So then if we look at history (funny I say that b/c being a science guy I always say I dont care about history that much) if/when we come in contact with aliens, there should be a war right?
I personally think that if there is one and the aliens came to us first, they wont be using guns and by the time peace is "figured out", we wont be here anymore.

Edit:
Incase you havent realized, I enjoy arguing lol

This post was edited by impulse155 on Dec 24 2011 11:50pm

If you look at history, analyze trends, and draw conclusions that way, assuming it takes a substantial amount of time to acquire the technology for interstellar travel, I think there shouldn't be war.

But I'm still supposing that the human model is the only model. I'm still supposing that aliens will abide by this model. I'm making a lot of suppositions which don't hold any ground necessarily.

You don't know when these alien biological creatures were formed, nor do you know anything about their environment.

Again, your view is narrow

So then stating that they would be bacteria or humans is completely inaccurate. They can be a species of ManBearPigs for all we know.
Thats the point I was trying to prove.





If you say looking at history, what diverts you from the fact that there wouldnt be another war, or some hostile encounter (enslaved, or just extinction)

This post was edited by impulse155 on Dec 25 2011 01:11am

There probably would be. But that wouldn't be ALL there is. That would be chapter 1 of a long story.

Immediate extinction of humans by the superior aliens is also a possibility. But if that's the case, it would be pointless to have a discussion about it. The only discussion worth having is one where human behavior plays some sort of factor.

This post was edited by kayeto on Dec 25 2011 01:42am

Well unfortunately if its extinction for us our story would only be 1 chapter lol

If there are other sentient beings (or life forms in general) in relative close proximity to our solar system we will know soon enough

And to an above post: Yes, we would definitely be aliens to the aliens. Excuse the redundancy

Because we're trending towards peace and opposition to war, and it's going to take a reasonable amount of time to acquire the technology to encounter these aliens. But AGAIN, I'm making a bunch of arbitrary suppositions that the trend will progress, it will take a reasonable amount of time to acquire the technology, the aliens will follow our model...As I've been saying this discussion is fairly nonsensical. You can't assume alien life will behave a certain way; you can't accurately infer how humanity will progress. You can't pinpoint when we'll acquire specific technologies. You can't really deduce anything pertaining to your argument. All you can do is say, "Assuming a bunch of random things, this is true." Sure, that's fine. Assuming A+B = C then C-B = A, but A+B may not = C, so what's the point?

What won't change between then and now is human psychology. We are no longer subject to natural selection, therefore the hard-wiring of our brain will remain constant. We have enough thousands of years of human history to see how that hard-wiring makes us act. impulse55 is correct in predicting that conflict will be the initial response to contact with a species that was previously unknown.

what's hard to tell is how quickly we will move past the conflict stage.

You don't recognize how human psychology has advanced from natural instinct?

afk beating my rival clan to death and cannibalizing the dead

This post was edited by Derkaderk on Dec 25 2011 12:28pm