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Let's speak hypothetical. Our world is visited by a highly intelligent, socially more cooperative and harmonious, technologically vastly superior race in our galactic neighborhood in the near future. Let's say that their mission is one of exploration but not necessarily one of forming complex diplomatic relations, nor necessarily of engaging in hostile actions in pursuit of resources of whatever kind: slaves, mineral, gaseous, water, energy etc. Let's just assume that they are explorers with a cautious and curious nature and after some preliminary fact finding decide to meet with appointed representatives at a time and place of their choosing (I assume theirs because security concerns might rule anything else too risky.) What would this entail for humanity given the current state of political unity, military readiness, receptiveness of the average person to such a seminal event? Would it do more harm than good to be exposed to a space faring race when our forays into space have been so few? How would we prepare ourselves for such an earthshaking possibility? Would it have a net disruptive effect or do you think it could be somewhat unifying as we forget our animosities and rivalries with one another for a moment in the sublimity of it all (ala 9/11, but probably far more potent.) What if they made requests or demands of us without a threat of force that we could attend to in order to keep a renewed relationship with them but they were greatly costly and nothing concrete was promised in return but suggestions were made? Should governments resort to covert means to procure intelligence on them or would that be dangerously provocative? Would it make more sense to establish a kind of martial doctrine that repressed the publics ability to approach and interact these beings or would that agitate upheaval? Would it make more sense to just ask them to leave for fears that we might be exposing ourselves to a calculus of risks and dangers we aren't prepared for or should we make more overtures of our own to send signals? Should we send representatives to their world without guarantees for their safety? Should national legislatures draft procedures now to prepare for such an eventuality, and should the public have much of a say in establishing those procedures? Would we want to learn each others languages or establish a third language so that everyone could learn and help develop it? What kind of specialists or laymen would be the best people to make first contact? Should the event be tightly controlled or done in as unthreatening of an environment as possible? I don't think we've ever had a debate here on this and I wouldn't be surprised at all if in the next couple hundred years (and a lot sooner) first contact was made. Pegged Lamb fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Mar 18, 2016 |
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Mar 18, 2016 23:52
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Do they speak English? How do they initiate contact? Are they here for our bodily fluids/ women / television shows/ cultural superiority in musicals? I need more context because otherwise the answer is a pretty broad "Maybe"
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Mar 19, 2016 00:18
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The most important thing is to establish dominance early. So the first alien we meet we need to immediately kill and eat. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 19, 2016 00:19
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There are a number of ways the lower forces might try to manifest themselves and convince the masses you can create the kingdom of heaven on earth. They prefer complete individual striving and cannibalism but they could come forward as an alien invasion/intervention, or a Rapture and a Second Coming. Do not be deceived. The subtleties of creation - matter, energy, time, space - are masked by gross temporal flesh.
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Mar 19, 2016 00:22
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McDowell posted:There are a number of ways the lower forces might try to manifest themselves and convince the masses you can create the kingdom of heaven on earth. They prefer complete individual striving and cannibalism but they could come forward as an alien invasion/intervention, or a Rapture and a Second Coming. Do not be deceived. The subtleties of creation - matter, energy, time, space - are masked by gross temporal flesh. If time is a subtlety of creation then why is temporal a bad quality?
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Mar 19, 2016 00:27
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Who What Now posted:If time is a subtlety of creation then why is temporal a bad quality? I was not necessarily giving it a completely negative flavor - things come and go and that is natural - but if the universe is a purposeful creation and there is some truth to the beliefs seen in our world - well then? Who? What? Now?
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Mar 19, 2016 00:31
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McDowell posted:I was not necessarily giving it a completely negative flavor Your use of the word "gross" says otherwise. Checkmate.
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Mar 19, 2016 00:40
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If they meant us any harm they would've thrown something dense at us at relativistic velocity. I say relax and let the supposedly hyper-advanced guys handle the details, they probably know what they're doing and we couldn't stop them if they didn't.Pegged Lamb posted:What kind of specialists or laymen would be the best people to make first contact? Should the event be tightly controlled or done in as unthreatening of an environment as possible? Linguists, with some biologists and maybe a physicist on standby. I think you would be at least mildly surprised.
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Mar 19, 2016 00:42
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We could probably nuke the landing site real good and who cares what technology they use for interstellar travel they still gonna be nuked.
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Mar 19, 2016 00:44
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I am ready to gently caress an alien. For science. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Mar 19, 2016 01:25
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Pegged Lamb posted:What kind of specialists or laymen would be the best people to make first contact? Zefram Cochrane, of course.
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Mar 19, 2016 01:44
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ThirdPartyView posted:Zefram Cochrane, of course. Which one? The Jovial Hippie or the marauder with a shotgun?
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Mar 19, 2016 01:47
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Trump is ready to build a wall around earth. You thought Mexicans were bad? How about Martians?
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Mar 19, 2016 01:51
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McDowell posted:There are a number of ways the lower forces might try to manifest themselves and convince the masses you can create the kingdom of heaven on earth. They prefer complete individual striving and cannibalism but they could come forward as an alien invasion/intervention, or a Rapture and a Second Coming. Do not be deceived. The subtleties of creation - matter, energy, time, space - are masked by gross temporal flesh. I don't think any of this is as ridiculous as you believe. They'd almost assuredly want various forms of matter and energy but also cultural exchange.
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Mar 19, 2016 01:53
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McDowell posted:Which one? The Jovial Hippie or the marauder with a shotgun? The latter.
