might bring control to the region.

Scenario Four: Say Hello To Our Overlords

Then we call the likes of David Blaine and Chris Angel to keep them occupied until we can come up with a plan of attack.

a reply to: Crumbles

I've read Footfall also. I've also done Childhood's End. That's a depressing one too.

Oh look! 20 years of Utopia after the aliens make first contact ... because you're children will evolve into energy beings that will destroy the planet in leaving it ...

Sucks to be you.

a reply to: eriktheawful

Oh I've read them. All of niven stuff minus his he'll serious. Lucifer and such.

a reply to: kelbtalfenek

There is an old series I read in college called War Against the Chtorr or something like it.

They simply colonized us with their ecosystem. Their own planet was in its death throes, but the ecosystem that had evolved there had had much longer to develop in terms of the evolutionary arms race. So once they determined that it could survive and thrive here, they simply sent it in stages from the most basic forms on up.

Nothing we had could compete against it. Earth was first decimated by horrific plagues in all species, and then the higher forms of life showed up and started to move in.

I hope the first words form their mouths are. We are here to eat your Leaders.

a reply to: ketsuko

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

The funny thing about all those sci-fi stories with alien invaders..."they use up a planet's resources and move on" is that might possibly be talking about us, about humanity. Maybe that's what we do...

Imagine if you will, we discover a distant "M" class planet and we send some microbes there to begin the terraforming process...because our earth is slowly dying from (state disaster of choice here.) Then we send the first wave of settlers...boom earth is destroyed, they lose contact; they breed and tell stories of "the planet in that direction there" as they point in the sky. "They'll come back for us, they said they would" to their children and children's children and so on... But as they run out of supplies they realize they don't have the skills for agriculture, tool making, electricity, or any of thousands of things we take for granted today.

Eventually there are enough of them to create separate colonies, and it starts off nice...but then colony A has more of something than colony B...but colony A doesn't want anything that colony B has to trade...and the first war starts....destroying what's left of any left over technology.... and so on.

That's my simple view of humanity and its possible history as an alien invader.

originally posted by: eriktheawful
a reply to: Crumbles

Yah, being a Larry Niven fan I've read Footfall, rather interesting take on things.

The series that ketsuko mentioned is called The Damned Trilogy by Alan Dean Foster, with the first book called "A Call To Arms"

I think in reality it would sadden me greatly if the only thing humans have to offer is our ability to be such an apex predator that we know how to kill and wage war better than any other species out there.

I'm hoping it would be something better like Coffee or Chocolate.

There is one other occupation humans were suited to in that book, but since Foster was exploring the juxtaposition of humans as the ultimate uncivilized fighters in a 'civilized galaxy' it's understandable he didn't look into it further.

In addition to warfare, humans would have been the ultimate explorers and scouts. Earth was a chaotic jumble of ecology and climate that boggled the alien's minds, but to Humans all the worst weather reminded them of home. They found the colonized pangea worlds with temperate climates to be pretty boring.

a reply to: Teikiatsu

Maybe they are a race sexualy agressive katy perry clones, looking for men to enslave for a reproduction colony. How would i adjust to this mind blowing revelation.....

originally posted by: antar
a reply to: eriktheawful

Imagine for an instant a race so different from our own that they are trillions of years more advanced. Now using common sense, do you think it would be possible for them to examine us without coming into our sights?

well, if your going to use common sense, they would be so advanced that they would "stage" outside of a mars orbit, have a designer disease, meant to ONLY kill humans and biodegrade us rapidly down into a small pile of rot within days. they would send small pods that would look like meteors, and the friction heat from our atmosphere would be the activating "button" for the disease....they would never even have to interact with us at all, and we wouldn't have a clue...no fuss, no muss, no contact, just a wide open earth they could use for whatever they wanted......how stupid would an alien race be, to openly attack us?...even if they were far superior, why waste time?

We negotiate.1st:No anal probing!