If highly advanced civilization were found to exist other than the solar system what would its effect be on humanity?

[Strange Me]

If we were visited by a higher advanced civilization?

What effect would it have on world politics?

And how would the Monotheistic religions react?

[Phi for All]

!

Moderator Note

Are you proposing some kind of behavior or phenomenon? This is more opinion and guesswork than a Speculation you have to support.

I can move this to Politics if you want to discuss the impact there, or Religion if you'd prefer that.

 

[dimreepr]

1 hour ago, Strange Me said:

If we were visited by a higher advanced civilization?

What effect would it have on world politics?

And how would the Monotheistic religions react?

It depends on what we learn?

What we know now, does not equate to; we know better...

Edited July 7, 2021 by dimreepr

[Butch]

Unless it is possible to travel in excess of c, the influence would be zero.

[Intoscience]

On 7/10/2021 at 11:41 PM, Butch said:

Unless it is possible to travel in excess of c, the influence would be zero.

The OP has already assumed this isn't a problem since it was stated in the question "if we were visited"

As to what would the effects be, we can speculate in many ways. The intention of the alien/s just to begin with will have a profound effect.

First off, It would at least answer a big question we all want the answer to - are we alone? 

Secondly, as to regards religion, it may undermine many of the beliefs held by many of the religions across the world.

Either way it would certainly put a new perspective on things!  

[swansont]

3 minutes ago, Intoscience said:

Secondly, as to regards religion, it may undermine many of the beliefs held by many of the religions across the world.

I think a surprising majority of them would somehow assert that this is all perfectly consistent with their beliefs, and in fact foretold in some heretofore obscure passages of their holy books.

 

[Intoscience]

3 minutes ago, swansont said:

I think a surprising majority of them would somehow assert that this is all perfectly consistent with their beliefs, and in fact foretold in some heretofore obscure passages of their holy books.

 

I suspect they would, this is not uncommon throughout history. It just gets a little less convincing when an advanced alien turns up on the door step of the "being" that was made in the image of the creator of the universe. Assuming, obviously that the alien resembles nothing like a human. 😜 

[dimreepr]

1 hour ago, Intoscience said:

The OP has already assumed this isn't a problem since it was stated in the question "if we were visited"

As to what would the effects be, we can speculate in many ways. The intention of the alien/s just to begin with will have a profound effect.

First off, It would at least answer a big question we all want the answer to - are we alone? 

Secondly, as to regards religion, it may undermine many of the beliefs held by many of the religions across the world.

Either way it would certainly put a new perspective on things!  

Aren't we visited by that everyday? 

We're more advanced than yesterday, because we have mobile phone's now...

Why would it take an alien, to find the flaw in that logic?

[zapatos]

I imagine it would bring people together to some extent. We tend to group ourselves based on similarity, which means humanity is quite fractured. By country, race, politics, or which end of a soft boiled egg should be cracked open prior to consuming. If others were found to exist, suddenly we have a new group to belong to; Earthlings!

[Phi for All]

2 hours ago, zapatos said:

I imagine it would bring people together to some extent. We tend to group ourselves based on similarity, which means humanity is quite fractured. By country, race, politics, or which end of a soft boiled egg should be cracked open prior to consuming. If others were found to exist, suddenly we have a new group to belong to; Earthlings!

I'd love to believe that, but unfortunately extremism is at an all time high, and there are far too many who would claim it's part of the government's attempts to forcefully vaccinate us and take over our minds with their technology. The Jewish Space Lasers are aimed at the planet, not at aliens in space! Aliens aren't abducting children, it's Democrats!

[zapatos]

17 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

I'd love to believe that, but unfortunately extremism is at an all time high, and there are far too many who would claim it's part of the government's attempts to forcefully vaccinate us and take over our minds with their technology. The Jewish Space Lasers are aimed at the planet, not at aliens in space! Aliens aren't abducting children, it's Democrats!

Probably one group of earthlings would want to welcome them to the team while another group of earthlings would insist on ensuring parity first by seeing if their space rocks are bigger than ours.

