Which institutions will react on alien invasion?

lopez

Member
i don't know if i am the first one to bring this up but there is actually a protocol for contact with aliens, what ever form of contact this maybe. i saw it on a doco on SETI the reporter asked a spokesperson from SETI what they [SETI] would do if they made contact and he replied that the UN is to be informed and the have procedures in place to make a global response...

but whether people were to actually follow these UN procedures is anyone's guess...
 

ltdanjuly10

New Member
I would like to make several points
1. Presuming that EBE's would fight like us is a gigantic leap of faith. Nature points towards violence as a trait of intelligence (monkey territory wars, dolphins killing nonthreatening sharks, mankind) Interstellar war may no be impractical if that is what you species focuses on. There may be an entire species out there that's supreme effort is "Interstellar defense" or one that terraforms planets into works of art. The point being that if a highly advance species puts its mind to it, it can do what it wants. Culturally they may see war in a different manner. Imagine if an entire species beams down to earth unarmed and challenges us to hand to hand combat for the planet!, True even i think that that is unlikely but presuming a human mindset for an EBE is illogical and someday just might get this race killed.
2. They might no be all that more advanced then us. Using current technology (Look at Orion and other Space vessel concepts) your descendants can make it to a new star, it would just take a heck of a long time. For some species it may not be that long or they can just use cryo technology (if sufficiently advanced) so now a relatively primitive race has arrived at earths doorstep and demands to be let in
3. As for "They'd just drop a big rock on us" or "they'd engineer a genetic super virus to kill us", they might no have the tools to do so. Also if they are not experienced at Interstellar war they might not know how.
That said they might be so advanced that at any moment they aim a Gamma Burst at our planet and wipe us all clean without us even knowing what happened....Fun to think about
Bottom line to think like an alien requires that you know what aliens think.
 

Locarnus

New Member
Interesting thread.

@Itdanjuly10:
Sure with the travel time. If they start the journey without FTL and we are only eg some decades below that level, we might advance to a much higher level in the time that it takes them to come here.

But they would be aware of this and take it into account (probing before).
And it would be unlikely that humans are the first target if aliens are hostile.

If the intentions are hostile (which I doubt, but this thread is about invasion).
As a starting point you can take the known and infer from it (but this can be totally wrong, naturally)

Take the most extreme examples known to set a basic range of what is surely possible.
So we are searching for examples of a species conducting the worst known chaos and destruction, examples of tech differences on conflicts, religious, territorial and other interests for starting and conducting them, and so on.

We find a species called humans. And we have quite an ample collection of reference for those.

1. Take a look at human confrontations
eg Cajamarca
Pizzaro with about 170 spanish soldiers opposing ~ 80,000 strong Inca army
result: ~6,000 - 7,000 dead Incas, 1 Spanish wounded

or for direct confrontation eg the Iraq - US confrontation
and thats only few decades in tech & doctrine difference

Anyone thinking humans would stand the slightest possibility of a remote military chance against a minimally determined Alien species coming here is really ...

2. But we can learn more from the infos about those humans.
The concept of opportunity costs.

And thats the pivot element.

As long as the aggressor has a some concept of opportunity costs (so is not a fanatic or something), the only thing the attacked needs to do is to apply it.

And there are 4 basic ways to do it.
a) Decrease the expected gains of the unwanted option (eg attack on earth).
b) Increase the expected costs of the unwanted option (eg attack on earth).
c) Increase the expected gains of an alternative option (eg no attack).
d) Decrease the expected costs of an alternative option (eg no attack).

Given the utility function of the Aliens at a certain threshold the alternative is seen to be better and thats it.

There are ample examples in human history.
Some more recent ones are Afghanistan (British Empire, Russians, NATO aso), or Vietnam - US or whatever.
Just opportunity costs.

