If we come into contact with aliens (e.g. aliens invading Earth), would there be any laws for protecting the rights and dignity of said aliens?
If we come into contact with aliens (e.g. aliens invading Earth), would there be any laws for protecting the rights and dignity of said aliens?
If aliens were to come here to Earth, they'd have such advanced technologies and capabilities compared to us that what our laws say is entirely moot. Our interactions will happen in whatever manner they desire.
Science fiction has given a very poor idea of what intelligent aliens would "really" be like. The odds of us encountering them at anywhere near parity to our level of development is microscopic, and if they're coming here then it's impossible. They'd be millions of years older than us.
Could you imagine aliens rolling up in space ships near our level? They land in a rocket and then have to ask for fuel to leave. They have bulky pressure suits and have to shit their pants. They left their polluted and dying planet generations ago trying to settle a habitable world. They have been terrified for generations because they started detecting radio transmissions from their target planet. Later on they got a coherent enough signal to decrypt it and saw what they were going to end up dealing with was hostiles on another dying planet.
Oh man, that's a good story pitch.
Sounds similar to one of the godzilla movies I saw.
Hey, a monkey with a nuclear bomb is arguabley scarier then a human with one. So no, the aliens will probably get 'merica-ed before they realize that we are the monkey with the nuclear bomb
No. We don’t even have laws protecting the rights and dignity of terrestrial beings. We put them in factory farms and gas them by the billions.
The way I see it, to understand what would happen to us if aliens with more advanced technology came to Earth,, we can simply read history books about the various waves of Europeans coming to the Americas a few centuries ago.
(Heads-up: we would be playing the parts of the various native societies)
We can't even agree on basic rights for the humans and animals we have on this planet right now. It'll be a District 9 situation for sure.
As an interesting perspective on contact you should read The Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu.
I'm on the third book rn and its an interesting thought experiment. Haven't read much Eastern literature before so its cool to get a different perspective on society as well
Would there be? Certainly. As soon as intelligent life elsewhere was discovered, laywers/policy makers all over the world would scramble to make laws on how to treat them.
Now, how those laws will look is difficult to say. Different countries might treat it very differently.
Perhaps human rights would be extended as "intelligent" rights or something.
Currently, no.
Would there be? Quite probably.
In the near term, during the invasion, they would be protected by the usual articles of war I'd think.
I'd kill an alien if he stepped on my property
Look here little human, I'll put my alien feet on your front yard and then leave on my flying saucer and there's nothing you can do about it
I've seen enough movies to know that all I need is to sneeze, use a super soaker full of watered down Head and Shoulders, or punch them in the face and quip to beat almost any alien.
We're talking about scifi right? Right??
As you reach for your weapon, the alien swipes a gesture with its "hand" and you disintegrate into one trillion pieces, along with every creature within three genetic generations of yourself. The alien doesn't care or acknowledge the tremendous pain you feel as every part of your body separates into its base pieces, leaving the nerves intact until last, and continues to walk through your property completely invulnerable to any terrestrial weapon. The next human treats the alien with respect, as interpreted by ten layers of behavior/language/social analysis contraptions and the two of them have a pleasant chat around the fireplace, sharing eachothothers culture. Nice.
If the aliens invade Earth they'll likely succeed so the question should really be: would there be laws for protecting the rights and dignity of humans? Seems more likely we'll be used as forced labour in their mines or unwilling conscripts in their Space War with the Space Nazis (or Space Communists if they're the Space Nazis).
Are they rich?
They are filthy rich yea
Then they get more rights than the rest of us.
Their superior firepower, courtesy of the Björk and Slartibartfast weapons conglomerate.
They need to get in line and do it the right way like my parents did.
As humans I think we would have a dog reaction, asking ourselves: Can we eat them ? Can we fuck then ?
Anything else doesn’t matter.
Either they are getting jerked, or I am.
Who probing who
This is explored somewhat in District 9, but also in the 1988 movie and TV show "Alien Nation." IMO, the latter is overdue for a reboot.
At the time, as there is now, a concern within the US around illegal immigration. Alien Nation, with the one-the-nose wordplay in its title, sets out to explore this uncomfortable spot in the US psyche by replacing illegal aliens for space aliens. The writes pour gasoline on this fire by making the aliens superior to humans in nearly every way: reaching maturity faster, stronger, smarter, and with tougher stomachs because why not?
To answer your question, the show above does a good job setting up a plausible narrative around similar subject matter. I think it's plausible that we would protect aliens were they weaker than us in some way. But in the case where they're a threat to the status quo, we might do worse on the way to re-envisioning civil rights in light of multiple sapient lifeforms on this planet.
I think human rights would still apply.
They're not humans though.
Checkmate, libruls. /s
Not until we commit atrocities on them
Nah fuck extra terrestrials
I think it depends on the context and situation that leads to contact. Also probably matter what country the make contact with.
If they come here zapping things into dust then the maybe not so. If they come here peacefully wanting to help, I can see some laws put in place pretty quick to try to prevent interactions that could trigger a problem.
Pretty sure they would pick China. Big open spaces, plenty of tech, large population size, consistent leadership.
I think it depends on the aliens. If it's a Strogg situation screw those guys, same goes for machine intelligence. If they're just humanoid colonizers I'd say it would be closer to a human conflict.
They would have at least quasi-god status, so inevitably they'd be protected by some manifestation of respect, though we might not know enough about their intentions to recognize if it's a good idea to do it in the form of laws. It would be like protecting an actual god with laws. How would we go about that if they probably have the prowess to do their thing.