Aliens: What if we're the advanced species?

[Wereduck]

My initial reaction was that the OP was trying to start a discussion on the ethics of the Prime Directive but apparently not.
Anyways, I think we'd want to go with discreet observation until they put out the welcome mat with voyager probes & such. Once they start looking for alien life we'd have to respond - any deception from that point on would make future diplomatic relations extremely difficult.
Of course, our policy of observation would probably get thrown out the window as soon as there was any kind of indiginous crisis. Some space-capable private organization would want to intervene for humanitarian purposes and even if they were completely sincere it would probably degenerate into exploitation for labor & resources pretty quickly.

 

[Kinokohatake]

You seen the movie Avatar? I imagine that is pretty much exactly what would happen (minus the happy ending)

You mean happy ending for the adamantium skeletoned giant barbaric cat mutants? Yeah I was all for the humans in that one.

 

[DiMono]

I think we'd end up dying due to the unknown bacteria on their planet if we tried to actually interact with them directly. We'd probably start watching them, get bored, and leave.

 

[The Great Purtabo]

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

Do:
observe civilization
scan for weapons

... Meh by the point of efficient space travel, humans will have no need for such primitive fuels, we will be either using solar power/fields, or some form of concentrated super-fuel, such as dark matter or the ilk.

 

[Daverson]

Assess their capabilities as a species - is there any benefit incorporating this species into our empire? Is there a niche they fit better than any other species we've encounter thus far (ie, do they possess greater coordination than the 40 fingered Q'phl'tr of F'xxx'v'bn'tgnh, so would make better surgeons), do they possess a form of technology or resource we have no experience with, ie, a method of turning seawater into cheese.

Unless they're sitting on the motherlode of some resource (ie, green-skinned space babes) that we'd quite like, we can ignore if they don't, the risk of interacting with them for shiggles far outweighs any possible benefit. Yeah, you might want to Jesus to the aliens, but they might have supernasty zombie plague they just happen to be immune to, then what? You've got zombies, in space. That's just terrible.

Otherwise, find out the most efficient means of getting them to collaborate. It's most likely they'll respond either to basic trading (ie, if you find 200 members of your species that are willing to join our doctoring department, we'll show you how you can turn all these useless brown rocks you've got lying around into iron, or we'll give you a bunch of laser guns) or just aggression (the old abductaroo. Personally I don't care if we've got tractor beams or teleporters, you can't beat a burlap sack when it comes to abducting!)

 

[Naeo]

I'd want to study (anthropologically) their culture, but do the Star Trek thing and abide by the Prime Directive of "don't mess with their own development". Assuming there were any sort of language we were capable of understanding, I'd absolutely love to study that (as someone studying for my linguistics major). If contact/communication could be effectively established (and because this is an alien species that's developed with no contact whatsoever with humans, it's very likely that there will be very few common traits--they might not use sounds to communicate) it would certainly make for a fascinating exchange of ideas and possibly technology/resources, but that risks exploitation.

However, it's likely that someone would do the Kirk thing and shout "fuck the prime directive" and go fuck the whole planet up. And/or bang all their womenfolk.

 

[him over there]

Well assuming the universe is infinite, there will always be a bigger fish. So be peaceful and attempt to integrate and help them because thats what we want to happen if superiors happen to find us. And if superiors do happen to find and destroy us for resources then we can go out without irony at least, knowing that we're not like them.

 

[latiasracer]

I Don't think we will ever meet them. Why? Because we have about 50 years to build spaceships, before Earth is properly buggered. Like proper spaceships, not gay shuttles and rockets. BIG ASS MOTHERSHIPS!

 

[MajorTomServo]

If I ran the world, I would help the other species advance to our level. Unless they collectively wanted to be left alone.

But since I dont run the world, we'll probably kill/enslave them all and take their planet's resources.

 

[RaNDM G]

Study their speech patterns from afar, send a message, let them know we're always watching them.

Then leave forever.

 

[Grunt_Man11]

I've pondered this a bit. I've also have pondered the question asked by many a skeptic.
"If extraterrestrials do exist then why haven't they made contact?"

One answer is that they aren't technologically advanced enough to do so.

Another answer is fear. They're afraid to make contact.

Why? Because while they have advanced past us in the field of interstellar travel and such, they haven't do so in the field of weaponry.

They see our weapons. They see how destructive, devastating, and overpowering they are.
They see how willing we are to use them, (against each other no less).
They see that despite having weapons so powerful we can level cities and wipe entire islands off the face of our planet, we continue to imagine even more destructive weapons.

They see all of this and say, "if we make contact and mess up, then they might get hostile and declare war. If they declare war their weapons will rip us apart! Stay away from that planet!"

We've come up with "warrior races" like the Klingons in our stories, but looking at our history we're the "warrior race." Hell for all we know we just might wield the most powerful weapons in the galaxy.

 

[Nouw]

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.

We exterminate species!

