jkca1 wrote:
Grant.Reuter wrote:
zed707 wrote:
j p o wrote:
We don't want to meet aliens. The amount of power they would have to be able to harness to get here would be immense. It would go worse than ants vs. a little kid with a magnifying glass.
I agree that any aliens that were able to get here across the vastness of space are very far advanced beyond where we are or will be for a long time.
My theory, and I think it's pretty sound, is that any civilization capable of getting here wouldn't give a shit about us or our planet's resources. The stuff that we consider valuable natural resources are spread throughout the universe. We're nothing special.
I agree with this it wouldn’t be a resource issue. If they can get here they are using something well beyond what our planet has as resources and most likely a different source of energy we haven’t figured out yet.
I also find it unlikely if they made it here they would be doing it to destroy us. It’d be like us destroying Uganda. We could wipe them off the planet in 13.2 seconds but what is the point and that would take significantly less effort from us than getting here from any other planet.
I feel Star Trek probably has it closest. They could be watching from space or even potentially somewhere here but aren’t going to interfere until we get to a certain level of intelligence.
We’re already fairly close to being able to cloak, adaptive camouflage at least. Even a civilization that’s 1000 years further along probably can do this with ease. So us not being able to have any clue they are here would be very plausible.
I could not have said it better. I am sure there are worlds that are thousands of years ahead of us and many that are primordial. I do find it very interesting that we equate what happened to the native Americans et al with what the outcome would be of our first meeting with extraterrestrials. If we came across a previously unknown culture today on planet Earth there would be all kinds of safeguards to protect them. We can learn and we can do better.
Dark forest theory.
1. The primary drive of any civilization is survival. Civilizations will do basically anything to survive.
2. Civilizations always expand, although resources remain finite.
As a result of 1 and 2, any outside civilization is a potential threat, either because they are using resources you might need to expand, or because they are stronger than you and may try to come for your resources.
If two civilizations become aware of one another, each has to assume the other is a threat, until they can determine if the other civilization is willing to coexist peacefully. On Earth, we use diplomacy, talks, face to face meetings, shared communications, etc to help us determine if the other side is truly peaceful, or is trying to trick us into thinking they're peaceful while they plan to attack. This type of communication isn't possible with an alien civilization due to the likely differences in communications methods and the vast distances. Therefore, we never get past the chain of suspicion, and the only safe assumption is that the other civilization is a threat, and the only way to ensure survival is to prevent other civilizations from detecting you or to destroy any civilization you come into contact with.
The universe is a dark forest, and every civilization is a quiet hunter trying to remain undetected, but hunting for other civilizations so that they can destroy the threats before they are themselves destroyed.
Slowguy
(insert pithy phrase here...)
