Note: This is the first of three-part series.
Among my favorite films are War of the Worlds (1953) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). I’ve also been deeply influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solaris (1972), and Alien (1979). This short list of movies represents two dominant themes in science fiction: peaceful aliens vs. hostile aliens. At David Darling’s Internet Encyclopedia of Science, we find an interesting article on the possible character of alien intelligence.
Suppose one day aliens do arrive at the Earth. Will they be peaceful or hostile? Much good-natured speculation exists among astronomers, science fiction fans, and philosophers. As best I can gather, the following two outlines encapsulate both sides of the issue.
An outline of the argument for peaceful aliens
(1) An alien civilization probably faces (or did face) the same moral, political, economic, environmental, and technological problems that confront humanity.
(2) It is apparent we can solve our problems only through peaceful cooperation. The same would be true for an alien civilization.
(3) If any civilization is to survive for long, it must move toward peaceful interactions—else it will perish.
(4) Any alien civilization that contacts or visits us will be much older than we are, and therefore will have long ago reached a state of peaceful interactions (else it simply wouldn’t exist).
Darling quotes respected science writer Arthur C. Clarke in support of this conclusion. Clarke writes,
“As our species is in the process of proving, one cannot have superior science and inferior morals. The combination is unstable and self-destroying.”
An outline of the argument for hostile aliens
(1) The evolutionary processes at work on the Earth are also at work on other planets (same laws of chemistry and physics everywhere).
(2) Evolution implies “survival of the fittest.” To survive, a species must be hostile toward something—for example, humans survive by being deadly toward a large number of organisms, such as chickens.
(3) An advanced alien civilization will be composed of the most intelligent, fittest survivors on their planet.
(4) Any alien civilization that contacts us will be just as dangerous as we are, and thus at least potentially hostile.
Darling quotes Michael Archer, professor of Biology at the University of New South Wales in support of hostile aliens. Archer writes,
“Any creature we contact will also have had to claw its way up the evolutionary ladder and will be every bit as nasty as we are. It will likely be an extremely adaptable, extremely aggressive super-predator.”
I wish to point out again that these are the outlines of arguments. On both sides, a great deal of work is needed to formulate a good argument. For my part, it’s difficult to imagine an overtly hostile alien race attacking the Earth, a la Independence Day (1997). We have little to offer a civilization capable of interstellar travel. A common sci-fi assertion, that aliens will attack us for our water, is particularly outlandish when one considers the amount of water available in solid form throughout the solar system. There is simply no need to invade the Earth when a path of lesser resistance is immediately available. What else might we possess that a fantastically-advanced civilization could obtain only from us, and only by force?
So perhaps more likely than an Independence Day scenario is that aliens will either leave us alone, or take pity on us and offer to share their wisdom. But how can we be sure an alien civilization wouldn’t find us frightening or repulsive? And will the entire alien culture make this decision? Or could we find our fate in the hands (?) of the alien commander? What fears and prejudices will he bring to bear on his decision of how to deal with us?
Next part: What aliens might look like.
The aliens might think we’re crunchy, and taste good with ketchup. This is canonical stuff, see The Twilight Zone s3e89: To Serve Man.
Actually, I suspect that the problems inherent with either hostile or friendly lifeforms at different stages of evolutionary growth contacting each other is the reason why the universe is so huge compared to the posted speed limit of c.
Do you mean that God intends the universe to be large enough to prohit aliens from contacting one another?
I remember the TZ episode. It’s clever and creepy.
Pretty much.
Whether an advanced race is hostile or benevolent, any interaction is likely to be problematic. This is obvious enough if the aliens think we’re a rare delicacy, in the market for some slaves, or are otherwise hostile. If they’re benevolent, it raises the spectre of problems seen with the cargo cults. An atheist I know claims that he’d believe in God if a choir of angels appeared to him, levitating three feet above his front lawn. Any alien with holodeck-style tech could rig that up in short order.
The solution appears simple. Make a speed limit, and then space everything in such a manner that useful interactions are impossible unless the speed limit can be broken. If the speed limit can be broken, ensure that the ability to do so requires the same or better intellectual capacity than where it would be self-evident that one shouldn’t interfere with other “aliens”.
Consider that our greatest advances in technology (in recent times) came about during the cold war.
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the only reason that a species gets off its planet and into the stars is to colonize, before the enemy does, and once there will fight the enemy for every patch of real estate, which Earth might become.
Think of all the wars fought in the name of spreading communism and democracy. I’m betting most of the people in the countries where the fighting took place didn’t care at all about one or the other, and just wished that the armies would quit placing landmines where their kids play.
It doesn’t seem rational to me that Aliens would want to take another race for slaves when they could make robots, genetically engineer their own useful races or even synthesize something inbetween.
But the problem there is its assuming they would be rational. Culture can dictate actions as much as logic can.
One of the problems we have in trying to think about this is that the anthropomorphize the aliens too much. They may not even know what war is- “why would you kill someone else over a disagreement” may be what they think. They may not have religion, government, slavery or any of our other human constructions. Maybe it’s in their nature to just live and work together in a collective, with a hive mentality, like its in our nature to fight over everything. Actually, their way makes more sense and is probably more prevalent. Maybe they’re watching us right now to study why we are they way we are. Its likely that we wouldn’t even understand or begin to comprehend the way they would think. To search the stars for radio transmissions assumes too much- it doesn’t surprise me that SETI hasn’t found anything.
And Lon, I like your thoughts about the size of the universe compared to c. Maybe that was the plan, to give us each our own area of the universe to explore and play, without us crossing paths. It would be trouble whether they are hostile, peaceful, or indifferent.
Thank you for sharing the details. I found the details quite helpful.
Well I can think of only one thing in the vastness of space that is so rare an alien race may need to take it from our planet and that is biomass ( amino acids, chlorophil, carbohydrates, ect. ). Then again who is to say that an advanced civilation wouldn’t be able to efficiently synthesize the biomass they needed but as our speices is starting to discover filling our bodies with more and more synthesized materials may not be the healthiest way to go.
As for the aliens being a civilization of a hive type how many insect type colonies have u seen not walk over another hive to gather resources they need so a hive type speices is not one i would want to visit us.
:Lets not forget that “THEY” might be here already. look at all the accounts. even if 99% were untrue, a few are real. Im 40 and spend a lot of time outdoors, but on only 1 occasion have i seen a true U.F.O. Where did it come from? Dont know. Everyone is talking about how they might be organically like us and we shouldn’t speculate, but nobody mentions that they may be living on an entirely different plane or can camouflage themselves like animals. They may be more akin to spritual beings than flesh and blood. Either way, there either far away and cant touch us or they have the capability of reaching us easily- meaning there probably here or in the vicinity already. As organicaly different from us , they may be able to travel in ways we dont know. Imagine explaining a supersonic jet or the space shuttle to a Native American..oh wait the Thunderbird…