What do you think realistically would happen the moment we meet extraterrestrials?

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• ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Seeing how incohrrent and fractured humanity is, we’d meet them with a jumbled mix of:

  • Rabid xenophobia
  • Aggressively trying to convert them to a dozen of our different religions
  • Forming multiple cults worshipping them as gods
  • Creating a shit load of really weird rule 34 AI-generated porn focused on them
  • Dismissing their existence as some sort of a deep fake conspiracy
  • Trying to sell them some worthless shit for a massive profit
  • Trying to sell them fellow humans as slaves
  • Trying to steal their technology to conquer the galaxy
  • Flooding then with brainrot memes for the lolz
  • Trying to destroy them with conventional weapons

  And they would see all this and either destroy us in disgust or get the hell out of the solar system ASAP and cordon it off with hazard signs.

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  • bitteroldcoot@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    The reality of course, is they already have seen what we are like and chose not to talk to us.

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  • finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Don’t forget, someone from 4chan’s /x/ would try to fuck one of them. In public. At the reveal.

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  • fraksken@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Or maybe they’d be totally into the rule34 thing.

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  • daggermoon@piefed.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I like the one about the memes.

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• sbeak@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Given that they have the means to have travelled from another world (presumably from outside the Solar System, as there are no signs of space colonising extraterrestrials in our neighbourhood we can observe), they must be technologically far superior to us. My guess is that they would treat us, little guys on a blue marble, like we do with ants.

  Although ants have a very intricate way of life, with jobs, conflict, infrastructure, etc., most humans don’t put too much thought into keeping them safe, we trample on their cities that we say are primitive compared to our own, and we export some ants to new worlds. Additionally, even among our own species, colonialism was commonplace in all parts of the world throughout the world and its remnants still exists today, as one group of people believed they were superior to another.

  Intelligent extraterrestrials capable of interplanetary (and probably interstellar) travel would definitely outclass us in every metric, and they could easily wipe us out, either by accident or on purpose (through disease, conflict, colonisation, etc.)

  However, I hope that these extraterrestrials eventually acknowledge our existence as a civilisation. A little like how there are entomologists who study ants for a living and conservationists who preserve their habitats. Or perhaps organisations like UNESCO, in charge of protecting dying cultures and lost traditions, could be formed these extraterrestrials. Maybe treaties of reparations and acknowledgement of past crimes would be signed between our species, like how many countries do today.

  That’s just my thoughts though.

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  • neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Id think they’d treat us like how we treat a remote tribe that’s been isolated from humanity for hundreds/thousands of years.

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    • MousePotatoDoesStuff@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Was that one guy that tried to contact them their Roswell moment?

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  • a4ng3l@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    I would assume that it would take a lot of stability to reach a technology level compatible with interstellar travel. It would be only achievable for a specie that reached a very peaceful way of life. So I would assume they would be rather benevolent and avoid any accidental wipeout.

    Now would they care at all… maybe as scholars of the universe ?

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• Adderbox76@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Within less than an hour, Rule 34 will come into effect and someone will make a porn-film about them.

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• Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  If they came to us it would not be for the resources on earth, there are plenty more in space easier to get. I think it would be curiosity. They would study us, and probably all life on the planet.

  Hopefully with curiosity comes empathy and they uplift us.

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  • Digestive_Biscuit@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Perhaps they’re after the resources which aren’t so common elsewhere, like oxygen. Maybe they would turn Earth into an oxygen farm.

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    • Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Water is common out there, pretty simple to get oxygen.

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    • yngmnwntr@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Wood. Hard wood usable for building hasn’t evolved anywhere else in the known galaxy. Fine wooden furniture imported from Earth. The Amazon is being cut down and exported to alien worlds.

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  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Also could just be determined exterminators or want to diversify diet.

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    • Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Exterminators could just throw a rock at 0.1c no need to land.

      Diet though, reminds me of the Peter Jackson masterpiece, Bad Taste.

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• chaosCruiser@futurology.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  

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• altphoto@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  A little bit of pee comes out.

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• spongebue@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Trying to overcome language barriers, probably.

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• RodgeGrabTheCat@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Trump will post on Truth that we had a war and we won.

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• JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  One group will sell out the rest of us, guaranteed.

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• slazer2au@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  A breakdown in society as people report it as hoaxes, missinformation spreading everywhere, religious groups fragmenting over if they prove or disprove their gods existence. The same bullshit whenever world shaking event happens.

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• Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Image

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• akunohana@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  fS32895gW2KeFCJ.jpg

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  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    His babies are yummy

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• NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  War, then our extermination.

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• darthelmet@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Die of some random common illness we don’t have any antibodies for.