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Mar 19, 2016 01:54
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Why does the question assume aliens coming to earth, and not humanity becoming a space-faring race? Doesn't matter, answer still remains to eat/kill/gently caress the first of every new species we find.
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Mar 19, 2016 02:05
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Trump is a front runner. Hell no we're not ready.
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Mar 19, 2016 02:07
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we still have motherfuckers running around screaming that the earth is 6000 years old and flat while simultaneously holding important public offices an honest to god meeting with an extraterrestrial lifeform would be the biggest cultural catastrophe in history before we even get to what they might be visiting for
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Mar 19, 2016 02:13
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Dazzling Addar posted:we still have motherfuckers running around screaming that the earth is 6000 years old and flat while simultaneously holding important public offices Like when one half of the planet was formally introduced to the other.
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Mar 19, 2016 02:16
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I have ~500 hours in Xcom so you can bet your rear end I'm ready.
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Mar 19, 2016 02:25
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If they initiate contact with us, then we could never be ready. If viceversa, we would be ready if our average IQ and mutual understanding was higher. But it isn't. We're still dumb, panicky animals by and large. But even so, worse comes to worst... Fojar38 posted:I have ~500 hours in Xcom so you can bet your rear end I'm ready. CrazyLoon fucked around with this message at 03:29 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 03:26
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Technology progresses without humanity's consent. This is why we have cheese inside pretzels now.
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Mar 19, 2016 03:31
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The level of technology required for interstellar travel is so beyond ours that we are completely at the mercy of their whims. Their presence, and their complete dominance of the governments of the world, leads to major social upheaval, and human cultures probably undergoes a fundamental shift and may be unrecognizable from what it was in a matter of years. If they give us free energy, capitalism as a system will be under an existential threat, and capital's response could be quite aggressive. First contact will be the end of humanity as we know it if it is peaceful, and the obliteration of humanity if it is not.
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Mar 19, 2016 05:39
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Who What Now posted:
With options like these, we can't go wrong
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Mar 19, 2016 06:09
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It would be absolutely horrifying and probably change all cultures forever.
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Mar 19, 2016 06:32
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A big flaming stink posted:The level of technology required for interstellar travel is so beyond ours that we are completely at the mercy of their whims. Their presence, and their complete dominance of the governments of the world, leads to major social upheaval, and human cultures probably undergoes a fundamental shift and may be unrecognizable from what it was in a matter of years. Well said. Any civilization capable of interstellar travel would be so far beyond ours that they would do whatever the gently caress they want, and maybe pet the monkeys gently. Can always hope. doverhog fucked around with this message at 06:38 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 06:35
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7c Nickel posted:I am ready to gently caress an alien.  CommieGIR posted:Trump is a front runner. Jokes on you. The first Alien leader will be Space Donald Trump planning to build an interstellar highway that happens to be in the path of Earth's orbit. Thankfully, we are already used to Ted Cruz so the Vogons will be more pleasant by comparison. Teriyaki Koinku fucked around with this message at 06:55 on Mar 19, 2016 |
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Mar 19, 2016 06:52
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What if the aliens show up... to complete the hajj?
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Mar 19, 2016 06:54
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If there are alien civilizations the laws of probability seem to indicate they would be millions or even billions of years older than our own. It is difficult to conceive why they might want to contact our species or what they might want. Certainly it wouldn't be anything we might value, except perhaps artworks they might find interesting. Arthur C. Clarke — 'Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.'
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Mar 19, 2016 07:00
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Aliens are not coming to visit us, not in the next 100, 1000, or 10 000 years. It's just not likely. Why wouldn't they be here already? Logical course of action is to determine how strong they are. They'll probably be weaker, because interstellar travel is hugely expensive, so make sure you threaten them to not grow or expand ever, if they do you kill them ASAP.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:02
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The Culture already came here in the 70's and left because we were nothing special and just kinda depressing...
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Mar 19, 2016 07:02
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rudatron posted:Aliens are not coming to visit us, not in the next 100, 1000, or 10 000 years. It's just not likely. Why wouldn't they be here already? They already have drones in orbit watching us and just choose to not be seen.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:06
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Is there any chance that aliens would take all of earths water for themselves, and if so what can we do about it?
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Mar 19, 2016 07:26
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Frykte posted:Is there any chance that aliens would take all of earths water for themselves, and if so what can we do about it?
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Mar 19, 2016 07:27
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Frykte posted:Is there any chance that aliens would take all of earths water for themselves, and if so what can we do about it? Smoke more weed, that'll teach them.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:28
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This already happened: Spoiler alert: humans weren't ready.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:29
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rudatron posted:Aliens are not coming to visit us, not in the next 100, 1000, or 10 000 years. It's just not likely. Why wouldn't they be here already? Who says they aren't? Cloaking tech may be real. Some of the lunar astronauts claimed to hear music on the moon. Frankly, I am incredibly dubious about just about every kind of theory concerning interstellar travel or our simplistic statistical models concerning the distribution of life or projections about xenobiology considering we are so young and primitive and struggle to supply the little ISS. Our oceans are a mystery. Virtually everything we think we think we know we should assume will be overturned.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:30
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Outside Context Problem is a mean motherfucker.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:31
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Maybe they know we aren't and are deliberately avoiding us because of it.
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Mar 19, 2016 07:33
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Who What Now posted:Why does the question assume aliens coming to earth, and not humanity becoming a space-faring race?
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Mar 19, 2016 07:42
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