There's an argument to be made that war is not a uniquely human / higher function result of advancement, but intrinsically woven into the very fiber of what makes life on our planet possible. From the earliest life forms there were skirmishes over resources. Those skirmishes grew from single cells absorbing or destroying other single cells to packs, herds, flocks and tribes decimating and taking on the leftovers from other packs, herds, flocks and tribes. Turning that into ever increasing forms of attacks may be unique to civilized (how ironic) societies, but the drives that cause us to want to be better armed than those other peoples is always the same. We want all the resources to ourselves, and damn anyone else who wants the same.

That said, there's also a theoretical argument to be made that there will come a point where we either develop an ability to mitigate or minimize those natural tendencies for some reason, or we evolve beyond needing to exploit all resources available to us to the detriment of anyone or anything else. (As with all theoretical arguments, it's possible we're just too stupid to make that leap. The future will tell.)

One such path is the possibility of "editing" our primal urges through technological enhancement. And for those that want to believe this isn't possible, we already have ape family members playing video games with their minds in experiments. Learning what synapses do what is step one. Learning how to edit what synapses do is already happening in lab animals, stimulating "feelings" in mice and rats to prevent them from doing what comes naturally for experimental purposes. To think this type of manipulation would never happen in humans is folly. Someone will do it, and likely sooner than you'd want to think.

It's tough to imagine a scenario where a race develops the ability to sail across the massive spaces they'd need to to come visit us, and NOT be capable of editing their primal coding in just such a way. Once a race hits that point, the only real question becomes will they edit themselves to be more benevolent to those they consider inferior or will they ramp up the natural tendencies to want more at the expense of all others, and sometimes even at the expense of themselves? My guess would be, barring a "universal" law that they could force their entire race to believe in, you'd see a spectrum enveloping all possibilities. Some would edit for more aggression. Some would edit for less. Heck, some would probably willingly edit themselves into obsolescence while the rest of their kind continue forward.

All of this is hypothetical until we're figuratively shaking hands with someone from another planet. My personal belief is that it's more likely than not that our first visitors will tend towards aggression, with a high likelihood that curiosity will prevent them from taking the first shot. After all, it's curiosity that drives exploration more than aggression. No primitive race is staring at the stars wondering how to climb up there and see it up close.

If, however, we are the ones to arrive on another planet that already harbors the beginnings of intelligent life, I don't see them fairing well unless we've gone through the motions of fundamentally changing what we are. As we currently exist someone in charge would decide it's better to wipe them out now rather than risk a later uprising. Hopefully we overcome that tendency before we meet another intelligent life form. Though part of me doubts we'll survive long enough to get there. Self destruction is also in our nature. And it seems we don't lack options on how to destroy ourselves these days.

 

Anyone who thinks warfare is uniquely human needs to watch a video of Japanese giant hornets attacking a bee hive.

 

if humans arrive one a planet with intelligent but less advanced life the movie avatar will become historical accurate.

 

In what way? In the way that all harmony with nature exists by attaching your genitals to the trees and animals until the interplanetary equivalent of a weeb saves everyone?


Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and say that we DON'T subjugate a planet upon arrival. Unless it's a totalitarian communist government that set the ship, in which case they'll simply wipe out any life that isn't foodstuffs.

 

in the way that the government behind the expedition and the big corporations that foot the bill try first exploitation towards the indigenous and then resort to force like always happened in humans history.

this is why my hope is that out there we find someone strong enough that if those bastards try something funny will come a la indipendence day and burst them away.

 

Ah, yes. The corporations. Got it...

 

Could be a new world meets old scenario. Cortes meets Montezuma.

Didn't go well for the old world.

 

Yeah, I guess. I just think defaulting immediately to "conquest by corporations" to be highly unrealistic and ultimately skewed nihilist daydreaming.


Also, not every migration or colonization led to subjugation.

 

Trust Elon Musk to Make Going to Space Sound Terrible

 

Wrong thread since this one is specifically about extraterrestrials and I think Musk is human but the point of the article deserves discussion in a more appropriate thread.

 

Fair point.   I just wanted to point out that "conquest by corporations" regarding space travel is more likely than people might think.

 

Ah, I wasn't regarding what came before in this thread.

 

On the actual subject of this thread - I can believe that microscopic organisms like bacteria could exist on other planets, since Mars once had liquid water which might have been a habitat for microorganisms, but I think the concept of intelligent, spacefaring aliens like the kind ubiquitous in pop culture is a fantasy. Space is just too big and the odds are just too small that sentient life could exist on a planet that we could make contact with.

 

If microscopic life can be found elsewhere then I don't think it is farfetched that some of them could have coalesced into multicellular organisms or that some of those could have then developed sapience. But I do agree that they are unlikely to be in range where we'll ever just bump into each other and I severely doubt they are covertly landing on our little blue dot.

 

We may know nothing about aliens but we have history when it come down to humans and there is no recourse in history of a colonization ending well for the indigenous.

to me the ideal situation is that alien exists in multiple races and also exist a sort of intergalactic federation with rules we must abide once we start exploring.

 

I don't see how we could be the only intelligent life in the universe. Life spontaneously occurred on Earth. Why wouldn't it happen somewhere else?

 

A funny meme but also a good answer to that common criticism. Rabbits in my backyard appear blurry when I zoom in on them with my phone camera. They’re usually like 20 feet away, and not moving very fast. UFOs are traveling well past the speed of sound thousands of feet in the air

 

It is hard for me to believe in aliens or not. But if they exist l would think they have come to visit us by now. But sometimes l worry about earth being invaded by another planet.

 

Don't worry. They'll tap into some of our broadcasts on the way to entertain themselves and turn around halfway here.

 

That's crazy because that was the very first thing I thought of when I read that. Wasn't the ratio like 10 to 1 odds or something?

Edit:

Here it is. 30,000 bees vs 30 hornets. The PTSD of any survivors...sheesh.