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How do you think we would reaction to contact with an alien race ?

If we look at Sci-fi which is full of first contact situations we see lots of bad reactions and almost no good reactions. Given that such an attitude has entered the whole pop culture consciousness, that meeting alien races would be a monutally bad thing for us, how do you guys think the human race as whole would react to such a situation?

Would we welcome and learn/change our ideas/beliefs/attitudes and hope they might help us (ala star treks Vulcans)

or

Would we try to repel them and remain chained to this rock and closed off both in our minds and in space?

I highly doubt we would react in a way that 9/10ths of Sci-Fi shows portray

Well yeah Sci-Fi scenarios are somewhat divorced from reality but its really the only reference we have atm for any kind of ideas about how we might react. Its a vehicle to attach to dicussion too, dont look to hard at the sci-fi references but at the damned questions!

really I wonder sometimes why some folks were taught to read and write if they dont bother to use their brains in the process

I was actually contributing to your topic, and now you're talking down to me

From your topic post, I extracted the idea that you wanted to compare actuality vs SciFi responses to alien encounters, but apparently I can't read and think at the same time

No I'm not looking for comparisons, I'm asking people how they think we would react to a real situation involving a first contact situation.

The sci-fi reference is just that, a reference for people to use to help them to understand the concepts. Sci-fi writings draw from our social/pop consciousness and add/remove/change things in it too, Hence they are a good place to look for how views have changed or new views have been submitted, and might help people form their own views and ideas of how we would react in reality.

If I recall (I didnt watch it) thats the people are dumb but a person can be smart speach right?

If so thats actually quite true, we still have very herd/pack like responses when lumped together. Which makes the topic all that most interesting.

As i've stated in threads discussing the possibility of alien life I believe that the proof that it exist is that they havent come to visit us yet and that I wouldnt at all be suprised to find out if any were aware of us that they had us in like a quarantine/wildlife preserve like area.

I take this view as I think should alien life try to contact us now we would instinctively view it as hostile, no matter what the life was or how they contacted us. We would react badly as a species. Individuals might be ready for contact but the human race as a whole isnt

interesting subject, but alas, i dont think we can trust any Alien life form...

i say we send up a good looking cocky black man and a Jewish cable repair guy to put a virus into the Alien mothership, nuke it and then sit back and watch the fireworks


sorry kf, i couldn't resist

anyways, Hollywood has done an excellent job since the 50's of demonizing aliens and making people look so bad they are not worthy of saving (the day the earth stood still 1951 NOT the remake )

i would hope alien contact would be made in the open, that the "Aliens" would be benevolent and not malevolent and that we would act "grown up" about it, but i somehow doubt that last.

Jack wrote:Also, what do you think about District 9? Do you believe that could/would happen with modern day society? I'm speaking about the treatment of alien refugees. I mean, you could point out how it happens to other humans, but then you would be ignoring the part where they are aliens, meaning there would be a whole nother level of complexity.

i tried to watch District 9 and after less than 5 mins i turned it off, looked like another one of those reality SciFi films, ala, Cloverfield, so didnt bother to watch it...is it any good?

Jack wrote:For instance, what happens if that is just a small shipwreck and their friends find out how we treated them? How do you think they would respond? Especially if they are anything like us.

depends on their sense of morality (if any) i suppose. if its anything like ours or stronger than ours...i dont imagine they would be to happy to find their brethren have been mistreated. it also depends on just how Benevolent they are, meaning, how forgiving are they? would they allow us some leeway and take into account just how little we really now and give us the benefit of the doubt that we would not do such a thing if we as a whole species (not just our leaders, military and intelligence etc) understood that a "cosmic community" is just waiting to accept us-and for the human race to come of age, so to speak.

Jack wrote:If it did happen, would other countries allow it? Or would we try to intervene on the thought that allowing it to take place could seriously jeopardize the security of the entire planet?

hmmm, depends if it becomes public knowledge and just how much is known, i mean, if a crash were to happen (or has happened) and no one except say, the US military knew about it and decided to keep it secret so they can reap the rewards of back-engineering , which nation could do anything about it?

Jack wrote:If say America was to intervene, would we first seek approval from other superpowers? If we did seek approval, would we get it?

hmmm...depends if the US thinks there are nations which would object. more than likely, the other super-powers would sit back and watch the Americans waste their cash and forces and then seek an equal split in the spoils.

