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[Airola]

I still think that aliens who can make spaceships could be complete idiots who just are good at that special craft.
People always assume aliens must be some kind of intelligence masters who are lightyears away from our primitive way of thinking.
No, aliens could be stupid as hell. They could be awfully annoying too. Who knows if they have their own sense of humor that we don't understand at all. They'll be doing some idiotic noises and annoying faces and they think they are funny. And what's worst, who knows if they assume we think they are funny.

In alien discussions it's always two things. Either they are here to burn the whole place down (or enslaving everyone) or they are trying to save us from ourselves and generally trying to make the ultimate peace everywhere.
No, they could be stupid and they could be annoying. The whole thing could amount to nothing. They'd visit here and people would think: "so that's aliens, huh? That's what we have anticipated all these years? That's it? Fuck me... now this was as anticlimactic as anything can ever be. Holy hell, I have now seen the physical materialization of disappointment." And they'd get back to work.

Honestly, this is my favorite part of Enema'd GAF - these topics are not filled with skeptic-worshiping science bros anymore.

Before, no one would have said what you said (i.e. the obvious). Instead, it would have been filled with Fermi paradox "answers" taken as fact and people acting like 50 years of looking at a fraction of the sky is high evidence that we are alone.

You can have reasoned, theoretical discussions about a completely unknowable topic witrout people posting that stupid Gray alien meme every other post.

Luckily I have stayed here then

Besides, the way I remember it these Fermi Paradox people were not the majority. I thought the majority always said there has to be some sort of aliens out there because of reasons. I think we got some "it's selfish to think we are alone" type of nonsense way more than we got "there are no aliens" posts.

Personally I don't believe in biological aliens but I do believe dreams might be more than dreams and any outer space "creatures" are more of a "mind and soul" type of stuff.
That said, as my own theories about that take steps towards the loony section, I am interested in reading different theories about biological aliens too. But honestly even in sci-fi all the "spaceships and alien races and alien civilizations" stories are the most boring and uninteresting space themed sci-fi stories there are. That's why I don't enjoy Mass Effect games at all either :/

 

[Airola]

I see any kind of intelligence evolving in an environment like Earth to have intrinsic conflict.

Not to say other intelligences are not out there, like EM entities, but biology is driven by conflict.

On earth it is, yeah. I have watched two different species/races/whatever of ants in a war with each other. That was amazingly interesting to watch.

But it's the way it's on earth. Who knows if somewhere else things grow and evolve in completely different manner. Maybe in some super hyper distant galaxy things never needed to eat each other. Maybe somewhere else the conditions and whatever started to grow were such that they never had any need to fight for survival.

 

[TheMikado]

Could you name species from planet Earth that are not involved in some kind of conflict?

Yes, there are many species of fungi on Earth which do not appear to have natural occurring competition nor conflict and their reproductive limiters are due to resource availability rather than lack of prey or predators.

I see any kind of intelligence evolving in an environment like Earth to have intrinsic conflict.

Not to say other intelligences are not out there, like EM entities, but biology is driven by conflict.

Why would the Alien species need to come from an environment like Earth. As you said in your other posts, the universe is vast and we have only seen a tiny percentage of it. Why would we automatically presume that a technologically advanced race would be mentally capable of waging war. We are only familiar with our ecosystem as we know it, but even within our Earth ecosystem we see organisms capable of survival without prey or being preyed upon..

 

[TheMikado]

I still think that aliens who can make spaceships could be complete idiots who just are good at that special craft.
People always assume aliens must be some kind of intelligence masters who are lightyears away from our primitive way of thinking.
No, aliens could be stupid as hell. They could be awfully annoying too. Who knows if they have their own sense of humor that we don't understand at all. They'll be doing some idiotic noises and annoying faces and they think they are funny. And what's worst, who knows if they assume we think they are funny.

In alien discussions it's always two things. Either they are here to burn the whole place down (or enslaving everyone) or they are trying to save us from ourselves and generally trying to make the ultimate peace everywhere.
No, they could be stupid and they could be annoying. The whole thing could amount to nothing. They'd visit here and people would think: "so that's aliens, huh? That's what we have anticipated all these years? That's it? Fuck me... now this was as anticlimactic as anything can ever be. Holy hell, I have now seen the physical materialization of disappointment." And they'd get back to work.