[beecee]

6 hours ago, zapatos said:

I imagine it would bring people together to some extent. We tend to group ourselves based on similarity, which means humanity is quite fractured. By country, race, politics, or which end of a soft boiled egg should be cracked open prior to consuming. If others were found to exist, suddenly we have a new group to belong to; Earthlings!

 

If we were to make face to face contact, I tend to agree. Other then answering the age old question "are we alone" I would imagine the forces of reasonability to generally prevail on Earth...well at least that's what I would like to believe. The fanatically religious may need to do some rethinking, or re-interpreting. But the majority of us would find the answer to the question awesomely fascinating at the time of revelation, and then a gradual acceptance. I believe we would co-operate more and as a result  and thereby flourish as a species ourselves. 

 

If face to face contact was impossible due to distances/time constraints, [which obviously would more then likely be the case in retrospect]  that imo may be the catalyst for some sort of upheaval, particularly again by the fanatical religious fraternity as well as other extremist groups. Not knowing who or what we were dealing with would not go down well with many imo. But again, I would like to believe that in the course of time, most would accept it as is, until we [or they] had the technological means to somehow overcome the distance/time barriers.

[zapatos]

Without a doubt it would result in an increase in gun sales in the US. 

 

[CharonY]

7 minutes ago, zapatos said:

Without a doubt it would result in an increase in gun sales in the US. 

 

Quickly followed by new border walls. Now everywhere.

[Peterkin]

 

On 7/7/2021 at 9:04 AM, Strange Me said:

If we were visited by a higher advanced civilization?

What effect would it have on world politics?

 

That would depend to a very large extent on the attitude and behaviour of the visitors. Obviously, our leaders would be shaking in their boots in the face of technology that far advanced, so they probably 🤞 wouldn't do anything stupid, like to try to attack the aliens.  I'd like to think they would let the UN be the interface - if that's the right word - but am afraid that at least some nations' leaders would look for an "in" - some way to gain special favour for their own regime, and make us all look like sneaky opportunists. 

That, however, doesn't apply to the armed lunatic fringes of every stripe, who would almost certainly do whatever the stupidest thing is in the circumstance: frontal assault. I assume they'd be vapourized, which wouldn't go down well with their compatriots.  So, right away, we're bound to have frictions and fractiousness.

The scientists, creative people and their readers/followers/students would be thrilled, vindicated, euphoric and curious enough to piss off the aliens with unwanted attention.

Quote

And how would the Monotheistic religions react?

Not as integrated units. They already have sects, sub-denominations and factions; those differences would suddenly grow into rifts. The Pope might be able to put a single voice to Roman Catholicism, at least for a short time, but protestants reactions would be all over the place, and soon at one another's throats. Muslims, too - at least two main factions contradicting each other, probably more like four or five. The Jews would probably be okay with it; top rabbis would be sent from several countries to talk directly with the aliens regarding their belief. Native populations with animistic traditions would be okay, too. I have no guess as to the attitude of Hindus and and Buddhists. 

I wouldn't be surprised, though, if a great many marginal believers of all religions fell away all at once, and the power of religion generally were fatally weakened.

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by Peterkin
to remove emojis from wrong place

[beecee]

36 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

That would depend to a very large extent on the attitude and behaviour of the visitors.

I'm sort of at the mindset that any sufficiently advanced civilisation, would have out grown, war mongering, violence, and/or general aggressiveness, and probably be inclined towards a more  co=operative and peaceful scenario. Perhaps though I have been too indocrinated with Mr Spock and his fellow Vulcans, having been an avid watcher of Star Trek and all the movies that followed.

[Peterkin]

We have a technologically advanced civilization, compared to earlier civilizations we've had, and yet we don't behave very differently. Interstellar travel capability is no more a basis for assuming that entities are peaceful than transoceanic travel capability was - as the Taíno and Mi'kmaq and other indigenous peoples learned to their chagrin.  

