re: If we develop the technology to go to an inhabited planet, would we conquer it?

We would "liberate", the c-word is just so Victorian.

Regime change, baby.

Probably. Hopefully we do it with a mercenary army. Id imagine being a space merc would pay well

quote:

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I think an argument could be made that any species that is shaped through natural selection will necessarily be aggressive and sometimes violent towards competing species

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I agree, but I also feel that is just one stage of the evolution of a species. Once a species like ours on earth is truly dominant, later stages of evolution would include a more benovolent approach to communal ineractions. Need for resources will always trump all, but even today, we on or little planet at least recognize the plight of developing nations and for the most part respect there borders. Not to mention we even have protected habitats solely for ecological reasons. By the time we can reach for the stars, I would believe that we won't be going out there to conquer unless our planet was in serious trouble and we needed their resources to survive, and even then I would think that we would at least try a diplomatic approach at first.

We haven't been able to conquer this one, so "no".

You high breh?

If it's like taking candy from a baby we will, the kindest we'd be is make them our pets. If there is some reason to treat them as equals then we could become trading partners. If we felt they were somehow superior to us, even if they were the most peaceful aliens ever, we'd probably try to kill them with fire out of fear.

I'd say the odds of us finding an alien species that we wouldn't treat like subordinates or enemies is pretty low. That being said subordinate may not be the worst gig in the universe. Humans and dogs have developed a pretty nice symbiotic relationship.

We would liberate the shite out of them