Exactly my point. It could be entirely possible that resource oriented race which utilizes pure numbers like ants or bees could harvest inorganic matter for life and never need to actually engage in conflict. They could have no sense of other organisms as their only task would be consumption, reproduction, and advancement to consumption and reproduction which would be their technological advantage.
Its entirely possible an alien race could land here and not care at all or even realize we are here as they harvested the planet.

Its absurd to expect aliens in alien evolutionary conditions to inherently follow the rules of Earth.

 

[llien]

Yes, there are many species of fungi on Earth which do not appear to have natural occurring competition nor conflict and their reproductive limiters are due to resource availability rather than lack of prey or predators.

Competition Between Fungi
Fungal Competition
Interspecific competitive interactions between pairs of fungal species in natural substrates

 

[TheMikado]

Competition Between Fungi
Fungal Competition
Interspecific competitive interactions between pairs of fungal species in natural substrates

Your second link:

"Most field studies of fungal communities have been descriptive. Although such studies provide evidence of pattern in community structure, they do not demonstrate the occurrence of competition. Recent experimental field studies, in which the proportions of interacting fungal species were manipulated, provide more compelling evidence that interspecific competition does occur in nature."

At no point did I say no fungi compete, merely that many specifically those within certain conditions such as cavern dwelling variety with limited resources do not compete.
Scientists for hundreds of years could not even prove that fungi competed at all in nature and forced close proximity and conditions. To this day, there is no evidence that all species of fungi compete and that in nature many actually do not.

 

[Razorback]

Honestly, this is my favorite part of Enema'd GAF - these topics are not filled with skeptic-worshiping science bros anymore.

Before, no one would have said what you said (i.e. the obvious). Instead, it would have been filled with Fermi paradox "answers" taken as fact and people acting like 50 years of looking at a fraction of the sky is high evidence that we are alone.

You can have reasoned, theoretical discussions about a completely unknowable topic witrout people posting that stupid Gray alien meme every other post.

Not sure what to make of this. I love talking about the fermi paradox and I'm a skeptic that worships science, some may even call me a bro.

 

[Corrik]

There is basically a 0% chance there is no other form of life on another planet besides Earth. For those who are discussing that.

 

[Airola]

Not sure what to make of this. I love talking about the fermi paradox and I'm a skeptic that worships science, some may even call me a bro.

Well, gamers want two things to be real:
Anime and space aliens.

Internet forums are more fun when people let hope for those to stay alive. If those dreams were alive and real, one could finally get a waifu and be the badass space marine who shoots from cover and dodges all nasties with an accurate real life dodge button while creating a kickass combo that gives them the S ranking for sure. And maybe even better yet, in a plot twist the waifu actually is a space alien!

There is basically a 0% chance there is no other form of life on another planet besides Earth. For those who are discussing that.

Well technically the word "basically" added there actually makes that 0% not be 0%

The chance for any life to begin existing was also _basically_ 0%, so...

 

[Ka-Kui]

Of course I'd be racist... 'cos they'd be a completely different race.

I'd value human life above that of the aliens, but if I make alien friends they'd have priority over an unknown human.

I wouldn't blindly fight for their rights, being as smart as us would not necessarily mean that they share the same social constructs and values as us. I'd fight for what's right for them.

 

[Chairman Tickles]

If the aliens came to us, then we would be at a critical technological disadvantage, if not in warfare (maybe our nukes could detter them from forcing their demands on us outright-eg North Korea vs USA), then in so many other areas. I would be extremely weary if they seemed too friendly or interested in our politics, and would campaign to keep them off the planet unless they would visit in very small numbers for very specific things (cultural, technological exchanges). Otherwise we'd just end up playing the part of the American natives and they'd be the Spanish.

In short, I'd be a Xenophobe.

But this is the best case scenario. Just as likely is that our nukes pose no threat to them, and they treat us like we treat dogs and cats or worse, pigs and chickens.

 

[Corrik]

Well, gamers want two things to be real:
Anime and space aliens.

Internet forums are more fun when people let hope for those to stay alive. If those dreams were alive and real, one could finally get a waifu and be the badass space marine who shoots from cover and dodges all nasties with an accurate real life dodge button while creating a kickass combo that gives them the S ranking for sure. And maybe even better yet, in a plot twist the waifu actually is a space alien!




Well technically the word "basically" added there actually makes that 0% not be 0%

The chance for any life to begin existing was also _basically_ 0%, so...

