"What if We Discovered an Alien Civilization Less ..." Topic

…Advanced Than Our Own?.

"Readers of this blog know that I'm a big fan of Quora, because it lets non-experts raise the kinds of speculative questions that don't normally come up in formal scientific discussions. One frequent theme that comes up is the issue of what we would do if we found intelligent life on a planet around another star. A recent posting in particular caught my eye: "What would we do if we found an Earthlike planet with intelligent life that is 500 years behind us in technology and advancements?"

Well, that's a fun thought experiment! It's not one question, really, but a whole set of nested questions about how to find alien life, how to determine the presence of alien intelligence, how to determine the nature of that intelligence, and then how we would study it, or even try to make contact with it. There's a big moral issue at the end, but a lot of juicy scientific ones along the way. And that got me thinking…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Look how well that went the last time it happened…

Well the usual, we would exploit them.

ALWAYS the Debbie Downer here, Right David Jackson?

Yep, these posters have about nailed it. That would be the worst day in that poor civilization's history. It's not like we've been a special blessing to THIS planet.

The last five minutes of the movie Apocalypto says it all

but we could give them blankets that have many diseases on them as a sign of friendship!

Isn't it an awful truth that while most ordinary people would be horrified by the exploitation of a newly discovered species; we all know that's exactly what would happen.

Historically, no matter how benevolent the more advanced culture is toward the less advanced culture, the less advanced is destroyed within 2 generations. The only example where this was not the case was Japan, where the leadership made the decision to copy and had( via emperor worship) the ability to compel the rest of society to follow.

The last five minutes of the movie Apocalypto says it all

Excellent point, so many people just never get the point of the ending. The real horror is just about to begin!

"The real horror is just about to begin!"

More horrible than having your heart ripped out as a sacrifice to the sun god?

There's a lot of implied criticism of European colonialism in the posts above, most of which is deserved…by today's standards, not those of the time. However, I'd like to mention for a moment the civilizations that were destroyed and how very not great they were.

In north America it was common for the Indians to burn captives alive and they had no qualms about killing women and children. The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice. The Indians of India had an entire religion dedicated to murder and if a prominent man died, it was expected that his wife would kill herself by jumping into his funeral pyre. The samurai killed peasants without qualm or legal ramifications. Even today anyone who is not Muslim in a Muslim country is automatically a second class citizen and there are serious arguments about the correct way to kill a homosexual, throwing them from a building or tipping a wall over on them.

While western civilization is by no means perfect, neither is anyone else. Do you really think that if any of those cultures had been advanced enough to make it to Europe that things would have been different?

Just a thought.

Of course it could happen this way:

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Dn Jackson…

Point taken and understood, Thanks for the counterweight!

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

"While western civilization is by no means perfect,"

I would say about the same as the cultures you describe. Burning alive, check. Human sacrifice, check. Killing homosexuals, check.

Like natives encountering Columbus?

"Like natives encountering Columbus?"

And each other.

No culture survives contact with another culture unscathed. Both will change in some manner; the question is rather if these changes will be drastic and negative and even deadly or not. But even positive changes can so greatly alter a culture as to essentially destroy it, as offering life-improving trade goods to a primitive society. That society will then alter itself to take advantage of the goods and to acquire more. The alterations maybe beneficial or benign, or so disruptive as to wholly reshape the culture, even though the more advanced culture has no desire to conquer or otherwise harm the less advanced culture. The Cargo Cults of New Guinea come to mind…

Todays Western Civilization is not the same one that invaded the new world 500 years ago or even the same as the one from 50 years ago. But then again even the best intentions can cause the worst results. So who knows.

Yeah who am I kidding, it would be bad.

Well we have invaded a couple of nations recently and I suggest we did not treat them well. Natives of Iraq and Afghanistan are despised by the troops we send over there.

I am sure everything will work out OK

Are they tasty?

If they got to vote in our elections, look out!

If mega corporations (Weyland-Yutani, Tyrell, etc) make first contact, I say their first order of business would be to inform themselves about all the planet's factions and then start "helping" them out:

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Dan

Anthropologists are constantly upset at'cultural pollution. There always seems to be a grad student who hands out the T-shirt or the MP3 player. None of this necessarily destroys a culture but it will never be as 'pristine' as it was. I figure there will be a heavy period of study on both sides. Remember, the biological differences will probably be at least or of more interest than the cultural ones.

"i thought it was a rock. You tell me it's a poet?"