I always wondered this… we send off all of our creepy looking destructobots to these other worlds and if there happens to be life there, just imagine what they’d see! Maybe attach a little human bobblehead with a speaker on the hood just in case we find something and can tell it “hey, never mind the evil robot, we’re actually pretty cool peeps”.
So question of the day… How do you think we, as the people of this earth, are represented intergalactically? We leave tons of junk out there like satellites, exploratory probes, pieces of space crafts that just fall off, and all these little RC cars we race on other worlds. Heck, even our tv/radio signals get shipped out into the cosmos! Well, while those can only travel light speed, they’ll still start to reach far distant stars or passers by at some point in the future. Same with our space junk. So, if a tourists or a scout from a different world has decided to swing on by through the boonies in our neck of the woods, what would you think our first impressions would be? Would they see us as a curious and young species that’s trying to explore and understand the universe around them? Or overly militaristic with vast histories of bloodshed and conflict that carry on to this very moment? Or just plane insane since they might not know what a “tv show” is… I’m sure they’d be horrified by our scifi movies and treatment of aliens, though they’d probably feel reassured that at least a few aliens have integrated ok on that Jersey Shore show. Or will they see us for all our good and bad, that we’re doing the best we can to make it through life.
Personally, I don’t think they’d know what to make of us. We’re full of contradictions. On one hand, we come up with so much creativity and beauty in our world; poetry, music, art, etc… And even missions of mercy and peace. We’re great at coming together in a pinch and despite what those post-apocalyptic movies might tell you, humanity has a way of pulling together in a crisis. But on the other, we’re so capable of destroying ourselves it isn’t even funny. Through war, pride, or greed, everyone from the tiniest thief to the leaders of nations plot to exploit every one else. Which doesn’t end well for anyone. If we were to be judged, I’d hope it would be on our struggles with our selves and our nature as humans, rather than our actions… cause on a whole, we’d probably be in the red.
Anyways, thoughts?
PS… it’s going to get stormy here with some wicked hurricanes and such, maybe, so just a heads up, if the power starts to go my updates for this week might be effected. But barring an act of Gaia, things should move along as normal. Also, apparently Martians look like Plankton from SpongeBob…
It depends on the mindset of the species. Klingons are going to react differently to us than Vulcans who will react different than Wookies who will react differently than Wraith who will react differently than etc.
I hope it’s the Ferengi personally. If we could fix our current problem of ever increasingly strangling the free market, they would love us and hate commies.
meh, I’d welcome the Klingons before the other two! >) they’re more fun!
the ferengi were totally awesome in the series! probably one of the more fun races! >D
This reminds me of the movie Contact (based on the Carl Sagan book I haven’t read) where humans get their first return message from aliens. They sent back (among other things) a recording of the first television broadcast that was strong enough to leave our solar system, which was of Hitler giving a speech. If the wrong type of aliens waited a bit to recieve some more info on that guy, it might not make for the best first impression! I’m not sure of the truth to the broadcasting story, but that would definately be an “oh crap!” moment!
Even with that aside, we sure do seem to like to make alot of films and shows about humans fighting aliens. I’m not sure how excited I would be to peacefully go to a world where a major form of entertainment revolves around fantasizing about killing anything that comes from another planet. Top that off with the fact that humans are routinely violent with each other so you know that the events in the movies are a possible outcome, and Earth doesn’t really sound like the number one alien vacation hotspot of the universe.
In the end though, I really do hope there is other intelligent life out there and that they are cool enough to want to just be buddies.
it could be worse… they could send back a message in a snookie video or pr0ns.
probably not just fantasy either… I mean, we watch like star trek shuttle crafts landing in cities to say hey to the people there… just imagine if that was here on earth now? we’d shoot it down in a heartbeat! so why in the world would anything ever want to visit? maybe they have to send a postcard first?
me too! because if we’re the most intelligent life in the universe, then the cosmos has some major issues…
The one that finds the other is probably more technologically advanced, and all of our interactions will be based on that. But do you really trust us not to attack if we believe we can win?
ha! I’m sure we’d take the shot even if we didn’t think we’d win! humans are crazy stupid like that!
HAAAAAAAAAhahahahahahaha! XD
Real life is once again greater than fiction!
Real life:1000 Fiction: 1000000000000
fiction is just all the things we can dream up… real life is all the stuff we can’t! rl is definitely stranger and greater! >) well… minus the unicorns, but that’s a given.