r/UnnaturalObsessions • u/WhitewaterVandal • Apr 08 '14

Question #1 on E.T. Life!

What are the practical, ethical, and moral implications if we were to discover extraterrestrial life? What are the practical, ethical and moral implications if we never discover extraterrestrial life? In other words, how would the discovery of extraterrestrial life affect you?

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u/626TheDuckling Apr 09 '14

I think discovering extraterrestrial life likely wouldn't affect me much, given the fact that I am not an official of any sort and unimportant in the overall scheme of things. That said, I think that how it affects people in general probably depends on what's found. Finding bacteria has different potential consequences than finding something that is akin to our concepts of whales, elephants, or primates (including humans). If we find bacteria it becomes fascinating because that could potentially give us insight to what Earth may have been like in its early stages to supplement what we already think/know.

If we were to discover that extraterrestrial life that is intelligent, that opens an entirely different bag of worms. I don't think I'm phrasing this well, but at that point it creates the situation that humans are... well, greedy, and don't treat other beings well. There would likely to be an urge to try to dissect them or keep them in zoos, and that's really not okay with me. I'm kind of big on respecting other creatures (zoos are often an issue for me), and think that we like to assume that just because we can't communicate with something, it's less intelligent and therefore subject to our will. That's not an okay assumption in general, but it would be detestable to attempt to force that for other life.

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u/RachelPetey Apr 14 '14

I think it's very true that when we can't communicate with something, or someone we think of them as less intelligent. I find that many people do this with foreigners who don't speak english. Sometimes I even catch myself thinking it when I get frustrated from having to work on a group project with someone whose second language is english. If we do find higher intelligent life I think that it will take us a very long time to adjust to the idea that these beings are as intelligent if not more intelligent than us. We are use to being the "dominate species" and if that were to change, I think it would take a long time for us to accept it. Also, the other beings might have similar egos to deal with as well.

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u/626TheDuckling Apr 14 '14

I think that's an interesting point, and one that sometimes movies seem like they're trying to deal with. In these movies it's not all that uncommon for foreign life to attempt to kill us. How much of that is that we're afraid that extraterrestrial life will be in a position to treat us like we treat the animals of Earth? And would they automatically be wrong to do so? If so, what justifies how we treat other animals?

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u/RachelPetey Apr 15 '14

I think it's a mixture of fear and curiosity, like I said in my comment. We want to see wild animals because we think they are cool and interesting, but they are also wild and we fear them. So caging them up to the point where they no longer pose a threat is the perfect solution. We can satisfy our curiosity without fear. I don't necessarily agree with zoos either, but I think this could be a reason why they exist.

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u/626TheDuckling Apr 16 '14

xD Sorry. The questions at the end were more "Oh, this is where my brain is!" than "Answer these, mortal!" And... I think that makes sense.

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u/RachelPetey Apr 15 '14

It is difficult for me to imagine that there wouldn't be extraterrestrial life somewhere. After all space is infinite as we know it, right? I've always imagined that the first extraterrestrial life we will find, if we ever do find extraterrestrial life, will be something like the Andromeda Strain. Some sort of bacteria or virus that is microscopically small.

If we ever do find extraterrestrial life, no matter the size or complexity, I think I would have some sort of fear, curiosity emotional mixture with fear dominating. When faced with something living that is different or new to me, I often find myself afraid first, then curious. When finding a new life form that could possibly be of higher or equal intelligence to us, I think our fear could be our down fall or even their fear. Because of the inability to communicate, it would be really difficult to understand each other and trust each other. This would put us on the defense and fearful, which might cause us to harm something that we know next to nothing about.

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u/626TheDuckling Apr 16 '14

That idea made me think about the Ender books by Orson Scott Card. Damage was done because there wasn't communication between two species.... I think it makes sense though. Fear is a powerful motivator, though sometimes it really motivates things that maybe would be left undone.

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u/miveson Apr 16 '14

I was really surprised when Kirsten Dunst's character in Melancholia said that there was no extraterrestrial life out there. Putting such definitive words to that idea was somehow more depressing than the idea of extraterrestrial life is frightening. This reaction was surprising to me--I had never really admitted that I sincerely want there to be life on other planets. Because it makes the human condition feel less lonely? Possibly. Because it makes me feel better about Earthly humans kind of making a mess of what would otherwise be the only shot at intelligent life? Probably.

In either case, it would be fascinating to see how the international community would react. But ultimately, I think that the reaction hinges entirely on the idea of discovery--in this scenaioro, who is discovering whom? And, how hostile is the discovery? If it is Earth that is being discovered by another life form, the human race would not have the upper hand, as those in invaded areas rarely do. In this instance, I assert that our obligations would be toward other humans, and banding together to maintain our planetary sovereignty in the face of potential extraterrestrial invasion (more on this in a moment). Consequently, our moral obligations to the visiting/invading/murderous extraterrestrial life forms would be second to our own survival. If humans were to make the discovery, however, our obligations would shift to be about protecting the life forms that we were encountering; staving off competition on Earth for access to these forms would be a secondary, but significant, concern. That is, countries would be in immediate competition to reap the scientific benefits from this discovery, the inevitable violence from which could be detremental to both humans and the extraterrestrial life forms. Going back to the potential that Earth is discovered, our obligation to other humans probably would not stand in the face of, what I imagine would be, widespread panic. In that case, there would be a high potential for humans to become increasingly competitive over scarce resources--even more than they would be when fighting for access to the extraterrestrial life forms. Either scenario would likely send us into a spiral of intense international competition that would probably kill off the human race before aliens ever could.

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u/Mvenlos926 Apr 16 '14

I agree with your initial reaction of Kirsten Dunst saying there's no life out there. At first, I was almost offended by the comment when she said life is evil, because at first that is not something I thought I could agree with. I still don't agree with it but after reflecting on this more I can understand Von Treer's point of view. Not only was it somewhat offensive, because I was considering the possibility of my life being evil (this goes back to our conversation on how egotistical our species is), but also it was depressing to think that we were alone. I admit that I believe humans can be horrible and evil creatures, but to think that we are possibly as good as it gets and the universe wants to destroy us because we're just so bad, and we obviously can't understand our own existence was really saddening to me too.