 

[Asclepion]

I've pondered this a bit. I've also have pondered the question asked by many a skeptic.
"If extraterrestrials do exist then why haven't they made contact?"

One answer is that they aren't technologically advanced enough to do so.

Another answer is fear. They're afraid to make contact.

Why? Because while they have advanced past us in the field of interstellar travel and such, they haven't do so in the field of weaponry.

They see our weapons. They see how destructive, devastating, and overpowering they are.
They see how willing we are to use them, (against each other no less).
They see that despite having weapons so powerful we can level cities and wipe entire islands off the face of our planet, we continue to imagine even more destructive weapons.

They see all of this and say, "if we make contact and mess up, then they might get hostile and declare war. If they declare war their weapons will rip us apart! Stay away from that planet!"

We've come up with "warrior races" like the Klingons in our stories, but looking at our history we're the "warrior race." Hell for all we know we just might wield the most powerful weapons in the galaxy.

http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/prelimnotes.php [Jon's Law]

Any intelligence that creates FTL travel also creates weapons of mass destruction.

Let's say you have a rocketship with a mass ratio of 5, which will give it a delta V of 8,421 km/s, and you want to destroy the united states. If you expend all your propellant in a single burn in the direction of Earth and then launch a 1 ton missile into New York City it will impact with the energy equal to an 8.48 megaton bomb.

And this is peanuts compared to what you can do if you really want to make a splash: crash your ship into the planet. If your ship weighs 10,000 tons it will impact with a force of 84.8 gigatons. Essentially, it will wipe out the entire western hemisphere, and turn the northeastern United States into a molten lake. And there's no reason to demand an alien crew consign themselves to riding a giant kinetic missile into a planet to do this either. You can just take the propellant tanks and engine of a ship, mount a simple targeting computer on it in place of the weaponry and habitat modules, and go to town with no need for a crew of would-be suicide bombers.

---

I think the aliens wouldn't give a second glance at humanity. We're just another primitive culture in deep space.

 

[personion]

There's not really a debate to be had here. Kill most of them, enslave the rest for dissection and slave labor, and steal all their natural resources. It's the human way!

 

[applesandoranges]

edit

 

[samsonguy920]

If anyone thinks we as a species learned from what happened when the New World, Africa, and Asia were colonized by the Europeans, I have a bridge to sell them.
Even Star Trek and Stargate SG-1 show that we can still be prone to kiss any care away about a resident population's needs in the desire for resources.

I honestly would like to think that we actually grow beyond this by the time we achieve interstellar flight and colonization, but I am not feeling too optimistic about it.
Keep in mind those interstellar flights will be most likely funded by private corporations who could care less about any relations. That is where we are headed, where the corporations finally shed their cowls and take charge of world administration.

What would suck for us is when it turns out that less-advanced species was actually under the protection of others who were far, far more advanced.
I think that's what started the whole fracas in Space:Above and Beyond, if I remember correctly. Corporation finds planet, steps on the population there in order to exploit it, and then comes along those who are in charge of protecting that planet and gets pissed off at all humans.

 

[philosophicalbastard]

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.

Or they could end up like Japan did: a strong imperial power rivaling our own.

If we discover any alien intelligence we will be much to curious to leave them alone, and to careless to not get caught by them. I doubt we would go after their resources, since there isn't much on the planets where intelligence tends to develop. The only thing we would ever want from them is living space, if their planet can maintain human life. A scenario like that just wouldn't end well, so no one would ever try that. The worst that could ever happen is that some government deems them to dangerous to humans and nukes them.

Contact with less technologically advanced life won't turn out as bad as everyone thinks. I'm confident Humanity has learned their lesson with what happens with any imperialism.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

I reckon we monitor them over the years and see how they evolve.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

I would want to send a small ship to make crop circles that only one person sees so everyone thinks he is crazy!

Seriously though I would want to make friends with them in case we come across another not so friendly race. Possibly trade with them... send some poor sucker to make the first contact with them and hope he doesn't get eaten.

Although if they are really really primitive then I want to pretend to be a god with my magic space powers.

 

[Wushu Panda]

Unfortunately, I agree with the first reply. There is no reason to go messing with a lesser advanced civilisation, although it is tempting. But we'll probably just invade similar to Battle for Terra.

I was discussing with a german guy at work how it would be interesting if we got to exploring the galazy/universe, and found out that all other life was extinct. That the universe was coming to an end (Still a few hundred thousand years away), but we were to be the last space-faring race....

Archaeologists would go insane!

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

Like...every second episode. Ah, Stargate. How you rocked my child and teenage years. And then my adult years by rewatching them.

Archaeology was my major >.>

I have a wish that advanced interstellar travel will be achieved and I can go work on another planet learning of alien culture and studying how they lived/evolved and studying the technology they developed when THEY were just starting to create tools.

But it would suck if it turned out we were the last of anything. Sitting in an alien University going over alien history with an alien archaeologist would be awesome.