Stephen Hawking: Beware the Space-Vikings!

[mckitterick]

Yesterday's big news was all about Stephen Hawking's warning against seeking out aliens. Why? Because they're likely to turn out to be Space-Vikings intent on stealing our land and pillaging our women! Or something like that.

Comments

It's ripe for speculation...

[tricstmr]

.. for while it is true that they would need to know cooperation on a massive scale--it's also probably true that this cooperation was probably massively employed to dominate their own planet and all other species on it to a level that we've not achieved.

So.. are we going to be pets or pests?

Personally--if they show up--and they don't like us.. we're boned. They will just drop rocks on us from space and wait for us to die off.. then colonize and mop up any remaining pesky hairless apes.

Re: It's ripe for speculation...

[mckitterick]

I suspect that most ecology-dominating species rose to the top via winning the survival competition game. And the most-intelligent species are usually predators versus gentle herd animals....

yes...

[tricstmr]

.. that's my general view..

Overall--I'm surprised/pissed off that we haven't had more honest movies about alien encounters where they just drop rocks ont he planet.

I mean, it seems like a really fucking simple thing to do. You have the technology to travel between stars--but cannot grab 100 ton asteroides and put them in your mass driver???

I call lack-of-imagination-bullshit...

Re: yes...

[mckitterick]

The nice thing about this scenario (from an invader's POV) is that the rocks will use up the natives' long-range weapons and slowly degrade their capability for unified resistance.

*is creeped out*

[clevermanka]

I gotta say, Empire Ship isn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the Benevolent Space Traveler theory.

[mckitterick]

Ha! But it's okay if it's us....

[clevermanka]

Yeah, in a "we have met the enemy and he is us" sort of way.

[tully01]

Space Jehovah's Witnesses. Just as obnoxious but MUCH harder tog et off your doorstep.

Word.

[tricstmr]

If we are lucky.. otherwise they'll just see us as tetrapod roaches...

[mckitterick]

...and they can't leave until everyone on Earth tells them to go.

[drpaisley]

Nah, just tell them you are a Space Mormon. They'll scarper.

[mckitterick]

Aliens could be so very different that we won't even be able to recognize their behaviors....

[fortyozspartan]

I can see his point about being cautious. I'd rather veer on the side of caution than tell everyone where the homeland is and they end up being something nasty. I wouldn't presume to describe what exactly an alien species would be like, however.

[mckitterick]

Being cautious and even preparing would have side-benefits, too, like being able to deal with biosphere-killing asteroids.