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If there are alien craft flying in a manner even remotely alleged by most UFO people, then we as a civilization are dead. D-E-A-D. Our best hope is compliant sl

If there are alien craft flying in a manner even remotely alleged by most UFO people, then we as a civilization are dead. D-E-A-D. Our best hope is compliant slaves or an interesting zoo. Because it implies essentially effortless arbitrary military and economic exploitation access to our planet. Craft that defy gravity, instantly accelerate in arbitrary directions? Presumably cross light years of distance? They could drop an asteroid on us at will. They could bring our civilization to its knees with simple smart rocks. Sufficiently advanced technology is magic, and this would indicate that level of advanced technology that we find magical. Either the civilization is rapacious, or, if they aren't, they will take one look at our history books and realize that we are rapacious.

pmarreck 3y ago
> If there are alien craft flying in a manner even remotely alleged by most UFO people, then we as a civilization are dead. D-E-A-D. Our best hope is compliant slaves or an interesting zoo. No, we're not. You clearly haven't read The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-Axelrod/dp/0465005640 https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-... . One of the startling broad-reaching conclusions you will reach after reading this book is that cooperation even between entities or groups of disparate power is always better in the long run assuming future contact will occur. That last part is the tricky bit, and is why (for example) divorce proceedings are so acrimonious. So sure, if you enslave someone, or a bunch of people, you will get a quick fix. But in the long run you will both gain far more cooperating, because cooperation enables people to contribute more to each other. IF these beings expect to deal with us for the foreseeable future, THE ONLY wise choice is cooperation. Period. And if that was NOT their goal, then I would submit that we'd already be 1) exploited for all we were worth already and then 2) killed or imprisoned by now. UFO reports (of the disc-shaped, wingless, noiseless, impossibly-performing standard kind) have been occurring since WW2( "foo fighters"). We're clearly VERY interesting; possibly the newest kids on the block, as it were...

pmarreck 3y ago

> If there are alien craft flying in a manner even remotely alleged by most UFO people, then we as a civilization are dead. D-E-A-D. Our best hope is compliant slaves or an interesting zoo. No, we're not. You clearly haven't read The Evolution of Cooperation by Robert Axelrod https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-Axelrod/dp/0465005640 https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Cooperation-Revised-Robert-... . One of the startling broad-reaching conclusions you will reach after reading this book is that cooperation even between entities or groups of disparate power is always better in the long run assuming future contact will occur. That last part is the tricky bit, and is why (for example) divorce proceedings are so acrimonious. So sure, if you enslave someone, or a bunch of people, you will get a quick fix. But in the long run you will both gain far more cooperating, because cooperation enables people to contribute more to each other. IF these beings expect to deal with us for the foreseeable future, THE ONLY wise choice is cooperation. Period. And if that was NOT their goal, then I would submit that we'd already be 1) exploited for all we were worth already and then 2) killed or imprisoned by now. UFO reports (of the disc-shaped, wingless, noiseless, impossibly-performing standard kind) have been occurring since WW2( "foo fighters"). We're clearly VERY interesting; possibly the newest kids on the block, as it were...