Will we be friends with extraterrestrial intelligences in the future if we encounter them?

Date: 10/05/2014

source: http://snabow.deviantart.com

In general, there will essentially be two types of aliens, those who come from a civilization that is much underdeveloped compared to our civilization, but our technologies may still not be advanced enough for us to be able to conduct space travel to their colonies/planets or to even send any messages to them (one problem is for the message to reach them and the other problem is for them to be advanced enough to understand/receive the message). So even though we know that they do exist but there is still the difficulty of communicating with them.

The other types of alien are those coming from a more advanced civilization compared to us. They will be able to discover Earth and have the ability to pay us a visit sometime in the future. Since, based on Drake Equation, there are probably 1000 to 100,000,000 civilizations in the Milky Way alone, and 36.4 million of them may have radio-communication technology….

There are two possible scenarios for us when aliens actually arrive on Earth.

The pessimistic view is that they will invade Earth and make it one of their many colonies in the universe. This view has been reinforced by many Hollywood movies like War of the Worlds, Skyline, Independence Day, Battle: Los Angeles, Avengers, Transformers, Pacific Rim, Men in Black, Cowboys & Aliens and The Day the Earth Stood Still, to name some.

Film: Skyline, source: IMDB website

The optimistic view is that they will be friends with us and aid us during our development. (I am kind of torn between willing to live long enough to see aliens and to die before they come so that I don’t have to picture the scenes where humans are being slaved by extraterrestrial intelligences.)

I believe that when aliens do come to Earth, they will come quietly and hide in the dark to monitor the development of our civilization without interfering with our daily lives. This is probably because I am a fan of Star Trek, and in it, the most important rule the crew of the Enterprise follow as they're zipping around the galaxy is the Prime Directive:

"As the right of each sentient species to live in accordance with its normal cultural evolution is considered sacred, no Star Fleet personnel may interfere with the normal and healthy development of alien life and culture. Such interference includes introducing superior knowledge, strength, or technology to a world whose society is incapable of handling such advantages wisely. Starfleet personnel may not violate this Prime Directive, even to save their lives and/or their ship, unless they are acting to right an earlier violation or an accidental contamination of said culture. This directive takes precedence over any and all other considerations and carries with it the highest moral obligation."

However, the more realistic scenario will probably be the pessimistic view I mentioned above. So we must remain cautious and think carefully before we broadcast our Earth’s coordinates to the furthest points of the Universe. 

As Stephen Hawking puts it, ‘If advanced spacefaring aliens exploit resources like humans do, we'd better hope they don't find us anytime soon.’

Here is a video by Stephen Hawking titled, ' Encountering Intelligent Life'

-------------------------------------by Tim----------------------------------