"If We Found Aliens Already Mining Our Solar System?" Topic

Say … On the asteroid belt, perhaps?

QUESTION:

How do you think Earth governments would react?

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Thanks,

Dan
TMP link
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PS. For 15mm, how about these 4ft tall Squamata Auxiliaries?

They'd blame each other, before good old-fashioned xenophobia would take over and we'd finally get on the same page.

Also, porn sites would get even weirder very quickly.

We'd probably tax them.

Maybe that is why Pluto shrank…

I guess it would depend on wether they were taking minerals or laying explosives!

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:

Suppose the aliens ignore every attempt at communication?

And all they do is drill, process ore and ship it out to a base somewhere, then systematically move on to the next asteroid, non-stop, without any concern or curiosity about Earth or its inhabitants?

Dan

Well, give us another 20-30 years to come up with the technology and actually travel out there and we might actually be in a position to say "uh… hello… what are you doing?"

Given that they have traveled a minimum of 39,900,000,000,000km to get there, and we are struggling to get as far as the moon at the moment… it will likely all be over before we even get there.

If the were able to get here and mine, and send that of which they mined back! I think we should leave them well enought alone! :o

yeah, their technological level would basically be magic to us.

Of course, someone sending out a ship to pick up some scrap metal to analyse might make for a fun RPG scenario :-)

I think it would go very poorly for us. Historically, whenever two cultures of disparate technology levels have come together the one with the more advanced tech exploits and/or wipes out the less advanced culture.

If they ignored us the big question would be why. If they don't bother to even acknowledge us what will they do when they've mined all the easy stuff and they want something found on earth? A lack of communication would have to be interpreted as the alien race being potentially hostile.

There would probably be panic and widespread disagreement about how to deal with the situation.

As a species, we are not even remotely prepared to deal with an adversary capable of interplanetary or interstellar travel to the extent you describe.

Yea, if we were smart, we'd try to hide, and not do anything.

Of course that means our leaders will do just the opposite.

If they ignored us the big question would be why. If they don't bother to even acknowledge us what will they do when they've mined all the easy stuff and they want something found on earth?

If they wanted earth and thought us a threat, all they'd need to do is to drop some asteroids or engineer a couple of viruses to wipe us out. Nothing we would be able to do about it.

I would think that if they are capable of star travel and have ignored us, then they could just as easily move on to other systems to find the elements they want. Probably like a medieval ship stopping on an island for water & supplies before continuing on with their journey back 500 years ago.

As a species, we are not even remotely prepared to deal with an adversary capable of interplanetary or interstellar travel to the extent you describe.

I often daydream that out of tens, hundreds or thousands of spacefaring species, we system bound humans somehow end up being the only ones that have thought up and deployed nukes.

"All right… lets get this invasion underway! Prepare dropships"

"Sir, we've been tracking a couple missiles from the planet surface."

"Just a couple? psh……."

"Sir, the Kaflorasaps has just been obliterated by huge explo…….."

lots of shaking… lights go out… systems smoke…

"Sir…. everything is down. Everything!"

"How many missiles did you count?"

"Five sir…."

"How many ships did we have in this sector?"

"Fi………"

Of course, the aliens might be operating under a psychological profile that is completely incomprehensible to us.
Or their own version of the prime directive :)

Call a lawyer, and send them a sternly writing cease and dissed letter. ;)

I hope someone would have the sense to contact them with something along the lines of "This is Bach, this is espresso, this is chess, these are kittens, this is how we make love, this is Chartres cathedral, we've made a few mistakes but we hope this'll persuade you that there are reasons not to wipe us out. Got anything to show us?"

And that the rest of the world would unite to nuke anyone who tried to start a fight with them.

Footfall.

You guys just don't get it…

We already found them. Why do you think we haven't gone back to the moon?

"You're world? " -- Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still

Don't you all read the internet, they already are and they are paying us in super high tech stuff and then the Government is not telling us about the tech and using it just to fly their super secret spaceships in a underground hanger in area 51.

