• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

What would happen if aliens came to earth

 
author and jackaroo
Posts: 12200
280
Mac IntelliJ IDE Firefox Browser Oracle C++ Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was posting in another thread, and nearly hijaked it with this thought:
What do you think would happen if aliens did come to earth? Based on our history, I would tend to say that humans would not survive in the long run: the stronger civilization always displaces the weaker.
What do people think?
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 3404
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

the stronger civilization always displaces the weaker.


Dreadful thought, but what makes you assume the aliens would be the stronger civilization?I think humans would survive in great Mad Max, MIB tradition.
A stronger alien civilisation ? First there would be a war for sure due to humans innate distrust of what they don't understand (the survival instinct).
regards
 
Wanderer
Posts: 18671
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
[JP]: this implies aliens are more advanced than human.
I think the fact that they traveled to Earth implies that they're more advanced than humans.
[HST]: but what makes you assume the aliens would be the stronger civilization?
Relative strength is a more open question. The alien civilization can probably kick ass back home in their home system, assuming they didn't nearly destroy themselves in wars. But in the actual universe as we currently understand it, with no magic hyperdrive capabilities, there are going to be very severe limitations on how much stuff you can transport across interstellar distances. So it's quite possible that the even though the alien civ is very powerful and advanced, its power on Earth is not so great.
A lot depends on what the aliens, want, and what they can achieve. Do we have any resources which are valuable to them which they can actually make use of? E.g. maybe they want living space, and our planet looks good to them because their living requirments match ours to a significant degree. (Fat chance, but maybe.) Still - if they don't have the ability to transport a large number of their population here cheaply, this isn't really going to do them any good. There's an excellent chance that any physical resources we have just aren't going to be worth the effort for the aliens to try to acquire.
There's a big range of possibilities. Best-case scenario - aliens have no practical interest in acquiring any physical resources we have. Maybe they just like gathering information, and want to learn about us. Maybe even though they think our technology sucks, they think Mozart and Shakespeare are pretty cool, and so they want to exchange info with us, and they send over a tiny cultural exchange embassy of some sort. Humans could be OK in this situation. Though there would be massve effects on the culture I think, unless the existence of the aliens were kept secret. We'd probably have a bunch of new religions in California based around the newcomers... waitaminnit, we already have that.
Worst-case scenario - we have something that the aliens want to acquire, and they have no scruples about taking it the hard way. Or maybe we just piss them off by firing a missile at their ambassador, and they figure things will be much easier for them if they remove the infestation of carbon-based life from the third planet before they move on with their plans to colonize Jupiter's moons or whatever. They could expend a relatively small amount of energy altering the orbit of a decent-sized asteriod or comet, then wait a few years and let it impact earth and cause massive environmental disruption. Meanwhile set up self-replicating machines to harvest resources from the asteroids and build up an army of killer robots. It may take a bit of time, but if the aliens really want to wipe us out, our chances aren't so good unless we detect them early on and recognize the threat.
Well, there are lots of scenarios in between. For an extensive catalogue of possibilities, vist the SF section of your local bookstore.
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 1936
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
And lets not ignore the chance that if an alien life form is so technologically advanced to reach our planet, they probably would have gotten over the idea of killing-for-fun - They would be more like, in the movie AI, They may be busy trying to preserve different endangered species around the universe, like us, humans! Well, that's how I like my aliens!
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 5399
1
Spring Java
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Jim Yingst:


With my analogy between red-Indians being earthian and UK being alien and the India being earthian and Protugees being alien, chances are more of being conquered by aliens.
Initially they might appear friendly.
any other such anlaogy form history ???
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 225
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Quick, one of the earthlings has not been absorbed.
Submit, resistence is futile...
 
Ranch Hand
Posts: 321
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

Originally posted by Ashok Krishnan:
They would be more like, in the movie AI, They may be busy trying to preserve different endangered species around the universe, like us, humans! Well, that's how I like my aliens!


I agree. But it would mean they would view humans as the worst possible pest and very likely apply some pest control to prevent humans from destroying the earth ecosystem. I don�t think aliens would appreciate human-centric concepts like: progress, religion, humanity, morality, and therefore would not value us anymore then elephants, dolphins or gorillas.
 
HS Thomas
Ranch Hand
Posts: 3404
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
This quote seems appropriate:

�We have met the enemy, and he is us.�


regards
 
Jim Yingst
Wanderer
Posts: 18671
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I feel I must counter your Pogo quote with a relevant quote from The Simpsons:

Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!


...
Well, it was pretty funny at the time. Guess you had to be there...
 
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic