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If I came across a planet of smart monkeys and one monkey state had the most baddest mfers with the most insane tech and research, I’d want to learn about them.
by moomoo11 3y ago
If I came across a planet of smart monkeys and one monkey state had the most baddest mfers with the most insane tech and research, I’d want to learn about them.
Everyone’s already encountered the starting conditions in most other countries. US is the only one winning Civilization Earth. I’m a naturalized US citizen, for example. Could have ended up anywhere but it’s best here in terms of opportunity and making new stuff.
- robofanatic 3y agolol ... you are assuming aliens think like humans. Its almost impossible to tell what aliens consider "baddest mfers" or "insane tech and research".
- adventured 3y agoThe most advanced tech and research, as an overall, would be trivial for an advanced alien to decide. And the US has been leading in those categories for 80 years at least. The notion that it's impossible to figure out whether an advanced alien would think Afghanistan or the US have more advanced tech/research/science, is absurd. And if you can make that distinction, you can keep going.
- justinclift 3y ago> And the US has been leading in those categories for 80 years at least. Imagine being skipped over for first contact because your country invented "software patents", making itself uncompetitive... ;)
- zakki 3y agoI thought alien is looking for resources. They don’t care with the technology because they know they are more advanced.
- SturgeonsLaw 3y agoColonists with muskets and cannons didn't care which tribe had the best bows and spears
- marci 3y agoFor a species advanced enough for trivially navigating the universe, the difference between the US and Afghanistan would be trivial. If they are more in the individuality side of thing (in contrast to hive mind), the dumbest of their lot would probably be smarter than the smartest person we can find here, probably looking at us the way we look at other intelligent species. To measure us, would they look at the capacity to produce tech or consume tech (they would probably be more interested in East-Asia than North-America)? If they look at introducing themselves and communicate peacefully, what metrics would they look at to determine what society they want to deal with? If they look for dominance, once again they would hit where we produce tech, and hit our means of communication, which are worldwide.
- oceanplexian 3y ago> If they are more in the individuality side of thing (in contrast to hive mind), the dumbest of their lot would probably be smarter than the smartest person we can find here, probably looking at us the way we look at other intelligent species. I feel like people in this thread don't watch enough Science Fiction. There are LOTS of situations where a species could trivially navigate the universe (Someone stole the technology and ran away with it, the people who invented the technology died a million years ago, they were gifted the technology by a superior race, or it was discovered by accident). Lots of possibilities out there.
- marci 3y agoNo need for SF for this line of reasoning. You don't need to know anything about electricity, or physics, to turn on a light switch, or activate autopilot in a car. But a certain amount of understanding and craftsmanship is required to maintain things in working condition. If it's something discovered, you need a reverse-engineer the thing.
- ksaj 3y agoWhat if they include weapons, specifically guns, in their assessment?
- 3y ago
- escapedmoose 3y agoYou picked the US vs Afghanistan because it’s an absurd comparison. Now do US vs Japan
- hindsightbias 3y agoPerhaps they're less interested in primitive tech and more in those who defeated the guys with all that tech.
- tazjin 3y agoSatirical posts on HN have a whole different flavour to them!
- moomoo11 3y agoThe truth is out there. Somewhere in the middle.
- woodruffw 3y agoTo an alien without our particular brand of 21st century capital ethics, I'm not sure that the US is winning Civilization Earth.
- giantg2 3y agoIt likely would be the biggest threat given the weapons tech though. You generally want to study the things that pose the biggest threat for self preservation.
- gtop3 3y agoThis is highly speculative on both of our parts. I do think it's presumptuous to assume we'd be a threat to an entity that traveled >4ly. It sounds a lot like picking which classical civilization to study based on how strong their bows are when you are traveling in a stealth bomber.
- giantg2 3y ago"I do think it's presumptuous to assume we'd be a threat" You don't have to be a threat, just appear as the biggest possible one. "based on how strong their bows are when you are traveling in a stealth bomber." One has to know what a bow is and that they only have bows to come to that summary conclusion. If you have no knowledge of the capabilities, caution is warranted - whether we're talking about civilizations or a new species of spider.
