Space Aliens Will Destroy Us All

[InbetweenDreams]

I mentioned in my posts that aliens would have no need to attack Earth for our resources. Rather, I tried to make the point that a civilization that attains a post-scarcity level status would not be morally enlightened, and therefore could chose to attack us for a reason that might be nonsensical.

Nonsensical as in, just for shits and giggles? I mean I guess if Dr. Weird was running things I suppose that could happen. I just don't see the point in senseless destruction. I don't think you would go blowing up planets because...why not?

In speculating about aliens, there tends to be "great filters" that are in the way of civilizations attaining a status as a space-ferrying species. Among them is nuclear technology, and a lot of people speculate that the reason the galaxy isn't crawling with an alien species on every star system is because it's common for alien civilizations to wipe themselves out in nuclear war. For all we know, it is simply inevitable that intelligent life is doomed to destroy itself with nuclear bombs.

That is certainly possible and unfortunate. That also assumes that other intelligent life forms experience emotions, things like greed and power are an issue for them. It is entirely possible for other intelligent life to not possess any emotion at all and make nothing but rational and logical choices (are you laughing yet?). Perhaps they have pointy ears too, who knows.

Another possible great filter is AI. Artificial Intelligence can be either the salvation or damnation of a species. For all we know, it is inevitable that intelligent life replaces itself with AI if it survives not blowing itself up with nukes. When it comes to AI, it is essentially designed so that it can improve and upgrade itself by only itself, and grow smarter and more powerful on its own. This makes AI, once fully developed post-singularity, shoot to god-like heights once the biological lifeforms that created it set that chain in motion.

An alien civilization that discovers us might be an anti-AI species and wipe us out before we develop an AI that could potentially become a god-like threat to them, or an alien civilization could be an AI itself and destroy us by creating us into machines, thinking it is only uplifting us.

That is certainly possible. AI doesn't seem harmful right now but in 10 years...20 years it could be smart enough to replace a lot of jobs, say customer support. Even at that point I don't think it would be at a point where it could take over the world. Looking out further and assuming we keep up the pace in advancement, it does start come into question.

To be clear, I do think it is more probable that humans will destroy ourselves before aliens have the chance to do it, but the one thing that makes me think we might just survive long enough to make first contact is I do think there is a chance a sliver of humanity might survive the next world war (and let's face it, it's only a matter of time until WWIII breaks out, and it'll be game over).

I do think we have the capabilities of going to Mars. This is my problem though, there's just too many things to explain. You mentioned how hard it is to talk about this without going on a tangent on conspiracy theories, but there's just so many tangents to discuss - space travel, AI, etc. You mentioned the vastness of space will probably help protect us from alien invasions, but even if it's impossible to travel past the speed of light, the galaxy has a diameter of around a hundred thousand light years. So if faster-than-light travel is ultimately impossible, a civilization that travels a fraction of that can still cross the galaxy on spaceships built to last generations over hundreds of thousands or millions of years - a long time, but a spec in the billions of years the universe has existed, and nothing in the future lifespan of the universe.

If you were to ask me what I bet the future looks like, I would bet it's the Matt Damon movie Elysium, only I don't think there will be a fairy tale ending. I do believe the future will be the Earth turning into an unlivable shit-hole, and the rich people will escape it by living on a luxurious space station, sipping margaritas while they watch us suffocate to death. This is not a future I want to happen, and why I actually kind of want aliens to just wipe us out to begin with. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos might have shown us how space travel is more feasible than we think with their reusable rockets, but the way they treat their workers shows a bleak picture. This is another tangent, but I can't stop thinking about it. There really is no hope for the future.

Mostly being cheeky about the conspiracy theories. One of the big problems we face going to Mars is the radiation. Astronauts that make such a trip probably will survive such a trip but will almost certainly die from cancer and other complications.

For the sake of the discussion, let's suppose WWIII, asteroid, pandemic or whatever doesn't take up all out...and that they're not already among us. Perhaps the discussion about WWIII could be in a separate thread?