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Let’s suppose our earth is visited by aliens. Giant extraterrestial spaceships appear. They make contact, abduct a couple of humans, some of which return with s

Let’s suppose our earth is visited by aliens. Giant extraterrestial spaceships appear. They make contact, abduct a couple of humans, some of which return with strange diseases. Oh yeah, and heaps of iPads as gifts. The people that make it back speak of a strange society, where everybody is essentially a mindless part of a big mainframe, not unlike the Borg in Star Trek. One day, the aliens make contact. We try to fend them off, but our weapons don’t seem to harm them. They explain that their intentions are good, and that by assimilating mankind, we no longer have to deal with hunger, poverty, crime, fear or even death. You like? Absurd, right? Yet this is probably not far from how the Sentinelese see us. They have heard from diseases they cannot fight from other tribes, they have witnessed the abductions. Why should things be different all of the sudden? My point is: we have to stop seeing our culture or civilization as superior. In the alien analogy, becoming a Borg-like drone is probably far better in the eyes of the aliens. Why would these ‘savage’ humans would want to deal with the perils of life? Why can’t they see that we’re just here to help them? Their culture, their world view is so far apart from ours. Do we really think that, when we show them a modern hospital, they’ll think it’s a good idea? Do we really believe that these people would somehow benefit from things like cell phones, cars, education, healthcare? Besides, we can’t show them just the good stuff. We can’t NOT show them pollution, taxes, budget crises, alcoholism, child pornography or facebook. I’m sure the ones that genuinly want to help these people have good intentions. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. No matter how good our intentions are, making contact is not in the best interest of these people. They don’t need our view of what is civilized, and they don’t need our vices and virtues. And they make it pretty clear, too. Leave them alone.

resu_nimda 13y ago
The devil is in the details, as always. Would I want to be left alone by the Borg? Yes. But what if it was The Culture? I would be very disappointed if a civilization like that saw us and said "Oh, they probably wouldn't want all of our bullshit, leave them alone." I'm sure there are many who would disagree. The big problem with the alien analogy is our level of knowledge and language. The tribesmen are...savages. There is no framework whatsoever for them to understand anything about modern society and make reasoned evaluations. Conversely, it's hard to imagine that scenario between us and aliens. It's certainly possible that their society is so far beyond our wildest dreams that we can't even begin to make sense of it, but it's also possible that we have crossed some fundamental threshold of knowledge and communication. Is our culture superior, is it not, how can that be evaluated? Most people do tend to stay in it rather than set out into the woods. Of course they have been biased towards that since birth, likewise for the Sentinelese and their ways, it's a really interesting and highly subjective question. Whether we attempt to contact/assimilate them or not, we have made a choice. If we did try, it could go well or it could go poorly; they could be eternally grateful for knowledge and technology, or they could be destroyed. There are so many factors and ideological viewpoints at play, I just don't understand how people here can be so sure that one way or the other is The Right Thing to Do.
- dirktheman 13y ago
  Thank you for giving the most reasonable comment in this entire discussion. You're absolutely right, there is no way for us to objectively judge whether they will benefit from our 'help' or not. I don't know for sure if not contacting them is the best way for them. However, they make it clear that they don't appreciate our contacting them. I think that as long as they're not asking for our help and/or are in apparent need for help, we should let them be.
- ricardobeat 13y ago
  > The tribesmen are...savages tribesmen.. savages.. how about people? You can't judge them solely by technology. If the historians are correct, they have 65.000 years of cultural evolution under their belts. The thing is, we know for a fact that attempting contact or "assimilation" will result in a wide variety of failures. It has happened again and again. There is no incentive at all for us to make them fare well in our society. We can't even take care of our own. They seem to be healthy, happy and free of trouble; why not focus your good will on the 1 billion other people that are already 'assimilated' and live in much worse conditions?
SilasX 13y ago
>You like? ... yes?
bargl 13y ago
This guy posted an article that affirms exactly what you are saying. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6069163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6069163

resu_nimda 13y ago

The devil is in the details, as always. Would I want to be left alone by the Borg? Yes. But what if it was The Culture? I would be very disappointed if a civilization like that saw us and said "Oh, they probably wouldn't want all of our bullshit, leave them alone." I'm sure there are many who would disagree. The big problem with the alien analogy is our level of knowledge and language. The tribesmen are...savages. There is no framework whatsoever for them to understand anything about modern society and make reasoned evaluations. Conversely, it's hard to imagine that scenario between us and aliens. It's certainly possible that their society is so far beyond our wildest dreams that we can't even begin to make sense of it, but it's also possible that we have crossed some fundamental threshold of knowledge and communication. Is our culture superior, is it not, how can that be evaluated? Most people do tend to stay in it rather than set out into the woods. Of course they have been biased towards that since birth, likewise for the Sentinelese and their ways, it's a really interesting and highly subjective question. Whether we attempt to contact/assimilate them or not, we have made a choice. If we did try, it could go well or it could go poorly; they could be eternally grateful for knowledge and technology, or they could be destroyed. There are so many factors and ideological viewpoints at play, I just don't understand how people here can be so sure that one way or the other is The Right Thing to Do.

dirktheman 13y ago
Thank you for giving the most reasonable comment in this entire discussion. You're absolutely right, there is no way for us to objectively judge whether they will benefit from our 'help' or not. I don't know for sure if not contacting them is the best way for them. However, they make it clear that they don't appreciate our contacting them. I think that as long as they're not asking for our help and/or are in apparent need for help, we should let them be.
ricardobeat 13y ago
> The tribesmen are...savages tribesmen.. savages.. how about people? You can't judge them solely by technology. If the historians are correct, they have 65.000 years of cultural evolution under their belts. The thing is, we know for a fact that attempting contact or "assimilation" will result in a wide variety of failures. It has happened again and again. There is no incentive at all for us to make them fare well in our society. We can't even take care of our own. They seem to be healthy, happy and free of trouble; why not focus your good will on the 1 billion other people that are already 'assimilated' and live in much worse conditions?

SilasX 13y ago

>You like? ... yes?

bargl 13y ago

This guy posted an article that affirms exactly what you are saying. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6069163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6069163