- krapp 3y agoWe're talking about beings capable of harnessing enough energy to travel interstellar distances, possibly even harnessing (let's say for the sake of argument) strange new physics like warp drive or wormholes. They'll know at a glance whether we're a threat just by our scale of energy output, and they'll be able to tell from light-years away. No species that hasn't already colonized their solar system or started mining the plasma from their home star is going to be worth worrying about.
- netfortius 3y agoAssuming they don't check Florida first.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- finexplained 3y agoThe deltas between the military/technology of the worlds top economies might not even be noteworthy to a species capable of interstellar travel. From there perspective we might just all look the same.
- heavyset_go 3y ago> If I came across a planet of smart monkeys and one monkey state had the most baddest mfers with the most insane tech and research, I’d want to learn about them. Sounds like they'd care more about China/South Korea/Japan/Taiwan/etc then.
- VirusNewbie 3y ago> China/South Korea/Japan/Taiwan/etc then. Well, if they care about software, all of the above have inferior software compared to the US.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- merek 3y agoSounds like an internet connection would suffice.
- HL33tibCe7 3y agoNot really, most great tech originates in the US. China etc are good at copying. I know that’s an unfashionable statement, but let’s do away with this false modesty for once Btw I’m not from the US.
- heavyset_go 3y agoThe US can't even manufacture an iPhone if they wanted to. The world's tech comes out of East Asia.
- operatingthetan 3y agoBut the 'iPhones' of war come from America.
- nickpeterson 3y agoHey Siri put a missile at these coordinates…
- orbital-decay 3y ago"The notion of invasions by aliens was a projection of the aggressive traits of the predatory, barely civilized ape-man. If he himself willingly did unto others as he would rather not be done by, then he pictured the Advanced Civilization on much the same principle. Flotillas of galactic battleships were supposed to fall upon unsuspecting little planets, to lay hands on the local dollars, diamonds, chocolates, and, of course, beautiful women — for whom aliens had about as much use as we did for female crocodiles."
- arcticbull 3y ago> US is the only one winning Civilization Earth. Depends what you mean by winning. Other countries have different priorities, for instance the health and welfare of the population over individual wealth. That doesn't make one right or wrong, but it really this reflects on your priorities more than anything else. And that's ok! I'm just saying it's subjective, not objective, and there's no reason to believe that some aliens would share your personal beliefs in re: superiority and therefore prioritize observations there.
- Dalewyn 3y agoThe US is winning (or has won and keeps on winning) the Conquer Victory, the Diplomacy Victory, and the Culture Victory. I think that's the main means of winning Civilization? Been years since I played one.
- arcticbull 3y agoLast time I got nuked by Ghandi so it's hard to say.
- cperciva 3y agoIs it that shocking that a computer game made in the USA has notions of "winning" which align with those which are dominant in American culture?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- satvikpendem 3y agoWhat other win conditions would you add? The US is not the only country that conquers and exports culture, civilizations have been doing that since the first hunter gatherer planted some cereals on the banks of their closest river.
- cperciva 3y ago
- dahwolf 3y agoYou think extraterrestrial life is impressed with ad tech? If anything, they'd land in Veldhoven.
- krapp 3y ago>US is the only one winning Civilization Earth. I don't know. I feel like the countries without constant gun violence, where the government is actually capable of passing legislation, where the people actually accept that they live in a society with some acknowledgement of social responsibilities, and can access healthcare and education without incurring a lifetime of crippling debt, are currently winning at civilization a bit harder. Being the richest and the most capable at propaganda and world-ending violence isn't the same as being the most civilized.
- kelnos 3y agoI guess it depends on how you define "winning". I like your definition and analysis better, but some people...
- 627467 3y agoBeing naturalized one can forgive your bias. But this "the best civ on earth" seems just taken straight out of a 1990-2000s movie.
- throwaway892238 3y agoIt's funny how people confuse "most powerful nation" with "best nation". We have the biggest guns, and the most money, and the most prisoners, so we're #1. (Just ignore literally all other rankings)
- rtpg 3y agoWhy would you go to the middle of the American desert? There’s no magic in the ground (or maybe there is??)
