Imagine there was another Earthlike planet in our system

[Jdvn1]

co-operation is usually the winning strategy.

Only between equals (in military power).

Disagree - the earth is full of countries unequal in military power that still benefit from co-operation. That's sort of what macroeconomics is based upon.

 

[Jdvn1]

... once it was determined there was another sapient and sentient species in the solar system, humanity would wrap itself around the axle to go to war with the other species, even if it did not make objective sense to do so.

... said no humanity ever.

If I'm to appeal to your cynicism, try this one on: People aren't evil, they're greedy. Civilization isn't killing you and taking your stuff, it's bleeding you dry via credit card rates.

Which takes you along a very different historical path - it asks the question, "How can I profit on this new situation?" The answer isn't killing and taking stuff, it's buying up cheap products and selling them expensively. You make more money over time that way - who cares about a single drop of cash if you can start a business and make money over the next several decades? You need to keep the creators of the cheap product alive to do that.

 

[Nagol]

The problem is greedy sods can't take advantage of the other planet -- very limited travel capabilities, communication channels are not restrictable.

But the paranoiacs CAN take advantage of the other planet.

More sunspots than expected? Martians have a sunspot making machine!
Norovirus outbreak? Martian engineered bio-weapon!
Decades/century long change in overall climate temperature? Martians are boiling us like a frog in a pot!
Meteor impact in Russia? Martians are throwing rocks at us!

They make most excellent scapegoats.

And like all excellent scapegoats, will be targeted by governments to rally the people. And once people's fear grows outside the government's control, the scapegoat will be targeted for violence because not doing that will bring violence to the government.

 

[Umbran]

But the paranoiacs CAN take advantage of the other planet.

A real paranoiac can, of course, be scared of anything. Thankfully,t here are not enough actual wingnuts to dictate policy. The more common political paranoia generally requires some actual friction between groups, present or historical, to play off and exaggerate. You can't whip up a head of steam against a people you've never seen, and who have never interacted with you.

 

[Jdvn1]

The problem is greedy sods can't take advantage of the other planet -- very limited travel capabilities, communication channels are not restrictable.

Trade of information can happen immediately - that's pretty valuable.

And with current tech - $6B to send a new team to Mars in a first-of-its-kind project. If we were sending people to an earth-like planet where they may not need the same kind of atmospheric protections, and without several years of training, that price is going to come way down. Then, exchange the people for luxury materials or increase the size of the ship, and you have the beginnings of a luxury market.

And like all excellent scapegoats, will be targeted by governments to rally the people. And once people's fear grows outside the government's control, the scapegoat will be targeted for violence because not doing that will bring violence to the government.

... Said no civilization ever. Have you considered whether history would tell us this is the case?

 

[Nagol]

A real paranoiac can, of course, be scared of anything. Thankfully,t here are not enough actual wingnuts to dictate policy. The more common political paranoia generally requires some actual friction between groups, present or historical, to play off and exaggerate. You can't whip up a head of steam against a people you've never seen, and who have never interacted with you.

Of course you can so long as someone can be painted as fundamentally different. I'd provide examples, but I don't want to walk toward the board's no-go zones. I'll point at London in 1189 and leave it at that.

 

[Nagol]

Trade of information can happen immediately - that's pretty valuable.

And with current tech - $6B to send a new team to Mars in a first-of-its-kind project. If we were sending people to an earth-like planet where they may not need the same kind of atmospheric protections, and without several years of training, that price is going to come way down. Then, exchange the people for luxury materials or increase the size of the ship, and you have the beginnings of a luxury market.

... Said no civilization ever. Have you considered whether history would tell us this is the case?

Said many, many nations in recorded history, actually. And that was towards fellows of the same species.

 

[Umbran]

Of course you can so long as someone can be painted as fundamentally different. I'd provide examples, but I don't want to walk toward the board's no-go zones. I'll point at London in 1189 and leave it at that.

Your example includes past friction, and so does not support your claim particularly well.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Thankfully,there are not enough actual wingnuts to dictate policy.

Um. I'm symied by the no politics/religion rule, but dude, wingnuts dictate policy all the time. To cull just from US history off the top of my head we've got Japanese internment camps and McCarthyism and prohibition. All driven by wingnuttery (and paranoid wingnuttery in at least two of those cases at that). All quite influential.

The study of history is, at least in part, the study of the batcrap things that hundreds of thousands people once believed and how this leads, time and time again, to dumb things happening as a matter of national policy. Wingnuttery is part of the human condition. We're scared, ignorant little apes, and we wouldn't be any more sane in the presence of some kindred spirits out there. We might not do much about it, but don't think that there wouldn't be, I dunno, a vast group of good-intentioned religious wingnuts who mount a space expedition to preach the Gospels and wind up triggering some interplanetary tiff, even if inadvertently. I doubt we'd exterminate each other, but there would certainly be some violence, just as there would be some trade (however infrequent) and probably some pr0n (because Rule 34).

 

[sabrinathecat]

I think people are forgetting that in addition to being greedy, warlike, and evil, most of humanity is deeply stupid and short sighted. (I will consider most of the people here the exceptions to the rule. You're welcome.) Why worry about 10 years down the road: If we kill them now, we can take all their stuff! We wipe out species here at an alarming rate for some of the dumbest reasons. The stupidest being: We think ____ part of the animal is an aphrodisiac. No proof, but we think it is. There's an entire breed of tiger that no longer exists because zoo breeding programs cross-bred them out. Yep. To preserve the endangered species, we wiped it out. White tigers get all the attention, but are small. Cross-with this breed, and you get big white tigers. Oh, now there are no more of breed X because no one bothered to breed pure X with pure X. Yeah, we are that dumb. Why worry about tomorrow: all these fish will feed me today, and the extra I can take to market and get $50 for. Of course, by taking them all today, there won't be any for the rest of the month, and that $50 will only last a week. Oh and I'm glutting the market. If I thought to not over-harvest, I could get the same amount of money, have more food for tomorrow, and--ah forget it. Take them all now.
I have some other examples, but they are perhaps culturally offensive. (Yeah, that's me backing away from offending someone. Imagine!)
And the popularity of arranged and organized superstitions around the world is absolutely nuts, with a heaping helping of crazy on the side.