Advanced technology vs ethics

[Wiseacre]

So I'm sitting here with the wife watching Stargate SG-1 DVDs (she has a thing for Richard Dean Anderson), and got to wondering about ET a little bit. Steven Hawking has postulated that an alien species that is advanced enough to invent intrastellar travel would likely also be shall we say less than friendly. We would be conquered, maybe exterminated, maybe used as a food source if they arrived and chose to do so. Kinda puts the next election into a little more perspective, eh?

Anyway, do you think he's right? Would said aliens who are that advanced not also be more advanced ethically as well, to the point where taking sentient life would be forbidden? Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct. Have we not advanced somewhat ourselves in the regard for the sanctity of life? Where will we be in a thousand years regarding this issue, assuming we still exist.

Granted it is certainly possible for an alien civilization to advance technologicaly far beyond their abilities to deal with their new power in an ethical manner. I would admit such has been the case here, but will it always be so? What are the odds that should humans develop such huge tech advances that we would destroy ourselves if we cannot also develop sociologically and psychologically to use them wisely? I thnk we would be better served working harder on the workings of the mind and on interrelationships.

 

[ecks_why]

...Anyway, do you think he's right? Would said aliens who are that advanced not also be more advanced ethically as well, to the point where taking sentient life would be forbidden? Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct. Have we not advanced somewhat ourselves in the regard for the sanctity of life? Where will we be in a thousand years regarding this issue, assuming we still exist....

i guess it depends on how "advanced" those alien civilizations are & what kinds of governments they are using. if the aliens are so advanced that humanity on planet earth is like insects to them like ants are to us, why would they care about "saving" our life species ? if earth had chemicals whatever they needed & some huge planet eating machine/process to just absorb entire planet & output some manufactured stream of raw materials needed to sustain THEIR life, who cares about another race of insects here on planet earth ? these super aliens have already gobbled up 23,429 other planets, why stop for earth ? etc etc

 

[gallantwarrior]

So I'm sitting here with the wife watching Stargate SG-1 DVDs (she has a thing for Richard Dean Anderson), and got to wondering about ET a little bit. Steven Hawking has postulated that an alien species that is advanced enough to invent intrastellar travel would likely also be shall we say less than friendly. We would be conquered, maybe exterminated, maybe used as a food source if they arrived and chose to do so. Kinda puts the next election into a little more perspective, eh?

Anyway, do you think he's right? Would said aliens who are that advanced not also be more advanced ethically as well, to the point where taking sentient life would be forbidden? Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct. Have we not advanced somewhat ourselves in the regard for the sanctity of life? Where will we be in a thousand years regarding this issue, assuming we still exist.

Granted it is certainly possible for an alien civilization to advance technologicaly far beyond their abilities to deal with their new power in an ethical manner. I would admit such has been the case here, but will it always be so? What are the odds that should humans develop such huge tech advances that we would destroy ourselves if we cannot also develop sociologically and psychologically to use them wisely? I thnk we would be better served working harder on the workings of the mind and on interrelationships.

Considering ethics is highly subjective, I don't think we can accurately predict whether an alien race would behave ethically, as defined by our human experience.

 

[Dajjal]

I think we are reincarnating on countless planets ourselves, as that is how spiritual evolution works.
Therefore there are no aliens as aliens are us, and we can reincarnate on other more suitable planets as we spiritually evolve. So if an alien race became so advanced it could travel between star systems it would probably aready be spiritually evolved, and therefore benign to us.
They would most likely just observe us, unless there was a disaster where they needed to interveen for our sakes.

 

[The Irish Ram]

Do you remember the Outer Limits or Twilight Zone episode, where the aliens landed and cured cancer and helped the humans, and took them to their planet to learn from them? They left a book in their own language titled, "How To Serve Mankind". It was a cook book!
Do you believe in UFO's? They seem to be a daily occurrence in Mexico. An awful lot of reputable people and drunken pilots have reported them. There are drawings of them in caves. The Bible may be a clue.
If you start with the premise that these are the end-times, the end times were described as it was in the day of Noah, so here is what the Bible says about the days of Noah.

Nephilim had taken over mankind and their DNA was a corrupt hybrid of living things on earth including and especially mankind, with the demonic spirits that were expelled from Heaven with Satan. (That was 1/3 the population of the angels.) Nephilim were the result of sexual encounters involving demons and anything that had sex organs.
Goliaths were one example. What God was about to do to save human DNA grieved him. Enoch asked God not to act until his son died. God agreed, and Enoch's son lived longer than any other man on earth. His name meant, "when I go, it starts." By the time Methuselah died, there was only one pure bloodline left and only then did God flood the earth.

