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2 years, 9 months ago

Would the world be welcoming of an alien race if they came to earth? Or would we treat them as enemies / hostiles / 2nd class organisms?

I mean, as diplomatic as the world can be with one another... When something truly different comes up how much of our civility will hold up? Movies like District 9 coming out seem to paint the picture that, in a situation where aliens arrive, even if they were visiting for purely good reasons, we would never look at them without suspicion.

It makes me feel kind of sad that, if other life existed and came to visit us, that we would probably come off as primitive bullies to them.

What are your ideas? Do you think I'm wrong, could we be civil across such a monumental barrier? I'd like to think we could be but I want to know what you think, agreeing or not.
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singercrlyn | 2 years, 9 months ago
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This is a really interesting question, and though I may not have a straightforward answer, I do have some thoughts...

First, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to approach something unfamiliar with caution and suspicion. It's natural to want to protect yourself before fully understanding how something works or what its purpose is. We do this in all facets of life, relationships in particular (keeping that wall up until someone has earned our trust). It's dangerous to welcome something completely unknown with welcome arms without understanding its potential, purpose or capacity.

That said, I don't think that we can make a generalized statement for how each part of the world would treat these alien beings. Disparities in scientific and religious beliefs already divide our world and lead to vast differences in behavior. For example, I can see the scientists of the world welcoming them with open arms, and being inquisitive, friendly, approachable. But, I can see religious extremists meeting these aliens with much skepticism and fear - perhaps protesting, maybe even waging a full-on "holy war".

What I think is the MOST likely outcome of an alien visit to our planet is this... one or more countries see the potential to leverage them as an advantage in battle with another country/countries. If these aliens have the ability to transport themselves through space to our planet, they hold immense ability to help Pakistan obliterate the United States, for example. I can see alien lifeforms being used to significantly alter the existing landscape of the global community - to effect power shifts and move forward pre-existing wars / tensions between countries.

Sadly, I just think that ultimately, mankind is abominably selfish and would only be able to see the "good" in alien life if it would somehow advance man's current plights.

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videopia | 2 years, 9 months ago
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The most important part of this answer, I believe, is that almost all of our science fiction movies grossly underestimate the technology the aliens will certainly have. I think this simply reflects our limited human imagination, but believing that aliens with the technology to travel a bajillion kilometers across the galaxy will suddenly have engine trouble after they get here or fly around with their running lights on or clumsily get caught by humans is naive. They will be so far advanced that it'll be like human scientists observing wildlife in Africa: we really won't know what to think about them at all.

That said, yes, studying wildlife in Africa can be a dangerous business and sometimes people are injured or even killed. It's not like we'll be any sort of threat to the aliens, but they will have to be careful. So, ultimately, it won't matter to them at all whether we welcome them or treat them with hostility any more than it matters whether the lions welcome the biologist or want to attack her in her SUV.

And if they are here as invaders, there really won't be much we can do about it as they systematically clear us out, maybe allowing us to continue on in protected areas or something. Did it matter whether the Native Americans welcomed the Europeans or were hostile?

From our end, of course we'll be hostile, which, yes, is sad. I mean, the freakin' Sunnis can't get along with the Shiites, the Protestants hate the Catholics, the Serbs want to kill the Croatians and the Tutsis almost wiped out the Hutus (to cite four examples). From an outside perspective, it's really hard to see any differences at all between either of those enemies-to-the-death pairs, so there's basically no hope we'd get along with aliens.

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albanian | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

But haven't you noticed that it is often the most similar groups (who are thereby rivals for some resource or opportunity) that are most violently hostile to one another? All your examples in your last paragraph are like that. When someone is much more different they can seem less of a rival and threat.

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bunnyphuphu | 2 years, 9 months ago
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When you look at the reflection of emotion in Science Fiction movies pertaining to alien visitors, you almost always see a defensive fear on the humans part.
It doesn't matter if the alien visiting is a friend or foe, they are still greeted apprehensively.

When you look at film over the years, you can't help but notice that emotions, reactions or inflections always have a bit of truth to them.

