Die of some random common illness we don’t have any antibodies for.
Hopefully a species advanced enough to master interstellar travel would be mindful of that kind of thing though. I suppose at least they would probably be protecting themselves against that, so maybe it would go both ways?
It depends on what the extraterrestrials are like. I think its probable they would be as incomprehensible to us as we are to fish or bugs. I am confident that a significant percentage of people will immediately freak out and react with aggression regardless of what they are like, and that the wealthy will be looking for any way to make money from them, even if it means selling out life on earth.
Its so hard to say. So much depends on what is possible interstellar travel wise. If light speed is the limit it would likely be with probes and its kinda unlikely that if they could send things out that far and communicate back that they would need many elemental resources and they would have energy needs solved. Honestly I think its very unlikely we would meet any unless we travel outward. Like I think its more likely their probes would meet our probes and maybe we could get somewhat of an idea of where we came from and where we are going but it would take years to have communications. If there is something faster then its essentially magic by our standards and that just makes things more up in the air.
But seriously though, it depends on the type of aliens we’re encountering here. If they’re malevolent, they will probably wipe the earth clean and take all the resources.
If they’re more benevolent, they’ll just take pity on us, and turn back. Humanity is a problem that will fix itself if you just give it some time.
A little bit of pee comes out.
Within less than an hour, Rule 34 will come into effect and someone will make a porn-film about them.
Seeing how incohrrent and fractured humanity is, we’d meet them with a jumbled mix of:
- Rabid xenophobia
- Aggressively trying to convert them to a dozen of our different religions
- Forming multiple cults worshipping them as gods
- Creating a shit load of really weird rule 34 AI-generated porn focused on them
- Dismissing their existence as some sort of a deep fake conspiracy
- Trying to sell them some worthless shit for a massive profit
- Trying to sell them fellow humans as slaves
- Trying to steal their technology to conquer the galaxy
- Flooding then with brainrot memes for the lolz
- Trying to destroy them with conventional weapons
And they would see all this and either destroy us in disgust or get the hell out of the solar system ASAP and cordon it off with hazard signs.
The reality of course, is they already have seen what we are like and chose not to talk to us.
Don’t forget, someone from 4chan’s /x/ would try to fuck one of them. In public. At the reveal.
Or maybe they’d be totally into the rule34 thing.
I like the one about the memes.
Trump will post on Truth that we had a war and we won.
If they came to us it would not be for the resources on earth, there are plenty more in space easier to get. I think it would be curiosity. They would study us, and probably all life on the planet.
Hopefully with curiosity comes empathy and they uplift us.
Also could just be determined exterminators or want to diversify diet.
Exterminators could just throw a rock at 0.1c no need to land.
Diet though, reminds me of the Peter Jackson masterpiece, Bad Taste.
Perhaps they’re after the resources which aren’t so common elsewhere, like oxygen. Maybe they would turn Earth into an oxygen farm.
Wood. Hard wood usable for building hasn’t evolved anywhere else in the known galaxy. Fine wooden furniture imported from Earth. The Amazon is being cut down and exported to alien worlds.
Water is common out there, pretty simple to get oxygen.
Given that they have the means to have travelled from another world (presumably from outside the Solar System, as there are no signs of space colonising extraterrestrials in our neighbourhood we can observe), they must be technologically far superior to us. My guess is that they would treat us, little guys on a blue marble, like we do with ants.
Although ants have a very intricate way of life, with jobs, conflict, infrastructure, etc., most humans don’t put too much thought into keeping them safe, we trample on their cities that we say are primitive compared to our own, and we export some ants to new worlds. Additionally, even among our own species, colonialism was commonplace in all parts of the world throughout the world and its remnants still exists today, as one group of people believed they were superior to another.
Intelligent extraterrestrials capable of interplanetary (and probably interstellar) travel would definitely outclass us in every metric, and they could easily wipe us out, either by accident or on purpose (through disease, conflict, colonisation, etc.)
However, I hope that these extraterrestrials eventually acknowledge our existence as a civilisation. A little like how there are entomologists who study ants for a living and conservationists who preserve their habitats. Or perhaps organisations like UNESCO, in charge of protecting dying cultures and lost traditions, could be formed by these extraterrestrials. Maybe treaties of reparations and acknowledgement of past crimes would be signed between our species, like how many countries do today.
That’s just my thoughts though.
I would assume that it would take a lot of stability to reach a technology level compatible with interstellar travel. It would be only achievable for a specie that reached a very peaceful way of life. So I would assume they would be rather benevolent and avoid any accidental wipeout.
Now would they care at all… maybe as scholars of the universe ?
Id think they’d treat us like how we treat a remote tribe that’s been isolated from humanity for hundreds/thousands of years.
Was that one guy that tried to contact them their Roswell moment?
What do you mean “meet”? The way we would reach contact is by radio signals at first, not by actual physical visits. So at first we would only be communicating with probably a very long light delay as they’d be very far away. Realistically speaking neither would be able to visit the other in any feasible way, unless they have technology that is far, far beyond what we can imagine right now. Interstellar travel is very hard.
In that scenario how do you think of us would react knowing there is someone out there and we just confirmed only through radio.
One group will sell out the rest of us, guaranteed.
Try to kill them
Or they try to kill us.
But also possibly convert us.
Then try to kill us.
If a civilization has the kind of power to reach us, we wouldn’t pose any problem at all.
Doesn’t mean they wouldn’t try to kill us. Options include:
-
it’s possible they have cultural reasons (genocidal xenophobia, paranoia.
-
they find us annoying
-
we’re just in the way.
-
they don’t even notice us and they’re xenoforming Earth.
-
they’d rather hang with the whales
One thing is certain, though. The only thing special about earth is the life it holds. (Not that it has life, just that that life is unique.) so if they do show up it’s almost certainly not going to be covertly.
You clearly haven’t watched Star Trek. /s
The aliens could be coming here covertly to observe us like a nature documentary. They may even have non-interference rules for primitive cultures. Or maybe they’re just shy.
physics is a bitch.
Voyager 1 is likely going to be the first probe of human make to pass close to another star (“Close” means a closest approach of 1.7 lightyears, roughly), Voyager one is headed towards Glease 445. That journey will take roughly 40,000 years, and it won’t have the power to slow down as would be needed. It would require considerably more fuel to make a helocentric insertion.
Sure, it’s possible some more advanced probe is going to come along and ‘get there’ first. but whatever.
The kind of delta-v required for that would also be incredibly obvious. the platform coming from another star would be massive, and if the goal was to stick around, there is absolutely no place in space for it to hide. which means if they come, they’re not coming quietly.
(fun fact, the IRL counterpart to Star Trek’s warp drive is called the Alcubierre drive. It’s just theoretically possible. But, it’s not able to go FTL since it violates causality.)
(also fun fact… it’s quite the opposite. I’ve watched far too much star trek. and star wars. and farscape. and babylon 5 and sg1 and, uhm. lots of trashy b-rated stuff we’re not going to mention.)
The /s was to indicate sarcasm. You’re on Lemmy—you’ve definitely watched every episode of Star Trek. /s
I’m with you on the science, but I also leave a little room for the possibility that we don’t know what we don’t know. There is a lot of theory within our scientific cannon about multiple dimensions, folding space time, wormholes, etc, and we barely understand how any of it works. It’s perhaps unlikely, but possible that there is a level of scientific understanding which resolves these issues and makes long distance space travel doable.
-
Trying to overcome language barriers, probably.
