I think that's the point. When you don't know anything about the motivations of an alien race that can easily wipe out our species, why would you take any chances?
Pretend for a moment that I have a Button. The owner of that Button can push it and eliminate every person on the planet besides the people that owner didn't want to kill (friends, family, city, state, country, whatever)
Would you be an advocate of giving that Button to any random person on Earth?
Any race of aliens capable of interstellar travel probably has that Button. So while (I assume) that you wouldn't be okay with giving that Button to any person on Earth -- you'd be okay with having an alien race that we don't understand even a little bit in possession of such a thing.
Well I don't think I said I'd purposefully give such a killer switch to an alien race, I just said we don't know.
We are all aware of the reasons to be pessimist, because of all the books and movies, but there are reasons to be optimist too: advanced technology may come with advanced ethics, for instance.
Oh yeah it's a totally safe assumption that if intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe and made it all the way to Mars that they won't find us... you know... one planet over, with a century of RF radiating away from our home.
Unless of course you believe they're hiding inside Europa...
Which message are you even responding to? Maybe you should read the thread in order to understand what was being discussed. It had nothing to do with your response.
I think that's the point. When you don't know anything about the motivations of an alien race that can easily wipe out our species, why would you take any chances?
Pretend for a moment that I have a Button. The owner of that Button can push it and eliminate every person on the planet besides the people that owner didn't want to kill (friends, family, city, state, country, whatever)
Would you be an advocate of giving that Button to any random person on Earth?
Any race of aliens capable of interstellar travel probably has that Button. So while (I assume) that you wouldn't be okay with giving that Button to any person on Earth -- you'd be okay with having an alien race that we don't understand even a little bit in possession of such a thing.