From: Michael Scarazzo (mscarazzo@rocketmail.com)
Date: Fri Apr 24 1998 - 07:54:13 MDT
---Anders Sandberg <asa@nada.kth.se> wrote:
>
> James MacPherson <jmacpherson@v-wave.com> writes:
[snip]
> Although in this case the diplomat would most likely need to be
> cross-trained with anthropology or ethology in order to be able to
> employ his or her skills - most diplomats are good only at being
> diplomatic with humans.
I agree with you Anders, but I think that most diplomats are only
_capable_ of being
"diplomatic" with other humans. If diplomats were really good, would
we not, as a species, have avoided many wars if the diplomats had
really been good at their purported jobs?
> > I would think that the first priority with ETs would be to a
establish
> > "friendly" relationship to ensure that the human race is not
considered be
> > expendable, enslavable, etc. This would mean sending sending the
best
> > diplomat available. A diplomat would be able to quickly and fully
> > understand the motivation for the contact and the political
situation the
> > human race is about to step into. The potential to adapt
politically to
> > the situation would require a certain amount of moral and ethical
> > "flexibility" that is the forte of diplomats not scientists.
On that note related to James' post....I do not believe that trying to
establish a friendly relationship would necessarily be the most
prudent course of action. I do not contend that we should be hostile
with every alien species that we might encounter. However, by what
rationale would aliens have the same goals that humans do? Once
humans can figure out that wars and other destructive means of
expression are extremely counterproductive, then I hope that we as
humans will gain a sense of species consciousness or at least a
consensus about developments that should be avoided or encouraged.
I think that another course of action prior to full scale contact with
other species would be to make our planet and our species appear to be
strong. I do not believe that humans should use aggression, but that
we should be able to show any other potentially hostile
extraterrestrial race that bothering earth for reasons other than
peaceful contact will be extremely dangerous. Another possibility is
to show other species that earth is not worth their time. Of course,
since we have only our context as a reference all of this is
completely random speculations. Any thoughts?
Although authors like Sagan think that a spacefaring species would
most likely be friendly, I do not think that will be/is always the
case. Is there not the possibility that extremely hostile races would
not destroy themselves? Instead they might have a sense that they are
supreme and all other species should be subject to them or simply
annihilated?
Mike
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