Poll: Do you think that we will go to war with aliens?
- Thread starter Froggy Slayer
- Start date
I would say yes. Look at this thread... about 45% say yes so far. So if about half of our species thinks we're going to war with the first extra terrestrials we meet, well, guess what?
I'd say the other half of you better buckle up cause you probably aren't going to have a choice.
Also a lot of the "no" comments are really kind of dumb: "no because they'd be more advanced than us!" "no because they could easily destroy us!" or whatever.
That's great guys, but nobody said this was happening tomorrow. The question is pretty much open ended until the end of time. Maybe the first extra terrestrials we encounter are 700 years in the future and we find them when our spacecraft enter their solar system?
... and just for fun: maybe their planet is habitable for us as well... and maybe it's also the first other habitable planet we've found... and maybe Earth is not as habitable anymore...
Do you really think we're not going to war in that scenario?
I'd say the other half of you better buckle up cause you probably aren't going to have a choice.
Also a lot of the "no" comments are really kind of dumb: "no because they'd be more advanced than us!" "no because they could easily destroy us!" or whatever.
That's great guys, but nobody said this was happening tomorrow. The question is pretty much open ended until the end of time. Maybe the first extra terrestrials we encounter are 700 years in the future and we find them when our spacecraft enter their solar system?
... and just for fun: maybe their planet is habitable for us as well... and maybe it's also the first other habitable planet we've found... and maybe Earth is not as habitable anymore...
Do you really think we're not going to war in that scenario?
Yes but not in the global both worlds at war kind that most people think. If they make first contact you have to assume they've studied us to make sure we don't have a biological threat that could kill them or that we aren't a race 100% devoted to conquest. And they would obviously have technology miles ahead of what we do. So assuming all of this if anyone did attack them they would probably be smart enough to realize it wasn't all of humanity attacking them but a few radicals. If we did go to war with them it would end quickly and they probably wouldn't destroy us because I seriously doubt the entire earth would all agree to fight aliens.
I doubt we would make first contact and if we did chances are we wouldn't start a war with them right away.
I doubt we would make first contact and if we did chances are we wouldn't start a war with them right away.
How does one fight war with viruses and bacteria? That isn't what is meant by biological warfare!
Well,I suppose that our immune systems could fight them,so technically,we would be fighting them,but they can't exactly declare war,now can they?
If the aliens are both macroscopic and sapient,they who would be foolish enough to start a war with a whole other planet when they are light-years away from reinforcements and supply depots? It would be like a street gangster trying to set-trip with a military junta while overseas.
Well,I suppose that our immune systems could fight them,so technically,we would be fighting them,but they can't exactly declare war,now can they?
If the aliens are both macroscopic and sapient,they who would be foolish enough to start a war with a whole other planet when they are light-years away from reinforcements and supply depots? It would be like a street gangster trying to set-trip with a military junta while overseas.
All that a "war" would consist of is aliens taking one of those giant asteroids in the Oort Cloud, painting it matte black, and placing it on a collision course with the Earth. Without light reflecting off of it, we won't be able to see it unless we're looking directly at it and see that it's blocking out stars. Ka-boom. No more humanity.
If they want the planet intact, all they have to do is use a smaller asteroid and some sort of dispersal mechanism for whatever the top ten fastest-acting, deadliest, and cruelest genetically engineered diseases possible are. That way, humanity is simultaneously suffering from a global disease epidemic in the wake of a cataclysmic meteor strike (hundred-foot waves, etc.) that would leave tens of millions of refugees wandering and unaccounted for while death-bringing virii rain down from above.
In any case, I doubt any "war" would involve soldiers. Except maybe robotic ones. Ships, sure, probably robotic ones that can secretly mine asteroids and build more of themselves. I doubt any aliens of the biological sort are likely to put themselves in harm's way. So this wouldn't be a World War II guns-blazing affair with battles and stuff.
Of course any of this could be us attacking them, but the principles remain the same.
