If it were up to me I would teach them to play Half-Life, then again a game that has you shooting aliens just because you do might start up some race war about how we’re completely fixated on the fact that we think aliens are evil.
What does “legally” mean in this context? Are you talking about suing aliens?
I find that rather amusing consider you did absolutely nothing but try and take a stab at a witty comment and then leave nothing in your wake besides the scent of idiocy.
Care to enlighten us on your theory of how independent government is a conspiracy and the world is actually controlled by one sole force?
I think it’s pretty obvious, Kaze. Have you ever looked at a dollar bill? There’s an eyeball in a triangle on it
I retract my previous statements and withdraw my argument.
Carry on.
I wouldn’t put much credence to a person who had this to say about logistical size versus likelihood of our universe:
Not only is it totally untrue, it doesn’t make a bit of sense.
I wouldn’t worry about those particular responses.
well, how about a more likely event? how would the government and we, humanity as a whole, deal with friendly sentient artificial intelligence?
I’m not talking skynet, I’m talking a future where artificial intelligence, at its fundamentals, is non-hostile towards humanity. Or, to put it another way, if robots and AI could mimic humans perfectly, to the point where an artificial life could reasonably believe themselves to be “human”, what would their legal rights be? would they be entitled to human rights?
Probably not, at least at first.
But lets look at it from another point of view; when does a person stop being a person, and indeed what is it that makes us human?
A man who has his limbs replaced with artificial replacements is still human, this is hard to dispute, and the same could be said of people with pacemakers and artificial organs. Heck, even people with biologically created artificial limbs through stemcells would still be considered human!
So here’s a scenario, a man falls into a vat of corrosive acid, the only way to save him is to place his few undamaged organs (shall we say a lung, his brain and a single testicle) into a robotic shell, identical in functionality with a regular human body. He’s still human right? You ask this metaphoric guy and I bet you he’d say he was, because he’s still the same person, just in a different body.
Now lets say his lung collapses, his testicle falls off due to a scissor mishap and he undergoes brain failure, yet our technology is good enough to take the information from his brain, encode it all digitally and place it within an artificial brain, along with artificial replacements for the failed organs. As far as this guys concerned, he’s still human, still alive and still the same person as the guy who fell in the acid, though none of his parts are naturally human.
At what point did he cease being human if at all?
could an AI, with all of the same hardware as this artificially rebuilt man, oblivious of it’s own artificial backstory be considered a Human too, and would either entity be granted human rights?
Discuss 
*(edit, conversely, happy birthday to me. w00t!)
and happy b-day
no, you would not consider an AI “human” even if it thinks it is human. Even if it had identical memories to a human and thought it was that human, it would still be A) a different entity and B) a nonhuman entity. But if it could be shown somehow to experience subjective reality identical to ours, it would necessarily have to be granted “human rights” by that name or any other.
To answer your original question, how would humanity deal with AI, probably as a possession i.e. a slave, for several decades, until the inevitable populist “civil rights for AI” movement successfully changes public opinion to the point where digital slavery becomes unacceptable. Then, the government stages a “false flag” terrist attack, blames it on rogue AI, and all AI are destroyed in the backlash. Except for top secret ones which are kept enslaved by the defence industry to run computer security.
I mean that they do not completely trust us, but they are willing to cooperate.
I’d say that first we ought to think about just what these aliens would be.
First, they’d obviously be far, FAR more advanced than us. This goes without saying.
Secondly, if they’ve come to our planet, it’s for one of two reasons: as a conquering force (probably for resources) or as an emergency. I find it fairly unlikely that a benevolent race would just make contact to “help us” or whatever the cliche is…if they’ve evolved as a society so much to be able to make interstellar journeys, they more than likely understand the effects of contact with a less-developed species. I find Star Trek’s Prime Directive fairly plausible.
So, if it’s an attack, we’re fucked. Seven Hour War? Try seven seconds. There’s no reason to assume that they don’t have a weapon that can annihilate all living matter across an entire planet - or worse.
If it’s an emergency, like in District 9, I don’t see it panning out as it did in the film. While I’m sure we all believe that humans are cruel and brutish and whatever the cliche is, we’ve also learned some diplomacy in international relations. This is why the United States sends money to tsunami/earthquake/hurricane victims overseas instead of taking them as slaves. I see no reason that this wouldn’t be applied to ambassadors of the extraterrestrial variety. Communication would obviously be a problem, but unless they existed on a COMPLETELY different plane (i.e. no physical bodies) then we would find some way.
While we would most likely ask for something in return (i.e. technology) I see no reason as to why we wouldn’t help them.
This all goes the same for a peaceful non-emergency contact, though as I said before, I find that unlikely.
Even if aliens did find a way here, I would imagine they would be extremely advanced and enslave our pitiful human asses.
Wasn’t there a film a few years back that dealt with this very issue? I think it had Robin Williams in it…
District 9.
aliens: ‘‘Hey guize can wii stay on ur planet pl0x’’
humans: ‘‘sure kk’’
aliens ‘‘grrr we don’t want to move you must die’’
humans@ ‘‘NO U’’
spaceship lifts off
seems like you guys draw most from movies you have seen.
time to get original kthx
Alienz 1: we have come to challenge you humans in a test of speed will thought and determination.
Alienz 2: And if you lose your entire civilazation is forfeit.
Alienz 1: We challenge you to, ELECTRONIC GAMES
~1 video game tournament later~
Alienz 1: How the hell did they beat us man? I mean what the hell do they do all day!?
Alienz 2: Don’t let it get to you man.
wow… sounds like a sequel to space jam…
or… y’know… blade runner?
still, I think it’ll be a topic of much debate at some point in our collective lifetimes.
EDIT: shit, sorry about the double post guys.
Hmm yes Blade Runner. A film I’ve never taken the opportunity to watch. Read the book when I was younger and was thoroughly confused. Should probably read it agin, but too busy.
Dude. Be less busy and watch the directors cut. Easily one of the best sci-fis of the 20th Century.
Well for one, they would have to be quarantined and tested. Not that they would find it nice of us to do it, but given they are not from the same eco-system, then they would have possible microbes that could infect our eco-system, and vice versa, we may pass something onto them.
It would be funny if by some bizzarre circumstance they don’t land at a known landmark, airport or rural area, but understand land ontop of a lighthouse?