Basic economics.
Simple.
 

ltdanjuly10

New Member
Interesting thread.
We find a species called humans. And we have quite an ample collection of reference for those.
Take a look at human confrontations
But we can learn more from the infos about those humans.
There are ample examples in human history.
My whole point was that using human examples is inadequate at best, It is like trying to infer the capabilities and behavior of a lemur in Madagascar with only a gecko in southeast Asian as in information source. They both live, die, breath, reproduce etc. but they are vastly different organisms.
I don't picture aliens sitting in a "Freedom Cruiser" clothed in Dress orange uniforms and discussing their scheme for a "Shock and Awe Campaign" against the earthlings (I could be wrong). Based on there history, evolution and experience they may know nothing about war, we may be their first. And depending on how long ago they left they can arrive at any time
 

Belesari

New Member
Interesting thread.

@Itdanjuly10:
.
Well as has been pointed out their ALIEN.

For instance what if there entire civilization exist in a constant state of war of dominance. And because of that they feel they must show dominance to us because why? That is what all intelligent species do.

What if they are 1% more advanced evolutionarily to us as we are to monkyes? Would we even count as intelligent life?

People used to say that it was ok to own slaves because they were animals savages and not really human. What if that is the way they would see us.

Like you said its all about economics. But to them maybe the cost is worth the effort simply for the experience maybe they simply see war as Life. Like say you or i would see eating meat.

And seriously if you were a race of happiness and double rainbows would you look at humanity and say you know what lets show them how to use our technology then they will be calm and logical.

200 yrs later 327 systems utterly destroyed 9 billion dead and 4 intelligent species wipped out....

"You know bob next time you want to "uplift" a species of oppertunistic predators with a gift for engineering............PUNCH YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!":D
 

Locarnus

New Member
My whole point was that using human examples is inadequate at best, It is like trying to infer the capabilities and behavior of a lemur in Madagascar with only a gecko in southeast Asian as in information source. They both live, die, breath, reproduce etc. but they are vastly different organisms.
I don't picture aliens sitting in a "Freedom Cruiser" clothed in Dress orange uniforms and discussing their scheme for a "Shock and Awe Campaign" against the earthlings (I could be wrong). Based on there history, evolution and experience they may know nothing about war, we may be their first. And depending on how long ago they left they can arrive at any time
I agree, its most likely not what it would really be, but at least it gives a basic range of possibilities. Like a starting point for brainstorming.
And sure, they may have no knowledge of the concept of war. But then maybe they would not see the destruction of humans to be a war. They may just see it as removing a dominant parasite organism, which decreases the biodiversity of this planet. And keep some of this parasites in a habitat for study.
It would be hard to argue against it.

Well as has been pointed out their ALIEN.

For instance what if there entire civilization exist in a constant state of war of dominance. And because of that they feel they must show dominance to us because why? That is what all intelligent species do.

What if they are 1% more advanced evolutionarily to us as we are to monkyes? Would we even count as intelligent life?

People used to say that it was ok to own slaves because they were animals savages and not really human. What if that is the way they would see us.

Like you said its all about economics. But to them maybe the cost is worth the effort simply for the experience maybe they simply see war as Life. Like say you or i would see eating meat.

And seriously if you were a race of happiness and double rainbows would you look at humanity and say you know what lets show them how to use our technology then they will be calm and logical.

200 yrs later 327 systems utterly destroyed 9 billion dead and 4 intelligent species wipped out....

"You know bob next time you want to "uplift" a species of oppertunistic predators with a gift for engineering............PUNCH YOURSELF!!!!!!!!!!!!":D
:rotfl at the last one

I surely agree. In the so praised antics (eg greek), not being a greek meant, that you are a barbarian. And that is not the term barbarian as used today, it is rather the subhuman meaning like 70 years ago. No different attributes like color or so required.

And about slaves. Given our current state of tech, it is more efficient to produce many products by using robots, given proper capital endowment. Even cheaper then slaves (ie child labor or so). So I guess that space travelling aliens have enough capital endowment, that a continued use of human slaves is just inefficient in most respects.

And sure, it can be worth it for them, for non econ reasons.

Maybe just entertainment. Humans have fun watching the behavior of other humans to be locked into a container complex. Or forced to eat insects or so. Or watching war movies, or ones involving blue natives fighting their own kind.

