I’ve come to the conclusion…. That if there are species out there able to travel interstellar distances in a reasonable time, then they have the ability to know humans are fucking nuts- because they can detect the radioactive isotopes in the atmosphere.
Which means the only ones coming are even more nuts than we are.
This, leads me to assume that either, they’re genocidal maniacs out to destroy everything that’s not them, (a la the bad guys in Ian Douglas’ Semper Mars series,)
I suppose i should have mentioned the third possibility of “both”- they’re Space Mormons; but we rejected the good news so now they’re on a genocidal killing spree. (And they think were primitive, as you say,)
I dunno. would space rednecks really survive getting their own M/AM torps? you really wouldn't want redneck engineering anywhere near antimatter in enough concentration to blow up.
(there is that theory. Life is common. But usually kills itself off or dies off before leaving it's home system.)
Would depend on how old anti matter tech is for them. Rednecks work best with older tech. So if the tech is a couple centuries old and anti matter reactors are as common as internal combustion engines are for us then id trust it about as much as a redneck tank, meaning let me see it in action atleast a couple times before I get near it.
Okay redneck tank was probably a bad example, but the redneck IED is still nothing to laugh at. Worst case scenario we use it a base for study, perhaps chuck it at anyone dumb enough to get near earth. Just give Ireland veto power it should be fine.