The Bible says that in Noah's time, and after there were nephilim. So demons returned at some point and created more hybrids even after the flood.

The Mayans had advanced knowledge of things that would be almost impossible for them to know, and yet they knew. I wondered if their chief could have been a hybrid. They have distinct physical traits. Turns out he did have those traits. Very large, and extra digits.
Our native Americans would raise their hands when approached by a stranger to show that they did not have extra digits. Hybrids were not even tempered.
Could demons return ?

 

[Wiseacre]

...Anyway, do you think he's right? Would said aliens who are that advanced not also be more advanced ethically as well, to the point where taking sentient life would be forbidden? Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct. Have we not advanced somewhat ourselves in the regard for the sanctity of life? Where will we be in a thousand years regarding this issue, assuming we still exist....

i guess it depends on how "advanced" those alien civilizations are & what kinds of governments they are using. if the aliens are so advanced that humanity on planet earth is like insects to them like ants are to us, why would they care about "saving" our life species ? if earth had chemicals whatever they needed & some huge planet eating machine/process to just absorb entire planet & output some manufactured stream of raw materials needed to sustain THEIR life, who cares about another race of insects here on planet earth ? these super aliens have already gobbled up 23,429 other planets, why stop for earth ? etc etc

Maybe. But I suspect there are countless planets out there with whatever your desired resources exist; at least some without life forms or at least sentient life forms. While we may be as ants to them, we are not without some intelligence and conscience. [Mostly the republicans, jk.] I'm merely offering the idea that if an alien race has advanced that far to be able to achieve star travel that they may also have evolved in other ways, perhaps morally and ethically to the point where a reverence for life other than their own might influence their actions.

Some might say I am projecting human experience and thought where it may not apply. Fine, maybe so; but on the other hand what is more basic that a respect for life? As savage as we are today, we have evolved somewhat from where we were a thousand years ago and hopefully will continue that trend into the future. What will we be like then, if we attained star travel would we enslave or destroy other less advanced civilizations? I know we have in the past on this planet, not so sure we would continue to do so that far into the future. Remember the movie Avatar? Can't say that such a scenario isn't possible, but not sure how likely. Be awhile before we reach that point, hopefully we will have grown more in more ways than just technologically.

 

[Greenbeard]

Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct.

Holding out hope that the alien version of PETA holds sway over public/social/political attitudes in whatever society we encounter?

I never quite thought of it in those terms. Maybe Independence Day had it right.

 

[uscitizen]

The aliens will have the same ethics and morals we do because they will have the same God, right?

 

[Wiseacre]

The aliens will have the same ethics and morals we do because they will have the same God, right?

NO. God may or may not have anythng to do with it. I see no reason to assume religion has anything to do with ethics and morality here or anywhere else. I do hope we're not going to engage in another futile bullshit pissing contest about the existence of God.

 

[Sallow]

So I'm sitting here with the wife watching Stargate SG-1 DVDs (she has a thing for Richard Dean Anderson), and got to wondering about ET a little bit. Steven Hawking has postulated that an alien species that is advanced enough to invent intrastellar travel would likely also be shall we say less than friendly. We would be conquered, maybe exterminated, maybe used as a food source if they arrived and chose to do so. Kinda puts the next election into a little more perspective, eh?

Anyway, do you think he's right? Would said aliens who are that advanced not also be more advanced ethically as well, to the point where taking sentient life would be forbidden? Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct. Have we not advanced somewhat ourselves in the regard for the sanctity of life? Where will we be in a thousand years regarding this issue, assuming we still exist.

Granted it is certainly possible for an alien civilization to advance technologicaly far beyond their abilities to deal with their new power in an ethical manner. I would admit such has been the case here, but will it always be so? What are the odds that should humans develop such huge tech advances that we would destroy ourselves if we cannot also develop sociologically and psychologically to use them wisely? I thnk we would be better served working harder on the workings of the mind and on interrelationships.

Depends on whether this Alien life were liberal or conservative. Liberal Alien life would study and preserve. Conservative Alien life would destroy and conquer.

Such is the way of things.

 

[Sallow]

Do you remember the Outer Limits or Twilight Zone episode, where the aliens landed and cured cancer and helped the humans, and took them to their planet to learn from them? They left a book in their own language titled, "How To Serve Mankind". It was a cook book!
Do you believe in UFO's? They seem to be a daily occurrence in Mexico. An awful lot of reputable people and drunken pilots have reported them. There are drawings of them in caves. The Bible may be a clue.
If you start with the premise that these are the end-times, the end times were described as it was in the day of Noah, so here is what the Bible says about the days of Noah.

