Aliens Check Out the Earth

blueprince wrote:

What are the chances of aliens coming from another Solar System, finding Earth and,
after the immense effort to travel, have nothing better to do than blow us up. Seriously.

It could be nearly 100%, we just don't know.
It's entirely possible that the vast majority of space faring species
attempt to eliminate their competition the instant they locate them.
They might justify it as necessary for their own survival, and they might be right.

Aliens may not even be out to capture/terraform our planet. They may not care a whit about hour planet. There's no reason to think that they don't simply seek and destroy any other species they can find. It might even be their religion to destroy any other species they encounter. There are even good reasons to think that extermination of any other species is the most logical action for survival of any given species. It could be a very nasty universe out there.

This is indeed possible. So, how much money have we spent trying to contact random aliens?

That's ridiculous. I knew ros was into all that wierd stuff. Scaremongering.

Why would we want to exterminate cows and sheep or peach trees and tobacco plants and
Dover Sole and racehorses and dogs that look up to us with piteous expressions?

You understand that I was suggesting that it might not be such a hot idea at any price?

roger wrote:

You understand that I was suggesting that it might not be such a hot idea at any price?

Yes. I just thought I would point out the obvious

Goddamn . . . what's so funny about peace, love and understanding ? ! ? ! ?

Over 10 years ago I read a Sci-Fi novel in which the author described in detail the ruthless logic of why any interstellar species would probably try to exterminate any other species it found. If I remember correctly the author was one of the "hard-scifi" writers who was also a physicist or astronomer. However, I can't for the life of me remember the name of the novel or the author. Are any of you familiar with this novel?

I remember the concept of the novel clearly because it was chilling in its relentless logic which supported the idea that other life in the universe might be logically motivated to do us harm if they found us. This was the first novel I have run across which drove the point home so realistically. I wish I could find it again because I can't remember the arguments being used to support the premise.

I don't see any reason for such an assumption. In fact, it seems logical that when a species reaches a certain level of both technological and social sophistication, they will be ready to become a space-faring species. If they're not, you're not going to meet them. But so long as any two species are space-faring, there is no reason to assume a great disparity between them.