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Would we have to worry about communicating with aliens if they showed up here? Consider that the aliens would have flown their practically-magical craft umptee

Would we have to worry about communicating with aliens if they showed up here? Consider that the aliens would have flown their practically-magical craft umpteen billion of miles to land on a specific planet, one would hope they arrive with some sort of plan to speak to the natives.

eridius 10y ago
Depends on why they're here. Also I don't accept it as given that a species that has figured out interstellar travel has necessarily figured out how to actually talk to an alien.
pavel_lishin 10y ago
This is the kind of thing I could spend hours talking and thinking about, and often do, and now will by presenting some possible reasons why this may not be the case: 1. The aliens had no idea we were here; they expect life to be so rare as to be practically non-existent. They no more expected us to be here than we expected to see green-skinned Martians out of Curiosity's camera. 2. Interstellar drives aren't like getting in a vehicle and driving to a destination; maybe it's not possible to pick exactly where you're going, or it's not possible to know where you'll end up until you get there - like exploring a maze, eventually you'll have a map, but at first you're just blundering around randomly. 3. Perhaps they assume that being planet-bound and technologically unsavvy, we'd figure that our only hope of getting anything done was to sit and wait for aliens to arrive - so we'd be the ones preparing to make contact. 4. They don't care about communication. We're not a threat, therefore we don't matter. Or we're not like them in some way, therefore we don't matter. Or we're not a fully-fledged member of the Galactic Federation, therefore we don't matter. 5. They're criminals, and don't wish to be identified. Communicating with us would give us clues that would allow us to figure out who they are, or pass those clues onto whatever passes for law enforcement, so it's in their best interests to be as opaque as possible. ("Why yes, Officer Phsgogmkk, the aliens who landed here last week communicated in subject-object-verb form, didn't seem to have a specific noun form for plural objects, and had seventeen terms for this color-spectrum-range that we just call 'green'." "Aha, we've got 'em now! Will you testify in court?") 6. Huh, you mean this thing translates me through space? I thought I was inventing a time machine/new power plant/quantum dejuggliblier! Weird. Anyway, what are these little two-legged things gathering around me? 7. They don't communicate, because there isn't a them; the whole "species" is some sort of hive, and all communication is implicit and internal and "communication" isn't even a concept that their mind possesses. 8. Similarly, they're unconscious and have nothing to say and no interest in hearing anything we have to say. (Peter Watts' "Blindsight" touches on this a bit.)

eridius 10y ago

Depends on why they're here. Also I don't accept it as given that a species that has figured out interstellar travel has necessarily figured out how to actually talk to an alien.

pavel_lishin 10y ago

This is the kind of thing I could spend hours talking and thinking about, and often do, and now will by presenting some possible reasons why this may not be the case: 1. The aliens had no idea we were here; they expect life to be so rare as to be practically non-existent. They no more expected us to be here than we expected to see green-skinned Martians out of Curiosity's camera. 2. Interstellar drives aren't like getting in a vehicle and driving to a destination; maybe it's not possible to pick exactly where you're going, or it's not possible to know where you'll end up until you get there - like exploring a maze, eventually you'll have a map, but at first you're just blundering around randomly. 3. Perhaps they assume that being planet-bound and technologically unsavvy, we'd figure that our only hope of getting anything done was to sit and wait for aliens to arrive - so we'd be the ones preparing to make contact. 4. They don't care about communication. We're not a threat, therefore we don't matter. Or we're not like them in some way, therefore we don't matter. Or we're not a fully-fledged member of the Galactic Federation, therefore we don't matter. 5. They're criminals, and don't wish to be identified. Communicating with us would give us clues that would allow us to figure out who they are, or pass those clues onto whatever passes for law enforcement, so it's in their best interests to be as opaque as possible. ("Why yes, Officer Phsgogmkk, the aliens who landed here last week communicated in subject-object-verb form, didn't seem to have a specific noun form for plural objects, and had seventeen terms for this color-spectrum-range that we just call 'green'." "Aha, we've got 'em now! Will you testify in court?") 6. Huh, you mean this thing translates me through space? I thought I was inventing a time machine/new power plant/quantum dejuggliblier! Weird. Anyway, what are these little two-legged things gathering around me? 7. They don't communicate, because there isn't a them; the whole "species" is some sort of hive, and all communication is implicit and internal and "communication" isn't even a concept that their mind possesses. 8. Similarly, they're unconscious and have nothing to say and no interest in hearing anything we have to say. (Peter Watts' "Blindsight" touches on this a bit.)