Jack wrote:Would we ask for help from other nations?

only the closest of allies, GB, Turkey maybe a few of the Balkan country's, possibly Japan defo Israel would want to be involved even tho there is no officially alliance between the US and Israel.

Jack wrote:Or would we not even care about the aliens, but rather only the technology they would bring to the table?

depends if they think they can hide it from the world and any other Aliens who might come looking for their buddies, and if they would pose a significant threat to this planet.

Jack wrote:If it was the technology, would that possibly ignite a third world war?

anything is possible in the mad modern world we live in today!

hmmm, i'll give it a 2nd try and then comment on the hypothetical situation of the film, if i'm not impressed after 15/20 mins i wont be commenting on it...obviously.

i never watched the film because of a shaky cam or anything, it didnt look like a traditional film, but a reality film like Cloverfield...

i hope its not that type and is a traditional type?

thanks but no thanks...i'll give it a miss

well, we can't really react badly. We should try to make contact and not get ourselves blown to crap. otherwise, we shouldn't be looking for life on mars and other places and being all excited when someone says they have found life.

Another thing would be that, no diplomacy would be possible, as i have no doubt that we will encounter aliens that speak english

If such a situation such as portrayed in D9 were to happen I would find it unlikely we would bother to take on the aliens as refugees even as a guise for some of the darker themes of that film.

The most likely reaction would be indifference to the condition of the aliens but intense concern over the condition of the technology of what ever knid of vehicle brought them here.

I believe Jack is right is his idea that any unilateral action taken by any of the countries on earth to secure such technology would lead eventually to war. Even if the technology was 'secured' by UN forces it would still end up leading to war as opposing countries bickered and schemed for control of it.

btw KMA, District 9 is based upon the very real District 6 of Cape Town South Africa and certain attitudes/events that took place there. The historical parallels are the obvious message.

Oh and I say again, I'm not really looking for a discussion upon scenarios already presented in sci-fi but upon what you think the reality would be.

Basically civilisation melt down.We just arent prepared for it.

I can just see religious leaders from all over announcing Armageddon.1000 new Jesus popping out every day with new 100 000 new followers,mass suicides.Some Pentagon 5 star generals wanting to take immediate actions,to nuke them.I see talibans overtaking Pakistan and start throwing nukes all over place.Europe as usual taking no side,not even its own gets hammered by China nuke...you get the picture.

World in general chaos,mob mugging malls like they will benefit anything at all from it.Governments trying first to hide it but later when giant spaceship is hovering above Mount Everest ,hopelessly trying to calm people down with lies about first contact...

Well then all depends on aliens...
If they were just dumping **Filtered** from their bilge tanks because they find a very polluted planet then we are screwed.I really doubt that we can handle some mean outer space viruses.We can hardly keep our under control.
If they are like we,that is,If we would to find a new planet with backward civilisation...You can guess twice what would happen...hint Colombo...
If they just came here on picnic,they would eat their dinner,make a lot of garbage and they wouldnt mind us more then those ants trying to get their food.

All in all it wouldn't be good for us.Because human kind is basically just a big bunch of morons incapable of thinking for it self but rather let the mass think for him.

I doubt that first contact would lead to the meltdown of civilisation, at least nowhere as near as bad you predict.

Civilisation is quite robust and manages to hang on and survive catastrophic events (assuming that is that the human race isnt extinguished by such a contact)

Kit-Fox wrote:No I'm not looking for comparisons, I'm asking people how they think we would react to a real situation involving a first contact situation.

The sci-fi reference is just that, a reference for people to use to help them to understand the concepts. Sci-fi writings draw from our social/pop consciousness and add/remove/change things in it too, Hence they are a good place to look for how views have changed or new views have been submitted, and might help people form their own views and ideas of how we would react in reality.

I think your wrong their about encouraging people to shape their views from sci fi dramas. Its just Shakespeare in a different setting. Made to entertain because we all need like some drama. I think if you take time to actually look at the first contact scifi stories out their. They pretty much take all their story development from things like hamlet, faust, germinal and plato's Atlantis.

I think it would be better to take your cues, to shape a viewpoint, from our history with first contact. Meaning we would either try to trade with or conquer them. I Think the first is the most likely scenario mixed in with alot of bureaucracy and delegation.