News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on James Webb telescope's coldest instrument reaches operating temperature. Parent comment

Re:James Webb telescope's coldest instrument reaches operati... by marricks on Monday April 18, 2022 @01:32PM (#31073857)
As soon as Europeans got big boats they ended up commiting genocide on everyone they encountered, so there's certainly reason to fear aliens behaving similarly.

That said, it seems reasonable to expect any civilization that gets interplanetary technology would also develop ICBM's along the way if they wanted.

Perhaps a certain amount of cooperation and kindness could be expected by anyone who makes it out into deep space. There's good reason to hope they'd be kinder than us I think.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:James Webb telescope's coldest instrument reaches operati... by pixl97 on Monday April 18, 2022 @01:36PM (#31073917)
You have it backwards. When you develop interplanetary travel, you by default have a weapon. Making any significant mass move through space fast can take a nuclear weapons worth of energy (honestly far more), if you lithobrake in the far side, that's going to be a massive explosion.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:James Webb telescope's coldest instrument reaches operati... by jotm on Monday April 18, 2022 @01:47PM (#31074044)
Not really, they enslaved anyone they could and stole their resources. Murder only happened when the locals were in the way.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:James Webb telescope's coldest instrument reaches operati... by InitialLastName on Monday April 18, 2022 @09:17PM (#31078783)
You'll have to excuse me if it's hard for me to tell the difference between "a) enslave everyone, b) separate the men and the women, c) make the men mine metals with a ~1 year life expectancy, d) make the women work the sugarcane fields also with a ~1 year life expectancy, e) when you need more, take them from somewhere else" and a genocide.
[ Parent | on HN ]