This fear stems mainly from superimposing human mentality on the aliens, not to mention watching too many Star Trek and Star War movies. The distinction is distance.
But for the aliens to reach Earth, dozens or hundreds of light years away, they would need quite sophisticated spacecraft.The two most barbarous epochs in human history were 1) the tens of thousands of years preceding the dawn of civilization, and 2) the thousand-year period following the fall of the Roman empire.Only when human civilization became less barbarous, with the demise of royalty, with the demise of slavery, and so forth, do we begin to see technological progress.
Evil empireswith high technology exist in the movies, but we should not allow this to delude us.In real life, aliens traveling through space are more likely to have the morals of the crew of the Starship Enterprise than the morals of the crew of a Cleon vessel.
My opinion on this is: Not really, not at this stage in human history.
As for the "upheaval," I can think of three things that might happen:
1) The armaments industry could be affected.
If communications from the aliens are minimal, the armaments industry may turn toward space defenses in case the aliens become hostile.
2) Disparities between developed countries and the third world may start to melt away along with other inequities in human society.
3) Organized religions could be affected.
Hawking acknowledges that aliens may have extremely advanced technology.
Except if you are directly or indirectly connected with the armaments industry, alien contact is nothing to fear, maybe even something to welcome.
{ 0 comments }