Actually, if someone was mining the belt right now we'd probably have already detected them. What could we do about it? Not a damn thing at the moment. I suspect world governments would do some combination of trying to open contact, declare war or surrender and plea for mercy. Once the initial panic subsided they'd probably try to put together a probe to go over and take a closer look, and continue to try to contact them. There's no point in hiding since it would be stupidly obvious there's life on Earth, so the best bet would be to continue to communicate and hope either 1) they really don't care at all or 2) would be willing to talk once they realized that yes, we do really want to talk.

-Will

Okay so lets say that we haven't found them mining our asteroids yet, because they are not there, then we should get out there and get them before they do! Right?!

Yes war monkey u are right.

With all the 'resources' available in the WHOLE solar system….it would take humanity…(even IF we had the tech, which isn't happening anytime soon)….a long, LONG time to even use a small portion of what's available 'out there.'
More than enough to 'share'…and if the ALIENS have the tech to travel here….they probably be able to 'core moons' like an 'apple.' I doubt we could really 'do' much to stop them….nor could we press our 'claims'…(our planet, our solar system….) It's worked so 'well' ON Earth, between countries and HUMANS??? If 'they' are 'out there'….and IF they are 'mining'….and IF they care….MAYBE they would WANT to 'help us' with any kind of TECH….instead of EXPLOITING us for 'labor'…(and you don't think some countries….wouldn't 'sell' us out…or even some of their own people for that???)….

Communicate? heck no! They already know we're here and are ignoring us.

Leave them alone and keep our heads down and try not to get noticed too much. Watch them as much as we can so we can try to derive their technology later.

Getting them annoyed is only going to have them drop an asteroid on us.

No way a united Earth would be able to fight a starfaring civilization that can travel this far just
to mine our solar system.

How do you think Earth governments would react?

"When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout!"

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

"our" Solar System?

What sort of a claim do we have on it?

Best we could hope for in such a scenario is to offer Earth for Alien R&R. We might get some nifty technology from the deal.

Share SHARE we would rather it burn in the sun than let them get their hands I mean claws I mean come we don't share with humans let alone those green I mean gray I mean……. you get the idea HUMANs DON'T share. If we shared we would be Share gaming. I rolled a 5 so have some corn. Roll a 6 drink water from my well.

It's worth noting that with all the nonsense we've been beaming into space for decades, they'd likely already know we were here, if they had a ship in the vicinity (cosmically speaking)

"if we found aliens mining in our solar system", so you have met the late Lang Hancock family have you?

regards Allan

@ Cattle Dog

I'm not sure most would understand your joke. From me: Top Marks!

>> Footfall.

Even worse. "The Screwfly Solution."

The space programs on earth would be over-funded… And if we were smart, any country even trying hostile action against the aliens would be bombed back into the stone age by the rest of us. Those of a religious nature would pray that they don't notice us and we won't become a big enough nuisance to eradicate…

Meanwhile our surveillance tech would skyrocket, satellites would be able to count the threads in the aliens socks while mining. We would figure out where they came form and how to duplicate their tech…

I keep wondering.
In this scenario isn`t it most likely that the aliens are self-replicating machines harvesting raw materials to duplicate themselves?

SYSTEM SCAN
8 major bodies with large numbers of secondary objects with abundant resources for harvesting, no prior activity detected.
Body 3, radio emmissions detected but body has atmosphere and high gravitational field suggesting organic infestation.
No true machine intelligences detected but proto machine life-forms observed.
Threat level low but continue to observe.
Recomend progeny should be armed.
SCAN ENDS

I think Rabbit 3 is probably right; given how advanced the aliens would have to be to get here in the first place, it's more than likely they'd just set up an automated mining program and leave.

-Will

I think if earth govt's found out they would keep it quiet.

As for what we could do…in response. Not much. Unless they invaded this planet we would have a chance to fight, them then.

If they are mining asteroids…we don't own them, so what would our gripe be. We name some of these NEO's, but what if said aliens have been mining them for eons……I guess send in the lawyers…anyway, Our gripe might be born out of fear and jealousy. Human traits in abundance.

I think if we found out they were so close, but didn't want anything to do with us…a cultural sadness might occur. As we would realize we aren't so special anymore.