Yes. I said basically because it is like a .00000000000000000000000001% chance. Probably not enough 0s to be honest.

 

[KINGMOKU]

1609n

Conventional Earth weaponry revolves around damaging kinetics. Projectiles direct impart kinetic energy through collision, explosives impart kinetic energy through pressure waves (and produce high temperatures).

Any spacefaring ship would need deflector systems for prolonged travel to prevent damage from space debris. Those same deflectors could, theoretically, handle a bullet or missile. Extremely high temp weapons like a nuke may be effective (although there are countermeasures such a race would likely also have), but kinetic energy imparting weapons would be useless.

I think this falls into wait and see type of discussion. Defelector shields like on star trek still would not be able to stop the full force of a nuke, or multiples thereof. I'm not perfect on the science and because these shields are theoretical at best, the sheer force of the nuke has to go somewhere. Its not just going to "bounce off". It would be greatly reduced in space obviously as they are designed to react with the atmosphere but this boils down to "shields".

In the end, I have no real idea but I'm fascinated with the prospect of seeing what would happen.

 

[NiiloPielinen]

This is not quite true(but of course could be I'm not questioning that)as circumstances could be ones of need; Planet died and they sent out a massive civilization ship for several generations and they happened upon us, or found us much like our current astronomers have found earth like planets and they are moving at sub light speed. 2.)Said race just got to the point of FTL travel and decide to engage. Said race would be mere decades, maybe 100 years ahead.

There's more, but aliens visiting us and trying to wipe us out is not a given. They would need massive amounts of troops(if they don't have orbital destruction weapons)and the human race isn't exactly without weapons. We as a race are not ill equipped for war. Just the weapons and ships we know of could do major damage. I can't imagine what kind of tech you'd have to have to stop a nuke from decimating a ship(s).

I see this a lot in fiction that humans are helpless and get conquered easily. I just don't buy it, unless the alien race is so advanced they can just one shot the planet. A bullet is a bullet wether your from earth, or omicron persei8.

If the aliens have a ship, that means they can just park it in the asteroid belt and start chucking rocks at earth. What use is a nuke if you cant deliver it to its target.

 

[KINGMOKU]

If the aliens have a ship, that means they can just park it in the asteroid belt and start chucking rocks at earth. What use is a nuke if you cant deliver it to its target.

Well I'm running under the impression of why? At the moment. If aliens came all this way, why do it just to attack? Makes no sense. The reason for coming is important. Need of natural resources? Need of human meat? Slave labor? An answer to that question is important as it would dictate the approach of the Alien threat.

A ground assault would never work. I don't see how it could. Numbers our on our side. Home turf, atmospheric weapons, well trained and war experienced peoples, its a non starter no matter the tech superiority. It would be disaster for the attackers. Its what humanity is absolutely the best at; killing things.

If its an orbital bombardment, how long until we figure out said tech, repurpose it, and use it against the attackers? Some ships will be downed crash e.t.c so lost tech. Tech loss will happen as war is never clean and I can't imagine at this stage in human development that we couldn't figure out and reverse engineer just about anything at this point.

Billions of humans VS at most tens of thousands?

The situations that could come up are very interesting to think about. Scenarios are amazing to dream up.

I'm just not sold on how easy some people make it seem unless these visitors are using local time slowing/freezing devices gravity emmitors, or flat out planet killers(hitchhikers guide to the galaxy film) its going to be messy as hell.

 

[Razorback]

Well I'm running under the impression of why? At the moment. If aliens came all this way, why do it just to attack? Makes no sense. The reason for coming is important. Need of natural resources? Need of human meat? Slave labor? An answer to that question is important as it would dictate the approach of the Alien threat.

How does it not make sense? It's the top reason for them to come here. To eliminate competition. If we're soon going out into the stars to colonize them, rival species would benefit from taking us out early.
I say this based on game theory "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers"
Coming here for resources makes no sense, anything they can find on Earth they can find elsewhere in much larger amounts. Why would they need slaves? Don't they have robots? Hell, they most likely are robots.
They are either coming here to take us out, or to meet us out of curiosity about other sentient life forms.

 

[NickFire]

I think I'd be scared of them no matter how nice they seem. Would be tough to believe they had the technology and desire to come here just to say hello. Its not exactly crossing an ocean.

