A few years ago I wrote a short story about a benevolent alien alliance coming to earth because they observe planets with intelligent life to evaluate if they're worthy of joining the alliance.
They say they usually take 10ish years to do a complete evaluation but it took less than 3 for them to determine not only are we not worthy, but they are officially quarantining our solar system. The basis of their determination: 10 people on this planet have the resources and means of legitimately end all suffering and make this planet a utopia, but they would instead poison and burn 3/4 of the planet to hoard more of those resources for themselves.
This writing prompt from about a year ago on the other site is relevant:
Aliens take over the Earth. They then announce that they will be forcing the humans to work a "tyrannical" 4 hours a day 4 days a week in exchange for basic rights like housing. Needless to say they are very confused when the humans celebrate their new alien overlords.
A civilization capable of interstellar imperialism* would be focused on long-term exploitation of less primitive societies, so they would probably manage us better than the current elites do. A more educated, healthy worker is simply more productive than the alternative, especially in the long term.
unless it is some kind of swarm of space locusts that just devour everything in their path.
Or they would manage us to their own desires. I wouldn't say imperialism of conquered peoples went well for people on Earth.
Hell, there are several noted cases of deindustrialization, like the British Raj in India, where the imperial power pushed a civilization back into resource extraction. Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?
And there are several examples where humans weren't treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.
Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?
Space is full of mineral resources, going to a random planet with a relatively high gravity well just for some rocks would be counter productive. And an advanced civilization would probably use a lot of automation for resource extraction.
And there are several examples where humans weren't treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.
That part is true. But the question is what could the aliens get from us that couldn't be made for cheaper closer to their planet?
Eh, natural resources are far easier to extract from asteroids and moons than to haul out the gravity well of the biggest rocky planet in the area. And they wouldn't have to mess with the nasty apes for any of them.
I would find it more likely that they wipe us out to make way for colonizers of their own. They probably have no use for us, save maybe a couple to keep on display in a captive breeding program. They would likely have the technology to perform any work we could, but better and faster.
A civilisation that can travel between stars will probably see us as we see bugs. If we are annoying they destroy us, if we don't bother them, they won't care about us. We think we have some merit and knowledge and that we are special to be interesting to higher species, how often do you wish to uplift, enslave or destroy ants?
I dunno, 3 Body makes a good argument for China being the country of origin for the person that ultimately betrays humanity to the aliens because how much worse could it actually get?
Yes don't work only for US... North Korea, China, Afganistan, some places in africa that still have dictators...
I for once have free health care, sick leave, maternity leave, many vacation days a year (by law) an mostly everyone works 40 hours a week, with the exception of special cases.like doctors, fireman etc.
.... I'm ok without an overlord
Kidnap me, take me to an undisclosed secret location, probe my bodily orifices, water board me, hold me for several days or weeks and them dump my naked self back in some random location?
Is there a scifi story where the aliens are actually benevolent? Could be funny; they are just genuinely kind but the human mind cannot grasp that and continues to distrust them.
Does Star Trek count? I would be remiss for not bringing up Star Trek given the opportunity to insert it into a conversation. I bet the aliens will love that.
Oh that's true! The Vulcans are pretty damn nice to humanity. I haven't watched all the series; is there a point where humanity doesn't trust the Vulcans?
Oh you sweet summer child of a blog poster. The aliens could make us live like say, how things are going for the Ethiopians, Syrians, Congolese, Lebanese, Palestineans, Yemeni, Russians etc.
Or like people have lived through most of history. Especially as a someone who presents female, that seems especially non ideal.
But what if they take you to their planet and show you their advanced society that everyone works a 3-days week and have great healthcare, just to send you back to Earth afterward??
The rise of the robots isn’t what most 'AI doomers' are worried about. What a truly malicious AGI could do would be along the lines of simulating your consciousness and placing you in eternal simulated hell. However, the more realistic fear is that it might treat us the way we treat ants. We have nothing against them, but we’ll wipe out a colony without a second thought if we need to build a house there.
Yeah this is still along the lines of im not worried about it. Im worried about non general ai being programmed for the service of humans to gain advantage over others.