Could Aliens Save Us from Our Own Destruction?

[waht]

If the aliens are studying us, and if we were to push the button to blow up the world 10 times over, would they intervene and stop us?

Maybe intelligent life in the universe is very rare so they would. Or if they messed with our DNA, they would abandon the project.

 

[TsunamiJoe]

i suspose it depends on how you are looking at things, whether its the psychological or physical side of things

psychologicaly, i would believe that if we did initiate nuclear warfare to that extent, they would realize we arent too intelligent in the first place, though i believe they would evacuate certain people that have an IQ capable for breeding to "retry" as it were

whereas physicaly, i believe if we were an expirement, than they would exhaust all resources to prevent nuclear war, and if they are capable of observing us without our knowlage, I am sure theyre capabilities for extraction of warheads while in midair would be great,

also you have to realize that if nuclear warfare would erupt, it would most liekly be the US vs Russia, and we would be shooting nuclear weapons over the polar icecap, whereas they would be shot down by patriot missles from both sides, and then melt the ice caps, and flood the world, so i don't think we will ever escalate to such measures, and it is very inefficient to shoot a missle over the oceans mainly because, yes granted we have the capabilities, they arent that sophisticated, nor reliable

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I don't see why they woudl stop us if we are an experiment. I mean we aren't being used for anything but observation it would seem so why not observe what we do in regards to the nuclear warfare. Who survives and who doesn't and what happens with those that do survive.

 

[TsunamiJoe]

well for one, when you are performing an experiment that has lasted so long as it has, not relating to Earth years by any means, but even if they life for 5000 Earth years, we have still absorbed much "time", that you don't simply scrap a project, you attempt to fix what breaks. concurrently if nuclear warfare breaks out, no one will surive, even if the icecaps don't melt somehow, the nuclear winter will take effect and another ice age will happen thus killing everyone/thing these "aliens" have worked on, even if it is not the human race they are observing, but just a planet structure, an ice age, complately wipes a new slate over the planet and forces it to start over from the basics

 

[Reshma]

well for one, when you are performing an experiment that has lasted so long as it has, not relating to Earth years by any means, but even if they life for 5000 Earth years, we have still absorbed much "time", that you don't simply scrap a project, you attempt to fix what breaks. concurrently if nuclear warfare breaks out, no one will surive, even if the icecaps don't melt somehow, the nuclear winter will take effect and another ice age will happen thus killing everyone/thing these "aliens" have worked on, even if it is not the human race they are observing, but just a planet structure, an ice age, complately wipes a new slate over the planet and forces it to start over from the basics

Maybe the human race will be annihilated but that does not mean nothing else would survive. Maybe such a catastrophe would bring about the extinction of INTELLIGENT life on earth. But certain other organisms(cockroaches I suppose) will continue to exist and evolve.

 

[arildno]

Maybe the human race will be annihilated but that does not mean nothing else would survive. Maybe such a catastrophe would bring about the extinction of INTELLIGENT life on earth.

If we do such a thing, I wouldn't say we'd acted as intelligent beings, or what?

 

[Reshma]

If we do such a thing, I wouldn't say we'd acted as intelligent beings, or what?

YES, you are right. Perhaps even our concept of 'intelligence' is quite primitive.
Problems like wars do pose a serious recurring threat, hopefully after thousands of years we might be able to solve racial, national, and sectarian conflicts. By definition, an advanced civilization must grow faster than the frequency of life-threatening catastrophes--natural or man-made.

 

[matthyaouw]

Is it just me, or is this a somewhat silly discussion?
How can we have an insight into the psycology, purposes or potential actions of a hypothetical, race of beings which we have not yet proved the existence of, never mind their supposed purposes for visiting us, or their ability to intervene if they do happen to exist?

 

[Phobos]

It's just you. No, wait. You're right. We can't assume to apply human nature/motivations/tendencies to an alien species.

