The Philisophy Of Star Trek's Prime Directive

[Steve81]

I'm reminded of a sci-fi video game I played as a child called Wing Commander. It was more than a game really, they produced books and as a result, an entire backstory. The bad guy's of the game were an interesting case study for why Star Trek's prime directive exists. They were on the verge of annihilating themselves as they had just discovered atomic weapons. They were "fortuitously" visited by another race from the stars who were kind enough to give them the ability to travel among the stars. What did the bad guys do? They proceeded to wipe out the visitors and anyone else they came into contact with. One can start to see why the Vulcans were so hesitant to assist the relatively barbaric humans in Enterprise, even if as humans, we were meant to view the Vulcans as *pejorative of choice*.

Depending on the point of social development and their tendency towards xenophobia, a species simply may not be ready for even basic contact with another species. Best to just let nature take its course, and when they are deemed "ready", make contact.

[Agent Smith]

Would I be correct if I said that if we make radio contact now, the alien civilization has to be on/within a radio bubble that has a maximum radius of 4.5 billion light years?

Edited September 16, 2023 by Agent Smith