Alien bacteria? I hope we don't get some sort of super virus or something, that would definitely not be good.
If that were the case; im sure some people won't be missed.
[Edited by Vonfuzzball, 5/3/2010 11:00:51 AM]
I doubt we will.
The way we treat our planet now, I'll bet sentient species frown upon us and look somewhere else.
Unless we start taking care of this Earth, it will barely make it past the year 3000. Heck, it could die out before then. With all of our factories releasing the toxins, the oil rig off the coast of Louisiana (which has sprung a third leak underwater and, for some ridiculous reason, cannot be mended to at this time), and all of the species that are endangered are in the biggest threat of the world.
Not to mention, my generation of people, with all the obesity, will most likely die off before our parents. I'm not obese or even overweight. But for those of you that are, Death is staring you in the face. Mocking you.
At the same time, maybe those sentient species will help us out some. If they're not hostile. But they have every reason to be. Don't you agree?
**By sentient species, I mean space aliens.
[Edited by LifeOfGaming, 5/1/2010 1:47:53 PM]
And on what grounds do you come to the conclusion that any aliens who happen upon us would be peace-loving hippies with deep respect for natural worlds?
They could be rampant industrialist for all we know. They might land, strip Earth bare of any usable resource, fill the air with harmful chemicals, and then leave again.
Generally speaking, societies do not continue to progress technologically if every action they take they do so in mind of the local ecosystem. There comes a point in all societies where the natural resources as they are around you are no longer sufficient for advancing.
*To the second paragraph; aren't we doing that enough?
An alien spices could destroy us with ease. If you consider they probably would have faster than light travel all they would need to do is send a large abject our way at a high velocity and boom we are dead. Alternatively they could target the sun, the Earth's magnetic field or alter our moons orbit to crash into us. They certainly wouldn't hover above our major cities and let us fire at them unless conquest was their intent rather than annihilation.
As for an alien virus I don't think it's likely. If you consider than viruses as we know them have evolved for the specific purpose of infecting cells destroying them and multiplying. Most viruses in fact only pose a risk to specific species.
Alien viruses would have had no interaction with Earth based life forms, they would be adapted to infect life on what ever world they originate from so they would pose no risk to us what so ever unless they were engineered specifically to do so.
[Edited by Elite, 5/3/2010 12:01:19 PM]
I guess mentioning weapons traveling through white space at this point would be redundant. Still this is assuming other species are as advanced as we think they are. Honestly, to me, this sorta thing is around the same threat level as the whole sky net thing.