this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
53 points (92.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27253 readers
1972 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
all 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We in the US can’t even get rights to protect ourselves. Good luck, aliens!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Srsly. Would the aliens get the right to control their bodies or would they get a lecture about what Texans think Jesus would've wanted.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Fucking aliens coming to earth to get an abortion

[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If aliens were to come here to Earth, they'd have such advanced technologies and capabilities compared to us that what our laws say is entirely moot. Our interactions will happen in whatever manner they desire.

Science fiction has given a very poor idea of what intelligent aliens would "really" be like. The odds of us encountering them at anywhere near parity to our level of development is microscopic, and if they're coming here then it's impossible. They'd be millions of years older than us.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Could you imagine aliens rolling up in space ships near our level? They land in a rocket and then have to ask for fuel to leave. They have bulky pressure suits and have to shit their pants. They left their polluted and dying planet generations ago trying to settle a habitable world. They have been terrified for generations because they started detecting radio transmissions from their target planet. Later on they got a coherent enough signal to decrypt it and saw what they were going to end up dealing with was hostiles on another dying planet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Sounds similar to one of the godzilla movies I saw.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Oh man, that's a good story pitch.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hey, a monkey with a nuclear bomb is arguabley scarier then a human with one. So no, the aliens will probably get 'merica-ed before they realize that we are the monkey with the nuclear bomb

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Your analogy is lacking. Being technologically behind does not make us the monkey with the nuke, it makes us the human with the rock. Aliens able to travel to earth will have a very easy way to deal with "bad thing flying fast towards us".

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I don't know what about you but a shitty little grenade is still a huge problem to anyone unprepared, so is a nuke.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Whatever is powering the ship they arrive in puts out more energy than a nuke and that thing would be running for far longer than an explosion. They're not gonna give a shit about the nuke. At best, you'll singe the hull, assuming point defense doesn't blast your piddly little bomb out of the sky first.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Yes and killing a few invaders while the planet gets orbital lazered from 2 solar systems away will for sure win a war against an alien force.

Half live 2 got that right. The alien invasion is called the 7 minute war, because after 7 minutes earth had to surrender.

The assumption of course is, that the aliens are as militaristic as we are. If humans are uniquely violent in the universe, we could actually win an invasion. But if war is a normal thing in the universe, there is a 0% chance for any planet bound society to win against an post FTL attacker. Even with many nukes.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago

No. We don’t even have laws protecting the rights and dignity of terrestrial beings. We put them in factory farms and gas them by the billions.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago

The way I see it, to understand what would happen to us if aliens with more advanced technology came to Earth,, we can simply read history books about the various waves of Europeans coming to the Americas a few centuries ago.

(Heads-up: we would be playing the parts of the various native societies)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

We can't even agree on basic rights for the humans and animals we have on this planet right now. It'll be a District 9 situation for sure.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago

As an interesting perspective on contact you should read The Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu.

I'm on the third book rn and its an interesting thought experiment. Haven't read much Eastern literature before so its cool to get a different perspective on society as well

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Would there be? Certainly. As soon as intelligent life elsewhere was discovered, laywers/policy makers all over the world would scramble to make laws on how to treat them.

Now, how those laws will look is difficult to say. Different countries might treat it very differently.

Perhaps human rights would be extended as "intelligent" rights or something.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Currently, no.

Would there be? Quite probably.

In the near term, during the invasion, they would be protected by the usual articles of war I'd think.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I'd kill an alien if he stepped on my property

[–] ani 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Look here little human, I'll put my alien feet on your front yard and then leave on my flying saucer and there's nothing you can do about it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I've seen enough movies to know that all I need is to sneeze, use a super soaker full of watered down Head and Shoulders, or punch them in the face and quip to beat almost any alien.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

We're talking about scifi right? Right??

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

As you reach for your weapon, the alien swipes a gesture with its "hand" and you disintegrate into one trillion pieces, along with every creature within three genetic generations of yourself. The alien doesn't care or acknowledge the tremendous pain you feel as every part of your body separates into its base pieces, leaving the nerves intact until last, and continues to walk through your property completely invulnerable to any terrestrial weapon. The next human treats the alien with respect, as interpreted by ten layers of behavior/language/social analysis contraptions and the two of them have a pleasant chat around the fireplace, sharing eachothothers culture. Nice.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

If the aliens invade Earth they'll likely succeed so the question should really be: would there be laws for protecting the rights and dignity of humans? Seems more likely we'll be used as forced labour in their mines or unwilling conscripts in their Space War with the Space Nazis (or Space Communists if they're the Space Nazis).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think human rights would still apply.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

They're not humans though.

Checkmate, libruls. /s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

They need to get in line and do it the right way like my parents did.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] ani 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Then they get more rights than the rest of us.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

Their superior firepower, courtesy of the Björk and Slartibartfast weapons conglomerate.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

As humans I think we would have a dog reaction, asking ourselves: Can we eat them ? Can we fuck then ?

Anything else doesn’t matter.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Either they are getting jerked, or I am.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Who probing who

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

This is explored somewhat in District 9, but also in the 1988 movie and TV show "Alien Nation." IMO, the latter is overdue for a reboot.

At the time, as there is now, a concern within the US around illegal immigration. Alien Nation, with the one-the-nose wordplay in its title, sets out to explore this uncomfortable spot in the US psyche by replacing illegal aliens for space aliens. The writes pour gasoline on this fire by making the aliens superior to humans in nearly every way: reaching maturity faster, stronger, smarter, and with tougher stomachs because why not?

To answer your question, the show above does a good job setting up a plausible narrative around similar subject matter. I think it's plausible that we would protect aliens were they weaker than us in some way. But in the case where they're a threat to the status quo, we might do worse on the way to re-envisioning civil rights in light of multiple sapient lifeforms on this planet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Not until we commit atrocities on them

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think it depends on the context and situation that leads to contact. Also probably matter what country the make contact with.

If they come here zapping things into dust then the maybe not so. If they come here peacefully wanting to help, I can see some laws put in place pretty quick to try to prevent interactions that could trigger a problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Pretty sure they would pick China. Big open spaces, plenty of tech, large population size, consistent leadership.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Nah fuck extra terrestrials