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Is it smart to reach out to aliens?

Is it smart to reach out to aliens?

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Cardinal

Cardinal

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The place is earth. The year is now. We have heard for the first time in human history alien signals, and if we reach out to them they can find us. Do we

a)Contact them, under the logic that any alien race is likely to be highly civilized by our own standards, and will therefore be benevolent. After all, we can see a gradual easing off of barbarism in recent history. Conquering and pillaging is no longer glorified, and is punished when possible. It seems natural to assume that an alien race has already passed trials similar to our own, and only by civilizing itself would it be able to cross the vast interstellar space to reach us.

In my debate opponent's own words:

ecofarm said:
I hold the same reasons as those that make the decisions. We see clearly with time comes social development. Thus, the chance of a vastly more developed alien race being evil is almost nil. Given the insignificant chance of evil aliens, it makes sense to attempt contact. After all, they would manage contact with or without us eventually, so there's really nothing to lose.
Click to expand...

b)Not contact them and wait until we know more, under the logic that the only example we have of an intelligent species (our own) is one that has acted badly to each other, other species and the earth for most of recorded history. If there's even the remotest chance that they could be as awful as we have been, why take the chance? We might be too unenlightened by their own standards to be worth treating as equals. There's the possibility they might not even consider us sentient. We might be their food.
c)nanoo nanoo

From http://www.debatepolitics.com/break...-aliens-go-hell-so-lets-stop-looking-them.htm
 
In a word, no. They might very well be friendly. However, by the same token, they might not be. We really can't afford to take that chance.

If and when we ever happen to encounter an extraterrestrial intelligence, it needs to be on our own terms.
 
No, I think that's just asking for trouble. I don't expect an advanced alien civilization to be benevolent by default, anyway. To expect them to align with humanity's moral progress is amusing, if anything.

If there are any aliens at all and any advanced race near our star system, I hope they're like the Vulcans and more or less leave us alone.

We can start making contact with aliens when we've upped our technological game a bit more. And with the increasing pace of innovation, the waiting game isn't too hard.
 
No way of saying without any prior experience but I would lean towards a).

There's no reason for a race that could reach us with vast superiority to be malicious, especially out of fear. But there's also no reason to upset our natural evolution by giving us advanced knowledge. Unless we were heading down a path of certain destruction and they wanted to see us progress further.
 
Cardinal said:
The place is earth. The year is now. We have heard for the first time in human history alien signals, and if we reach out to them they can find us. Do we

a)Contact them, under the logic that any alien race is likely to be highly civilized by our own standards, and will therefore be benevolent. After all, we can see a gradual easing off of barbarism in recent history. Conquering and pillaging is no longer glorified, and is punished when possible. It seems natural to assume that an alien race has already passed trials similar to our own, and only by civilizing itself would it be able to cross the vast interstellar space to reach us.

In my debate opponent's own words:



b)Not contact them and wait until we know more, under the logic that the only example we have of an intelligent species (our own) is one that has acted badly to each other, other species and the earth for most of recorded history. If there's even the remotest chance that they could be as awful as we have been, why take the chance? We might be too unenlightened by their own standards to be worth treating as equals. There's the possibility they might not even consider us sentient. We might be their food.
c)nanoo nanoo

From Page Not Found - Debate Politics Forums
Click to expand...



Man....


You know, in the other thread I'm arguing that there is a distinct possibility they could be hostile; not evil necessarily, just reserving their benevolence for their own kind and viewing other species as rivals to be dealt with as ruthlessly as necessary.

I do believe that is possible.

However, I don't necessarily think it probable. In fact if I had to speculate, I'd say that the odds a star-travelling alien species would be (more or less) benevolent towards humanity is more likely than hostility or sociopathic indifference.


To let such a chance go by without contacting them would be a terribly difficult choice to make.

OTOH even if they are relatively benevolent, our Earthly experience says that when a more advanced culture contacts a less advanced one, the lesser culture tends to suffer a number of devastating maladies.... cultural inferiority complex and apathy being among them. Even benevolent aliens could cause us a lot of harm. For instance... why do any more research, when we can just ask the Taelons? Why try to advance our tech base, just ask the Taelons to do it for us!

