[acdcguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gashatfreak

If aliens really do come here then this brings up a bunch of opportunities for mankind. Think about it: Earth is a cesspool of untapped materials, and we can trade it with them for advanced technology and stuff. I think alien tourism would be a HUGE financial investment.

On the other hand if they come here to invade we're screwed.

Actually, if they come here proclaiming to be dieties we're probably even more screwed because there are some real hardcore religious nutjobs out there. We might be looking at a worldwide 'crusade' or something.

It's definitely something to keep an eye on and be somewhat prepared for, at least mentally. And I don't think it's just resources they would come here for. It's likely study and observation, much like what we do on Mars with the Mars Rover. Possibly even intervention like the big world powers do in smaller vulnerable nations. They likely (and I am talking of the possibility of multiple different races of extraterrestrials) are coming here influencing world politics and events at the benefit of their own interests.

If they do invade yes we are screwed (that's assuming they haven't already invaded and propped up puppet government to fit their own interests). Hopefully whomever does is benevolent and comes to be a guiding hand to help humanity reach our true potential.

The final point is an interesting one. A couple of my friends and I have discussed this in detail. Since a lot of ancient myths proclaim humans were made "in the image of (the) god(s)". We happen to be of the mind that visitors have come here before. Given how genetically similar we are to chimpanzees and bonobos, any other intellectual creature organizing taxonomy of life on Earth would place humans in the genus Pan (or chimps and bonobos into the genus Homo). But we are heavily modified to the point were we look almost unrelated to our African ape cousins. Almost in the same manner to that of many dog breeds are to wolves. I don't think it's too far out there to suggest we are a genetically modified species of chimpanzee made to look like whatever came here. And if you take a story like Prometheus (the Greek Titan who gave mankind fire, who also was the one who made the current human species) one could theorize such myths are based on a truth of some ancient extraterrestrial scientist, or scientists that created mankind for a specific purpose for their own or another species usage. And us gaining "knowledge" or "technology" was not a good thing because we would become more like the "gods" themselves. It would be likely that some malevolent species out there could come to Earth looking for us to worship them like gods, while others want to see us advance to their level and are why they don't want to intervene anymore, or until they feel the need they have to. So I can totally see some religious humans looking at theses space foreigners as "gods" and going nuts about it. But we could end up in a Futurama scenario where so many species make contact with us that it doesn't matter and it just becomes a normal part of life, and hopefully reveals truth about our history and existence as a species we yet haven't uncovered, or at least fully understood to be true due to fragmented evidence and speculation.