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    What do we do if SETI is successful?

    (www.universetoday.com)
    174 points leephillips | 16 comments | 20 Oct 25 17:13 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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    theletterf ◴[21 Oct 25 20:50 UTC] No.45661520[source]▶
    For a somber, deeply intellectual view of what could happen, I can't recommend enough Stanislaw Lem's His Master's Voice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Master%27s_Voice_%28novel%...

    "Given that our civilization is unable to assimilate well even those concepts that originate in human heads when they appear outside its main current, although the creators of those concepts are, after all, children of the same age—how could we have assumed that we would be capable of understanding a civilization totally unlike ours, if it addressed us across the cosmic gulf?"

    replies(3): >>45662589 #>>45663901 #>>45665230 #
    themafia ◴[21 Oct 25 22:34 UTC] No.45662589[source]▶
    Me and my dog cannot talk.

    I understand my dog and he understands me.

    If they experience death then we have massive common ground already.

    replies(8): >>45662621 #>>45662679 #>>45662695 #>>45664653 #>>45664797 #>>45667041 #>>45667550 #>>45668911 #
    1. beAbU ◴[21 Oct 25 22:36 UTC] No.45662621[source]▶
    And you are comfortable being the dog in this cosmic relationship then?
    replies(3): >>45662662 #>>45662743 #>>45665153 #
    2. conartist6 ◴[21 Oct 25 22:42 UTC] No.45662662[source]▶
    it's that we're made out of meat: https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/think...
    replies(1): >>45662735 #
    3. carpo ◴[21 Oct 25 22:51 UTC] No.45662735[source]▶
    Man I love that story.
    4. estimator7292 ◴[21 Oct 25 22:52 UTC] No.45662743[source]▶
    Does it make you uncomfortable to think an alien civilization might be somehow superior to humans? That's a pretty immature thing to be insecure about.
    replies(4): >>45662901 #>>45664760 #>>45664892 #>>45665462 #
    5. dustfinger ◴[21 Oct 25 23:06 UTC] No.45662901[source]▶
    If they mean us harm, then yes, I am insecure about it.
    replies(1): >>45663509 #
    6. ZenoArrow ◴[22 Oct 25 00:19 UTC] No.45663509{3}[source]▶
    What if they're indifferent about our existence? Would you be insecure knowing that a superior species existed that didn't think we were interesting enough to be bothered with?
    7. goopypoop ◴[22 Oct 25 03:57 UTC] No.45664760[source]▶
    Given that my opinions are correct, a superior being would have opinions which tend toward mine. So I'll be fine, dunno about the rest of you punks
    8. godelski ◴[22 Oct 25 04:29 UTC] No.45664892[source]▶
    If they were to visit us then they would be de facto technologically superior to us. But I'm sure we'd figure out a way to feel superior to them.

    And what's it matter? There's lots of people superior to me. I'm not really concerned unless they're trying to do me harm. But that anger isn't due to their superiority, it is due to their harm.

    replies(2): >>45665362 #>>45665786 #
    9. LexiMax ◴[22 Oct 25 05:22 UTC] No.45665153[source]▶
    Comfortable? I'd call that the best case scenario.

    If they treated us like dogs they'd already be better stewards of humanity than we are.

    10. BLKNSLVR ◴[22 Oct 25 06:00 UTC] No.45665362{3}[source]▶
    > But I'm sure we'd figure out a way to feel superior to them

    You mastered interstellar travel and yet you arrived in THAT!?

    replies(1): >>45667710 #
    11. beAbU ◴[22 Oct 25 06:19 UTC] No.45665462[source]▶
    An alien race arriving at our shores cannot be anything but disastrous for us, IMO.

    Why go through the massive expense to come all the way here if the intention is something that is not conquering or total dominion over us? We did this to our own fellow humans a couple of hundred years ago.

    So yeah, call it immature or insecure. But I prefer they just leave us alone to be honest.

    replies(1): >>45666326 #
    12. pndy ◴[22 Oct 25 07:12 UTC] No.45665786{3}[source]▶
    > But I'm sure we'd figure out a way to feel superior to them

    Imagine all these scifi fans who aren't able to see actors in their favorite franchise but the characters. All of this bumped by factor of 10: pestering aliens why they aren't using e.g. photon torpedoes...

    Still I'd be more concern about truly xenophobic people who'd either want to cease any contact - if it would happen or attack aliens to keep Earth and humanity "pure". Toss in religious fanatics seeing devils to spice things up.

    13. anonzzzies ◴[22 Oct 25 08:37 UTC] No.45666326{3}[source]▶
    But we hardly evolved past apes at this point (on any cosmic/earth timescale); these aliens have transportation that is technologically something akin to whatever scifi we came up with and deem mostly ideas that are not possible in reality. They could be around for 10s of millions of years while we are here just for a few 300k or so years with our real advancements just starting. They might have gone beyond the 'you land, I take, you die' kind of 'animal' thing we humans have?
    replies(1): >>45667621 #
    14. lelanthran ◴[22 Oct 25 11:43 UTC] No.45667621{4}[source]▶
    > But we hardly evolved past apes at this point

    And? Evolution is not "Progress to this $UTOPIC_POINT". Evolution does not mean "progress at all", using "progress" as you seem to use it in the rest of your post.

    They may have evolved to not have any compassion for any species that is not their own. They may have evolved to a point of having no compassion whatsoever.

    replies(1): >>45683463 #
    15. BLKNSLVR ◴[22 Oct 25 11:54 UTC] No.45667710{4}[source]▶
    Why did you bring your wife's ship?
    16. anonzzzies ◴[23 Oct 25 16:04 UTC] No.45683463{5}[source]▶
    I didn't say that about evolution, you knee jerked it.

    There is some (human, ape) logic that if you can survive millions of years while being technologically advanced, you probably have some compassion as if not, you would be extinct. But that's just human thinking; who knows. I would like to know.