  Hopefully a species advanced enough to master interstellar travel would be mindful of that kind of thing though. I suppose at least they would probably be protecting themselves against that, so maybe it would go both ways?

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  • upandatom@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Our strongest EMP rays did nothing to them, but in the end they succumbed to a simple stick.

    There is also just the possibility that their common illness affects something biologically they possess that we do not.

    I too hope the protections would go both ways. I guess it depends if whatever they’d exhaust is toxic to us

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• ace_garp@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Pretty much everything from the graphic-novel Signal from Space.

  General societal breakdown in various sectors.

  Also, it would unite most of humanity in ways we have never seen before.

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  • AstralPath@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Contact is another good novel that explores what would happen if we got verifiable radio signals from an alien race.

    I miss Carl Sagan.

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• stoy@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I can see three options.

  1. Division, this would divide a lot of groups, and cause a lot of internal rifts.
  2. Unity, a foreign entity could easily be a powerful unifying force.
  3. Biological disaster, either through incompetence or ignorance, we or the aliens don’t practice good biohazard containment, spreading infection throughout our world.

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• SorteKanin@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  What do you mean “meet”? The way we would reach contact is by radio signals at first, not by actual physical visits. So at first we would only be communicating with probably a very long light delay as they’d be very far away. Realistically speaking neither would be able to visit the other in any feasible way, unless they have technology that is far, far beyond what we can imagine right now. Interstellar travel is very hard.

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  • wabafee@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    In that scenario how do you think of us would react knowing there is someone out there and we just confirmed only through radio.

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    • SorteKanin@feddit.dk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I think there would be a whole lot of excitement, possibly a lot of religious turmoil.

      I’d recommend the movie “Contact” which explores this exact scenario :)

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• ultranaut@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  It depends on what the extraterrestrials are like. I think its probable they would be as incomprehensible to us as we are to fish or bugs. I am confident that a significant percentage of people will immediately freak out and react with aggression regardless of what they are like, and that the wealthy will be looking for any way to make money from them, even if it means selling out life on earth.

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• Th4tGuyII@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Their attitude towards us really depends on what their evolutionary pressures were. If resources were/are plentiful, they might have a less aggressive nature and simply wish to meet us.
  Otherwise, we might be on the chopping block.

  As for us. I imagine a decent portion of humanity would immediately default to rampant xenophobia or weirdly sexual obsession.

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• Kolanaki@pawb.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  With every major discovery in science ultimately being pretty boring, I would expect to be disappointed that the aliens look exactly like humans or something like that.

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• Una@europe.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Breed with them and eat them.

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• WongKaKui@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  YOU ARE BUGS

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  • Spacehooks@reddthat.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Pish ever exterminate bugs from home? Gas, trap, plug the holes, and They’ll will always come back.

    Only difference is what humans lack in strength and numbers they make up for in will and tenacity. Plus bugs aren’t vindictive. They just be living.

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• SarahFromOz@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Lots of people getting probed against their will.

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• BurgerBaron@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Depends, did we find them first or did they find us first? I project our colonial past as a fear of what more advanced aliens would do. Because that’s what we would do to any alien natives.

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• arin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Same thing that happened to the tribal native people during colonization.

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• notsosure@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  They would soon enslave or kill us, and plunder the planet for resources. Not that it will ever happen; space is too big.

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  • whaleross@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Why go through the hassle of plundering an inhabited planet in a remote system when there are near unlimited uninhabited planets to pick all over?

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    • notsosure@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      One of the most notable substances found on Earth but likely absent on most other exoplanets is liquid water. Another candidate is free oxygen (O₂) in significant quantities. On most exoplanets, oxygen is often bound in compounds (like CO₂ or H₂O) rather than existing as a free gas in the atmosphere.

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• Nomad@infosec.pub ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Depending on how similar our physiology is, a lot of very contagious infections like when we entered the Americas.

  Assuming the intent is meeting and not conquer or eradicate, because if we meet them they are certainly more advanced in technology than us.

  Probably looking for similarities in communication and maybe some kind of high security hosting behavior.

  After communication has been established, hopefully diplomatic ties are established.

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• HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Its so hard to say. So much depends on what is possible interstellar travel wise. If light speed is the limit it would likely be with probes and its kinda unlikely that if they could send things out that far and communicate back that they would need many elemental resources and they would have energy needs solved. Honestly I think its very unlikely we would meet any unless we travel outward. Like I think its more likely their probes would meet our probes and maybe we could get somewhat of an idea of where we came from and where we are going but it would take years to have communications. If there is something faster then its essentially magic by our standards and that just makes things more up in the air.

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