Re:SETI spots dozens of new mysterious signals emanating fro...
by ASalazarMX on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:38PM
(#17982871)
The only civilizations we have known definitely show that contact involving a great technological difference is usually a disaster for the less advanced people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox#It_is_dangerous_...
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Re:SETI spots dozens of new mysterious signals emanating fro...
by losteric on Thursday September 13, 2018 @10:17PM
(#17984264)
Scarcity is an important factor. Today, primitive societies (mostly) safe from Western conquest because they simply don't have anything we want.
Re:SETI spots dozens of new mysterious signals emanating fro...
by azernik on Friday September 14, 2018 @12:37AM
(#17984698)
That's more about selection bias than about anything that's inherently different about advanced societies today. There were primitive societies that did have valuable things [1], and they were all destroyed or conquered very soon after contact with more powerful societies, and they remain vulnerable to outsiders as soon as they come into possession of something of value. When gold was discovered on the land of uncontacted Amazonian tribes, for example, this happened: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/22/a...
Re:SETI spots dozens of new mysterious signals emanating fro...
by psandersen on Friday September 14, 2018 @12:30PM
(#17988584)
This is a pretty essential point that I think changes the calculus of contact quite a bit. A civilisation capable of visiting us at a reasonable expense to themselves would presumably have much easier access to near unlimited astroids/moons for automated mining.
So unless they really prize rare meat or have other illogical goals you wouldn't expect any aliens to visit us until its as easy for them as it is for us to take a transatlantic flight... I wonder if they're also arguing that they should stay silent to preserve our culture instead of curing our diseases etc.
Re:SETI spots dozens of new mysterious signals emanating fro...
by rrival on Thursday September 13, 2018 @05:59PM
(#17983032)
The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem) explores this
Re:SETI spots dozens of new mysterious signals emanating fro...
by barrow-rider on Friday September 14, 2018 @11:36AM
(#17987995)
Via video game, no less. Well, simulation-y video game. Sort of.