I am back with another alien-themed blog. But this time, we are in for a complex dilemma, and I’d love to hear your thoughts!
The dilemma
Let me introduce the problem with the analogy that inspired the name. Imagine a powerful hunter, so strong and dangerous that he is capable of killing anything it comes across without it being able to retaliate. As the hunter walks through the forest, he spots another hunter as strong and dangerous as himself.
He has no personal reason to attack, but if he doesn’t and the stranger decides to attack him, he cannot survive.
What should our hunter do?
This is the hunter’s dilemma, the decision he must make of whether or not to preemptively strike his opponent out of self-preservation.
Well, this is fun and all, but how does this relate to aliens?
The Problem with Discovering Alien Life
I’d say it is pretty reasonable to assume that once we are finally able to discover and visit an alien civilization, we will probably have the means to destroy it. This is a much easier task than science fiction often makes it seem. We don’t need a moon-sized death star; taking out all life from a planet is as simple as deflecting asteroids towards the planet until they run out of means to deflect them.
A more advanced but still realistic weapon is the relativistic kinetic kill vehicle or RKKV. I’m surely going to dedicate a post to it eventually. Still, in simple terms, it is any object that is accelerated into relativistic speeds, thus giving it massive amounts of energy (and, in consequence, destructive capabilities). The most frightening aspect of a RKKV is that it is relativistic, which means that it travels at speeds that are close to the speed of light. So, by the time the victims see the light from the object, they will have merely moments to say their goodbyes before being obliterated.
This is where the Hunter’s Dilemma comes in. If you believe that the ideas above are reasonable (and if alien life exists, of course), then it is certain that, at some point, we will have to face this dilemma. Should we obliterate any advanced species we encounter out of fear that they will do it to us? Should we risk annihilation to stick to our moral compass? Or do we commit genocide upon an unsuspecting planet that might not even have considered doing it to us?
I do not envy those who will be forced to make such a hard choice. For as horrible as it would be to be the one who chose to push the trigger, just imagine choosing not to, and being wrong.
Sooner or later, our species will have to deal with this dilemma. What are your thoughts on it? Do you believe there is a way to prevent this through diplomacy? Or are we destined to blast each other into oblivion?
This idea will connect with the Fermi Paradox in next week’s post about the Dark Forest!
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