We tend to think about an alien race as either being ‘good’ or ‘bad’ we need to think about it in terms of will any interaction be favourable or less favourable to us. We also assume that we are important, interacting with us will be important or that earth is important – we simply may be of very little significance at all.
In our own past whenever a more technology advanced society has come across a less advanced society – generally it has not gone well for the less advanced society. We need to realise earth is the less advanced society. Will our distance from other worlds help us?
Will they not be able to bring as much resources to our planet due to the distance and effort required. Will this mean it’s easier for them to work with us rather than against us? or is distance not an issue and it just comes down to is earth important to them or not?
The more intelligence we have the more informed decisions we can make.
What will an alien civilisation by like, are they peaceful or not? And will a very peaceful alien civilisation be a problem for us given we are not generally peaceful.
If we look at a scale of peaceful to aggressive
Within our society we will of course have individuals and groups that will span the full range and an alien race may be similar. But generally, humans sit in the neutral to semi aggressive type (up for debate of course).
An alien race could be categorised in the same way. They could also be more outcome based rather than emotion based.
An interaction with a very aggressive race will obviously not be favourable to us, but also an interaction with a very peaceful race may not be that favourable either given who we are and more importantly where we sit on the scale.
Any initially interaction may only be with a certain sector of the race and this may be different to any long-term interaction. For example, an interaction with a science group will be different to an interaction with mining operation for example.
A very peaceful race could see Humans as too aggressive which would be an issue for their society if we were to develop our technology and be able to interact with them. Probably not an immediate issue for them given our current lower level of technology, but if left to develop we would be.
So, what could be their possible options for us, they could involve:
1. Remove us like you remove a cancer – either now or in the future depending on how much of a threat we are and the resources they have available – we may not be a priority right now.
2. Genetically alter us so that we become less aggressive and more like them. Again, depends on how much of a threat we are and the resources available. Could be done slowly over time or more quickly.
3. Educate us over time so we develop into a peaceful race
4. Limit our technology development. From time to time push humans backwards
5. Avoid us – can they simplify avoid us. Is the universe big enough that it’s not a problem?
6. Wait and see approach - As we are not that advanced ongoing monitoring - either we evolve, destroy ourselves or advance to the point they need to act as above.
Like everything there is always a trade-off when using resources. How difficult is it to get to and interact with Earth? For any alien race do they need their resources deployed elsewhere?
Resource will be a factor of:
a. Generally, how easy it is to move from point a to point be given the vast distance involved
b. How advanced they are to overcome the distance and any other issues
c. What importance to the race we are and how much resource they are willing to commit to any interaction? They may have competing priorities
Humans are of course a number 1 priority for us but Humans as a species in the universe may not be that important at all. As a planet in our habitable zone and our position in our galaxy – who knows what importance we are.
There could also be some universal political structure – given there could be multiple races involved how does our region or race fit into whatever else is happening. Are there constraints place on other races and their interactions with us?
For a neutral or semi aggressive race the fact that we are a semi aggressive species may not be a problem given their technology advantage. They could see humans as either
1. Just another race that given our technology that don’t need to worry too much about.
2. A possible asset if we can help them and we can be controlled. They may also be willing to help advance our technology
3. Just something to exploit should they want either resource, location, humans
4. A potential problem in the future and easier to remove now rather than later
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