12 of 30 - When the Aliens Arrive

[aggienaut]

   Many many movies, books, and television series have addressed the idea of what happens if aliens arrive at Earth. Usually the aliens want to kill us all, but sometimes they just want to probe a few people and draw pictures in their fields. But what happens if the aliens are friendly and helpful?

   What if the aliens take pity on us with our populations of impoverished and hungry? Using their alien technology they generously offer to sell anyone anything they need at a price they can afford. Benevolent? Yes. But a disaster for the world economy!! Thousands would become unemployed! We'd immediately begin to run a huge trade deficit with the aliens!

   Our governments would probably try to intervene - either with tariffs on space imports or outright embargoes (or militant force?). Even so, our economy would still be mangled as we'd lose our export market due to other countries getting things more cheaply from space. And what if the aliens, use military force to compel us not to interfere with them providing us an economy of plenty?

   And would it even be ethical for the government to try to limit the aliens from providing us with everything? As thousands lose their jobs, yet cost of living becomes negligible, what would happen?

   I think this is a really intriguing question.

Comments

[ajjones.livejournal.com]

I think the prime directive would interfere with any aliens wanting to help our primate, messed up humanoid asses.

When the Aliens Come

[emosnail.livejournal.com]

But notwithstanding Jean Luc Picard having travelled through time and space to establish it already, I don't think there's any reason to expect alien civilizations to have come up with the "prime directive." In the analogous situation of the imperial powers of Earth exploring the world and colonizing everyone less advanced than themselves the prime directive certainly never seemed to occur to anyone.

I think its most likely that a civilization will be motivated primarily by self interest. That is -- if we have anything of value to them they'll either take it, trade for it it, or a combination such as trading for it at exploitive terms. (Or a convenient mismatch of values. They'll be like "foolish humans, they think diamonds are valuable!! And they're willing to trade hundreds of thousands of pancakes for them!!!!")

Second most likely, if they are well enough off that they absolutely don't need anything from us, I think its equally likely they'll charitably help us out than observe a strict nonintervention role. OR, maybe they'll decide that the human plague is disrupting the fascinating and delicate ecosystem of the planet Earth and choose to wipe out humanity as a pest control operation.