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

[scarlettina]

The only true first-contact model we have is ourselves--and look how things turned out for the Native Americans. Sure, aliens will show up pretending to be our buds, and then they'll exile us all to...New Jersey. Calcutta. Siberia. Someplace like that. It's not looking good, is all I can say.

I kinda hate to think of it that way, especially given my hopes for peaceful and mutually beneficial contact, but skepticism is probably more called for on this matter. ::sad::

[mckitterick]

Exactly. I wrote a book about this (one I hope to revise one day...), because we're quite a model for how we interact with aliens: In every single case throughout history, the aliens and natives end up fighting, and it's usually the natives who lose.

[silverfae]

You forgot the other options:

They are already here and living among us.

They stopped by eons ago and found us uninteresting and our planet of no use. They might come back once we've finished off all this pesky carbon-based life form garbage and each other.

They made us, and this is just one big lab experiment.

[mckitterick]

All these scenarios are just as likely, I'd say! In fact, your last suggestion fits well with ancient myths and religions.

[silverfae]

Yep, I'm a fan of Zecharia Sitchen's books.

Edit. sp error

[mckitterick]

Just looked him up. Heee! What a character!

[queenmomcat]

I'd guess that given the range of environments in which creatures can survive on this planet, it's entirely possible that creatures from other solar systems wouldn't be able to survive on Earth, even with massive life support--too hot or cold or windy or wrong atmosphere or gravity or whatever. I rather like John Christopher's Tripod trilogy, but I always wondered why the Masters wanted to go to all that trouble of "terra"forming Earth to their specifications, as the planet was otherwise completely unsuitable.

[mckitterick]

Oh, I hear you. I think Hawking was talking about resources more than anything else: Take our stuff and move on. Like the Vikings, only more nomadic.

[queenmomcat]

Who knows what the aliens will find useful? They're alien. For all we know, they'll want carbon dioxide or PCBs or tetraethyl lead and we'll end up with a repaired ozone layer and clean Great Lakes.

[mckitterick]

Hooray for PCB-eating aliens!

[drpaisley]

Ticky boxes: Good.

Complaint box: good.

Lack of cats: very bad, as they will be our salvation from the alien menace. Or they are the aliens.

[queenmomcat]

Well, cats are the Master Race.

[mckitterick]

How could I have forgotten?

Forgive your humble servant, oh Cat in Excelsis Deo!

[paulwoodlin]

Let us assume that there is an alien intelligence that doesn't choke on its own pollution, nuke itself out of existance, or get bogged down in a war of all against all even before reaching nuke stage of technology because it has no self-control. Or maybe just didn't spend so much money on their military that their major industrial powers went broke

[mckitterick]

This is pretty much my point of view, and I hope it's true!