I guess a few pygmys dying off in the Andeman islands don’t amount to much.

Until we find value in letting things be instead of trying to find a profit in everyone and everything the minority will always be overwhelmed. The thing is we rarely realize the true value of something until it’s absence.

Who knows, perhaps the aliens are watching and waiting to see how we treat our own before deciding to wipe us out in a preemptive strike?

It may be that you find that space-faring cultures are, exclusively, enormous assholes; whereas the guys on the next planet could be happily covered by clouds, never have thought of what might be beyond them, but far more psychologically stable as far as talking to people from another planet without reaching for the ‘Nuke ‘em! Now!’ button goes.

Of course, being a space-faring species, that would put us firmly in the ‘enormous assholes’ camp, but hey.

Okay, forgive the sarcasm and overt cynicism… but there is a history that says that while we may say one thing, we will inevitably do something else.

But, in what may be an ironic bit of justice… our next encounter with a native species may see them kicking us in our little big horn, all the way back to Earth.

Otherwise…just take off and nuke us from space. It’s the only way to be sure.

There were episodes that dealt with hive-mind bacterial life forms; sentient energy beings; and warp-capable societies that had gained the technology via unnatural means (that is, they did not develop it, someone else gave, stole or had it stolen from them). In all of these instances the societies were recognized for their autonomy, but only those capable of extra-planetary travel in some form were allowed regular Federation contact. It was something of a case-by-case situation, except where gangsters or Nazis were involved.

(As for martian microbes being there, of course it’s not impossible but I’d bet a million dollars there aren’t any. I’m sure most scientists know in their gut that’s how it really is, but they’re pushing that microbe angle to justify looking at other worlds and to keep the public interested in what is basically a geological expedition of other planets. Spending a billion dollars to look at faraway rocks doesn’t sit well with some people or sound good in the press.)

Though I supposed that Blackwater got the contract and took about 90% of it in “service charges”,

Those theologians who have been studying ethics for millenia still haven’t noticed that religion allows morally bad behavior to flourish. They should not be allowed anywhere near ethical questions of a scientific nature.

Furthermore, science has everything to do with ethics, and can inform us more successfully about it:
http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right.html

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Anon replied to comment from phisrow • #11 • 17:21 on Sat, Mar.20 • Reply Science alone cannot teach us what is right and wrong. Theologians have been studying ethics for millennia.
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As a side note: Someone who managed to portrait an universe full of cultures at extremely different levels of development and their interaction is Ian Banks with his culture books.

It’s fascinating to see his thoughts on how a civilization at the brink of industrialization would behave if it was aware and in contact with races far more advanced then themselves, like in the current culture novel “Matter”.

I do not envy a life where the two are separated.

Why does everyone think humanity is unusually violent? What are you comparing us to? Peaceful, benevolent aliens who want to nurture us are make a nice father figure mythology, but there’s no reason to suppose that’s how it works.