First Contact Scenarios: Xenology 101

[Kyeto-X]

In lew of the recent showing of Stephen Hawking saying that a first contact would be bad for humans, (and the myriad comments bashing everything from Sciences, NASA, Obamacare and Sarah Palin), I wanted to talk about Xenology, the study of Aliens.

First of all, I believe that sapient extraterrestrial do exist in the cosmos, merely just because of the sheer number of stars and planets in the cosmos, and the tenacity of life itself, its quiet egocentric of us to believe that we are the only ones loved in the universe. As for the development and Kardashev scale rating of the Aliens, who am I to guess? They could be anywhere on the scale.

First thing that Xenologist look at is the morphology and biology of a possible extraterrestrial. This is a start, trying to look at how a life form can adapt and form to various extreme environments that the universe has to offer. However, this is only half of the Xenologist job. The second job is to theorize what first contact would be like. These generally fall into several categories.


Category I: Open arms This is when the Aliens and humanity are so excited to see each other that they greet each other with open arms. Some consider this naïve, but it is a possibility.

Category II: Kardashev Bracket Also known as the Prime Directive from Star Trek. This is where Aliens will not initiate contact until after we have achieved a certain level of technological and/or cultural level. This may be to prevent cultural contamination on our part, and to protect them from an irrational backlash of xenophobia.

Category III: Limited Exchange This is somewhat a combination of the two above. This is where the Aliens want to talk to us, but don’t want us to get too far ahead. They will bar us from certain technologies until we can be shown to be responsible. That said; they will help guide us and help us along the way in order to achieve a mutual exchange. V is a common example..if we ignore the blatant undertones of xenophobia.

Category IV: Conventional Warfare This doesn’t mean we are going to have armies marching across the Earth taking strategic points. This means that we go to war over conventional reasons. As such, this is These are further broken down into Two subclasses:
Category IVA: Resource War This is a scenario where we are fighting over the resources of a planet. Examples are fighting over water, food, fuel and even people if they are harvested. The basic concept is that we are fighting for our livelihood. War of the Worlds, Independence Day, and Avatar are examples.
Category IVB: Ideology War This is akin to Holy Wars, but it can be something as simple as a government doctrine. IVB is where we are fighting over ideas, beliefs, and faiths. We want to convert them, or kill them all. The Crusades of the middle ages, and the Covenant Holy Wars of Halo are prime examples.

[b]Category V: Unconventional War[b/] This is where war is sad, but nearly inevitable. In my personal opinion, this is where the two cultures are so vastly different that common ground simply cannot be found. Unlike Category IV where communication and possible a peace treaty can be arranged, in Category V we cannot even begin to understand how they think, or why. Prime example is Ender’s Game, where the Buggers have a Hive mind mentality with no language, no writing, not even body gestures. We can’t understand how they can have a soul with no individuality, no language. They can’t understand how we have a soul without sharing each other’s dreams.

(Note: I just made up these categories off the cuff, so if there is an actual First Contact Scenarios list out there, I would be more than happy to read it.)

However, of ALL the scenarios described, all of them have something to do with how a creature thinks, the sociology, the psychology of a race. How two people interact are determined by their personalities, not their anatomies. Even in the issue of Racism, Sexism, and Sexual attraction, it is a person’s mindset, thoughts and beliefs that leads to discrimination or attraction. The same hold true of two different societies.

As for whether or not Aliens visiting us would be good or bad for us would depend on the nature of the Society contacting us.

Category I would be amazing at first, but it would be messy afterwards with the religious backlash and a HUGE enterprise of Contraband and reverse engineering tech on both sides dissolving economies from the inside out.

Category II would have less impact as we would both be relatively the same level as each other. And with both of us being the same age, (hopefully) more cultural exchange could be possible, easing us together into one community. However, this also means that a surprise visitation is less likely because they would be waiting for some sort of milestone to be past. Whether it be achieve FTL, or have Hollywood produce a decent movie, it’s up to them.

Category III is likely if we share the same ideologies, but different levels of technology. This would be useful in that we will have a surprise first contact without the economic meltdown of a Category I. However, People on the lower end of the scale might become xenophobic and suspicious about the true nature of these aliens and the government they are being filtered through.

Category IV, while tragic, is both curable and preventable. Unfortunately, we have had all too much experience in this type of first contact between cultures here on our own Planet. Most commonly cited example is the colonization of America by Caucasians (at first it was a IVA and then it turned into a IVB). The causes are usually bad resource management and greed. Most unfortunate is that when we achieve FTL, we are most likely to BECOME the invading force unless we can work out a diplomatic treaty on resource sharing and learning to manage our own resources here on Earth. If they want something we cannot negotiate on, like our bodies, then war or enslavement is our only option.

Category V, while most dire, is also the most likely. Out of the imaginations of humans, we get something humanoid. Some nose putty, funny wigs, an accent and you have a new species. However, it is far more likely to have something completely different from us rather than just, or even sort of like us. If they communicate though smell, our weakest sense, how in the world would we hold a conversation about the weather, let alone our differences? What if they share memories directly, and have nothing akin to a language at all. They might not even believe that we have a soul, just like the Buggers in Ender’s Game.

Most of the factors of first contact lie on the other side, but there are some of them has to do with our own open-mindedness and faith…

God Help Us All!

[strength_to_surrive_si]

ILY <3 I do yes im in love with this GEEK/DORK but me likey a lot

[Oddoneout]

I doubt they will want to make contact except in an ideology war. because it would be nearly if not totally impossible to communication and resources would be more abundant elsewhere in this system without the risk of war