this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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You have to love the ridiculousness of how seriously aliens take humans in fiction.
Pointy eared aliens landing in our dirt decide to establish an interplanetary coalition with us. Lol
Bug like Aliens using advanced tactics and strategy to whittle down our defenses while we hack their computers. Lol
We would be nothing to an FTL capable species. We would be nothing to an immortal synthetic species that can traverse the eons of space without ftl.
We wouldn't be their friends or their enemy, we would insects whose only utility would probably be in biological study and categorization, if not sterilization to eliminate any future potential rivals evolution may one day produce.
We still largely burn decayed animal remains for warmth. We are still a bunch of monkeys in the dirt fighting over territory. If only our species sense of self-importance came anywhere near our capacity or worth.
We literally undertook what would be the first impressive step in becoming something more than that, splitting the atom, for the sole purpose of try make big boomie boom rival monkey tribe.
We're just barely smart enough to be a danger to our own species on a large scale. We aren't a threat or a peer to space faring civilizations.
I like Doctor Who's view on humans. We're really nothing special, compared to other species out there. The Doctor just hangs around them because "I just think they're neat!"
It's about the same reason why Vulcans got attached to us. They're a curious species. They didn't necessarily expect gain other than to satisfy their curiosity. They'd probably have respected lab rats about as much as they respected humans.
But I generally disagree with the OP above you. As far as observations go, the universe seems like a rather lonely place. I don't think a lot of science fiction is far off. Either from a civilisation looking to make friends or slaves. Both are sensible plots. The uselessness of humanity portrayed in that post seems incorrect and highly pessimistic. Evidence of that is easy enough to find just by looking at the rest of our solar system. We may be far from perfect but for something like us and all other life on earth to be born out of such chaos seems to beat the odds and so far we have no evidence of otherwise.
With that said, I don't think humans will ever reach a state of perfection. I don't think our universe allows that. Maybe outside our universe.