What would happen next after an 'intervention-type' alien first contact

[Clovis]

" Battle Los Angeles " they sure weren't friendly.

 

[Catastrophe]

Is the former Clovis coming back please?

 

[Clovis]

At your service my friend.

 

[Clovis]

What if anything ,would they want from us? Something we have and they don't, or they have already used up what they had. It would have to be something very valuable and rare to them. Right off the top I can't think what that would be. Anyone else?

 

[Catastrophe]

Remember that short story about the woman and child with crew on an abandoned spaceship?

"Look, baby . . . " "Food"

Cat

 

[Clovis]

In the novel Passengers, those two had a child but only she was there when they were all were woken up 98 years later. She was all grown up 38, but both her parents had already died. Generational deep space missions.

 

[Clovis]

Remember that short story about the woman and child with crew on an abandoned spaceship?

"Look, baby . . . " "Food"

Cat

Yes I remember a short story like that. It was in the old Analog periodicals.

 

[Catastrophe]

In the novel Passengers, those two had a child but only she was there when they were all were woken up 98 years later. She was all grown up 38, but both her parents had already died. Generational deep space missions.

Is that by John Marrs? If so, great book. But his "The One" is even better imo.

Cat

P.S. Actually, there are several books called Passengers or The Passengers. The Marrs one is where several drivers in automatic cars are programmed to crash.

 

[Clovis]

Is that by John Marrs? If so, great book. But his "The One" is even better imo.

Cat

I don't remember it was an much older SciFi story, I rented it from the library. Then when the movie came out I bought the DVD.

 

[Clovis]

There is another one called The Passengers but that isn't it. The movie passengers is more of a galactic love story. But it's ok.

 

[Catastrophe]

What would happen next after an 'intervention-type' alien first contact

Surely this is a totally open ended question? It is asking for suggestions which could run into multitudes depending on the aliens temperament/intentions/ weaponry/star signs/what they had for breakfast?

Is this intended to tie up Astronomy for ever more or would it be prudent to impose some sort of limitation? Maybe 1,000,000 posts?

Cat

 

[Ken Fabian]

If we looked like we could achieve similar space travel capabilities and are likely to carry our warring nature and capabilities with us to become a threat and problem, alarmed aliens might act pre-emptively. Going by human history we do look like a species that can be a threat and a problem.

I don't think this is an actual concern because I don't think that kind of space travel is possible within the constraints of physics.

 

[Catastrophe]

I agree with Ken. The difficulties in getting close enough to start wars are probably only to be overcome by a species above wishing to be in contact with such primitive species.

Cat

 

[Phillip Huggan]

They would assume large groups are around 10x happier per person than a handful. They would not be sure. They would invent wormhole or some other technology nearby and hijack our brains to so experiment.
Individuals are threats to other individuals. There is also a threat of chain-of-command attacks. So the aliens would have to know whether they want people smart enough to threaten them. I'm sane at 500IQ but not at 600IQ. Maybe an astronaut is sane at 300IQ and not 400IQ.
I dunno, maybe recruit a few good people? You have weight Q-of-L of group size as well as the ratio of C-of-C attacks vs isolated ones that make you stay in your own ship and not get the social multiplier.
This is the exact premise of "Q-Who?". I few IQ pts don't matter much, but if we give actors good ethics, they will be arrogant and maybe make an not fully known risk happen. The Borg don't care about social status, which helps us avoid bad geopolitical events. They wouldn't kill dumb enough individuals. But they might threaten the ETs. They might even have negative Q-of-L multipliers re: other people around them.

A real example: before neuroimaging, I 2014 focused upon biolab pattern recognition AI. A bad pathogen would be identified and fibred to someone in command. But it could be hacked and it might be fibred to someone who would somehow unleash it, even though trained to avoid doing so. My system would've maybe stopped Covid right at the Wuhan LAb, and we wouldn't have this present pandemic. But a 2035 insurgent, might've gone crazy and used a biolab sample to make a 10% deadly designer pathogen. It is the same premise of being able well mop up old risks at the expense of forwarding to the next difficulty level quickly. The ethics are maybe not certain for even someone 800IQ. I expect to start forgetting stuff before 300IQ,

 

[Joel]

What if anything ,would they want from us? Something we have and they don't, or they have already used up what they had. It would have to be something very valuable and rare to them. Right off the top I can't think what that would be. Anyone else?

Yes. We have a bounty of liquid water. While scientist believe it to be common throughout the galaxy, I think they don't know as much as they think they do. Over the last 10 years so much of what they thought they knew has been proven incorrect.

 

[Ken Fabian]

What if anything ,would they want from us? Something we have and they don't, or they have already used up what they had. It would have to be something very valuable and rare to them. Right off the top I can't think what that would be. Anyone else?

If they are anything like Humans they would want a world to colonise.

Seems like plenty of people who post here would covet any world they think compatible with colonisation - something rare and valuable to them. Biochemical incompatibility might reduce the attractiveness - or just make extreme terraforming starting with sterilization more attractive. Intelligent species may live in harmony with their environment, use biological "technologies" ie not be obvious and be at grave risk for that. I am not sure we could make any kind of quick assessment from orbit and be confident we won't do genocide by mistake. And if local species object violently (even after humans flattened The Sacred Ancestral Grove because it looked unoccupied) or just harm humans by accident, look out.

Humans will find reasons, justifications, excuses. Or, if those are insufficient, scapegoats after.

I like to think that any humans who could manage such journeys would fee no need to live on any planets and would not covet it but the human enthusiasm for colonisation looks strong and undeniable.

 

[Phillip Huggan]

If they are anything like Humans they would want a world to colonise.

Agree but our world is vulnerable past a 21 century tech level. The Interstellar blight is hopefully hard to engineer this half of the century. We are stuck underground with air-filters eventually. A 2.5G gravity well might be hard for advanced aliens to engineer with. 1.5G is maybe doable. Why not an easier .5G world to geo-engineer Xanadu City from? Why not just asteroids? Keeping apart Earth's elements will be necessary 2200-ish. Lining Earth's granite-sandstone boundaries with existing sensors even, might be a start, GPR at boundaries surfaces, inwards. Our heterogenous geology and seas with minerals will be statistically misused, and by changing a few things (such as the target from an Earth-like planet) you have a safer alien world. They could use fusion from gas planets (to control amount of each element and monitor it) and make a world with sensors to look for 25th century illegal illicit technologies. Our world as is looks hard to enact that; it has forests and ecosystems you could make weaponry out of. They no doubt have their own S.Hawking to police against, along with technology matching his theoretical studies.

 

[Phillip Huggan]

They would invent wormhole or some other technology nearby and hijack our brains to so experiment.

For example, they might have technology allowing aliens to holophone anyone in their own light cone or even wider. They have been using it a fixed way and don't know if using it a different way works better, maybe they are a blob (located near) of individuals afraid to lose to pirates detaching themselves and fleeing to deep space, and only have one holonet. So they brainwash dumb people, kill or negotiate with people aware they are being brainwashed, and they upgrade only that holonet technology on earth, and observe how we use it. Maybe our military become better by talking to writers, or our rich make friends with 3rd worlders or something. What we have are Q-of-L gains you might not be able to model easily/safely. I imagine pulsars and magnetostars and black holes might be valuable, not Earth's natural resources unless they are 2300AD or less. The Sun is nice to look at. A good enough shade maybe 2600AD makes many single stars safe enough.