Maybe its cheaper to get some own criminals, euip them and drop them on earth. Saves the CGI expenses and you have the "real" and "live" tags. Hell, make a weakly poll where to drop next and offer your wealty/companies to equip one of the dropped criminals or whatever and wearing the logo.
"This Predator was sponsored by Intergalactic food. We offer cheap and healthy food, anywhere, anytime." :D
Not so unbelievable at all.
 

Locarnus

New Member
Aliens are putting estrogen in the water supply!!! AHHHHHHHHHH:alian2

^plot from a British tv series i just watched
:D great

Found another possibility surfing youtube.

If they are anyhow like us (humanoid), and they dont just shoot us on sight, they dont stand a chance.

We export junk food, private television, unlimited pr0n access and simliar and they will be no threat at all in no time.

It s like the old proverb.
"Never fight an idiot. He drags you down to his level and beats you with experience."

so @ topic: the private sectors influence at its best
 

TaranisAttack

Banned Member
LMFAO!!!

You can't be serious?

I'd be more worried about a giant fleet of Wingman / Sampaix clones piloting flying dishwashers invading :)
 

YorgosChrys

New Member
LOL...lovely subject but I'd like to take a serious take on it...

ok...set...ready...go...that is going to be kind of a long read...

So, first of all...Right now we have no knowledge of aliens being out there at all, ok? Whether they would be monocellular organisms or Earth-invading monsters we just dont know...So, if at any given time an alien ship or armada is spotted heading towards Earth the first thing to do would be to assess their intentions. Are they invading? Are they just making first contact? OR... They havent even noticed that curious funny little race of bipeds residing on that blue, brown and green rock and they're just passing us by!!! Keep in mind that our only foolproof signature of existence that can be picked up outside our own planet is just the EM waves we're emitting whether that would be TV signals, cell phone conversations, radio signals or whatever. Now we cant tell for sure since we don't have the tehcnological expertise yet but we're pretty sure that EM waves are the most primitive way of communicating...plus the Universe is SO FULL of them EM's being emitted from everywhere to everywhere that it would take more than luck and advanced alien technology to pick up our 100 years worth of EM signals amongst the billions of years worth of EM chatter the Universe has produced. Now what does all that add up to? That unless the said ship or armada is equipped with some sort of EM sensor(I guess that would be a mere antenna LOL) specifically for tracking down backward, severely underdeveloped civilizations like ours, they probably wont even notice that a sentient species is living on our planet. Much like you don't notice the microbes' colony residing on your door handle everytime you are going through that door.
Second of all. I think it's funny how you Americans think you should be tasked with dealing with the aliens..:p::p::p:...I dont think that would be prudent since it's generally not a good idea to send cowboys do your negotiating...I think you guys would be better off kept as a reserve in case things do get ugly. After all the UN is known to have made contigency plans in case of alien visitors....Look this up in Google and you''l find all the relevant info you'll need. Unfortunately I'm still a junior member and cant provide you with links yet. Anyway all I'm saying is that this concerns man as a species and not Americans in particular...though for long I have suspected that an "American" is actually an alien species, that is not proven yet and they shall be considered human for the sake of simplicity in this theoretical endeavour I'm presenting you with here.
Third of all...I think I read somewhere someone suggest that logic dictates that an alien invasion coming from the other side of the Universe would be very difficult to accomplish due to logistics and supply issues. I cant really rule that out but whenever such matters come up I tend to think in analogies. Like so...How difficult would it be for the US to assemble a task force around an LCS ship and then send them to invade a backward country sitting on a coast halfway around the world while keeping them properly supported? Not a child's play but definitely not a Herculean feat. Now take this analogy and make it fit for a intergalactic empire instead of the US and there goes your answer...
4th of all...someone else suggested casually using our nuclear arsenal against them...set to explode up in the atmosphere or in space...Again...please keep in mind you're talking a civilization that has billions of years of history behind them if they made it to intergalactic imperialist status. A civilization that will probably be harvesting stars for its energy or at least part of it. Stars that are in themselves a continuous very long lasting uncontrollable nuclear chain reaction,OK??? OK! Now, whoever suggested nuking the aliens with weapons in the kiloton or even Megaton range should better think again...If any such event ever took place, on my part I wouldn't be sure the aliens would even be aware they were being attacked...sadly of course...