I bet their are many surprises in store for us in our own system.

We Humies have no real claim to any part of our Solar System, save for Terra and our moon. Unless they try to mine on our planet or moon … we may just quietly observe. As many smart guys like Hawkins and Kaku have mentioned, since the aliens have FTL or some sort of "higher high-tech" beyond anything we have. They could easily defeat anything we could do to defend our planet. Remember the "Conquistador Effect", IIRC, from a Brookings Institute report in the early '60s during the UFO craze. Look what happened to the indigious populations of the Americas when higher tech Europeans landed on their shores …

Send a invite to our Trojan asteroids to mine after we sow them with nukes…salvage the wreckage for tech.

One point needs to be clarified. Cortez won because a lot of Aztec vassal states and tribes broke off to defeat a hated enemy: the Aztecs. Guns, armor, horses, and disease just sped the process along.

Very true … but had Cortez and others not landed … none of that most likely would have happened. And let's admit it. If the aliens landed and made a treaty with one or more factions on the planet. They might very well help those factions eliminate their old enemies. If for some reasons the aliens found it to be to their advantage. Hopefully we'll never have to find out …

Of course to them we might just be interesting "critters." And ferocious fighting, biting critters at that. Not that we'd be a threat. They might just be ignoring us they way we might ignore bees. Yeah, wiping them out ain't that hard, it's just not worth the stings.

So given all the asteroids and planets in the system, they probably just leave this apple tree alone and let the bees have it.

Or send a few asteroids our way just to remove the bees nest from the yard…

Extra Crispy has it right. How much attention have you paid to ants lately?

Moonbeast we have almost 5 acres with fire ants (for those in Europe they are killer ants working to destroy humans) we work very hard at controlling them (a nice way of saying killing everyone we see) As for bees if they didn't make honey they would go they way of the dodo beekeepers are all that keep then going.

And then their ghosts would laugh their asses off after our crops all fail due to lack of pollination….

As for fire ants….nuke 'em from orbit.

Anyone read "The Jupiter Theft" by Donald Moffat?

I think the governments of the world would try to keep it quiet.
I dont think the returns from mining in the solar system would recompense the poor aliens for the journey needed to get here, unless they had a sort of Warp Drive.

I go with the 'Space is too big' crowd.

And then they just might show up here one day, bomb the hell out of us and then just send the message.

"Damn it! Turn your radio down!"

I don't understand the facts behind "since they got here, they have a massive tech advantage".

Isn't that a "we have radio, therefore we have ftl" comparison?

Want a scary thought?

What if we are the first to have survived long enough to have progressed this far?

If there are aliens, there are likely lots of them. If there are lots of them, then likely some are very old. If they are very old, then they would have developed along the same lines we are (there are, after all, only so many ways to build a radio assuming the table of elements is constant).

We might be the first either in our neighborhood or at all to have made it this far without some unnatural (self-genocide) or natural event (comet) wiping us out.

There might be some that are super old. But they started on planet poor in resources – consider, they could be billions of years old, but the damn place just did not have any easily reached iron. That would suck for them.

Without radio, communications development would really suck. If there were aliens of advanced nature, we'd have heard a least something by now or they are so far away the light of their star is practically invisible.

Even more sobering? There is no way to go FTL.

Think about that very carefully.

I don't understand the facts behind "since they got here, they have a massive tech advantage".

Isn't that a "we have radio, therefore we have ftl" comparison?

Because it you're coming all the way to Sol to mine it's asteroid belt for raw materials then you must have incredible interstellar travel capability (ie, FTL) in order to make the entire operation remotely cost-effective. Since FTL is effectively magic so far as our science understands it, then it follows that their scientific and technological knowledge far exceeds our own. Ergo, if some alien race dropped by to mine the belt, then it's safe to assume they are massively higher tech than we are. Conquistadors vs. Aztecs isn't even an extreme enough comparison.

-Will

Want a scary thought?

What if we are the first to have survived long enough to have progressed this far?

That's not scary at all; in fact it would be *wonderful* if true. Then we get to be the scary enigmatic space gods.

-Will