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What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

theatlantic.com

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Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#11

Post by user982 »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #7
cryoshon wrote: post #5

why is china so frightening to the west as a representative of humankind? they are imperfect, sure-- their abysmal human rights record will soon be matched by a collapsing xenophobic West. but they are evidence that humanity can produce contiguous government without overt destruction of rivals even when capable of doing so. they are evidence that humanity can persist in peaceful trade with other civilizations, even i…

I’m guessing you aren’t Filipino, Indian or Vietnamese.

Three nations that have suffered immeasurably more at the hands of the West than of China?

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#12

Post by jack9 »

SCAQTony wrote: post #2

— “But perhaps tomorrow we’ll wake up and find an alien spaceship the size of the Moon parked in orbit.” — I am sure the Pentagon and NASA have a plan if a "moon-sized" object with a deliberate orbit suddenly appeared in the night sky or was detected by a space telescope or an amateur astronomer using Mars as a gravity boost. What would be more amusing if they were coming here to live underwater.

> I am sure the Pentagon and NASA have a plan...

The plan probably is about communication channels and who decides what, and what not to do, more than what to do. Regardless of the content, I'm very sure it's not going to be followed, even if it did exist.

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#13

Post by cryoshon »

i_am_nomad wrote: post #7
cryoshon wrote: post #5

why is china so frightening to the west as a representative of humankind? they are imperfect, sure-- their abysmal human rights record will soon be matched by a collapsing xenophobic West. but they are evidence that humanity can produce contiguous government without overt destruction of rivals even when capable of doing so. they are evidence that humanity can persist in peaceful trade with other civilizations, even i…

I’m guessing you aren’t Filipino, Indian or Vietnamese.

correct.

every empire has its victims. the question posed by the OP's article was why not the chinese empire rather than the anglo-american empire as a point of first contact.

in all honesty, i trust the chinese not to fuck up first contact more with a bellicose message, especially given the west's political incapacitation /fall to fascism

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#14

Post by zamalek »

First contact is a species event, I really don't think it matters who makes it first. My reasoning is derived from a though experiment (happy to explain, but it should be obvious), which is all we have to go on this stuff. Long story short: it's highly probable that a species wouldn't care about our primitive political systems when engaging with us. It would most likely be a philanthropic event - which is a strong indicator of why nobody has engaged with us: we're not worth the time.

As usual this article places to much emphasis on the human. We really aren't that important. Our political systems are irrelevant in the grander scheme.

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#15

Post by c_shu »

If the aliens are strong enough to land their spaceship on earth, investigating all countries is probably a piece of cake for them. There is no reason for them to tie themselves to a certain country or area.

In another case, if they establish communication with a certain country/organization, but they cannot arrive, and somehow can only communicate with that certain country/organization, then it could be a different story.

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#16

Post by whatshisface »

user982 wrote: post #11
i_am_nomad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing you aren’t Filipino, Indian or Vietnamese.

Three nations that have suffered immeasurably more at the hands of the West than of China?

Ah, the "greater crime" doctrine. The guilty are free to go, so long as they can prove that the victim had already suffered at someone else's hands. After all, in civil law, only the first transgression counts.

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#17

Post by enraged_camel »

c_shu wrote: post #15

If the aliens are strong enough to land their spaceship on earth, investigating all countries is probably a piece of cake for them. There is no reason for them to tie themselves to a certain country or area. In another case, if they establish communication with a certain country/organization, but they cannot arrive, and somehow can only communicate with that certain country/organization, then it could be a different…

>>If the aliens are strong enough to land their spaceship on earth, investigating all countries is probably a piece of cake for them.

What if it's just a scout/science vessel?

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#18

Post by baddox »

zamalek wrote: post #14

First contact is a species event, I really don't think it matters who makes it first. My reasoning is derived from a though experiment (happy to explain, but it should be obvious), which is all we have to go on this stuff. Long story short: it's highly probable that a species wouldn't care about our primitive political systems when engaging with us. It would most likely be a philanthropic event - which is a strong in…

I don’t know how to guess at how first contact would actually go, but it’s interesting that government coverups of aliens is a common theme in fiction (x files, men in Black, etc.) and in conspiracy theories (Roswell, UFOs, etc.).

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#19

Post by adventured »

cryoshon wrote: post #13
i_am_nomad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing you aren’t Filipino, Indian or Vietnamese.

correct. every empire has its victims. the question posed by the OP's article was why not the chinese empire rather than the anglo-american empire as a point of first contact. in all honesty, i trust the chinese not to fuck up first contact more with a bellicose message, especially given the west's political incapacitation /fall to fascism

> in all honesty, i trust the chinese not to fuck up first contact more with a bellicose message, especially given the west's political incapacitation /fall to fascism

The Chinese have never stopped being routinely bellicose during the CPC era. They annexed Tibet through violence. They're desperate to annex a successful, independent nation - Taiwan - that wants absolutely nothing to do with that. They're willing to use violence to acquire Taiwan as needed. They're currently using bellicose military intimidation and threats to annex an extremely large amount of territory from Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan.

It would be the equivalent of the US routintely threatening to invade Canada to annex Vancouver + Toronto. Then annexing Baja California from Mexico. Then invading Cuba, annexing it and systematically de-Cubanizing the island culturally. Then annexing territorial waters in the Gulf, Caribbean, Pacific and Atlantic from Canada, Mexico and several other Latin American nations.

Show me another nation that has annexed more territory in the last 50 years than China. And they're obviously not done yet.

I've got some further bad news for you. A century of results indicates that Communism is just as bad or worse than Fascism. The overall current human rights position and behavior of the West is radically preferable to that of present day China.

Re: What Happens If China Makes First Contact?

#20

Post by nasredin »

I think US would be the country for "first contact", then Russia.

Most of our planet is water. US has the biggest/best Navy & intelligence systems. And also pretty aggressive spirit.

Russia has 1/6 (IIRC) of our planet's land mass and also a very stubborn spirit.

So my uneducated guess is ET is going to be chatting with either Trump or Putin.

...God help us...

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