But since the technological discrepancy here is greater, and the alien species doesn't share our predatory past, I was assuming that, if they were not benevolent, they wouldn't bother to make contact: they'd just take what they wanted and ignore us, unless we got in their way. Even if they were merely curious, they could study the planet without necessarily talking to the inhabitants, maybe even without us ever being aware of them. (Although, in Star Trek, the well-meaning humans studying less advanced species are so clumsy that they're accidentally discovered by some native and have to do damage control. That's the kind of situation I envision as most likely. Unless the template for first contact is more like Childhood's End or The Day the Earth Stood Still or Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy . It could go any number of different ways. 

Edited July 13, 2021 by Peterkin
to add something i forgot

[Conscious Energy]

7 hours ago, CharonY said:

Quickly followed by new border walls. Now everywhere.

Hopefully we won’t waist our capabilities to build borders against an airborne global alien threat. 
 

If we would react like that instead of global and universal co-operation, we really deserve to parish as a civilisation

Edited July 13, 2021 by Conscious Energy

[CharonY]

42 minutes ago, Conscious Energy said:

 

If we would react like that instead of global and universal co-operation, we really deserve to parish as a civilisation

*Points at global co-operation during current pandemic*

[Conscious Energy]

48 minutes ago, CharonY said:

*Points at global co-operation during current pandemic*

The difference is that without hosts the virus is not airborne, with hosts the virus is few meter airborne. 

In this case the restrictions to control the movement of the hosts help. 
Note that global co-operation have been established on the level of information sharing, vaccine distribution, travel controls etc

Edited July 13, 2021 by Conscious Energy

[CharonY]

9 minutes ago, Conscious Energy said:

The difference is that without hosts the virus is not airborne, with hosts the virus is few meter airborne. 

In this case the restrictions to control the movement of the hosts help. 
Note that global co-operation have been established on the level of information sharing, vaccine distribution, travel controls etc

Yet we still face massive inequity in vaccine distributions, we did not have a global strategy to combat the global threat and worse, we got folks driving the virus up by pretending it is harmless or does not exist.

Countries which so far were able to at least somewhat control it are at danger of facing the variants. Rich countries meanwhile pretend that with vaccination the threat is over and might spread more virus around without getting sick.

 

[Prometheus]

8 hours ago, Peterkin said:

I have no guess as to the attitude of Hindus and and Buddhists. 

Hinduism is probably the most diverse religion, which would likely be reflected in their response. Given Buddha and even Jesus have found their into the various Hindu pantheons i don't think they'll have a theological problem. Buddhism explicitly refers to sentient beings rather than humans and doesn't have a creation myth so aliens wouldn't make the slightest difference to their beliefs - other than already having a scriptural basis to extend compassion to the visitors.

[joigus]

Highly advanced civilization, huh? That, no doubt, can only mean:

• Healthcare for everyone 
• Education for everyone
• Opportunities for everyone
• Rational management of their planet's resources
• Not alienating those who are different (pun intended)
• An emphasis on prevention and correction of misbehaviour, rather than punishment

I see no problem. Even monotheists and politicians would want to jump onboard once they see how it works.

[Intoscience]

3 hours ago, joigus said:

Highly advanced civilization, huh? That, no doubt, can only mean:

• Healthcare for everyone 
• Education for everyone
• Opportunities for everyone
• Rational management of their planet's resources
• Not alienating those who are different (pun intended)
• An emphasis on prevention and correction of misbehaviour, rather than punishment

I see no problem. Even monotheists and politicians would want to jump onboard once they see how it works.

Or the aliens may observe us and decide we are no use to the galactic federation and should be eradicated before our technological capability becomes potentially threatening to the galactic federation of planets. 😜

Edited July 13, 2021 by Intoscience

[joigus]

1 hour ago, Intoscience said:

Or the aliens may observe us and decide we are no use to the galactic federation and should be eradicated before our technological capability becomes potentially threatening to the galactic federation of planets. 😜

That assuming they don't see us as food, no matter how advanced they are. I can only hope they can't synthesize pepsin.