Anyway, I personally tend to agree with most scientists on the subject. That a civilization which started off much like us and grew into an intergalactic empire will have most probably expelled all its violent or imperialist urges in the process or it would have destroyed itself.
So the best approach in case such a civ ever visits us would be that we remain humble and that instead of trying to figure out how we should mound some sort of defence against them we should spread our ears and open our eyes wide to what the aliens would have to say.
 

ltdanjuly10

New Member
Wall of text incoming
Presuming they have a shred of empathy in there bodies they will not take offense to our making of harmless contingency plans or even a global mobilization, doing such would only be prudent in a situation such as first contact.

Nuclear weapons might be our only defense, they might be able to deflect them but we could threaten to nuke ourselves, making the planet far less useful. Not the best move but it might be the only move we can make. Hopefully given our violent history and demeanor they will back off. Of coarse they could just take a few genetic samples from us and bio-engineer a super-plague that wipes out all life on earth and dust our atmosphere with it.

as for the logistics being impossible
1. cornucopia tech and nanotechnology would make logistics a breeze for a space faring race able to use the abundance of material found in space: Cornucopia Future technology
List of nanotechnology applications - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2. Genetic Modification can potentially reduce a species consumption rates (at a cost in other areas) and make more efficient crops and livestock.
3. very advanced technology such as FTL or wormhole drives could make travel near instantaneous.
4. If the species prefers to live on terra firma and planets capable of supporting life are rare than any logistical price may be worth it.

I reject the notion that the ETI's will have evolved the violence out of them. We have no evidence to suggest that that is the natural coarse of evolution (in fact the species most adept at violence on our planet is also its most successful, I'm on a website dedicated to its tendency's literally right now!) there is plenty to suggest that only predatory species can develop intelligence. An intelligent person with high-minded ideals might get far but an intelligent person with few morals can frame him for murder, sleep with his wife and steal all the money in his bank account, unless a person of the law who is willing to do violence to enforce it can stop him. (Lying, cheating and stealing are advantageous, and violence or the threat there of is the counter) Of coarse they might not think of us as equals more like pests. They might not even think they are harming use by vaporizing or eviscerating us.

Now imagine that you are walking down the road and a hideous being with mandibles and bug eyes comes walking towards you, shrieking with his arms outstretched towards you. You are almost certainly either going to 1. Run 2. Fight. But for all you know it was merely extending in its culture a friendly greeting. All those smiling diplomats at the UN may be challenging the ETI's to a fight (smiling bears your teeth, in most species a sign of aggression).

Should the UN be in charge? At various times in its history it has been a puppet for the US or a useless platform for the 3rd world. It is tremendously corrupt and incompetent. And worse of all its slow to react. War cannot be waged by committee. Oh yeah and a significant portion of the world does not trust the UN. The war would be waged on a local level (the OPFOR would likely destroy any large buildups or movements from space and would probably be able to shut down wireless communications. The US would be one of the few nations with a global presence and so would likely be fighting world wide.
If we were trying to engage the ETI's diplomatically, than the UN is our best option (as imperfect as it is) although nations not represented at the UN would likely object

As for Americans being from another planet, we are all just Europeans, former slaves, native Americans and recently in our short but colorful history, immigrants from the third world (often the best/brightest/most well connected) in other words extremely unlike most other nations (the closest parallel being the late soviet union with its maze of ethnic groups) we think differently because we are a product of our people, success and form of government. Hungarians on the other hand;) 1. Have a Difficult language unlike that of the countries around it 2. Produce an unnaturally high amount of brilliant mathematicians and physicists. (I am only joking of coarse, the few Hungarians I have met were certifiably human)

Our best coarse of action would be to meet them as far from earth as we can. History would be different if the Europeans were greeted by the American natives far out at sea in there own ocean going vessels.

