[Beren]

There is no resources in our planet that is worth "taking"

Mankind could be a "resource" worth "taking", although I wonder if they're interested enough to have plans with us.

[XogGyux]

Mankind could be a "resource" worth "taking", although I wonder if they're interested enough to have plans with us.

For what? Slaves? Even now, most of our "easy" tasks are being relevated to robots/machines made by us. Presumably, any alien race capable of coming from other solar system has robots/machinery several centuries more advanced than what we currently have. Furthermore, it is unlikely that our intellect would be capable of being useful for non-menial tasks. We are simply not good slaves.
Pets/entertaiment? We could already be that and not know it !

[Beren]

For what? Slaves?

I don't think they'd need us as slaves, I wonder though if we could "contribute" somehow.

[XogGyux]

I don't think they'd need us as slaves, I wonder though if we could "contribute" somehow.

Not really, unlikely. Unless life is extremely rare in the universe, and the universe is nearly barren. But then you got to wonder, what are the chances that they find us when we have only been making noise for what? 60 years? That means, that at most, those within 60 light-years of us can possibly know that there is "intelligent" life on earth. In a barren universe... that would be crazy low odds for it to happen.

[Unthinking Majority]

Try to kill them ASAP, water board one of them to send signal back that this planet is dangerous and a hell hole.
We do not need a Cortez moment.

That's like the natives agreeing to kill Cortez and his men. Arrows and axes won't do it against guns. Anyone who has the tech to visit this planet will be able to kill us far easier than we can kill them.

[late]

That's like the natives agreeing to kill Cortez and his men. Arrows and axes won't do it against guns. Anyone who has the tech to visit this planet will be able to kill us far easier than we can kill them.

All they'd have to do is kick a few rocks in the asteroid belt, and we're literally toast.

Which is why our only option is making them a nice cup of tea.

[Beren]

Not really, unlikely. Unless life is extremely rare in the universe, and the universe is nearly barren. But then you got to wonder, what are the chances that they find us when we have only been making noise for what? 60 years? That means, that at most, those within 60 light-years of us can possibly know that there is "intelligent" life on earth. In a barren universe... that would be crazy low odds for it to happen.

They may have discovered Earth earlier, though, and could be watching since then. We also don't really know the odds, but even if we do the odds still can be beaten. Anyway, in my opinion we shouldn't project ourselves on them.

[late]

the odds still can be beaten.

Any civilisation that can travel the stars could easily wipe us out.

[XogGyux]

They may have discovered Earth earlier, though, and could be watching since then. We also don't really know the odds, but even if we do the odds still can be beaten. Anyway, in my opinion we shouldn't project ourselves on them.

Well this was regarding your prior question of wether we would be of any use/advantage. If we are it is mostly because life is stupidly rare and we (and I dont mean only humans, I mean whole planet) are in a barren universe and the odds of 2 independent civilizations being next to each other are slim. Perhaps under with panspermia you could make the argument that maybe 2 or 3 nearby solar systems got "fertilized"? but even then... if that panspermia is both viable/common... then that is probably not compatible with a barren universe then.
I am exited that it seems space is becoming a goal in the private sector now, with companies such as spacex appearing to have a path to growth/profitability and that is before we consider space mining (which probably won't come to effect for a few decades or more). It might happen within my lifetime that we check samples from a few planets/moons and perhaps we will find some microbes or something. If we do, I think that would hint that perhaps life is not that rare (although again, hopefully we find something that is not related to our biochemistry, e.i low chances of being "related via panspermia".

[Beren]

Any civilisation that can travel the stars could easily wipe us out.

Maybe they don't do it because it'd be too easy for them.

[XogGyux]

Maybe they don't do it because it'd be too easy for them.

Typical Bond villain? Reveal the plan, don't kill the hero, allow for fatal mistake to happen so you lose despite quite literally having the only person that can stop you at gunpoint?

Independence day (the original). Love that movie... the idea that Humanity could pull something remotely close via "low tech resourcefulness" is unthinkable. Just imagine trying to hack the pentagon using a 1991 apple PowerBook computer And only 30 years of technology separate us from 1991. Imagine if we are talking about an alien race, with technology that does not necesarily resembles ours and is perhaps centuries more advanced than just a few 30 years old. The idea is ludicrous to be kind (not to say that it is a bad plot, who cares, it is for fun... cinderella story isn't much reliable either). Weapons is the same thing, a batallion of how many roman soldiers would you need to kill 1 US marine with a heavy machinegun with beltfed bullets and a lot of those bullets? What about a tank? or an aircraft carrier... how many roman soldiers does it need to neutralize an aircraft carrier

[Potemkin]

Maybe they don't do it because it'd be too easy for them.