 

[TsunamiJoe]

if there's a nuclear war, and a nuclear winter, creating another ice age, NOTHING, is going to survive, not even your beloved cockroaches your so fond of believing can survive anything

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A few of the more interesting alleged UFO events involve apparent UFO interference with defensive systems. One example of this is the incident at Malmstrom AFB, in 1967, in which the launch control systems of eight separate nuclear missile systems were allegedly sequentially disabled.

http://www.nicap.org/malmstrom75dir.htm

Edit: http://www.nicap.org/malmstrom67dir.htm

Another alleged event took place at Vandenberg AFB in which a UFO seemingly disabled a missile that was in flight; known as the Big Sur event of 1964.

http://www.nicap.dabsol.co.uk/bigsurdir.htm

So if we accept the popular notion of ET as a basis, it would seem that the alleged ETs have an interest in our actions. One popular take on all of this is that ET won't allow us to destroy ourselves.

 

[Dayle Record]

I think that Genesis describes an alien encounter, and genetic experiment. Unfortunately the writers of the Genesis history, attributed the interloper with God status.

Wouldn't it be lovely for real estate developers, and geneticists, if we would worship them as they go about their professions?

 

[Averagesupernova]

if there's a nuclear war, and a nuclear winter, creating another ice age, NOTHING, is going to survive, not even your beloved cockroaches your so fond of believing can survive anything

I wouldn't go that far. There is life on the ocean floor. It most likely would continue.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Note that I had linked that wrong event at Malmostrom above. There were two, one in 1975, and the first in 1967. The correct 1967 link is added above.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

well for one, when you are performing an experiment that has lasted so long as it has, not relating to Earth years by any means, but even if they life for 5000 Earth years, we have still absorbed much "time", that you don't simply scrap a project, you attempt to fix what breaks. concurrently if nuclear warfare breaks out, no one will surive, even if the icecaps don't melt somehow, the nuclear winter will take effect and another ice age will happen thus killing everyone/thing these "aliens" have worked on, even if it is not the human race they are observing, but just a planet structure, an ice age, complately wipes a new slate over the planet and forces it to start over from the basics.

First, though a bit off topic, we have been through iceages before and there is still plenty of evolved life here decended from species from the ages preceeding these ice ages. Things don't all die due to an ice age. Also the "Nuclear Winter" hypothesis was replaced by the less publisized "Nuclear Autumn" hypothesis. Either way I guess we won't know for sure unless it happens anyway.

On topic. If you don't really know the nature of the expiriment you couldn't really say that allowing us to kill ourselves off would ruin it. Perhaps watching the life on a planet from start too end is the point. See how likely life will evolve to certain stages. To interfere in many an expiriment could be detrimental to results, and if we're the equivalent of lab rats from their perspective perhaps they don't care if we live or die. Lastly, whose to say this is the only petry dish and that it would be any more important to preserve than any other?

 

[Phobos]

I wouldn't go that far. There is life on the ocean floor. It most likely would continue.

also deep in the Earth's crust

 

[loseyourname]

The organisms most likely to survive just about anything are archaea. They can thrive in anaerobic environments in temperatures up to several hundred degrees celsius. They can also evolve very rapidly and would likely be unimpressed with the radiation.

 

[RaymondKennethPetry]

...Lastly, whose to say this is the only petry dish and that it would be any more important to preserve than any other?

Please, spell "petri dish" correctly ... The incorrect spelling confuses with my surname in the Search mechanism on this forum.

Ray.

 

[daveb]

What if the purpose of their experiment was to see how it would take us to blow everything to pieces?

 

[Ukitake Jyuushirou]

If the aliens are studying us, and if we were to push the button to blow up the world 10 times over, would they intervene and stop us?

Maybe intelligent life in the universe is very rare so they would. Or if they messed with our DNA, they would abandon the project.

from my point of view...unlikely that they will intervene.

i have never intervened whenver i see a predator about to kill its prey, it was the way nature intended for the prey to be sustenance for the predator. likewise if we were stupid enuff to push the little red button then that's the way nature intended for us to be.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Since this doesn't fall into the category of unexplained phenomena, moving to GD.