As much as I like Carl Sagan, I'm inclined to agree with Stephen Hawking on this one. Sure, aliens might be benevolent. But the ones most likely to hear us talking are likely to be much more advanced technologically than we are. Is SETI worth the risk of attracting a malevolent alien race?
It's nice to think that a more advanced civilization would be more enlightened. But were the Spanish conquistadors more benevolent than the Romans?
Upon further reflection, I find it difficult to believe that a highly advanced alien race would be interested in killing off all humans in order to take their "resources."
What resources?
There is nothing on Earth that is not in superabundance elsewhere even in our very own solar system. Why travel to the third rock from the sun for minerals, when there is an entire asteroid belt full of them? Why pump out Earth's thin atmosphere when the same elements compose the gas giants that constitute our outer planets?
The only thing Earth has that other places don't is life. Wouldn't they recognize how rare and valuable that is? Wouldn't they want to preserve that rather than eradicate it for no good reason?
You'd think that such an advanced race would have learned how to create different elements through artificial nuclear fusion, anyway. They could get any resource they needed with enough hydrogen, which is the most common element in the universe.
In conclusion, Stephen Hawking is probably wrong. The worst that would happen is we'd be captured and put in zoos, where we would be observed and forced to mate in captivity. I can think of worse fates.
They can travel through space to kidnap human beings. It's safe to think their advanced imaging technology probably makes the most invasive experiments unnecessary.
They can travel through space to kidnap human beings. It's safe to think their advanced imaging technology probably makes the most invasive experiments unnecessary.
"Hey, Marklar, let's put this human in this jar with a tiger, shake it up, and see what happens!"
Basically, what if there's a civilization a million years ahead of us in terms of technology, and then they find us, and all the sudden they're a maladjusted kid with a magnifying glass, and we're an anthill.
-- Edited by john31584 on Thursday 13th of May 2010 02:31:54 PM
