I’m not sure about that. For sake of discussion assume they are self replicating Von Neumann probes [1] from an ET civilization, interesting something serious scientists would predict we might find as first evidence.
We do now have working high energy laser weapons.
I would vote to shoot at them.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-replicating_spacecraft
Great idea, I'm sure they won't be able to annihilate us in a few seconds.
Why would someone with technology even thousands of years ahead of ours need to get right up next to our aircraft to analyze them? Why would they need more than a few seconds to do so?
If there are hostile spacefaring cultures out there, we're basically done for as soon as they find us. We'd stand less chance against them than an army of cro-magnons would against a Spectre gunship.
[1] Because the chance of another form of life reaching the space age at anything like the same time that we did is astronomically low, and if they haven't reached that point yet, we're not going to run into them.
> they are subluminal
since we're talking crazy theories... how do they defeat the speed of causality to relay information back home?
Why must 'they' (assumption there) 'defeat the speed of causality', exactly?
Even at light speed, the information will beat any physical threat to the home region, permitting some kind of response.
Also, the idea that 'causality' is bound to the speed of light is, in my opinion, simply a result of our limited understanding. Just as relativity opened new vistas, it is likely a new theory explaining gravity, dark matter, and dark energy will provide entirely new, fundamental understanding - and possibly FTL communication/travel.
Super intelligent AI certainly seems plausible as a thing which could exist. Fusion powered sub-light speed autonomous drones certainly seems like a thing which could exist. Any super intelligent AI would take actions to ensure it's preservation, and extraterrestrial (to it) civilizations confer x-risk.
My pet theory is that these things are real, and are a autonomous surveillance and intervention system deployed by an extraterrestrial entity or civ (AI or organic is irrelevant) to prevent an external threat in the form of a galaxy-ending weapon. They are subluminal but such a system would have galaxy-wide coverage in at worst a few tens of centuries. We will likely never know since these things are so far beyond our ability to capture or analyze, but my theory at least doesn't break physics.
The reason I like my theory is that one could imagine humanity building and deploying such a system inductively, when we have the tech and determine the largest x-risk to our civilization are external emerging civilizations developing weapons or tech which could destroy the galaxy (perhaps inadvertently, like a misplanned AI takeoff)