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I would think that knowledge of ETs would be very destabilizing for our society. Why go into work the next day if there are literal ETs visiting our planet? Why

by asdff 3y ago

I would think that knowledge of ETs would be very destabilizing for our society. Why go into work the next day if there are literal ETs visiting our planet? Why pay taxes? Why fight for generals who have lied to you? Why worship your god? Especially if its a truth that has been kept secret for so long, that would be particularly damning for the legitimacy of current governments of the world in the eyes of most people, I would assume. On the other hand, if we have our hands on ET craft, you'd have to imagine there are some capitalists who would like to profit hand over fist over whatever this technology might offer, people who aren't well leveraged for this revolution be damned and left to fight amongst themselves while your cabal maintains the largest technological advantage relative to other groups in human history. We have plenty of examples of capitalists profiteering at the expense of humans and the earth today. This is all speculation of course, who knows what is happening.

apocalyptic0n3 3y ago
> I would think that knowledge of ETs would be very destabilizing for our society. Why go into work the next day if there are literal ETs visiting our planet? Why pay taxes? Why fight for generals who have lied to you? Why worship your god? Maybe I'm being naive, but unless there was an imminent invasion, I don't think it would change most lives at all in any significant way. You go to work because you need to eat and in order to eat you need money from working. You pay your taxes because there are penalties for not doing so. Generals and politicians already lie to everyone, so you keep fighting their wars regardless. None of these change for anyone unless there's some breakdown in society from some external cause, such as an invasion or war. The only one of those that has any real merit in my mind is that it would probably cause some people to question religion. But the opposite could also be true and the religious types might herald it as evidence that there is a god because only a god could conceive of such technology.
- asdff 3y ago
  I'm sorry, but this would be an entire paradigm shift of how we see ourselves as a species. To think people would show up to work on monday I think is uncertain. We would be going from a millenia of human primacy on this planet to having these unknown apex predators lurking with unknown intentions. It's so completely unprecedented that it would be hard to imagine there wouldn't be social unrest, and major dissatisfaction with governments that have chosen to lie to the people they allegedly serve and represent. You might start to question who really runs the world, if some secret cabal had been able to keep the greatest secret of all time a secret for decades, and make decisions for the entire planet independent of our supposed democratic process.
  - apocalyptic0n3 3y ago
    If any of that were true, this "secret cabal" that really runs the world wouldn't have allowed these things to be revealed in the first place. If they did, they're either inept because they couldn't see the scenario coming that you did or they don't actually control as much as you are suggesting they would (or don't exist at all). This just comes across as conspiracy mongering. Yes, there will be people who think like that but those people already think like that. There wouldn't be some mass collapse in society or government. The most that would happen is people would be interested in the information released, acknowledge the government has secrets just like they did yesterday, and move on with life.
pc86 3y ago
What are you smoking where there's a clear line from "this thing crashed in the desert 50 years ago, we still know basically nothing about it" to everyone becoming an atheist and tax evader? Alien intelligence would be one of the most important discoveries of our species but you still have to wake up the next morning and go to work.
- moffkalast 3y ago
  A real eye opener regarding this has been the ongoing war in Ukraine. For some reason I always had this picture of war being people constantly hiding in bunkers, looting and stealing in a sort of apocalyptic doomsday prepper way, whoever remains working in tank factories around the clock, that sort of thing. But no, their entire country is being blown up on a daily basis, apartments being hit by cruise missiles, streets being shelled and people just go to work and school or whatever like it's business as usual. I guess in the end, what else can you really do? Life is banal. Like if the imminent threat of grisly death doesn't get people to stop living in a society then literally nothing else will. Not aliens, not AGI, not the return of Jesus, not even everyone magically turning into frogs. Well ok that last one might do it.
  - lisasays 3y ago
    Their entire country is being blown up on a daily basis, That's the thing - except for places very close to the front lines, only very tiny portion of the country is getting hit. So no, it's not "the entire country, on a daily basis". You are correct though that the media loves to paint it as a 24x7 apocalyptic hellscape (mostly via selective imagery, independent of what is actually said in the articles). That's how they get your anxiety molecules jumping, and thus make their money, after all.
  - barbariangrunge 3y ago
    > Life is banal. I wouldn't word it like that
    - pc86 3y ago
      Why not?

by asdff 3y ago

apocalyptic0n3 3y ago

> I would think that knowledge of ETs would be very destabilizing for our society. Why go into work the next day if there are literal ETs visiting our planet? Why pay taxes? Why fight for generals who have lied to you? Why worship your god? Maybe I'm being naive, but unless there was an imminent invasion, I don't think it would change most lives at all in any significant way. You go to work because you need to eat and in order to eat you need money from working. You pay your taxes because there are penalties for not doing so. Generals and politicians already lie to everyone, so you keep fighting their wars regardless. None of these change for anyone unless there's some breakdown in society from some external cause, such as an invasion or war. The only one of those that has any real merit in my mind is that it would probably cause some people to question religion. But the opposite could also be true and the religious types might herald it as evidence that there is a god because only a god could conceive of such technology.

asdff 3y ago
I'm sorry, but this would be an entire paradigm shift of how we see ourselves as a species. To think people would show up to work on monday I think is uncertain. We would be going from a millenia of human primacy on this planet to having these unknown apex predators lurking with unknown intentions. It's so completely unprecedented that it would be hard to imagine there wouldn't be social unrest, and major dissatisfaction with governments that have chosen to lie to the people they allegedly serve and represent. You might start to question who really runs the world, if some secret cabal had been able to keep the greatest secret of all time a secret for decades, and make decisions for the entire planet independent of our supposed democratic process.
- apocalyptic0n3 3y ago
  If any of that were true, this "secret cabal" that really runs the world wouldn't have allowed these things to be revealed in the first place. If they did, they're either inept because they couldn't see the scenario coming that you did or they don't actually control as much as you are suggesting they would (or don't exist at all). This just comes across as conspiracy mongering. Yes, there will be people who think like that but those people already think like that. There wouldn't be some mass collapse in society or government. The most that would happen is people would be interested in the information released, acknowledge the government has secrets just like they did yesterday, and move on with life.

pc86 3y ago

What are you smoking where there's a clear line from "this thing crashed in the desert 50 years ago, we still know basically nothing about it" to everyone becoming an atheist and tax evader? Alien intelligence would be one of the most important discoveries of our species but you still have to wake up the next morning and go to work.

moffkalast 3y ago
A real eye opener regarding this has been the ongoing war in Ukraine. For some reason I always had this picture of war being people constantly hiding in bunkers, looting and stealing in a sort of apocalyptic doomsday prepper way, whoever remains working in tank factories around the clock, that sort of thing. But no, their entire country is being blown up on a daily basis, apartments being hit by cruise missiles, streets being shelled and people just go to work and school or whatever like it's business as usual. I guess in the end, what else can you really do? Life is banal. Like if the imminent threat of grisly death doesn't get people to stop living in a society then literally nothing else will. Not aliens, not AGI, not the return of Jesus, not even everyone magically turning into frogs. Well ok that last one might do it.
- lisasays 3y ago
  Their entire country is being blown up on a daily basis, That's the thing - except for places very close to the front lines, only very tiny portion of the country is getting hit. So no, it's not "the entire country, on a daily basis". You are correct though that the media loves to paint it as a 24x7 apocalyptic hellscape (mostly via selective imagery, independent of what is actually said in the articles). That's how they get your anxiety molecules jumping, and thus make their money, after all.
- barbariangrunge 3y ago
  > Life is banal. I wouldn't word it like that
  - pc86 3y ago
    Why not?