Me personally? I would hesitantly be curious of an alien being until I was sure that this entity wouldn't harm me. But I can't speak for the world.

If the world still alienates and abuses others that are not like them, I don't see us being any nicer to a Martian. Sad but true.
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kraevin | 2 years, 9 months ago
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The reception would be mixed. Some people would welcome them, some would want them killed. A lot of people would try to make money off of them. Then there would be anti-alien groups and consipricay nuts who think that the aliens were created by (Cheney or Obama) to scare the american people.

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samid | 2 years, 9 months ago
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I do believe there is intelligent life out there and I have given this a lot of thought over the yeras as I have watched movie after movie about what our first encounter may look like and the differnet perspective from which each movie is made. Here's the conclusion I have come up with...

If there is intelligent life out there and they do come here and make their presence known, they are obviously much further advanced than we simply because they have figured out a way to travel across the galaxy to us. So, obviously they are technologically superior to us, right? I'm assuming this means they have probably been around longer than we have here in Earth. So, they are probably more highly evolved as a species than we are. They've been around longer. Their society is obviously more highly evolved than ours and this would point to the conclusion that they are peace loving. If you still aren't convinced they are peace loving, look at it this way. If they were going to annihilate us, they would have done it already.

The reason we here on Earth have some people who seem to always have their fingers precariously close to the fire button, is because of fear. I believe one day fear will be mostly bred out of us as we evolve, but for now we still have much fear and fear leads to violence. I believe this is why they haven't made contact yet, because they are actually scared of us.

Think of it like this...when you are observing a small wild animal in the woods (let's say a fox for the sake of an exampl), you don't want to bring it to the attention of that wild animal that you are there, right? Why? Because it may be rabid and come hurt you? You know for a fact that little fox can't kill you, but it may bite you and then you would have to go get shots and it would cost you money and time and effort. So, rather than take that chance, you sit back and observe. Now, take this example and apply it to the scenario of us being the fox and they being the person walking in the woods.

Now, with regards to your question about us being civil with them when they do make contact, I really don't think anyone would be ignorant enough to ridicule them because they are differnet. They are obviously way more technologically advanced than we are. To ridicule them or discriminate against them would be like a some average person making fun of some super hero (let's just say they exist for hypothetical purposes). Now, what kind of idiot would spit in the face of Superman? So, no, I don't think discrimination against them would be a problem, but if someone was stupid enough to do so, I believe they are highly evolved enough to understand why the person is being so ignorant and would simply pat that person on their proverbial head and move on without a second thought to the idea, realizing that person just isn't as highly evolved as they are and that life is a process, not a product and we are all evolving to the best of our ability.

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stanar | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

"Their society is obviously more highly evolved than ours and this would point to the conclusion that they are peace loving."

I would have to disagree with this statement at least with respect to the human civilization. Even after thousands of years of civilization, we still kill each other and alienate others who are not like us. "Highly evolved" doesn’t really mean anything with respect to “peace loving”. As we "evolve" biologically and technologically, we invent more killing methods/tools and try (only try) to make peace with the help of fear.

There have been many movies depicting our imaginations how we would react to an Alien (should we call "it" an ExtraTerrestrial Alien?) presence on the planet Earth - positive, negative, mixed approach. And it would vary from culture to culture, country to country and also highly depend on where, when and how the ETs appear on Earth, whether we find them first or they just appear in front of us, depends on many factors…

That’s my take on this.

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kraevin | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

I hate to disagree with you stanar but peace loving does not drive expansion and exploration. Peace loving does not generally breed the alpha specie. The type of aliens we are most likely to make contact with first if they come to us would be the kind that want to exploit our world and expand. Think Europeans = Aliens and Native Americans = us. We were nice until we had the forces to wipe them out and take their land. This is assuming we recognize them as life forms. What if they are not carbon based or do not resemble life as we know it. That asteroid barreling down on earth...

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samid | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

You are right, but we are slowly getting better. These beings, if they actually do exist, are lighyears ahead of us. Think of how our world will be 500 years from now. Don't you think by then we will have pretty much eradicated war and conflict, risen above our shortcomings and come together in peace knowing that communicating our feelings calmly and rationally is really the only way to solve problems without the other side shutting down? I think so.

As humans, we have a bad habit of looking backward. Look forward - think of how we are now, how we continue to get better and better, and then add a few more centuries onto the human race and imagine just how beautiful life here will be when everyone has worked through their character defects of anger, jealousy, greed, etc. I guess it helps to believe in reincarnation, to believe we actually are getting better and better, which I do. We aren't just blank slates when we are born. There is much more there, locked away in our subconscious mind, guiding us like a breeze blowing a leaf around on the surface of a pond. Look back on the middle ages and the horrible things people did to each other back then, now compare that to today. We are absolutely evolving, becoming more understanding, tolerant, and patient with each other, ironically, as the Earth becomes more and more crowded, which you would think we would become less tolerant of one another.

I have to disagree, we are evolving and those who come to visit us will be much more highly evolved than we are.

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kraevin | 2 years, 9 months ago Report

I do not think we will have "Risen above" war and conflict. Conflict builds character, and personality. In order to remove conflict then everyone would have to agree with everything. That is not going to happen and if it would then that would be the end of humanity we would be robots. While avoiding war is admiriable and for the most part what we all want some times it just isnt possible.
And really as long as anyone has any power someone else will covet and seek to take that power. In 500 years we will not have eradicated conflict and war. The best we can really hope for is not to have blown ourselves up and destroyed what is good with the world in our attempts to take from others what we have no right to.
And I do not think we get better we get different. We have made technological advancements but that does not mean we are better. Our longer life spans means that more people suffer from more ailments and our ability to prolong their agony is increased. This is not neccessarily better.

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rubencelebes | 2 years, 9 months ago
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There are 3 probabilities.

The First :
The alien will come to our earth in peace
Second :
They will be invaded by us
Third :
If they are looking for meaningful material(s) but we resist, they might invade or steal something from us stealthily.

It's about us how to behave,

* The reason of the first statement why I told the alien will come to our earth in peace is because of the high-tech science that they have.
- Why would I say that they are high-tech science?
It's because if they have succeed passing our atmosphere and the air in the earth, they must have been learned it, so they can come to our earth safely.
- Why would I say that alien will come in peace?
It's because the more civilized civilization, they won't try to war, but they will find something interesting in our civilization. maybe it is our materials in the earth, etc.

*The second reason of the statement why I told they will be invaded by us (human) is because we have a bad feeling about alien. It's because most of our media that told us that alien is a cruel creature. It's reflected on the "war of the worlds" radio broadcasting that makes a mass panic everywhere.
otherwise, we will start thinking about our home, the earth. As the owner of the world, we become suspicious about their presence. It can lead us to intimidate them and at the end trying to kill or drive them out.
-Why would I say that we'll try to kill them or drive them out (and maybe they will also attack us)
It's because we feel anxious about the technology that they have so they can land to the earth safely, I'm sure we have a suspicious mind about their arrival. Just like in the communication science, because of the insecurity, we might think about the massacre, genocide, etc. but, hopefully, if they are highly intelligence creature, they can understand us and trying to solve our misconception.

*The third, Why I said they will invade us if we resist to give them what they want? it's because of the thing(s) that they're really want to improve their home's technology. What we are really need is cooperate with them, it isn't hard to do. Just make a trade route between two of us.
________________________________________________

I'm sure as a civilized creature (alien, because if they pass the atmosphere and can breath in this world they must be a intelligent creature) they wont attack us but trying to share us their knowledge. And in return they may try to find out and learn our cultures and maybe trying to get some materials.

The conclusion of this case that the alien wont try to attack us, but sharing what we have and what they have.

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loredana | 2 years, 9 months ago
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Something tells me that if aliens came down to Earth, we would behave just like in the movie Mars Attacks!
slightly slow at first, causing our own dismay even if their intentions are friendly, but ultimately engaging in a disastrous fight with them.
Unlike in the movie, I have a feeling that a lucky fluke would not save us this time :(

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