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I came up with an interesting scenario and question last week, but didn’t want it to get lost in the shuffle. To be totally fair, I’m setting this post up on October 30th and will probably do a test run of this on my Facebook that tends to go ignored. Anyway, here we go:
Aliens have brought you onto their orbiting, cloaked spaceship and have made one request. Briefly describe humanity as a whole to help them decide on their next course of action. They are prepared for peace, war, and everything in-between, so what do you say? (NO POLITICS! I SCHEDULED THIS DURING A MORE INNOCENT TIME!)
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So, I did this on Facebook like I said and every answer was to tell the aliens to wipe humanity out. No description of the species, but a simple ‘kill us all’ message. Others seemed to include the entire planet in there, which means all plants and animals would be obliterated too. Guess if humans can’t survive then we’re taking everything down with us. A rather interesting, yet believable, reaction to the scenario. I’m only writing this part, so I don’t have to do it multiple times in the comments.
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Here’s my answer:
Humans are a flawed species that can do great good and great evil. We can be smart individuals, but stupid when in a group. Most are good who want only to survive. You have members of humanity that wish to improve the world and set out to do so. These don’t usually gravitate toward power and leadership, which tends to be held by those with narrower agendas. Humans can be easily divided amongst themselves through fear and anger too. Sadly, this tends to be directed at each other because we focus more on our differences than our similarities. Most importantly, I don’t think you can judge our entire species as a whole. Individuality must be taken into account when deciding the fate of humanity.
Legends of Windemere 
“Individuality must be taken into account when deciding the fate of humanity.” I agree, Charles. It’s interesting how the default response is to kill everyone. How could anyone learn from the mistakes made if everyone was wiped out?
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That surprised me too. I think part of it is because it’s a fake scenario. People typically don’t take those types of things seriously. Aliens may never turn up and put the fate of the world on one person’s shoulders. Yet, there is the other side of this type of exercise. It makes a person consider their own opinion of humanity as a whole instead of their personal circles.
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We should be left alone to succeed or fail of our own doing. Hopefully when (if) we reach the stars will have evolved enough to be worthy of our future.
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Interesting. Not sure how that would play out. Almost like a ‘leave us alone until we feel like it’ type of response. Honestly, it sounds a lot friendlier than ‘kill us all’.
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According to some religious works, legends and a certain book / movie, the ‘saving of animals and a select few humans’ scenario has already been played out – and failed to cure the problem with the human species.
In our eagerness to survive, the urge to dominate / eradicate life that’s different from us seems to be built into our DNA.
If possible, it might be better to ask the Aliens to alter our DNA to remove this tendency – but then – we would no longer be ‘Human’ and probably also lack the drive to explore, invent, etc.
Two things we do know though – life persists – even in the most extreme conditions – and that as one set of ‘Dominant Species’ declines or disappears, another ‘Dominant Species’ evolves to replace it.
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Which movie was that? I’m wondering if such a thing would be removable too. It seems humans lack the ability to exist within their world without altering it to extreme measures. An animal may hollow out a tree for a nest, but the tree still lives. Humans knock the tree down and use only some of it to make a chair. In the natural world, we come off as destroyers and possibly even outsiders of the system. Perhaps the theory that aliens put us here and we’re not native organisms has some merit to it.
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The Day the Earth Stood Still
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Been a long time since I saw that. Original of course.
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I’ve watched the original and 2008 remake Charles 😀
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Never saw the remake. Any good?
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Special effects were – the story was loosely followed – but worth watching if you’re a SCi-Fi End of the World fan 😀
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I’ll have to check it out. Usually enjoy Keanu Reeves.
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😀
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Perhaps they will send you through the streets looking for one honest man. If you can find just one, we won’t destroy them… Okay, I looked for a different spin today because I was one of the Facebookers who wanted to blow it up.
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That would be a fun challenge. Yet, it implies the searcher is not an honest man. How would the aliens know if the person is telling the truth about one person if the searcher isn’t honest themselves?
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I don’t know, I stole it from the bible. Not a bible guy, but it does pose an interesting philosophy question about the searcher.
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What if the seeker must learn honesty and become the honest man? I know very little about the Bible beyond the basic Old Testament. Wonder if I killed this post a bit by preventing politics and ‘kill all humans’ responses. It’s a surprisingly tough scenario too.
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I think the story has some legs. You might sell it to a science fiction magazine. I think it was part of the Old Testament. A little research, some gooey aliens, a disheartening search, leading to the seeker’s evolution = winner.
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Maybe. Never been very good with aliens. Have another story rattling around in my head too. Might mention it and the associated series next Thursday
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Cool, I look forward to it. Looks like there is an ancient Greek story along the same lines of what we’ve been talking about. I’ll try to surf back and see if you get more comments.
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That doesn’t surprise me. Religions and mythologies share a lot.
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Surfed back through and thought Chris beat me to the punch. I got Noah out of his comments, but then it turned into the old movie. Note to self: Look at the Old Testament for science fiction ideas.
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Okay. Though, I tend to be more fantasy, which leads me to older stuff. Mythology has excellent monsters.
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That’s so true. Monsters are wonderful, but they can be called aliens too. Maybe I’m just jazzed to get back to science fiction. I know my next novel will be SF.
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Cool. Looks like you’re really getting into the mindset. 🙂
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Or the aliens have a highly developed ability to spot a lie.
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The human is speaking. It must be lying. 😜
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Ha ha ha.
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Something to contemplate… very well said, Charles. 🙂
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Thanks. 🙂
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My response would be similar to your own. Judgement can’t be made based on the human race as a whole; there are humans who are good people who deserve to live, and humans who the world would be better off without. I don’t feel I’m the person to judge who deserves to live and who doesn’t, but I do believe that the choice should be made on an individual basis.
I also don’t feel that the other animals of this world should suffer for the mistakes many humans have made… Many have suffered enough already. So if the aliens decide wiping out the entire human race is their best option, I hope they’ll spare the other living things of this planet.
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I’d like to think they’d leave the other animals alone too. Wonder if the aliens would take the advice and judge people one by one. Hard to figure out the standards though.
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Yeah, that’s why I’d make a point of mentioning that I’m not the person to judge who deserves to live and who doesn’t… Figuring out the standards would be difficult, and I don’t really want that responsibility.
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I wonder if aliens would do this to every person. Make it a test to find out which ones live and which are the blue plate special.
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I would tell them that life is a web with connections that are not always obvious. Pull a thread on one side, and it puckers on the other. Humans are part of the web, too complicated to describe in a pat sentence. They need to observe us for a long time before making any decisions.
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Good delaying tactic. Hope we can prove that we’re part of the web. 🙂
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