If they want the planet intact, all they have to do is use a smaller asteroid and some sort of dispersal mechanism for whatever the top ten fastest-acting, deadliest, and cruelest genetically engineered diseases possible are. That way, humanity is simultaneously suffering from a global disease epidemic in the wake of a cataclysmic meteor strike (hundred-foot waves, etc.) that would leave tens of millions of refugees wandering and unaccounted for while death-bringing virii rain down from above.
In any case, I doubt any "war" would involve soldiers. Except maybe robotic ones. Ships, sure, probably robotic ones that can secretly mine asteroids and build more of themselves. I doubt any aliens of the biological sort are likely to put themselves in harm's way. So this wouldn't be a World War II guns-blazing affair with battles and stuff.
Of course any of this could be us attacking them, but the principles remain the same.
Chances are that if we were to encounter aliens we would eventually fight them. Look at most of human history: it's rare for one group to fight another the moment they meet. Usually there is a period of uneasy peace where they attempt to tell each other to go away or maybe co-exist. But eventually, maybe 10 years or even 100 years down the line the tension, bigotry and exchanged insults (large and small) would lead to conflict. Humans or aliens have the equal chance of sparking such conflict. I personally don't buy the notion that alien civilizations would be any more "advanced" than we are. To use a Mass Effect analogy: we'd be more likely to meet the Krogan than the Asari.
But if there were a cataclysmic war between Humanity and whatever tentacled/fanged/scaly/cyborg beings could exist out there: I'd advocate the tried and true "Warhammer 40,000" Imperium of Mankind approach (i.e. kill it with planet-breaking weapons).
But if there were a cataclysmic war between Humanity and whatever tentacled/fanged/scaly/cyborg beings could exist out there: I'd advocate the tried and true "Warhammer 40,000" Imperium of Mankind approach (i.e. kill it with planet-breaking weapons).
The things that could happen between spacefaring-humanity and aliens at a similar tech level could hardly be described as war. If either of us decided the other was a threat that needed to be eliminated, the solution wouldn't be to deploy a fleet of armed battleships to blast at the other space battleships in awesome battles.
What would happen would be that the less paranoid species' home planet would be obliterated by a relativistic kill vehicle, and depending on the specifics of the tech base, either their colonies would die off because they'd been cut off by support, or a fleet would be sent to mop up the last remnants of the species lest they seek revenge (perhaps they'd be put in zoos instead, although taking prisoners would likely be too risky to attempt).
That's not war, the word for this is genocide.
Of course, there's not actually even the slightest chance that life we encounter will be at a similar tech level than us. Although relativistic kill vehicles do have some promise to be the "great equaliser" between just-figured-out-interstellar-travel civilisations and crazy-hypertech-with-crystal-spires-and-togas civilizations, the fact that the latter will have well-established colonies on other planets in-system, in space, and perhaps even in other systems, still puts them at a great advantage such that the lesser civ would likely have to choose between co-operation (or surrender, depending on what the advanced civ is like) and extinction.
What would happen would be that the less paranoid species' home planet would be obliterated by a relativistic kill vehicle, and depending on the specifics of the tech base, either their colonies would die off because they'd been cut off by support, or a fleet would be sent to mop up the last remnants of the species lest they seek revenge (perhaps they'd be put in zoos instead, although taking prisoners would likely be too risky to attempt).
That's not war, the word for this is genocide.
Of course, there's not actually even the slightest chance that life we encounter will be at a similar tech level than us. Although relativistic kill vehicles do have some promise to be the "great equaliser" between just-figured-out-interstellar-travel civilisations and crazy-hypertech-with-crystal-spires-and-togas civilizations, the fact that the latter will have well-established colonies on other planets in-system, in space, and perhaps even in other systems, still puts them at a great advantage such that the lesser civ would likely have to choose between co-operation (or surrender, depending on what the advanced civ is like) and extinction.
Too many variables to give anything resembling a definite answer. I will say that there is significant risk of doing so, even if only because of paranoid people urging preemptive strikes.
Unfortunately, the moment scientists make contact, the military are all but guaranteed to muscle in on the action.chadachada123 said: