ET (Extraterrestrial Intelligence) may come and enslave or eat us

Would Contact with Extraterrestrials benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis, Acta Astronautica, 2011, 68(11-12): 2114-2129

Authors: 1. Seth D. Baum, Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University

2. Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, Department of Meterology, Pennsylvania State University

3. Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman, NASA Planetary Science Division

Some quotes:

A core concern is that ET will learn of our presence and quickly travel to Earth to eat or enslave us. ...

On an individual level they may not be interested in killing us, but may be interested in incorporating us into their civilization so they can sell us their products, keep us as pets, or have us mine raw materials for them. ...

While it is difficult to estimate the likelihood of this scenario, it should at a minimum give us pause as we evaluate our expansive tendencies. ...

The spread of ET diseases may be even more rapid and the cure even more difficult to develop. Therefore, any head start we can get for our cure development could be highly valuable. ...

In a similar class of scenarios, ET could inadvertently unleash some harmful force into the galaxy through some act of incompetence, quite possibly harming itself in the process. ...

Is this some joke paper? No, this is the sort of thing we find when human speculations make their way through the scientific peer review process, whether its global warming estimates, evolutionist assumptions, origins speculations, or whatever. Speculations are not science, they are speculations, assumptions,imaginations, guesses, postulations and so forth.

marke said:

Would Contact with Extraterrestrials benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis, Acta Astronautica, 2011, 68(11-12): 2114-2129

Authors: 1. Seth D. Baum, Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University

2. Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, Department of Meterology, Pennsylvania State University

3. Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman, NASA Planetary Science Division

Some quotes:

A core concern is that ET will learn of our presence and quickly travel to Earth to eat or enslave us. ...

On an individual level they may not be interested in killing us, but may be interested in incorporating us into their civilization so they can sell us their products, keep us as pets, or have us mine raw materials for them. ...

While it is difficult to estimate the likelihood of this scenario, it should at a minimum give us pause as we evaluate our expansive tendencies. ...

The spread of ET diseases may be even more rapid and the cure even more difficult to develop. Therefore, any head start we can get for our cure development could be highly valuable. ...

In a similar class of scenarios, ET could inadvertently unleash some harmful force into the galaxy through some act of incompetence, quite possibly harming itself in the process. ...

Is this some joke paper? No, this is the sort of thing we find when human speculations make their way through the scientific peer review process, whether its global warming estimates, evolutionist assumptions, origins speculations, or whatever. Speculations are not science, they are speculations, assumptions,imaginations, guesses, postulations and so forth.

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I once read that the proof that intelligent life beyond Earth exists, is that they have not tried to contact us!

Im pretty sure the reason why aliens wont come and eat us is because they dont believe we're a form of intelligent life.

longview said:

I once read that the proof that intelligent life beyond Earth exists, is that they have not tried to contact us!

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Good speculation.

PoS said:

Im pretty sure the reason why aliens wont come and eat us is because they dont believe we're a form of intelligent life.

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Any self-proclaimed scientific genius who thinks he got his brains from a monkey's uncle is right next door to a bonobo bozo for lack of good sense.

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
--Arthur C. Clarke

Jack Hays said:

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
--Arthur C. Clarke

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I love that quote.

Skeptic Bob said:

I love that quote.

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Agreed, but for me, it is not terrifying to know that we are not alone. They are here with us, and have been. The Human Genome Project in about 2004 that some of our DNA is extraterrestrial in nature.

Thoreau72 said:

Agreed, but for me, it is not terrifying to know that we are not alone. They are here with us, and have been. The Human Genome Project in about 2004 that some of our DNA is extraterrestrial in nature.

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All that comes up when I google is nutter sites and rag publications. Where are you getting this?

Wait. Hold on. I'm remembering something about 200ish genes found in the human genome that are not found in other species, and that some nutjobs latched onto that to claim that if they aren't in other species they must be from aliens.


If that's what that was about, that is completely ridiculous. Whomever thought that up must never have heard about things like the possibility of random mutation and evolution, which only generally means that you can expect the best traits to propagate over time but by no means guarantees the elimination of useless genes or even disadvantageous genes (or guarantees anything, really). Nor would such a person have thought of:

- The possibility that some are artificacts. If you're just looking for starting and ending punctuation, let's say, you're going to randomly find strings that match your criteria in a sufficiently large random collection of letters.

- Horizontal Gene Transfer (ie, by viruses)

- Gene substitutions that render an initial sequence unrecognizable.

- Novel mutations, ie nylonase

PoS said:

Im pretty sure the reason why aliens wont come and eat us is because they dont believe we're a form of intelligent life.

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With all due respect, identification of a species as intelligent is perhaps the best bet for security against being eaten.
Generally speaking we're usually more inclined to eat the LESS intelligent species, not the smarter ones, although some cultural outliers do exist.
On a personal level, I love the taste of octopus however now that I've learned that they are the most intelligent of the invertebrates and can do complex tasks, I probably won't ever stick a fork in one again, but I've no compunction against eating oysters and flounder.

We'd do well to be identified as at least somewhat intelligent, because if we're seen as absolutely lacking, and the aliens are hungry, we're probably going to be on the menu.

PoS said:

Im pretty sure the reason why aliens wont come and eat us is because they dont believe we're a form of intelligent life.

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While I recognize the potential joke here, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially from a human point of view. We mainly eat things that are not considered a form of intelligent life, so why then would anyone think that aliens would be the opposite and refuse to eat things that are not a form of intelligent life?

roguenuke said:

While I recognize the potential joke here, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially from a human point of view. We mainly eat things that are not considered a form of intelligent life, so why then would anyone think that aliens would be the opposite and refuse to eat things that are not a form of intelligent life?

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Hey Im just going by what the OP said... the aliens are going to come here and enslave or eat us.