We may be so insignificant that they don't even notice our existence. We pay no heed to the earthworms or the insects under our feet, after all.

[Beren]

Typical Bond villain?

They could be more interested in the planet than us, so maybe they'd sweep us away to save it if necessary, but they haven't yet decided to do so, for example. Perhaps we'd never realise it's them wiping us out, though.

We may be so insignificant that they don't even notice our existence. We pay no heed to the earthworms or the insects under our feet, after all.

We do a lot of research about them, actually. If only a portion of those UFO sightings and abduction stories are true, they must be genuinely interested in us. I wonder though if it's merely scientific/out of curiosity or more.

[late]

What's the motivation?

The easiest thing for them to do, if they want to replace our ecosystem with theirs, is kick a few rocks our way. We could alter the trajectory of Apophis if we wanted to. And that puppy would make a mess. They could improve on that if they picked the right spot for it to hit.

When you drop down to motivations that are less apocalyptic, you run into all sorts of problems. They could use us as slave labor, but a lot of solar systems will have resources out the ying yang, and they'd be easier to mine for a Space faring race than dealing with savages at the bottom of a gravity well. Doesn't really make sense.

While I love scifi, conscripting us to fight in an interstellar war is absurd.

However, at the end of the day, we are unlikely to ever see aliens, the Universe is too damn big even if you have warp drive.

[B0ycey]

Nonetheless we on Earth are discovering planets all the time and have a good idea which of them might hold life. Thinking Aliens will come randomly to Earth is naïve. We even had a "Space Probe" meteor thread only last year. As someone said, if the goal was to destroy us then I would say that would occur without warning and certainly not with a meet and greet first. And on the point about our resources, again there is nothing on Earth you cannot find elsewhere. Ice is quite common for example. So my instinct is aliens wouldn't use us for anything. They will just study us as that is what we would do to them if the roles were reversed - which incidentally might well be happening given the huge amount of sightings and unexplained video evidence we have.

[Beren]

What's the motivation?

How could we know that? We're just guessing like children. Even if they're only an order of magnitude older civilisation than we are (100,000 years old roughly), they're already unimaginable to us, especially if they're a different species from a different planet (and planetary system).

[late]

How could we know that? We're just guessing like children. Even if they're only an order of magnitude older civilisation than we are (100,000 years old roughly), they're already unimaginable to us, especially if they're a different species from a different planet (and planetary system).

Universe.

Big.

[Skynet]

Word on the street is that the secret for interstellar travel is element 115. Whether that is true or not is besides the point. Knowledge and execution of knowledge are two separate things. And that is ignoring the obvious barrier which is communication and the obtaining of prisoners of war. None of which are guaranteed given English isn't the language of the unknown universe and prisoners of war is determined by us having some advantage to capture which is optimistic to say the least.

Columbus kidnapped children to spain to have translators.

With a alieon POW we could start first to communicate with geometry and 1 + 1

[B0ycey]

Columbus kidnapped children to spain to have translators.

With a alieon POW we could start first to communicate with geometry.

Your examples are what they could do to us. And you are assuming communication is something we are customed to and can share. Or there is some form of Rosetta Stone somewhere. But even if we accept translation is possible, why are you assuming they will be sending troops to our planet? We send drones to planets and they are also useful in warfare. I can think of many ways to attack us efficency by technological advancement rather than a ground offensive. To say a war against a superior technological advance race is anything but futile, is ignorant to say the least.

[Skynet]

Typical Bond villain? Reveal the plan, don't kill the hero, allow for fatal mistake to happen so you lose despite quite literally having the only person that can stop you at gunpoint?

Independence day (the original). Love that movie... the idea that Humanity could pull something remotely close via "low tech resourcefulness" is unthinkable. Just imagine trying to hack the pentagon using a 1991 apple PowerBook computer And only 30 years of technology separate us from 1991. Imagine if we are talking about an alien race, with technology that does not necesarily resembles ours and is perhaps centuries more advanced than just a few 30 years old. The idea is ludicrous to be kind (not to say that it is a bad plot, who cares, it is for fun... cinderella story isn't much reliable either). Weapons is the same thing, a batallion of how many roman soldiers would you need to kill 1 US marine with a heavy machinegun with beltfed bullets and a lot of those bullets? What about a tank? or an aircraft carrier... how many roman soldiers does it need to neutralize an aircraft carrier

The Afghans are in technology 2 thousand years behind the US ore Soviet Union but they won. The Soviet union lead a total war poisoning their fountains...


The makind could copy some weapons like the Afghans do

The romans had for weapons manufature division of labour, the Afghans have not even this.