For an in depth look at the subject of first contact might I suggest the following books
An Introduction to Planetary Defense: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Planetary-Defense-Extra-Terrestrial-Invasion/dp/1581124473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1295139544&sr=1-1"]Amazon.com: An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion (9781581124477): Travis S. Taylor, Bob Boan, R.C. Anding, T. Conley Powell: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51LWiVm1CiL.@@AMEPARAM@@51LWiVm1CiL[/ame] . I have not read the book but I have heard good things about it from friends.

2.Making Contact: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Making-Contact-Handbook-Communicating-Extraterrestrials/dp/0380731541/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1295140178&sr=1-8"]Amazon.com: Making Contact: A Serious Handbook For Locating And Communicating With Extraterrestrials (9780380731541): Bill Fawcett: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RSV0XHGML.@@AMEPARAM@@51RSV0XHGML[/ame] . I have read this book and highly recommend it to anyone really interested in the subject. Its cover does not do justice to the contents which are serious.:nutkick
 

joho

New Member
it is called a out of context problem
copied and pasted because cant post links yet :)
An "Out of Context Problem" is one that we encounter without any possible preparation of forewarning. For example, the Aztec Empire was at the height of its power, literally the strongest nation in their world, when the Spanish arrived. The Spanish had technology so far beyond the Aztecs that they could never have predicted or prepared to combat it. We've seen many versions of this particular brand of "Out of Context Problem" throughout history; the Romans versus the Teutons, American Colonists versus Native Americans, even the atomic bomb dropped on Japan.




so we just have to hope they want us as pets lol

because if they want us gone then it would just be to easy to remove us
they dont have to fight a war in the conventional sense because the goal is to remove all of us
not just some of us so they dont have to discriminate they can easily target us with viruses and mop up whats left if any with out even revealing them selfs

our best chance at survival as a species would be if they want us for something

to put it into some sort of context think how easy it would be for us to wipe out the romans with 2000 years more advances or how long to beat the germans with just 70 years more advances and then think that we would be talking about a race that has crossed a vast distance just to be here
 
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NICO

New Member
I would like to make a couple of comments to this interesting topic.

I remember reading a paper written from some NASA PhD on how much time it would take to explore the galaxy with non FTL technology. He actually did the math. LOL. Something like 6 to 10 % speed of light, which is still incredibly difficult and expensive. It would take thousands of millions of years to go from star to star. I think he looked at different scenarios like visiting only stars that have potential life and took it down to ONLY a quarter of the galaxy and it would still take a couple of 100 thousand years. So even if it where technically feasible for an advanced civilization to build ships/satellites that could operate at those speeds and work after thousands of years to report back info, well, how do you get your civilization to last that long? I will try to find the PDF file and post it.

My other thought parallels some other posts, there is a mind set? that I think derives from Hollywood movies that really distorts likely encounters, especially invasive ones. I am referring to "Independence Day" type movies, where the aliens really aren't that different than us, they just have superior tech and they just kill everybody. No talks, not even really all that smart sometimes, they just show up and start shooting. Well , it makes sense from a 1 to 1 and half hour summer movie that is geared toward 15 year olds on summer vacation but from a military point of view,not really objective. A very good book(series) from David Gerrold, "The war against the Chtorr", is far more realistic and uses tech that makes sense and not that really more sophisticated than ours. For example, why invade a planet that is different, you have to "terraform" it to match your alien habitat. Also if it takes years to arrive, why not drop some engineered super virus to kill/weaken the locals? Sure you won't get everybody but if you can kill half the humans without even firing a bullet and weaken/ render unstable/ depress the other half, why not? After that send your fauna/flora to "terraform" Earth and slowly change it over decades, sure the locals are pissed but if the alien fauna/flora is stronger/faster/deadlier than Earth's fauna/flora, let them do the dirty work. By the time the aliens arrive, you have a new planet suited to your tastes and all the locals are pretty much gone. The aliens never get their "hands" dirty that way, just takes decades. Sure doesn't make for a good summer movie but far more realistic and economical than "Independence Day". As someone reported,NASA has already looked at "terraforming" Mars, we have a lot of the tech and ideas to make it feasible, not the money, but give it 100 to 200 years of terraforming, quite feasible by Earth today. Who says you have to terraform "overnight"? Take your time and accomplish it for far less money, just takes longer. Kind of reminds me of visiting Mars, recently and FINALLY someone thought of my idea, which was why send people to Mars and then spend billions on sending them BACK to Earth??? You mean, we can't find a few scientist that would go on a one way mission to Mars? Shoot, I would go in a heart beat. By the way, the cost if I remember was like not even a third of a round trip mission.