Nephilim had taken over mankind and their DNA was a corrupt hybrid of living things on earth including and especially mankind, with the demonic spirits that were expelled from Heaven with Satan. (That was 1/3 the population of the angels.) Nephilim were the result of sexual encounters involving demons and anything that had sex organs.
Goliaths were one example. What God was about to do to save human DNA grieved him. Enoch asked God not to act until his son died. God agreed, and Enoch's son lived longer than any other man on earth. His name meant, "when I go, it starts." By the time Methuselah died, there was only one pure bloodline left and only then did God flood the earth.

The Bible says that in Noah's time, and after there were nephilim. So demons returned at some point and created more hybrids even after the flood.

The Mayans had advanced knowledge of things that would be almost impossible for them to know, and yet they knew. I wondered if their chief could have been a hybrid. They have distinct physical traits. Turns out he did have those traits. Very large, and extra digits.
Our native Americans would raise their hands when approached by a stranger to show that they did not have extra digits. Hybrids were not even tempered.
Could demons return ?

That was the Twilight Zone.



[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIufLRpJYnI]"It's a Cookbook!" Ahah... I get it! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

Conservative Alien life would destroy and conquer.

Then exploit.

 

[Wiseacre]

Conservative Alien life would destroy and conquer.

Then exploit.

Whereas liberal alien life would tax 'em to death. Congrats, you assholes derailed the thread.

 

[Steelplate]

I think that any lifeform that could survive long enough to develop that kind of technology without destroying itself would probably be above the level of the barbarism that we still employ. We need to cook longer, because to develop that far takes a societal shift. A shift that on Earth at this point in time would be impossible. A global singleness of purpose.

 

[Wiseacre]

I think that any lifeform that could survive long enough to develop that kind of technology without destroying itself would probably be above the level of the barbarism that we still employ. We need to cook longer, because to develop that far takes a societal shift. A shift that on Earth at this point in time would be impossible. A global singleness of purpose.

I'd agree with that. Problem is, it might take a major catastrophe of international proportions to get people to make significant changes. I think there's a chance it might happen anyway over time. A long time.

 

[Montrovant]

I think trying to guess the ethics of an alien species is pretty much impossible, whatever level of technology they might be at.

We can't know what kind of life an alien species might be; it might follow along the lines of our own or might be something entirely different. We can't know what kind of interactions they may have, what kind of societies, really we can't know anything at all. Until we encounter alien species, we have no real referents. Even if we try to use Earth species for possible similarities, could these aliens function as a hive where the good of the group is all important, or somehow have developed great technology while still maintaining a very predatory nature? Could their environment, the way they evolved, have prevented them from having the reverence for life you hypothesize? There are just too many unknowns.

 

[gallantwarrior]

Viruses might just be an alien species, anyone consider that?

 

[amrchaos]

So I'm sitting here with the wife watching Stargate SG-1 DVDs (she has a thing for Richard Dean Anderson), and got to wondering about ET a little bit. Steven Hawking has postulated that an alien species that is advanced enough to invent intrastellar travel would likely also be shall we say less than friendly. We would be conquered, maybe exterminated, maybe used as a food source if they arrived and chose to do so. Kinda puts the next election into a little more perspective, eh?

Anyway, do you think he's right? Would said aliens who are that advanced not also be more advanced ethically as well, to the point where taking sentient life would be forbidden? Today we have animal rights groups trying to preserve many species of plants and animals before they go extinct. Have we not advanced somewhat ourselves in the regard for the sanctity of life? Where will we be in a thousand years regarding this issue, assuming we still exist.

Granted it is certainly possible for an alien civilization to advance technologicaly far beyond their abilities to deal with their new power in an ethical manner. I would admit such has been the case here, but will it always be so? What are the odds that should humans develop such huge tech advances that we would destroy ourselves if we cannot also develop sociologically and psychologically to use them wisely? I thnk we would be better served working harder on the workings of the mind and on interrelationships.

I think that if an alien species were to arrive here, their main objective will dictate how they will deal with us. Here are some cases that I tend to think along.

Case 1)If they are into exploiting the mineral wealth of our planet and do not wish to advance us out of fear,conquest and/or extermination would seem to be a natural response to us.

Case 2)If their interest is more along knowledge and/or some other abstraction(be it philosophical or theological on their part), they probably will stay hidden and simply observe us.

Case 3)If their interest is a bit irrational such as creating bonds with new species and the creation of intra-cultrual/xeno-cross cultural relationships, then you will get a bunch of silly hippy like Aliens that will annoy the crap out of us! Worse, it will be impossible to get rid of them.

It should be recognized that case 1 in the extreme is probably the worst for us--but Case 3 is just as bad.