The ultimate filet Cro-Magnon... :)

"To Serve Man" - one of my favorites!

Any debate on the morality of alien invasion seems moot.
If they want it, they'll take it.

But it seems in your argument "rights" end at the border.
Thank heavens for the Army.

I gotta tell ya though, I really think the Poles had a RIGHT to their land when the Panzers rolled over it. But that's just me.

As for what they'd want? I don't know.
Not the raw materials, those are all over the place.
Certainly not our water or our women.
(Well maybe the women - have you seen the women!)

But really, Intelligent Life is the one thing on this planet that might be rare out there.
If they come for anything - they might just come for us!

But even if they're friendly - it will be the end of US.
Nothing about that encounter makes me want to hasten it.

"Top" and "bottom" is determined by who visits whom - not a coin toss.

If THEY come here, they CAN come here.
By that fact they will have in insurmountable technological advantage and we will be at their mercy.

I don't assume they're Klingons - but I don't assume they're not either.

Population wanes when birth control is cheap and plentiful. Under-population pressures are the norm in developed nations.(America's continuing increase has more to do with immigration that internal population growth.)

And space-borne solar shields and collectors will either cool or warm as needed.
We'll have effective planetary weather control within a few hundred years - tops.

I didn't mean 'feeding the US' I meant feeding the species... especially in the event of another Major Ice Age... picture 7-8 Billion people trying to live of a LOT LESS arable land...

Sure, we proved that Malthus was a moron, but unless you reject historical evidence of solar and terran temperature cycles, .....

The assumption inherent in your warning and Hawking's is that they lack something we have.

Even the Prime Directive in Star Trek encouraged the opposite of 'take it for ourselves' attitude. Energy was cheap and virtually no "Earthling" wanted for anything.

The North American Natives 'lost' because the Truth is: Land ONLY "Belongs" to those who can defend it against ALL Comers. If you can, it's still yours; if you can't, it becomes Theirs.

Period. Nobody has "rights" to land or territory other than the occupiers who can defend it, and any legal rights of its citizens comes from their own culture and laws protecting those rights and defining them FOR their 'own peoples.'

Go review Star Treks for the optimistic view. What could a space-faring race want/need from US?! Use us as food?! Consider the expense of resources and time involved in THAT 'hunt and gather' kind of expedition! Silly! If they could Get Here From There, you think they'd come for FOOD?!

No... if we don't develop an FTL drive, we'll run out of room from overpopulation or die off in the next Big Ice Age... It's called 'pressure relief' and virtually all positive sci-fi stories include diaspora themes like that, but lacking FTL is a roadblock to practicality.

Science may save us; if Science fails, we're screwed.

Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Or perhaps it's not possible - and we're saved!

Not sure which would be worse,
to be consumed in a cosmic melee or to live and die alone in the darkness.

Fucked by science? Hmm, Is that good or bad?

As the saying goes, it's too late already...
Some of the earliest signals that could have punched through the atmosphere and gone one their merry way were TV broadcasts of Hitler at one of the Olympic Games... MANY years ago.

Fortunately, ANY "nearest possible civilization" is likely to not detect them or be too far away to get a clue about how much they really won't want to meet us... :)

Herb, face it, until we develop a really FAST FTL drive, we're fucked.

Y'now, we may actually have been in contact with alien species for quite some time already!

But enough about Hillary, Barack and Bernie...

:)

I'm with ya, LB. I've seen no convincing evidence of alien visitation.

Do they exist? Certainly.
Do they care a rat's @$$ about us? Why would they?
Will they come to see us? Welllll, that's the sticky part, isn't it?

I don't deny that there is a possibility that outer-
space people exist, or that they have possibly been
here before. But I don't think any of the specific
cases claimed are such.

Even if they do exist, I don't think they really
should come here. Even on this planet, you are
not allowed to just go from country to country
without a passport (except I understand that there is some sort of agreement between Cana-
da and the U.S.). One reason is the possibility
of spreading diseases; a medical exam is need-
ed. Who knows what kind of plagues they could
bring down here, or for that matter, take back to
their own people? (Then again, a germ in such
a being might not be able to survive in a human.
But who knows? And if if could blight plants and
crops...)

That or something like it. I'm sure that's in the back of everyone's mind.

"If the aliens were reasonably benevolent" - And there we have it.

Also, the Indian Tribes next door to me live own a tiny fraction of their previous holdings. What ever was "benevolently" left to them.

I'd rather take my time and enter the cosmic drama a little farther along than stone-age men.

my friend with the new hip was having a fun time separating
fantasy from reality -- kinda like Bernie Sanders and Hillary!!! -- j
.

I'm reminded of the Dyson sphere concept, which postulated the growth of a planetary system structure to capture as much as possible of the local star's energy. Dyson suggested that a complete system might even hide the star's emissions. Is this the first evidence of a Dyson sphere under construction?