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Do you worry about how rapacious a cockroach is on a distant island in the middle of the ocean? Even if, one day, you decided to visit that island and see what
by StanislavPetrov 6y ago
Do you worry about how rapacious a cockroach is on a distant island in the middle of the ocean? Even if, one day, you decided to visit that island and see what this distant place was like, would you feel compelled to seek out the cockroach and destroy it? Would you worry about the possibility that a million years from now the cockroach might develop the technology to escape its island and challenge you?
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoA million years? Again, they'd know the future tech path forward better than we, but I'd see a "cockroach" that went from basic agriculture to nuclear weapons and launching rockets into space within 100 years. We've had the tech to be a significant solar system race for 60 years now. If the military budget were allocated to space development we'd have a full fledged space civilization and manufacturing base by now.
- StanislavPetrov 6y agoIf you were a civilization that was a million years (or tens of millions of years) farther down the tech road from us, perhaps you wouldn't view a small outpost of intelligent apes that are barely able to visit their own nearby moon as a threat. The larger point is that its far from certain that alien beings would see us only as either a threat or a useful commodity. Both are possibilities but both are from from the only possibilities.
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoYou're only addressing the rapacious pole. If they are enlightened, they will very much see us as dangerous to the planet that needs to be curtailed.
- StanislavPetrov 6y agoYour assertion that a civilization that is a million (or more) years ahead of us technologically would see us as a threat is, ironically, just more confirmation that they have absolutely nothing to fear.