Aliens: What if we're the advanced species?

[jyork89]

I don't really think Avatar is a good example at all. I mean, if we can do interplanetary travel we can surely harvest raw materials from planets that wouldn't support life in the first place.

More likely, I believe it would be observation, and if they were deemed to be minimum risk and the planet to be habitable, colonization then perhaps education and integration. But they would have to be pretty rudimentary. If I was a highly advanced species I wouldn't be colonizing the earth anytime soon. I doubt even the best technology can really fully deflect a nuclear bombardment from a race of paranoid, bigoted and jingoistic creatures.

 

[meow]

If we do meet aliens that are like that odds are we would want to be at peace, but odds also are we would have very different languages for one and very different cultures so if we wanted to say "we come in peace" we would pretty much be sol. Although computers should run the same so they could communicate possibly.

 

[Durgiun]

If we are the most advanced life form then I think George Carlin was right when he said ''the Universe aimed rather low and settled for very little''.

But if we were the most advanced life form, my first mission would be to find the females (or the equivalent of females) from the other species and proceed to have the wildest space orgy that would make Kirk blow a gasket in jealousy.

On a serious note, I'd vote for observation for a few decades. After we got a slight knowledge of their social structure, hierarchy whatever, we should try and make contact. Albeit, without some super-flashy space-craft. But packing guns would be a good idea, just in case.

 

[lionsprey]

Assuming humans are still the same way then they are now.
It wouldn't end well for the Aliens that much i am sure of.

 

[Bassik]

Well then, let's be optimistic about it.
First this little planet and it's winds and ways, and then all the laws of mind and matter that restrain him. Then the planets about him, and at last out across immensity to the stars.
And when he has conquered all the deeps of space and all the mysteries of time, still we would be beginning.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

How less advanced are we talking about? Like, are they set in the 1950's of Earth? The 1650's of Earth? The 1050's of Earth? The Earliest Beginnings of Humanity for Earth (I.E. Tribes)?

Regardless, the two groups would be so far apart that it'd basically be an Ugly Roadblock hitting another Ugly Roadblock. Sure, the first Humans to explore this planet would try to learn of their culture, teach a couple of the Aliens English, but in the end, it'll basically become Africa: Taken Over, colonized poorly with a few Independent lands, eventually freed, and in poor shape. Though, hopefully not as poor as Africa.

 

[Ninjat_126]

I'm from the Escapist, and I say kill 'em all!

Ha ha. Because genocide of a semi-innocent intelligent race is perfectly fine when done for the sake of an action movie.

 

[Joccaren]

Personally, I would move to completely ignore them, but 'spy' on them. Learn about them. Do not make contact. Now, if there was some other equally advance race that was trying to wipe out all life for some reason, sure, uplift them and have them defend themselves. If they're on the cusp of wiping themselves out, don't uplift them but prevent that wipe out from happening. Be kind of like their guardian angels. Make sure they stay alive, but don't actually give them an advantage over what they have unless it is needed. Eventually they will reach the same state we were in. They will have done it by their own accord, it will be an achievement that gives their people strength. Us watching over them will give them goodwill towards us. Then, we start an interplanetary alliance.

In all likeliness though, the likes of Avatar would happen, where there is a rare resource we want, so we will take it - other species be damned. Its the human way, and sadly we are far from changing that.

 

[ThePurpleCube]

Personally? Observation would be my first tactic. If they are warlike or tribal and could possibly be a threat, try to watch them for further threats. If they could contribute to human society, welcome them in and improve infrastructure.

 

[Wintermoot]

we already leave less civilized societies alone and I think the same applies here.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

If I had any saying in that, I would at first just observe them from a safe distance to prevent them from noticing us.

Depending of what I find, there would be 2 options. If they go with a relatively safe path of technology, I would leave them alone.
If they try to go with some technology that isn't safe for their technology level, I would try to show them why it's not a good idea to push in that direction. But I would still try to be a discrete as possible.
We had that problem with nuclear energy. On a much smaller level with solar energy.
We tried to use nuclear energy while still not really understanding it. Chernobyl, Hiroshima, Nagasaki... We weren't really ready for such insane energy output with such instability.

On the other hand, we just abandoned the solar energy because we tried to use it while it wasn't developed enough. Big costs, low output. If the scientists tried to development it a bit more before showing it to the masses, if it was a bit more profitable, solar energy would maybe be out main energy source. But we had petroleum which was much more affordable at that time...

I wouldn't interfere in any wars, internal conflicts or anything similar. They have to learn why wars are bad. They can't learn them just by use telling them. Look at us. After several thousand years of history, we still don't get it that was is fucking bad.

But that's only if the difference between us and them is like between us now and us in the middle age.
If the difference is much smaller (now and 100 years ago), I think it would be safe to have some contact with them. Still no sharing of technology that is to advanced for them.

tl.dr. As little as possible interfering. If we try to interfere, than it would be as discrete as possible. No sharing of technology unless it's the only way to save that race.