- vlod 3y agoHHGTHG. Douglas Adams: “they buzz them. They find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one’s ever going to believe and then strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennas on their head and making beep beep noises.” src: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7320721-teasers-are-usually-rich-kids-with-nothing-to-do-they https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7320721-teasers-are-usually...
- probablypower 3y agoThis is absurd, and very american. Cute that you'd imagine an alien civilization to look at the Earth the same way you do. They may just as well look at humans as the white ants of a potential galactic bus stop.
- DoreenMichele 3y agoThis is absurd Some folks seem to think it's intentionally absurd. I thought about playing along and chatting up how New York is clearly the capital of the world if you don't realize us savages lack a world government, but all my comedian friends have told me to keep my day job. Or would if I had any comedian friends. Or, you know, a day job even.
- mxkopy 3y agoWhy of course. The coolest monkeys are the ones with the biggest bombs and fastest jets, right. Not the ones who have a knowledge of love so intimate they wrote an entire book just about sex positions. Of course, the aliens that can expend Jupiter's worth of energy to travel at lightspeed are impressed by the monkeys with the fastest planes, not the ones who claim they found a peace so profound it encompasses the universe. I think the super advanced aliens aren't showing themselves because we're letting a bunch of auto-fellating monkeys run the planet
- grecy 3y ago> US is the only one winning Civilization Earth Not a single city in the top 100 most livable cities on Earth. That's a very strange kind of winning. https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/global-liveability-index-2021/ https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/global-liveability-index-202...
- hollerith 3y ago>Each city is assigned a liveability score for more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. It is easier for the kind of person who reads HN to efficiently trade their labor for money in the US than in Europe, and this index does not account for that very important aspect of most people's lives -- earning power. American society is more chaotic and dangerous than Europe, I do concede. Maybe more Americans who have accumulated enough savings to last the rest of their lives should move to the top 100 cities in this index.
- ausbah 3y ago>only one winning Civilization earth you're really leaning into the out of touch engineer stereotypes if you think civilization can be won using criteria from a video game of all things, and that the main criteria of winning is tech & research and not say ability to sustain peace or end homelessness
- ineedasername 3y ago>If I came across a planet of smart monkeys and one monkey state had the most baddest mfers with the most insane tech and research If the ship of such an incredibly advanced civilization came across Earth then the differences between US technology & that of other parts of the world would require an anthropological microscope for them to detect. Like us looking back on Western vs. Eastern roman empire circa 400-500 C.E. and trying to decide which was more advanced. (well, at least < 476 C.E... being conquered is going to take one side down a few pegs)
- joegaebel 3y agoI've never seen a more perfect example of non-ironic American exceptionalism
- stubybubs 3y ago> with the most insane tech and research So... Switzerland, which has the Large Hadron Collider? That would probably be the most attractive thing to aliens. Maybe France, which is building ITER? Or the UK with a successful early nuclear fusion test? I mean it's cool that the US has YouTube and big pieces of metal that shoot smaller pieces of metal and all. Also they launch rockets, but everybody launches rockets. I'm just not sure aliens would be that interested in that, more like "secrets of the universe" type stuff that we're getting closer to.
- friend_and_foe 3y agoYou both have a point, but I'd like to add that maybe aliens aren't as interested in shiny things like collider's and plasma and all that, and more interested in organizations of living things that control resource flow across the oceans, which the US does for the entire world. If I was an alien that already understood the bosons and all that, it would be cool to watch a monkey planet figure that out, but I wouldn't learn much. But I could learn from an organizational structure with unilateral force projection capabilities across all specimens of this creature. There are things the US does that are mighty interesting.
- stubybubs 3y agoSure, you might also be just as interested in a society capable of working towards something like the LHC or ITER, by taking care of its citizens and through diplomacy. I think it's a more interesting goal than controlling the seas so that people can get cheap trinkets from China. And don't get me wrong, I'm just as addicted to my trinkets from China as anybody else, and I benefit from US hegemony. Just trying to think from a total outsider's perspective.
- idkyall 3y agoIf I were a visitor to planet Earth, I'd still want to visit the grand canyon, I think