Finally, too bad the series hasn't been finished by the author and I am afraid he never will but still some very interesting concepts.
 

Belesari

New Member
I would like to make a couple of comments to this interesting topic.

I remember reading a paper written from some NASA PhD on how much time it would take to explore the galaxy with non FTL technology. He actually did the math. LOL. Something like 6 to 10 % speed of light, which is still incredibly difficult and expensive. It would take thousands of millions of years to go from star to star. I think he looked at different scenarios like visiting only stars that have potential life and took it down to ONLY a quarter of the galaxy and it would still take a couple of 100 thousand years. So even if it where technically feasible for an advanced civilization to build ships/satellites that could operate at those speeds and work after thousands of years to report back info, well, how do you get your civilization to last that long? I will try to find the PDF file and post it.

My other thought parallels some other posts, there is a mind set? that I think derives from Hollywood movies that really distorts likely encounters, especially invasive ones. I am referring to "Independence Day" type movies, where the aliens really aren't that different than us, they just have superior tech and they just kill everybody. No talks, not even really all that smart sometimes, they just show up and start shooting. Well , it makes sense from a 1 to 1 and half hour summer movie that is geared toward 15 year olds on summer vacation but from a military point of view,not really objective. A very good book(series) from David Gerrold, "The war against the Chtorr", is far more realistic and uses tech that makes sense and not that really more sophisticated than ours. For example, why invade a planet that is different, you have to "terraform" it to match your alien habitat. Also if it takes years to arrive, why not drop some engineered super virus to kill/weaken the locals? Sure you won't get everybody but if you can kill half the humans without even firing a bullet and weaken/ render unstable/ depress the other half, why not? After that send your fauna/flora to "terraform" Earth and slowly change it over decades, sure the locals are pissed but if the alien fauna/flora is stronger/faster/deadlier than Earth's fauna/flora, let them do the dirty work. By the time the aliens arrive, you have a new planet suited to your tastes and all the locals are pretty much gone. The aliens never get their "hands" dirty that way, just takes decades. Sure doesn't make for a good summer movie but far more realistic and economical than "Independence Day". As someone reported,NASA has already looked at "terraforming" Mars, we have a lot of the tech and ideas to make it feasible, not the money, but give it 100 to 200 years of terraforming, quite feasible by Earth today. Who says you have to terraform "overnight"? Take your time and accomplish it for far less money, just takes longer. Kind of reminds me of visiting Mars, recently and FINALLY someone thought of my idea, which was why send people to Mars and then spend billions on sending them BACK to Earth??? You mean, we can't find a few scientist that would go on a one way mission to Mars? Shoot, I would go in a heart beat. By the way, the cost if I remember was like not even a third of a round trip mission.

Finally, too bad the series hasn't been finished by the author and I am afraid he never will but still some very interesting concepts.
The problem with sending something like genetic seeds if you will over that amount of time is that life loves stuff like that. Time and competition=evolution. What good is it if the colonization fleet arives to find what should have been a apple now poisones and that the wheat that was supposed to be grown in the field now dead because microbes have in the 50-100 years sense you arrived gone through millions of generations worth of mutations and now effectively wipped out all of the crop. Then in behind that bacteria native plant and animal species have taken over and thrive.

Thats the thing if you are assuming all the animals and plants on a world are say carbon based lifeforms just like we are what if they aren't? Or what if you use that weapon send in the seed ships but the weapon has survived or maybe mutated and is almost impossible to kill rendering the colony doomed?