It would be a terrible risk on many levels, but I'd be tempted to contact them anyway. Letting it go would be hard.


But then again, maybe these aliens are the Great Filter. :(
 
We're assuming they'd be interested in communicating with the a species who, by their standards, would seem to them as amoebas do to us. lulz Since we've only relatively recently discovered the means of reaching out, and since we're assuming they're developed beyond anything we can presently conceive of, we have to further assume they could have made contact with us in ancient history. They didn't. That's probably relevant. Further, evil doesn't presuppose malice.

But okay, of those two options, I have to go with Eco. As technology progresses in tandem with social maturity, the likelihood is that they'd be well disposed towards us rather than hostile. That is at least, as we comprehend these things. We only find the possibility of gee whizz technology alongside existing hierarchical models, in the realm of science fiction like Star Trek and the like.
 
NoC_T said:
.... As technology progresses in tandem with social maturity, the likelihood is that they'd be well disposed towards us rather than hostile. That is at least, as we comprehend these things. We only find the possibility of gee whizz technology alongside existing hierarchical models, in the realm of science fiction like Star Trek and the like.
Click to expand...


We don't know that, as we have only one example of technological sapience to go by: Homo Sapiens.


WE have gee-whiz technology by the standards of 1950... are we so benevolent?
 
Cardinal said:
The place is earth. The year is now.
Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing that up. :lol:

No, it is not smart to call out to aliens until we are ready to defend ourselves from aliens. Any species that can travel the stars could easily destroy all of humanity.
 
All I care is that we are higher on the tech development than any other species, signature says it all, if we aren't don't reach out, if we are? Reach out and make damn sure that we're superior.

Why be a nationalist? Be arrogant for humanity as a whole! :allhail Hail to us.
 
Cardinal said:
The place is earth. The year is now. We have heard for the first time in human history alien signals, and if we reach out to them they can find us. Do we

a)Contact them, under the logic that any alien race is likely to be highly civilized by our own standards, and will therefore be benevolent. After all, we can see a gradual easing off of barbarism in recent history. Conquering and pillaging is no longer glorified, and is punished when possible. It seems natural to assume that an alien race has already passed trials similar to our own, and only by civilizing itself would it be able to cross the vast interstellar space to reach us.

In my debate opponent's own words:



b)Not contact them and wait until we know more, under the logic that the only example we have of an intelligent species (our own) is one that has acted badly to each other, other species and the earth for most of recorded history. If there's even the remotest chance that they could be as awful as we have been, why take the chance? We might be too unenlightened by their own standards to be worth treating as equals. There's the possibility they might not even consider us sentient. We might be their food.
c)nanoo nanoo

From Page Not Found - Debate Politics Forums
Click to expand...

I think I would side with one of the best minds in our time, than some member here with ideological happy thoughts:


Is Stephen Hawking right about aliens?
Stephen Hawking thinks that making contact with aliens would be a very bad idea indeed. But with new, massive telescopes, we humans are stepping up the search. Have we really thought this through?
 
The existence of intelligent aliens would make me a lot less concerned about the continued existence of humans.



Beaudreaux said:
I think I would side with one of the best minds in our time, than some member here with ideological happy thoughts:
Click to expand...

Hawking is a theoretical physicist, not a sociologist. This is like listening to a movie star about politics.

Do you find Hawking's idiocy in geopolitics riveting?

We might also note that our best minds have, in fact, decided to seek contact.
 
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Goshin said:
We don't know that, as we have only one example of technological sapience to go by: Homo Sapiens.


WE have gee-whiz technology by the standards of 1950... are we so benevolent?
Click to expand...
We're talking about trans-warp drive (or whatever the ****) and artificial creation of wormholes for transport between galaxies. Not TV and pocket calculators.

The discussion itself assumes a race of bewildering technology. It's laughable to suggest that they'd be operating along the lines of 21st century Capitalism and offing each other in the multiple millions.
 