 

[-Minsc-]

Would I prejudiced? Absolutely. I prejudge all the time, why would I be any different with an alien race? Life is built on assumptions.

Of course, this assumes I'm even aware of the visiting aliens existence.

 

[KINGMOKU]

How does it not make sense? It's the top reason for them to come here. To eliminate competition. If we're soon going out into the stars to colonize them, rival species would benefit from taking us out early.
I say this based on game theory "the study of mathematical models of conflict and cooperation between intelligent rational decision-makers"
Coming here for resources makes no sense, anything they can find on Earth they can find elsewhere in much larger amounts. Why would they need slaves? Don't they have robots? Hell, they most likely are robots.
They are either coming here to take us out, or to meet us out of curiosity about other sentient life forms.

Well this comes down to just looking at everything differently. It makes zero sense to me to wipe out a planet that may or may not become a threat at some point.

Water is a resource. It may be more common then once thought as it seems to be frozen on many planets and planetoids, but vast oceans? We also have no idea of the wants or needs of said aliens. I think every scenario is just as likely as the next as our collective understanding of the galaxy as a whole is so limited its insane. Any speculation is as right as the next one.

Could there be a race of aliens that come here to kill off the competition? Absolutely. I can't deny it. Could there be a race of aliens that come here to collect human toenails as a cure for alien erectile disfuntion? Absolutely.

I think both are just as likely. I'm more interested in how a defense would hold up against a different way of thinking and vice versa. They could use tactics we've never seen before and we could use tactics that would blow their minds.

Its all so open as the variables are just insane.

My favorite one is that there are water bound races out there that fly in space ships filled with water, and they are looking to colonize planets with vast amounts of water. They would have to be very careful not to wipe out the planet and would have to use ground troops to wipe out the population. Fight from our own waters!

So many possibilities.

 

[Atrus]

I'd be outwardly accepting while throwing effort and resources into assimilating their knowledge and capabilities, subverting their ideologies and traditions to weaken their power base, suppressing their social and psychological impact on Humanity, supporting our rapid population and territorial expansion, and facilitating our domination over them by turning their species into a fanatically loyal, willing vassal of a greater Human empire.

It would be a goal to have their descendants in the far future worship Humanity as benevolant Star Gods that found and rescued them from their own hubris.

Existence is a high stakes game and I'd rather not take chances being turned into some sort of galactic Syria or fall prey to a xenos version of Donald Trump. Anything less than absolute certainty as to their current and future intentions is unacceptable.

 

[LordPezix]

Depends on if they had boobs or not,..

 

[Codes 208]

I dont hate people based on their backgrounds. I hate people for being people. Arguments over small shit. Death threats over video games. Cant get along with neighboring countries because they talk differently or believe in the same god but not really. Superiority complexes.
If i met an alien who just wanted to be a bro, i would harbor no resentment to his ET shenanigans.
If he tried to destroy my house or shot a laser at me or tries eating my pets im gonna smack his shit however.

If its a War of the Worlds scenario however, i would likely try fleeing to a bunker.

 

[GamingEnthusiast]

I would nope the fuck out.

 

[WaterAstro]

Well, this idea reminds me of District 9.

Most of humanity would be prejudice. We already hate each other anyway.

 

[csrogue]

Surely the most likely scenario in a contact situation would be them coming to take resources from our planet. If they had the technology to get here it wouldn't be to converse on an intellectual level.

I'm guessing the majority of people would hate them, primarily as they would come and take resources and there would likely be very little we could do to stop them. Our instinct would be to hate them as they are different and that instinct has helped human tribes survive throughout time.

All that said if current encounters are to be believed then I'm happy to tolerate and perhaps even befriend them. It's only country hicks and cows being anally probed at the moment. God knows what the aliens are looking for, hope they find it. Plus crop circles are pretty.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I don't think any aliens, if they are out there, have the technology to get here. They are probably like us, stuck on their planet, maybe they visited their moon/moons once or twice, ect...
Anyone care to speculate on what this thing is?
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/12/politics/unidentified-aircraft-navy/index.html

 

[Hobobaggins]

Were Native Americans prejudiced towards the European new comers?

 

[TFGB]

If only Bob Lazar was here....

 

[FITTER THAN MOST]

im pretty sure aliens would send probes, robots, artificial beings to interact with us before they ventured themselves on this planet, you would have to have this in mind when dealing with this type of situation of first contact.