Hawking for Aliens

He has a point about the danger of contacting an alien race, Not based on there agenda, but based on ours, Any race of intelligent life that would study our history prior to there acquaintance with us would most definitely consider us a threat, Any peaceful race of alien out there i think would make every effort to remain as oblivious to us as possible.
 
I guess the flaw that I saw in Hawking's logic is this:

He states that based on our own nature, which is could arguably be described as destructive, an alien race of higher intelligence may also be destructive and have the means to destroy us.

However we consider people such as Hawking to be OUR most intelligent, and their intelligence has led them to be more protective and less destructive of our world.

SO if there existed this hypothetical alien race of higher intelligence, based on our perception of intelligence I would assume that they would be wiser about the issue of destruction.

In other words, those we consider to be intelligent have been led by their intelligence to be less destructive than your average human. So if there was a race of more intelligent than ours I would assume that they are beyond destruction.

And then there's the issue of comparability. Hawking's theoretical alien race has very human thought, however based on the types of environments he describes aliens coming out of (stars etc.) I don't think that they would be comparable at all, either physically or mentally.
 
there is also a flaw in your logic.

the book, the art of war was written by a man of high intelligence, yet he calls for you to do shady things.

intelligence and character do not go hand in hand, contrary to popular belief. many have had noble causes, and used violence to get what they wanted.
 
The art of war brings a good question to mind, How would most people mentally accept the existence of alien life, I think the hardest part for most people would not be the physical encounter with alien life but the mental bombshell of losing the illusion superiority, Especially if faced with methods of contest far beyond our capabilitys. personally, I think that it would be very humbling to everyone as a whole, Not only bringing an end to the horrible, violent, mass murdering, and Psychological slavery of religion, But also be a bound and determined turning point for the human race.
 
ruthless is correct.

The idea that "people are supposed to be good to one another", while a comforting idea, need not be a normal behavior in the universe. Indeed, we use the distinction between humans and other forms of life to justify how we treat other life forms as definitively "less than human." Take cows for example. We keep them as property, and use them for nourishment. If we were to treat any human being in that way, our morals would say that is wrong. But then again, those are our morals, and not necessarily the morals of any alleged alien race.

In fact, rather than thinking any alien race may be warm & fuzzy followers of a loving Jesus, it may be more appropriate to wonder if that alien race may, indeed, look upon us as a food source to be "managed" like a herd of cows. In fact, who can honestly say that we are NOT that already, and that wars are really induced not by some secretive "New World Order" human organization, but rather by a bunch of off-world farmers who are ready for the slaughter of humans to stock-up their meat lockers?

I wonder if the McDonald's franchises in other galaxies serve human Big Macs?

RMT
 
Here is a guy who is all wrapped-up in the "we are food for aliens" view:

WARNING! by Art Greenfield

Reptoid aliens have been using us as a food resource for thousands of years. They came from Earth originally.
The aliens cause wars and plagues to start every 30 to 50 years to generate a large supply of meat
The government knows about it but keeps quiet to avoid public panic.
The military has taken some defensive measures: HAARP, advanced space warcraft, deep space and global surveillance satellites, and hunter-killer satellites.
We need to go on an all-out full scale war footing to build a huge defense force.
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Have fun! :D
RMT
 
We would be a perfect race to raise like cattle, we'd love it!
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We could get lucky at least half the time.

Assuming that alien biology is even remotely similar to ours (not likely but possible) it is a crap shoot as to whether they evolved right-handed (dextro) sugar processing enzymes and left-handed (leva) amino acid processing enzymes. If they evolved metabolizing the mirror molecules then we aren't fodder for their food. Their enzymes couldn't metabolize our sugars or proteins. We wouldn't taste right - the flavor would be somewhat "off" - and they'd stave to death at a feast.

On the other hand (pun intended) if one of them was carrying their version of the "common cold" virus we could probably bend over and kiss our collective butts good-bye. Same for them if they caught a cold here.
 
i think if that were the case, this alien race would have thrown ethics out the window long ago for progression in science. i suspect they would have eventually developed the perfect gene, and no longer get sick.

then again, im a lefty, so what do i know!
 
i think if that were the case, this alien race would have thrown ethics out the window long ago for progression in science. i suspect they would have eventually developed the perfect gene, and no longer get sick.
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Maybe, in the case of viral infections. But not so for enzymes that process sugars and proteins. "Handedness" refers to the actual shape of the molecule. The enzymes and all of the associated molecular structures in cells that metabolize sugars and proteins have specific molecular shapes that equate to "handedness".

For us right handed sugars work perfectly because they "fit" the receptor sites where they are processed. The mirror molecule won't fit the site. Left handed sugars serve a purpose for us - they taste similar to sugar, but not quite the same, but we can't process the sugar as a source of energy. Sound familiar? That's how sugar-free (name the product) works. An all sugar-free diet will eventually kill you. Luckily there's plenty of usable sugars in ordinary foods.

Like you I'm also a goofy foot.
 
wouldnt an i.v. with needed nutrients fix this?
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Probably. If you knew what the biochemistry was for the critter you could make some artificial food with the correct sugars and protein.

But the whole idea of the thread is humans as cattle for aliens. If the name of the game is easy pickin's and it ends up with a series of chemical processing plants to manufacture food because the planet is not a source of food it kind of defeats the purpose, don't you think?
 
Farscape TV sci-fi show. (or some people in Australia originally thinking it was "Firescape" and perhaps a TV show about firemen. Ya, that is on the video.)

Zhaan - the 800 year old plant azure priestess lady.
John Crichton - into the black hole and a different part of the Universe.
Peacekeepers and the Farscape Universe.

Prepare for Starburst.

Humans can dream up more aliens than the real aliens there probably are in the universe.
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sorry i kinda got into my own little daydream for a bit there. i started to contemplate what a perfect alien race would be and the steps to get there.

sorry about that. as you were!
 
Do ya think there is a preference to flame broiled human vs fried.....
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Considering the way we treat our closest genetic relatives, monkeys and apes, why should some alien species from another planet not regard us vastly inferior beings as we regard 90% of the life on Earth......as food.

I think Hawking is right. We could end up on the menu....or in some galactic zoo.

The idea that 'advanced beings' would not do that is absurd. We consider ourselves advanced....yet WE currently raise over 100 billion animals of different sorts, for the SOLE purpose of eating them.

Bon apetit ! I'll have Britney Spears a l'orange if there's any left.
 
You're assuming that any aliens are super-enlightened vegans. How do you know they won't look at the fact that we eat 90% of the animals on earth and say, "Ah! Clearly these guys are the bosses around here, like us at home."

My theory on approaching alien life has always worked like this:

Suppose you lived in a primitive society, in the ancient past. The king calls you up and holds up a drawing of a lion and says, "I've had reports of these creatures living out in the jungle. I need you to get out there and bring me back a full report on these things. What do they eat? What are they like? Are they dangerous? Etc... etc... etc..."

So, off you go on your lion discovery mission. Are you going to charge headlong into the first pride you come across? Or, are you going to hang back, and observe from a distance?

Even if you were dumb enough to charge into the pride, the king isn't going to get any useful data until someone adopts the second approach. Aliens should probably be taking a similar approach toward us. Eventually, they could work toward some Goodall-style interaction. But, for the initial studies, they would need to be conducted at a distance. It's just good science.
 
I think the primary reason why aliens would not eat us is that they could just as easily feed off our own livestock.

But also, there is a more logical reason. If they have taken a long time to get here, then they would by definition have their own food supply on board their spaceship. On the other hand, if they have got here quickly and can get home quickly, then they have a suitable food supply at home.
 
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