If an ET Space Craft were to land and establish peaceful relationships

[opihimoimoi]

How would we answer a request to build and "man" a Communication Transponder Unit? IOWs, a small unit of ETs living among us Humans.

Would we keep them semi prisoner ? ? House them in a gated community?

Or would we give them Human Rights... to travel, purchase, sell?

[okieinpain]

1. blow his ass to alien hell, have you forgot who's in charge

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. Yeah, pray it does not happen while this gang's in charge

GO forbid they might offer us something other than oil for fuel.

[Generic Other]

2. Why not let him run the White House?

He can't be any worse than the reptilian alien in there now!

The one with the scary firebreathing mother!

[Cat Atomic]

4. If he's big, scaly, and heavily armed , I would happily take him to

my leader.

[Kanary]

5. When like-minded Dems can't even communicate peacefully

I doubt there's much hope.

I wouldn't want ETs to waste their time, and possibly their lives.

It's up to us to make that move.

Aloha

Kanary

[legin]

6. A hypothetical question

Mankind has got to the stage where it is starting to colonise planets in other solar sytems.

They get to planet X which is a strategic planet because it is a halfway refueling stop between two reletivly crowded habitable planet areas.

Planet X has got good raw materials for fueling the space craft going between the two crowded habitable planet areas, and there needs to be a large influx of people to get these raw materials out of the ground.

However Earth food does not grow to well on Planet X.

Planet X is inhabitated by a large exceptionally peaceful creature that eats the indigenous 'grass' on the planet. The large peaceful inhabitant of the planet has an IQ that is halfway between an Earth chimpanzee and a human being, but more importantly it tastes like the best kind of veal and Planet X's grass tastes like truffles.

What is your prognosis for the inhabitants of Planet X ?

And when we start colonising other planets will any inhabitants that we meet get the same treatment the Conquisadors handed out to the Incas, or to the original inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand.

[legin]

7. Thinking about it there is a whole genre of Science Fiction

that doesn't get tapped into enough.

Science Fiction tends to assume that its characters go around displaying all that is good in the human race (Star Trek's 'non interference directive' for example, which is actually quite funny when you think about it) which isn't going to be what will happen.

There are some really good, but grimly cynical, Science Fiction stories waiting to be written based on what happened to the American Indians as another example, because that it what it is really going to be like.

[Cat Atomic]

8. I thought the opening chapter of Starship Troopers was

probably more realistic than Star Trek, at least from a political point of view.

The attack the protagonist is taking part in a sort of terrorist strike against a civilian population to demoralize the population and demonstrate the humans' willingness to use force. Their loyalty is won with the threat of violence. Sadly realistic.

[legin]

9. And if you think about it

we are being prepared culturally for bumping into alien races and annihilating them.

I imagine in the 17th and 18th century during the colonizing of the planet by European nations, probably all the popular literature featured heroic fights against bloodthirsty savages in Africa for example.

Nowadays there are Science Fiction films with lots of aliens ending up dead, and computer games where the sole point is killing as many aliens as possible.

[TexasMexican]

11. One Word...

Barbaque

[TexasMexican]

10. An Article in Popular Mechanics

I read an article in the recent issue of popular mechanics.

According to the article the US Deparment of Agriculture would quarentine the alien and check it for diseseases and whatnot, just like it would for any non-native (non-human) animal brought back from a foreign country. Since there is no wording in thier rules that differentiate from sentient and non-sentinent animals.

Also it said that if its spaceship didnt produce any kind of emissions (kinds that we are commonly used to in internal combustion, steam, or jet engines), that it would be assumed that it was nuclear powered and that a NEST team would be sent to secure it and it would be turned over to the Department of Energy for inspection.

[opihimoimoi]

12. This is assuming the ETs would let us Humans inspect THEM and THEIR Craft

We have no idea of the tech powers they might possess. We shouldn't reveal signs we are a WEEDesque Culture. They might be the WEED PATROL.

[PsychoDad]

13. I think, given the state of the world currently...

Even if peaceful, they wold have to deal from a position of greater force to have us listen to them, and to a message of peace..

Remember the movie, "The Day The Earth Stood Still" ?

Sadly, An alien race, wishing to be listened to and treated as equals, would have to show the primates of planet earth, that they too weild a big stick.... Then start talking.

[GreyV]

14. Land?

It wouldn't exactly "land" since US Air Force would probably shoot it down. You know it could be one of those Iraqi drones of death. You got to be vigilant, don't you know?!

[apsuman]

15. changing th question here...

If we received a communication from space...

As far as I know the USA is the only country listening, and I don't think our SETI is well, ours. I mean it's not the UNSETI or anything.

Since we have spent boocoos listening for messages from space, I can only assume that we have a protocol somewhere (probably written in the 1960's) as to what to do.

No matter what party is in charge of the White House, i would suspect that the United Stes would send a message back.

Now, if a craft were to land here, I expect that it would matter *WHERE* they landed, but it would be a much more international affair.

Finally, if they landed they would have to be kept quarantined for a long time just to investigate the possibility of infectious diseases.

[GreyV]

16. SETI ?

SETI is useless.

Send a message back? In the case of this administration they might ask them if they knew where the WMDs are.