- #1
DTM
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- 9
There has been much debate about SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) and whether or not we should try to contact ET. Some (Including Stephen Hawking) have argued it is a bad idea to announce "We're here" as the aliens would likely come here, squash us like an ant hill in Africa, and take our resources (minerals, etc).
In order for any alien civilization to get here, they would need to travel beyond the speed of light or be able to create a worm hole, or some other mode of transport beyond our current understanding of what's possible in physics. Given the incredible age of the universe, and how far we've come in our measly 5,000 years of civilization, it's reasonable to think it could be possible for some alien civilization to achieve warp travel and arrive here.
Here's my problem; any civilization that's achieved warp speed, I believe, would have long ago achieved the ability to make any elements they want from any collection of matter available to them. We've already been able to produce a number of elements in nuclear fission and fusion reactions. I don't believe it is at all beyond our understanding of physics to produce any element we want. The stars did it, didn't they? It probably just takes more energy than our current capabilities allow. So wouldn't it stand to reason that there is no way this alien civilization would need to take our copper, zinc, gold, or unobtainium? We simply don't have anything that they wouldn't have been able to make for themselves long ago.
Now our lifeforms might be something they would be interested in studying. I'd be more afraid of ending up in an interstellar zoo than being destroyed to harvest our minerals.
In order for any alien civilization to get here, they would need to travel beyond the speed of light or be able to create a worm hole, or some other mode of transport beyond our current understanding of what's possible in physics. Given the incredible age of the universe, and how far we've come in our measly 5,000 years of civilization, it's reasonable to think it could be possible for some alien civilization to achieve warp travel and arrive here.
Here's my problem; any civilization that's achieved warp speed, I believe, would have long ago achieved the ability to make any elements they want from any collection of matter available to them. We've already been able to produce a number of elements in nuclear fission and fusion reactions. I don't believe it is at all beyond our understanding of physics to produce any element we want. The stars did it, didn't they? It probably just takes more energy than our current capabilities allow. So wouldn't it stand to reason that there is no way this alien civilization would need to take our copper, zinc, gold, or unobtainium? We simply don't have anything that they wouldn't have been able to make for themselves long ago.
Now our lifeforms might be something they would be interested in studying. I'd be more afraid of ending up in an interstellar zoo than being destroyed to harvest our minerals.