Hollywood makes it to simple its like trying to make plans to defeat a enemy who could be coming at you with swords or guns, be 3ft tall or 20, amphibian, reptile, mammal, etc. So many variables. So pick what makes the best story.

I would like to see a movie outside of the predictable..........of course thats hollywood so....
 

IrishRanger-4

New Member
Well depending on how long we last the Irish army specifically the Rangers are given a protocol to capture and contain any technology that would not be human to be studied and hopefully adapted. I'm sure other governments would be ordering the same thing.
 

Beatmaster

New Member
Hello Everyone,

I have to admit that i am sort of surprised that this topic is being posted here.
As i did not know that such question would actually get serious replies.
But that being said, fact is fact the question is out there: Are we alone?

One has to remember that in human history there are loads of myths and stories about aliens and alien like events.
Now regardless if any of this is true, i personally believe that humankind in general is not yet ready to accept the fact that IF the day comes or the final proof is being presented that we are not alone as it would trash most of our cultural beliefs (Religion and such) Which would be a massive slap in the face to millions and millions of people.

So beside the above facts there use to be a day that people where thinking that guys like Jules Verne, Nostradamus and many other "experimental" people where completely out of their mind. In fact people got killed in the dark ages for having alternative ways of thinking.
Nowadays we call those guys visionary and part of our history as some or most of their visions and idea's got proven.

At the present day the call for "proof" and the question: Are we alone? is more alive and on top then ever.
Out of all the space telescopes and radio/signal installations (not to mention other systems and organizations) there is a small portion dedicated to finding out if we are alone or not.
Day in day out satellites and all kinds of hardware are seeking out the universe to find something. (Regardless if this is a new planet, a new star or ET's home)

That being said there is not a single person on the planet that 100% can rule out the possibility that we are NOT alone, but there is neither a person who can proof that we are ALONE.
Fact is that human history is full stories about "visitors" and "extraordinary" events.
Culture upon culture even thousands of miles apart from each other report similar events and include those events into their teachings and historical or cultural records.
So lets assume that 1% of everything that we know or think to know about ET turns out to be true, then its save to say that humankind has to change their very principal foundations and common values and believes.

Imaging to have all the religious leaders sitting on one big table during a meeting and tell them that their "religion" is flawed and tell the world that everything we knew and everything we did accept was based upon wrong info, Tell the world that the very principles of our society needs to be rewritten.
That on its own would be a catastrophic shock, and a event bigger then WO1 and WO2 combined.

So how would the world respond upon detection of a incoming alien armada (Or ship) None of us can reply to that as everything we would be able to say is based on hypothetical protocols and smart thinking.
Hell we do not even know if we could detect them, we do not even know if human logic would be accepted by ET not forgetting that Human logic might not have a reply to that..
For all we know every book in the world, every scenario might be worthless in a alien visit event.
Not to mention that if ET is capable of evading our detection and if ET is capable of traveling long distances trough space then i venture to say that the odds are NOT into our favor.

Humankind evolved generation upon generation but we are a young race as some animals are WAY older then we are.
During our evolution and teachings we have learned everything we can do at this point.
From making fire to splitting the atom in a few thousand years...
However science itself is bound to the laws of nature and we are not capable yet to rewrite those laws.
We might alter them a bit but they are still in the context and frame of what nature and earth/ technology allows us to do.

My point here is:
If ET can come here to earth and if ET would be capable to bring a force with them, then this is already shocking and would change most of our technological laws.
At NASA, ESA and the Russian Space Industry we have the worlds brightest minds working.
At Harvard, MIT and other Universities we have think tanks and seriously promising people working to invent the next big thing.

People like Einstein and Freud did write the mathematical and universal laws and and many others adjusted those laws based upon new discoveries.

But the same people would have NO clue and no reply if ET picks our planet to make a pit stop.
The very fact that they can come here would mean by definition that human kind would be technological in a disadvantage and that every technological book needs to be rewritten.
Everything we believe and have learned in our couple thousand of years would be challenged to the very core.
So a ET visit itself would be both fantastic and amazing, but also catastrophic on its own.
And then we did not even mention ET's intentions or Human response.