There is one thing that I learned from Mass Effect that is actually really smart.
By sharing our technology with them, we would "force" them to chose the same path as we did. That would close the doors to all other paths which could lead to the same goal, but with other technology. If they had some different technology from us, we (and them) could use both technologies for a faster advance.

 

[Nocturnal Gentleman]

If there are intelligent aliens I fully believe it would take humanity ages to even realize they're intelligent. They most likely won't look like us, communicate like us, or live like us and we'll probably just assume they're funky looking wildlife and treat them based on this assumption. Hell, look how long we lived with crows and only in recent times do we actually take their intelligence into account.

If they are kind of like us I'd imagine our presence alone would bother them. Let's face it. Humanity is loud, obnoxious, elitist, and stupid. They'd see through the "we just want to be friends" attitude pretty quick and want us gone. Only after being rejected several times and given permission to harvest some of their resources would we leave them alone.

 

[michael87cn]

This is coming from a discussion between a friend and I.

We both believe in "life on other planets" theory, but what I wonder is, what if we're the advanced beings? Hear me out.

Let's just say, we manage to figure out how to travel throughout space quickly and find another race of intelligent life-forms (living in houses, pants, the whole sha-bang), only we're the "freaky futuristic aliens from space" and they're the "less advanced aliens".

What do we do then?

Do we leave'em alone? Watch them to see how they advance? World domination?

What if they're in a terrible state? Wars, hunger, over-population. Do we help them or do we leave them to their fate?

Personally, I'd leave them alone but leave something to monitor them. I'd love to see how another race would advance.

What do you think/ what would you do?

Have you never ever seen an episode of Star Trek or Stargate? They ran into less technologically advanced cultures all the time.

They each had different ideals with the situation.

Star Trek had more political approach. They wouldn't interfere (or at least try not to) with any cultures who wasn't advanced to interstellar travel. If you pop out of the sky with technology hundreds of years if could mess up the natural advancement of a species. Even create problems for them where they could have had peace.

Stargate attempted to help whenever they could; such as giving advanced generators for heat if the planet had terrible winter seasons, teaching medicine, agriculture techniques and so fourth. In return the Stargate team would want to check out the planet for any possible natural resources, one planet had an ore that created a metal lighter and stronger than steel. Or search for anything left behind by advanced aliens a long time ago; the Ancients and Gua'uld liked building secret laboratories/temples all over the universe.

I kind of prefer Stargate's approach. They did create problems for some planets. But at the same time got to help some that were having tough times and even found natural resources that didnt appear on Earth.

Trying a World Domination approach is risky. You dont know if some other advanced race already has "dibs" and is gonna get pissed off by some cockroach trying to snag their claim.

Star Trek and StarGate are fantasy. Real soldiers taking orders from real governments would totally destroy the alien culture to harvest their world. They wouldn't care at all.

Look at the indians, they were human. We did worse.

 

[John Farrell]

I'd compare old alien invasion movies.

 

[Jake0fTrades]

It'd probably look a lot like either Avatar or District 9.

 

[kebab4you]

History shows that we would abuse and exploit them.

I like to think we have evolved a bit since then(even if it was pretty recently) so that we would only observe them and maybe teach them some things so they can survive better on their own.[footnote]Then again we still got people that are die hard religious over here so this will not be the case[/footnote]

 

[Orange12345]

Well I think it would be more situational then just one blanket response

how I'd imagine it would go is that we would go into orbit around thier planet and observe for a bit if they are a very primitive species (no real technology to speak of) then we leave them alone and drop a satelite into orbit to moniter them, if they are at about the level of technology we are at now and detect us in orbit then we just pop in and tell them we mean no harm, etc. Then leave until they can reach space then we open dialoge with them. if they are almost at space travel then we could probably talk, but not before.

Some of the arguments I've heard say that if they are staving or have a plague spreading we should help them, but I don't really see how we could all our medicine is based on humans and our food might be poison to them.

And if they are at war, well who are we to intervine? in not saying we should'nt help, but who are we to decide who's right in a fight for thier planet.

Edit: Ideally anyway, we might just screw them over like every other time one of our civilizations has discovered a less advanced one.

 

[VoidWanderer]

Do not:
interfere
send any messages
scan for petroleum (but knowing us we probably would)

Do:
observe civilization
scan for weapons

If we are scanning for petroleum, when our technology would have gotten past the gas guzzlers we may have bigger problems that looking for even more fuel...

But in all seriousness, For the first few species we would meddle with them, to understand them more, and given human history either screw everything up, or kill/enslave them.

 

[Christopher Dudgeon]

The title of this post has to be the FUNNIEST thing I have read this year!

Thanks for the best and last Laugh of 2011 man!!

(mmmmhhhhhhheheheehehe we're the advanced one hahahahahahahaahaha!)

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

What would probably happen: resource wars.

Or getting are arses kicked for 10 years before having our governments saying "well we have finished doing what we set out to do" just to leave the planet with out looking like a loser. An that is before the aliens become radicalised and start attacking back. I say, if the aliens have a religion, please can we treat them nicely. It would be nice if we could actually learn from our mistakes before making more of them in space.