On Another Note- How would humans be likely to treat visitors from another planet?

[Rainbow Mage]

I'll be honest. If aliens came here, I'd treat them with respect, assuming they would return my respect. I wouldn't want to be predjudiced toward another living being that also has life within them like I do.

 

[DeitySlayer]

If they landed now? Like ****. That's the unfortunate truth. We can't even stop fighting amongst ourselves; how do you expect us to show respect to alien species?

 

[Troublemane]

Watch District 9. I think that movie nails it, pretty well.

 

[Duck]

I'll be honest. If aliens came here, I'd treat them with respect, assuming they would return my respect. I wouldn't want to be predjudiced toward another living being that also has life within them like I do.

I think that there are two possibilities:

District 9 type of scenario, where given the chance we (humanity) would shun and ostracize the arrivees.

The other would be predicated by this quote from Arthur C. Clarke:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And resultingly, either worshiped {or emulated in a hero worship cult-like way} or demonized.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

It depends how ugly they were.

 

[Breathe]

I think that there are two possibilities:

District 9 type of scenario, where given the chance we (humanity) would shun and ostracize the arrivees.

The other would be predicated by this quote from Arthur C. Clarke:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And resultingly, either worshiped {or emulated in a hero worship cult-like way} or demonized.

What Duck said.

 

[Beyondo]

It depends how ugly they were.

It would be more like how they would treat us and how ugly they find us. But seriously if the mission is of a scientific ambition they wouldn't let themselves be known. They would observe and experiment in such a way where we would not be aware of their presence. If they made themselves known then the mission is not scientific and so what are their real intentions? Probably not good...

 

[sandandfoam]

I have a feeling Stephen Hawking was right.
If Darth Vader arrived we'd have the same role as the native Americans.

 

[DeitySlayer]

Hey, look, if they reach us before we reach them, that means their technology is better than ours.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Hey, look, if they reach us before we reach them, that means their technology is better than ours.

Or differently focused,
or their biology is radically different,
or their social/pscyhological imperatives are vastly different,
or some other explanation we can't conceive of.

 

[Mister Emu]

As a species we would seek to do whatever serves us best...

If we could exploit them we would...
If they had more military power we would seek to ally...
If they were aggressive, we would fight back...

 

[.lava]

I'll be honest. If aliens came here, I'd treat them with respect, assuming they would return my respect. I wouldn't want to be predjudiced toward another living being that also has life within them like I do.

i can't imagine anything good considering how humans treat each other ..

.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Well this thread was merely a hypothetical .lava. I don't imagine they could come here, or we could go there. There'd be more then distance seperating us, there'd also possibly be dimensional barriers, or they'd be in another universe where we can't reach one another. I don't think the gods would want us to meet for the very reasons some have put forth in this thread. It would be very hard for anything good to come of it.

 

[TurkeyOnRye]

I think humanity's response would depend intensely on the kind of organism that we were visited by.

 

[Mathematician]

If they came to our planet in the immediate future, it wouldn't matter how humans set out the welcome mat. We'd be at their mercy.

 

[.lava]

Well this thread was merely a hypothetical .lava. I don't imagine they could come here, or we could go there. There'd be more then distance seperating us, there'd also possibly be dimensional barriers, or they'd be in another universe where we can't reach one another. I don't think the gods would want us to meet for the very reasons some have put forth in this thread. It would be very hard for anything good to come of it.

lol hypothetical .. it is OK. no doubt they are already here and they are human. if i must believe in something about men from outer space, that's it

.

 

[tumbleweed41]

I think the problem is, we think of aliens from a human perspective. We project on their possible actions what in actuality we humans would be most likely to do in there position.
When we express a fear on being subjugated by an advanced civilization, we are actually reflecting what humans would do to a less advanced civilization.
We are actually anthropomorphizing human traits onto a species that, more than likely, has none of the traits we humans have ever experienced.

 

[Beyondo]

I think the problem is, we think of aliens from a human perspective. We project on their possible actions what in actuality we humans would be most likely to do in there position.
When we express a fear on being subjugated by an advanced civilization, we are actually reflecting what humans would do to a less advanced civilization.
We are actually anthropomorphizing human traits onto a species that, more than likely, has none of the traits we humans have ever experienced.

Aliens had to evolve and would have the traits that most animals, inclusive of humans, have. So its a safe bet that the curiousity to explore is deeply rooted in the aliens adaptive psychology to do so with the obvious benifit to exploit what new discoverings it finds. Its not just humans that subjugate those with less advantage, its a trait in almost any animal, whether its concious or a product of opportunity the effects are the same...

 

[Just_me_Mike]

I'll be honest. If aliens came here, I'd treat them with respect, assuming they would return my respect. I wouldn't want to be predjudiced toward another living being that also has life within them like I do.

Humans are humans, they speak with a double tongue. What we post today trying to be honest about how we would act, would give way to our lazy inclination to go back to who we were before they came.

In a nutshell, we'd treat them no better or worse then we already treat those around us.

 

[Rainbow Mage]

Mike don't pretend you know how I would treat anybody. Okay?