Imagine there was another Earthlike planet in our system

[Umbran]

And... coincidence being what it is.... check out this on moving an asteroid:

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CAPTURING_ASTEROID?SITE=AP

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To them, I say: "Don't. Screw. That. Up."

Or, to paraphrase Pink Floyd, "Careful with that asteroid, Eugene."

 

[Umbran]

To them, I say: "Don't. Screw. That. Up."

Oh, it's just a tiny one. It'd just burn up on the way in. Nothing to worry about. Really.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I was thinking more in terms of the current hostility to funding the space program in the USA. Screw up something challenging but relatively inexpensive, and who knows which way things could go.

Besides...what if they accidentally drop it on the Martians?

 

[GSHamster]

I wonder about the assumption that radio is the point when we find out about each other? How powerful would a telescope have to be to see the Martian surface? Things like large roads, the lights of a large city, the Great Wall of Mars.

Could the telescopes of the 19th Century have observed the Martian civilization?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I wonder about the assumption that radio is the point when we find out about each other?

Depending on location, radio probably marks the earliest possible confirmation of intelligent life if neither civilization has significant spacefaring capability.

 

[Umbran]

Could the telescopes of the 19th Century have observed the Martian civilization?

Astronomers were still arguing about there being canals on Mars in 1905.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That's 'cause the Martians didn't cover them up until 1906, DUH!

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

Funny thing: greedy immoral people tend to rise to positions of power and influence. What effect does that have on a culture, do you think?

Buy our phone app or the Martians win!
Vote for this politician of the Martians win!
Slap your children around or the Martians win!
Etc...

That would become its own thing, with the war effort being slown down more by profiteers bilking the system than by technical issues or issues of distance to this other, inhabited Mars.

 

[Jdvn1]

I still think no one has satisfactorily explained why we would attack them - it's not cost-efficient and it doesn't provide us with any benefit.

1. They could do it.

Only with great difficulty and crippling costs. Which is another way of saying - not realistically. Further, both sides would be further advantaged by trade. Think about how this already doesn't happen on an international level.

2. We would have absolutely no idea how they think. The most crazy human psycho would be more understandable than an alien.

They probably think in a similar manner to how we do - but regardless, that doesn't matter. We'd have a chance to communicate with them first and find out how they think. Which brings me back around to seeing how this already doesn't happen on an international level - diplomacy is typically the first response. It's also the cheapest and most potentially beneficial response. The immediate response of war hurts more than it helps because not only is it costly, it prevents trade and diverts money from more economically efficient enterprises.