So before debating how we would react we first need to understand the fact that the very detection of ET itself will set the balance and set the stage for future responses.
And yes human logic itself might be catastrophic and diplomacy might fail before it even started, which ultimately would lead to a confrontation.
Lucky for us there are billions of humans around so the sheer numbers would indicate that there is a option for human survival (That is if ET does not blow up our planet lol)
Fact is if Humanlogic, Reasoning and Diplomacy fails that war or a conflict is the last thing we have left.
That being said the major powers like: USA, Russia, China, France, UK, Germany, India, Japan and regional powers would do wise in avoiding any mass confrontation for the simple fact if these powers fall then humankind will fall pretty much right after it.
So assuming that Humanlogic, Reasoning and Diplomacy fails then going Underground and Guerrilla (Al Quada) style warfare and Intel gathering would be our best bet.

And this are just basic things as its WAY more complicated then described by others.
Our whole idea of Warfare, Strategy and Intel Gathering would be subject to massive changes.

Governments around the world (Specially major powers) spend millions and millions in space programs and some might laugh about it the other might find it odd and another might justify it for perfect legit reasons.
But fact is they found bacteria in space, they found micro organism's and they found minerals and traces of life supporting chemicals.
So that on its own would be reason enough to increase our technological progress towards space and our need for knowledge.
Also it would require the whole world as ONE community to research and develop new idea's and accept new logic based upon the findings.
And as long we are fighting amongst ourself, and challenging social/political and economic/strategic difficulties it would mean by definition that what ever we did accomplish it would be to little and not enough.

Also the question needs to be asked: Why would ET visit us in the first place?
Are they explorers like a typical Star Trek Scenario?
Are they gathering resources? Like the battle of LA Scenario?
Are they Colonizing planets because their own planet is about to run out of whatever they need?

Regardless their motives fact is that if one would apply standard human logic and if one would read our history then it has always been the case that the one with the biggest stick rules a less bigger stick.
And our own history proves beyond the reasonable doubt that our drive for expansion did come at the cost of a lesser nation.
Look what happened in the Golden Age, Dutch, British, and Spanish colonization on a massive scale.
Little nations, tribes and civilizations around the world got overthrown and turned into slaves and such to support a bigger power.
So if ET would be subject to Human knowledge then its save to assume that there is a huge risk that Earth and human kind might be enslaved one way or another.

To get back at the prime question which institution would be responsible to make first contact, that would be the UN or a UN appointed Institution or Person.
However the question is would it be a first contact, or would contacting them itself be a war declaration?
And the final question would it be first contact or would it be: Hello Mister ET long time no see... our historical books mentioned your bother frank visiting the maya's.

So there is to much what ifs, but as other people posted in this topic.
If such a event would happen, then this event would be by definition the biggest event ever recorded in human history and would make the discovery of Fire, Penicillin, and splitting the Atom look like childsplay.

Cheers:D
 

Abraham Gubler

Defense Professional
Verified Defense Pro
Well depending on how long we last the Irish army specifically the Rangers are given a protocol to capture and contain any technology that would not be human to be studied and hopefully adapted. I'm sure other governments would be ordering the same thing.
Glad to know the Irish Rangers are humanity's front line of defence against alien invasion. Sleep easier tonight we wills.
 

AstuteElectrics

New Member
It seems that the most likely outcome would be the medical industry, that would have to counteract an epidemic or bacterial invasion throughout the world.

Very interesting thoughts here, though!
 

Gremlin29

Super Moderator
Staff member
Verified Defense Pro
Sad to admit America has virtually no contingency plans in place, we pilots aren't even briefed on what to do if we happen to see a UFO much less on what we should do next.

Carl Sagan spoke at length about intelligent life, and the possibility of ET visits. While he firmly believed intelligent life exists elsewhere, he also believed none would come here on purpose. His reason was simply that we are in such a dim little corner of the known universe it is the least likely place anyone would want to visit, for any reason. It would be like searching for great white sharks in the Sahara Desert, there are far more logical locations to search with a greater potential of success.
 
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