NoC_T said:
We're assuming they'd be interested in communicating with the a species who, by their standards, would seem to them as amoebas do to us. lulz Since we've only relatively recently discovered the means of reaching out, and since we're assuming they're developed beyond anything we can presently conceive of, we have to further assume they could have made contact with us in ancient history. They didn't. That's probably relevant. Further, evil doesn't presuppose malice.

But okay, of those two options, I have to go with Eco. As technology progresses in tandem with social maturity, the likelihood is that they'd be well disposed towards us rather than hostile. That is at least, as we comprehend these things. We only find the possibility of gee whizz technology alongside existing hierarchical models, in the realm of science fiction like Star Trek and the like.
Click to expand...

It should be said that Roddenberry's vision was deliberately optimistic. That vision has since been, uh...corrected...in nearly every movie and show since his death. Example: in Enterprise (yes, I watched it, shut up), the Enterprise has returned from its first wide-eyed, optimistic journey to see other planets and races. I paraphrase the Captains words when he got back home: "We got our asses kicked out there! We were outnumbered, outgunned, we need better weapons and better shields!"

But at least in Enterprise the human race had ships and warp technology so if they got it horribly wrong and it rained Klingons, they stood a chance of fleeing to other planets and colonizing them. If we contacted an alien race and got it wrong, it would be game over, man. Game over.
 
Alright, people, the To Serve Man reference has already been used, like, a half dozen times now.
 
ecofarm said:
The existence of intelligent aliens would make me a lot less concerned about the continued existence of humans.





Hawking is a theoretical physicist, not a sociologist. This is like listening to a movie star about politics.

Do you also find Hawking's idiocy in geopolitics to be riveting?
Click to expand...

You keep pooping on Hawking for not being a sociologist, so can you link to a sociologist talking about what meeting an alien race might be like?
 
Cardinal said:
You keep pooping on Hawking for not being a sociologist, so can you link to a sociologist talking about what meeting an alien race might be like?
Click to expand...

Refuting Hawking on this in no way obligates me to seek reference.

Do you agree with Hawking on geopolitics? No, you don't. See the point?
 
Cardinal said:
It should be said that Roddenberry's vision was deliberately optimistic. That vision has since been, uh...corrected...in nearly every movie and show since his death. Example: in Enterprise (yes, I watched it, shut up), the Enterprise has returned from its first wide-eyed, optimistic journey to see other planets and races. I paraphrase the Captains words when he got back home: "We got our asses kicked out there! We were outnumbered, outgunned, we need better weapons and better shields!"

But at least in Enterprise the human race had ships and warp technology so if they got it horribly wrong and it rained Klingons, they stood a chance of fleeing to other planets and colonizing them. If we contacted an alien race and got it wrong, it would be game over, man. Game over.
Click to expand...
:lol: +1

My guess is, they'd see us coming long before we set off, both literally and figuratively. Assuming again that they're 'friendly', they could simply discourage us gently. We're ****ing assholes. Who would want to befriend us?
 
The smart thing to do is send a message saying that Earth is just a relay station, and our home planet is really located in some other far off, but still observable star system. And then we just see what they do when they get to that planet, and then we go from there.
 
i vote no contact. it's more likely that it would be more like the mouse contacting the owl than someone calling up new buddies to invite them over for a beer.
 
ecofarm said:
Refuting Hawking on this in no way obligates me to seek reference.

Do you agree with Hawking on geopolitics? No, you don't. See the point?
Click to expand...

You want us to have a sociologist's point of view, then give us a sociologist's point of view. Otherwise drop it already.
 
Jredbaron96 said:
The smart thing to do is send a message saying that Earth is just a relay station, and our home planet is really located in some other far off, but still observable star system. And then we just see what they do when they get to that planet, and then we go from there.
Click to expand...

I think that would sort of be like a new Amazonian tribe telling us, "Oh, no, our tribe's village isn't over that hill, it's...uh, behind that one over there."

Hilarity ensues.
 
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