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I can think of loads of reasons they haven't made contact, from the altruistic (something like the prime directive) to self-preservation interests. Even if the

by api 9y ago

I can think of loads of reasons they haven't made contact, from the altruistic (something like the prime directive) to self-preservation interests. Even if they're massively more advanced, why invite trouble? We're much more intelligent than fire ants but I for one know I'm not in the habit of sitting on fire ant mounds. These two can go together. If they contact us and we become belligerent, they may be forced to annihilate us. That would be morally reprehensible to them, so the solution is not to make contact.

deleted 9y ago
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jerf 9y ago
"altruistic (something like the prime directive)" Related to the solutions to the Fermi paradox, explanations for why the putatively abundant aliens have not contacted us need to cover all the aliens. And the "Prime Directive" is a very, very, very particular definition of "altruistic". I, for one, don't even agree that it's altruistic. Even Star Trek, where it has basically magical dramatic force severed from real concerns, couldn't really argue consistently that it was altruistic: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Pen_Pals_(episode) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Pen_Pals_(episode) Why wouldn't there be a species that looks at us, concludes we're ultimately irrelevant, and just converts our solar system into computronium anyhow? Why wouldn't that be the cosmic evolutionary winner? (They could even altruistically upload us into an equivalent simulation; while I don't particularly "believe" it, my favorite pet solution to the Fermi paradox is that Earth was uploaded an arbitrary amount of time ago and we've just been simulated ever since out of ethical concerns, a simulation which for simplicity and perhaps even ethical reasons has no other civilizations in it. For all we know they actually digitized Earth in the dinosaur era and in realtime it may in fact still be "millions of years ago" if our simulation runs faster than real time.)

by api 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

jerf 9y ago

"altruistic (something like the prime directive)" Related to the solutions to the Fermi paradox, explanations for why the putatively abundant aliens have not contacted us need to cover all the aliens. And the "Prime Directive" is a very, very, very particular definition of "altruistic". I, for one, don't even agree that it's altruistic. Even Star Trek, where it has basically magical dramatic force severed from real concerns, couldn't really argue consistently that it was altruistic: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Pen_Pals_(episode) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Pen_Pals_(episode) Why wouldn't there be a species that looks at us, concludes we're ultimately irrelevant, and just converts our solar system into computronium anyhow? Why wouldn't that be the cosmic evolutionary winner? (They could even altruistically upload us into an equivalent simulation; while I don't particularly "believe" it, my favorite pet solution to the Fermi paradox is that Earth was uploaded an arbitrary amount of time ago and we've just been simulated ever since out of ethical concerns, a simulation which for simplicity and perhaps even ethical reasons has no other civilizations in it. For all we know they actually digitized Earth in the dinosaur era and in realtime it may in fact still be "millions of years ago" if our simulation runs faster than real time.)