Quote:
Originally Posted by bluestarultor
but the entire concept of us becoming equal with them relies damn heavily on there being something like Starfleet posting rules that say they can't interfere with developing worlds and then coming to greet us when we're ready.
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... and also someone who cares and is scrupulous enough actually
watching to make sure they do so. I mean, how much crap would do people get away with on their jobs now, just because the boss isn't watching. If new species are "common" to said race, and we seem just like the violent klingons, there's really no value to them
not to wipe us out, and whoever would give the order might consider themselves a hero as they went on military tribunal. That said we can't even presume they think like us. Can we presume that aliens are all "enlightenment and serenity"? No. We can't. We can't presume they're all war-like, either, but if one believes in the evolutionary process, it seems they must be to have survived. We really can't presume anything: do they think like us? Do they have a term for "war" or even "peace"? Can they understand the concept of outright, purposeful "lying" or even outright purposeful "truth"? Do they think in terms of their species, in terms of themselves as individuals, in terms of themselves as groups within their species (we do), or in terms of themselves as a singular species among many? Do they even classify creatures according to "species"? What of their religion(s), if they have them?
Human languages have concepts that
don't translate - we have ideas that simply don't work with other
human mindsets, so how could we presume alien mindsets work similarly enough to communicate properly?
That said: how can we even be sure that alien life works on our terms? I mean, if its an arsenic-based life-form (a theoretical possiblity at super-cold tempuratures) than us living could be a hostile act - our body heat could cause untold damage just being near them (even as we were killed by their endless cold). To be super nerdy, we'd be to them like theoretical "fire elementals" would be to us. Cell-phone communication would be like neutron-bombs, and laser sattelites could be death-rays.
Is it possible that there is alien life? Yeah - there's a lot of space out there. Is it likely we'll meet them. Nah. Our star will probably get to us (either by solar flare or sputtering out) before they do or before we get to them.
I also wrote, like, a three-page paper on alien life and its potential problems in coming and showing up here. I am not posting it at this time.
Edit: I do wish to clarify: "possible" is very different from "probable". I have no illusions that aliens are
probably out there, only that they are
possibly out there.