Ask Lemmy

We in the US can’t even get rights to protect ourselves. Good luck, aliens!

If aliens were to come here to Earth, they'd have such advanced technologies and capabilities compared to us that what our laws say is entirely moot. Our interactions will happen in whatever manner they desire.

Science fiction has given a very poor idea of what intelligent aliens would "really" be like. The odds of us encountering them at anywhere near parity to our level of development is microscopic, and if they're coming here then it's impossible. They'd be millions of years older than us.

No. We don’t even have laws protecting the rights and dignity of terrestrial beings. We put them in factory farms and gas them by the billions.

The way I see it, to understand what would happen to us if aliens with more advanced technology came to Earth,, we can simply read history books about the various waves of Europeans coming to the Americas a few centuries ago.

(Heads-up: we would be playing the parts of the various native societies)

We can't even agree on basic rights for the humans and animals we have on this planet right now. It'll be a District 9 situation for sure.

As an interesting perspective on contact you should read The Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu.

I'm on the third book rn and its an interesting thought experiment. Haven't read much Eastern literature before so its cool to get a different perspective on society as well

Would there be? Certainly. As soon as intelligent life elsewhere was discovered, laywers/policy makers all over the world would scramble to make laws on how to treat them.

Now, how those laws will look is difficult to say. Different countries might treat it very differently.

Perhaps human rights would be extended as "intelligent" rights or something.

I'd kill an alien if he stepped on my property

Currently, no.

Would there be? Quite probably.

In the near term, during the invasion, they would be protected by the usual articles of war I'd think.

If the aliens invade Earth they'll likely succeed so the question should really be: would there be laws for protecting the rights and dignity of humans? Seems more likely we'll be used as forced labour in their mines or unwilling conscripts in their Space War with the Space Nazis (or Space Communists if they're the Space Nazis).

Their superior firepower, courtesy of the Björk and Slartibartfast weapons conglomerate.

As humans I think we would have a dog reaction, asking ourselves: Can we eat them ? Can we fuck then ?

Anything else doesn’t matter.

They need to get in line and do it the right way like my parents did.

Are they rich?

I think human rights would still apply.

This is explored somewhat in District 9, but also in the 1988 movie and TV show "Alien Nation." IMO, the latter is overdue for a reboot.

At the time, as there is now, a concern within the US around illegal immigration. Alien Nation, with the one-the-nose wordplay in its title, sets out to explore this uncomfortable spot in the US psyche by replacing illegal aliens for space aliens. The writes pour gasoline on this fire by making the aliens superior to humans in nearly every way: reaching maturity faster, stronger, smarter, and with tougher stomachs because why not?

To answer your question, the show above does a good job setting up a plausible narrative around similar subject matter. I think it's plausible that we would protect aliens were they weaker than us in some way. But in the case where they're a threat to the status quo, we might do worse on the way to re-envisioning civil rights in light of multiple sapient lifeforms on this planet.

Not until we commit atrocities on them

I think it depends on the context and situation that leads to contact. Also probably matter what country the make contact with.

If they come here zapping things into dust then the maybe not so. If they come here peacefully wanting to help, I can see some laws put in place pretty quick to try to prevent interactions that could trigger a problem.

Nah fuck extra terrestrials