Why do people think there would be mass panic over UFO's?

[Faithfree]

The only panic would be American businessmen scrambling to make a buck out of their technology

...because....non-Americans don't try to make bucks?

No, because it just seems obvious that UFOs would land in the States. Would anybody panic if a UFO landed in Iran, I wonder, and if so, why? What would happen? Think about it.

Something like this?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSY4fEEg4j0&NR=1[/youtube]
"You lucky bastard"

[Robert_S]

Or so you would like to believe... :I-love-pork:

Oh, they may well have other reasons for turning us into ash, it's simply the food or sex are unlikely to be amongst them...

Here on earth, it is always ultimately about sex and food. Always. Survival itself is ultimately about eating and, ultimately, copulating. Sex is nature's way of tricking us into producing offspring. All activities are essentially in pursuit of nature's evolved purposes, directly or indirectly, even if it isn't superficially obvious.

Why assume aliens are automatically radically different biochemically, just because they originated on another planet? It may well be that earthlike planets are the only ones that produce complex life, due to physical and biochemical constraints.

It is not unlikely that the aliens we might encounter will be amino acid based, for the simple reason that amino acids are ubiquitous and ideal as building blocks, capable of forming an endless number of flexible shapes and bonds. And if the aliens are amino acid based, it would not be at all surprising to find them DNA based as well. Amino acids and DNA go together like love and marriage.

Bottom line: the probability of you being a potentially tasty morsel to an alien is uncomfortably high. :I-love-pork:

But on the other hand, we seem to be pretty good at raising cows, chickens and pigs; so we'd more likely end up as slaves than food... until we get too old to work.

[Deep Sea Isopod]

Here's my take on it.
Humans have a natural fear of the unknown. This, along with media perception of aliens, may cause mass panic.

Personally, I think they would "come in peace" as the old saying goes. Think about it. As humans have advanced we have become more civilised. So a species that has advanced the technology to travel such vast distances, would surely be very civilised, no?

[Robert_S]

Meh, I think we would be less apt to panic about so many things on this speck of space dust if we found out there were other civilisations out there.

But if people are less apt to panic about furriners and stuff, they'll probably be less easily manipulated...

[Toontown]

Half of people already believe in alien visititations, and they're not freaking. Most of the rest already believe other alien races exist, and they're not freaking.

People wouldn't freak if the government revealed the presence of aliens, since most of them already believe aliens exist or are already here. I suspect most of them wouldn't even have the specific education or the common sense to be mildly surprised.

It should be rather surprising to learn that the aliens could even get here. Their origin would have to be over 50 light years away, since the nearer stars appear to lack planets suitable for complex life. That's a 200 year trip at best unless our physics are all wrong. It should also be surprising to learn that such an advanced race just happens by chance to be so near us.

It should also be a matter of some concern as to how the aliens might react to having mounted such a costly, ambitious expedition, only to find an occupied planet. It is unlikely that they mounted the vastly ambitious expedition just on the chance of finding some nice alien neighbors. They were probably looking for something, and that something would most likely be a planet they could colonize. I'm afraid our new alien friends might be rather disappointed to find the planet occupied.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm afraid our new alien friends might be rather disappointed to find the planet occupied.

Smart enough to cross the galaxy. Too stupid to send scouts first.

[Toontown]

I'm afraid our new alien friends might be rather disappointed to find the planet occupied.

Smart enough to cross the galaxy. Too stupid to send scouts first.

You keep assuming the laws of physics as we know them are all wrong. That's unlikely to be the case.

I'm talking about the "scouts". The "scouts" themselves would be a very ambitious undertaking. We're talking technology we can only dream of, and 400 year round trip, minimum. Unless our physics are all wrong, both theoretically and experimentally.

If they sent scouts, the scouts were robots. If they followed up with meat bags, something doesn't quite add up. But I'm sure they have a logical explanation.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm afraid our new alien friends might be rather disappointed to find the planet occupied.

Smart enough to cross the galaxy. Too stupid to send scouts first.

You keep assuming the laws of physics as we know them are all wrong. That's unlikely to be the case.

You keep trying to put words in my mouth.
[/quote]I'm talking about the "scouts". The "scouts" themselves would be a very ambitious undertaking. We're talking technology we can only dream of, and 400 year round trip, minimum. Unless our physics are all wrong, both theoretically and experimentally.

If they sent scouts, the scouts were robots. If they followed up with meat bags, something doesn't quite add up. But I'm sure they have a logical explanation.[/quote]
So NOW you say "scouts". Too late.

[Toontown]

Scouts, expedition, whatever. It is not that difficult to understand my point. It is unlikely that they were hoping to discover another sentient race within striking range of them. They were probably hoping the opposite. They were, an all likelihood, looking for a planet they could colonize.

Aliens who have the tecnology and the motivation to send out long term scouting (expeditions) are not fooling around. They are seriously looking to expand their horizons, and they plan to be around for a while. And hardly naive enough to assume an attitude of starry-eyed trust toward other alien races in their vicinity. The logical attitude would be to prefer that there are no potentially hostile sentient races in their immediate cosmic neighborhood. That just means more territory and less threat of interstellar war. This is just plain common sense.

If these aliens have made contact with the government, then the government should have no qualms about informing us of their friendly intentions. But we have no indication that the hypothetical aliens have said anything at all to us, which would be suspicious in itself. Want to panic your technologically challenged alien neighbors? Don't say anything for decades while cruising around ostentatiously in your large, brightly lit space ships, performing various impossible accelerations.

If the conspicuously omnipresent aliens have actually said something, the government should let us know what they said, since we all know they're here. Unless the government thinks we would panic if we knew what the aliens said. Or if we knew they haven't said anything. That would be spooky.

None of which means I actually think they're here. I'm just trying to point out the fact that dealing with an alien race is a delicate matter. Especially one that could do a job on you by simply throwing a large rock at you.

[Azathoth]

More likely they would sweep us out of the way like we do with our native wildlife when we plan to colonise an area

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Scouts, expedition, whatever. It is not that difficult to understand my point. It is unlikely that they were hoping to discover another sentient race within striking range of them. They were probably hoping the opposite. They were, an all likelihood, looking for a planet they could colonize.

And what are you basing your estimation of alien goals on? Years of experience working with an alien race, humans?

[Clinton Huxley]

"I sometimes talk to my dog, but not for very long" - Arthur C Clarke.