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Zuma's avatar

Would it be in the interest of beings from an advanced alien civilization to save us from ourselves? Or would this "leg up" deprive us of crucial lessons we need in order to become truly civilized?

Asked by Zuma (5908points) December 23rd, 2009

Given the ease with which people who possess advanced technology can destroy themselves, we can expect a civilization sufficiently advanced to master space travel will have survived the predictable cultural bottlenecks that threaten our own culture with extinction—the problems endemic short-sightedness, ignorance and selfishness; placing partisan interest ahead of the common good; religious and cultural warfare; and divisive cultural practices, such creating a disadvantaged, exploited, subordinate class in order to support a privileged class.

One would expect that an advanced civilization would not only be technologically advanced but spiritually advanced as well, in the sense that they have a highly developed sense of unity, morale, and common purpose. One can also expect them to have a highly developed sense of morality; a consensus amongst themselves about what makes life worth living; and a solid understanding what the individual owes to others and society, and vice versa.

Members of an advanced civilization are likely to be highly self-actualized, cooperative, and scrupulously respectful of the rights and dignity of others—and they are likely to foster, things like kindness, generosity, non-violence, compassion— things that would strike us as saintly goodness. They will very likely have subtle but effective ways of ensuring that people consistently act in good faith, and enlightened ways of correcting those who err or transgress.

One can expect them to have healed their culture’s historical grievances, such those which arise out of racism, sexism, and the like. And, as a consequence, one can expect them to be mindful of the impact that they have on the cultures they contact. Being wiser, more moral, and more spiritually advanced than we are, they would necessarily have an enormous impact on our culture. It could easily cause a spiritual crisis, as religious verities and moral assumptions are called into question, shattering our civilization much the same way that our civilization has shattered indigenous peoples with whom we have had first contact.

It may well be that most nascent civilizations never make it to space-faring because they either blow themselves up first, or because they fail to pull together to save their planet from their own pollution. It might therefore be in an advanced civilization’s interest to let a semi-barbarous civilization like our own fail, so that we don’t exporting our barbarism and dysfunction to the rest of the galaxy.

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14 Answers

ragingloli's avatar

It would be in our interest to let you destroy yourselves. You have a long history of destroying your environment and slaughtering members of your own species en masse. When/if you acquire interstellar space travel, the next thing that will happen is you spreading your special kind of “friendship” among the stars and you would become a threat to our security. We should at least isolate your solar system until you learn to behave yourselves. Or until you destroy yourselves.

Buttonstc's avatar

Isn’t this the essence of the “prime directive” as found in many many episodes of the various Star Trek series?

There are many episodes in which this figures prominently in the major plot.

By and large the conclusion is that giving other civilizations a “leg up” can have many unforseen negative consequences. My vote would be for sticking to the prime directive.

drdoombot's avatar

I think that as a society, many of us are uncomfortable with and have trouble adapting to new technology. In a sense, we are not mature enough to utilize certain existing technologies in a useful way, instead using them for destruction, entertainment and the like. To be exposed to even greater technology could be disastrous for us. We need to give everyone’s brain a chance to catch up to the innovations we have already.

ETpro's avatar

@Buttonstc That’s what I was thinking as I read the background to the question. That and the fact that we humans envision other alien species as violent agressors while, despite all the evidence to the contrary, we se ourselves as benevolent prophets of love and harmony once we begin exploring the rest of the Milky Way.

Zuma poses a great question. If we assume that any aliens reaching earth are as described, a reasonable assumption for the reasons Zuma stated, then we could compare them to loving parents in their attitude toward a rebellious child. You let the little one push the boundaries far enough to find out what you meant by the warning that the stove is hot, but you always see that they don’t self immolate.

Kelly_Obrien's avatar

Most advanced species appear to practice non-involvement, not unlike the Prime Directive.
However, there may be space aliens who have tried from time to time to interact with us.
Giant landing strip signs pointing to landing area, pictures of spacemen drawn on cave walls dating back thousands of years.
Roswell, New Mexico. Area 51. Computer technology.

Buttonstc's avatar

@Kelly

Yes, I do think it’s entirely possible that there MAY be extraterrestrials who are watching us here on Earth and realize that sharing advanced technology with us would be to our detriment.

Government bodies of most nations would be rushing to figure out a military or destructive uses for it with the rationale that it is necessary for our defense, yada, yada, yada…

stranger_in_a_strange_land's avatar

Humans are so stubborn that we wouldn’t allow an alien race to save us from ourselves. We’d fight them, guerilla fashion if necessary, even to our extinction. We are naturally a competitive and warlike species. Any truely advanced alien race would quickly realize this and stay clear of us.It would not be worth their taking even a few casulaties to subdue us. If we become a danger to galactic peace it would be far more logical to stand off and blast us to vapor without any contact whatsoever.

drdoombot's avatar

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Wouldn’t it make sense that an advanced alien civilization was once a “naturally competitive and warlike species” as well? After all, these traits appeared through evolution because they helped us survive. To become the dominant species on their planet, a similar process seems logical. The key is that they overcame their natural aggression and prevented their self-destruction.

So to rephrase part of the OP’s question: can a civilization that has matured past it’s own aggression and warlike tendencies teach us to do the same? Or would they just make things worse because we’re not ready for it yet?

stranger_in_a_strange_land's avatar

@drdoombot I don’t think that we’d let them. We’d be too busy shooting at them.

ETpro's avatar

@stranger_in_a_strange_land As Arthur C. Clarke noted, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Perhaps when we realized our bullets and bombs magically did nothing to the aliens, and they did not retaliate even though, with their technology, they clearly had the ability to obliterate us, we would change our tune.

stranger_in_a_strange_land's avatar

@ETpro Good point +GA. Some would then try to steal the technology to use it as a weapon. Others would stop fighting but simply say “go away”. We can be very perverse and stubborn.

ETpro's avatar

@stranger_in_a_strange_land I am sure with your life experience, you have seen that to be true. Given my life experience, I can’t tell you why I am still an optimist. It defies all logic, I will freely admit. But I am nonetheless.

Happy New Year.

StupidGirl's avatar

I’ve heard an alien “advanced” civilization invaded the Middle-East and it was in their own interest and they told everyone they came to “save US”...

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