Aliens may exist

[Trip]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

Unnecessary. Possibly. Unnecessary.

Come to hunt us to see if we are most dangerous game?

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by Trip

Come to hunt us to see if we are most dangerous game?

You've seen Predator too many times.

[azoomm]

Originally Posted by Trip

Food? Shear boredom? Slave labor?

Kind of why kids play with a magnifying lens and ant hill.... I think that is the most likely answer.

[defector]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

The same reason humans climb Everest?

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by defector

The same reason humans climb Everest?

Jupiter is Everest. Earth is the local kiddie ski hill.

[defector]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

Jupiter is Everest. Earth is the local kiddie ski hill.

Start small - this is a motorcycle forum dammit!

[goof2]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

I am transferring current human tendencies on to an alien species but humans do dangerous and stupid stuff all the time for no practical reason. We don't "need" to do quite a lot of the things that NASA does. The countries that are talking about going back to the moon certainly don't "need" to do what NASA already did 40 years ago. The assumption that aliens would solely base their actions on "need", especially when humans do not posses the same inclination, is at least a little presumptuous.

[udman]

Any alien ship that gets close enough to Earth to start a Twitter account will move on and leave us alone in short order...

[Papa_Complex]

Originally Posted by goof2

I am transferring current human tendencies on to an alien species but humans do dangerous and stupid stuff all the time for no practical reason. We don't "need" to do quite a lot of the things that NASA does. The countries that are talking about going back to the moon certainly don't "need" to do what NASA already did 40 years ago. The assumption that aliens would solely base their actions on "need", especially when humans do not posses the same inclination, is at least a little presumptuous.

I don't think that they would necessarily do EVERYTHING based on need, but life in space would tend to create a certain desire to be economical in action. You wouldn't waste resources, nor would you take actions that wouldn't yield SOME concrete benefit. And if the concrete benefit of hunting humans with a napalm projector is better morale, then maybe they'd do it. I tend to think not though.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex

I don't think that they would necessarily do EVERYTHING based on need, but life in space would tend to create a certain desire to be economical in action. You wouldn't waste resources, nor would you take actions that wouldn't yield SOME concrete benefit. And if the concrete benefit of hunting humans with a napalm projector is better morale, then maybe they'd do it. I tend to think not though.

This assumes they are forced to spend a lot of time in space. If on the other hand they are capable of "folding" space to get wherever they want to go, then they'd have the luxury of going places just for fun.