Imagine there was another Earthlike planet in our system

[Joker]

We do - the premise says they have the same tech level as us. So we can't attack each other. We can send, like a couple of people for $6bn, and that would take a year to get there, but a couple of people can't exactly wage war on a planet of billions. So we probably send a few people, and they send a few people, but we don't have the ablity to do any more than that.

There's certainly no trade good worth the billions it would take to transport it.

I understand the premise is that their tech is the same as our tech. Since we discovered each other nearly a century ago, the tech that we would have now would be considerably more advanced than what we actually have now if resources had been spent differently.

The issue is trust. Can we trust them and how do we know for certain that we can trust them? This is difficult enough with other humans let alone a completely different species. We have no choice but to approach this situation from an anthropological viewpoint because that's what we are. We fear them because we know what we're capable of.

Let's say we want to send a probe of peace that has information about our history as a species and life on Earth much like Voyager's Golden Record. Because we have no way of knowing, as of yet, how they evolved and how they look at the things you have to understand the consequences of such a seemingly peaceful gesture. Anything from their point of view could be seen as hostile. The high speed approach of a projectile could be seen as an attack. The scorching of their sacred desert burial grounds can fill them with hate. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man could be seen as a Martian "come at me, bro".

I'm not saying a peaceful outcome is not possible. I am saying, given our history with members of our own species, that to be confronted with an alien race who has the same potential destructive capability as us but with whom we cannot communicate properly, destruction of one species is seemingly inevitable.

 

[Umbran]

The issue is trust. Can we trust them and how do we know for certain that we can trust them?

No, the issue is first, "What can they actually do?" Then you ask if you can trust them not to do it.

On Earth, we had a Cold War over territory - who was gong to control the world, the USA or the Soviets? That is not a question here. Neither species is going to have the ability to take over the others' planet. Not gonna happen. They cannot control us, cannot take our planetary resources.

 

[reelo]

Whatever the answers to the OPs questions, I think contact with an (intelligent) extraterrestial species should lead humanity to stop thinking in terms of nations and start thinking in terms of humans. I am a firm believer that it would be, eventually, a strong pacifying, unifying factor for mankind.

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[Derren]

On Earth, we had a Cold War over territory - who was gong to control the world, the USA or the Soviets? That is not a question here. Neither species is going to have the ability to take over the others' planet. Not gonna happen. They cannot control us, cannot take our planetary resources.

But they could take us out. Thats enough reason to fear them.

 

[jonesy]

My views on interstellar (and interplanetary) warfare have largely been colored by The Killing Star by Pellegrino and Zebrowski, which makes many good arguments for paranoia and preventive first strikes. But then the book ends with a warning about the dangers of your attacks not being 100% effective, at which point you have just doomed yourself to a retaliation from the people you 'killed'. If you can detect incoming stuff you can deduce you've just been killed, so the only thing left is hitting back. And in the book they focus on relativistic level strikes which are practically unstoppable. So yeah, the ideas are MAD all over, just on a level of crazy beyond belief.

 

[Umbran]

But they could take us out. Thats enough reason to fear them.

Only at extreme cost to themselves, and to no gain for themselves - "taking us out" also means ruining the planet so they cannot use it.

Martians and Earthlings going to war is rather like a war between dolphins and wolves. There's no point to it! Nobody gains anything from it!

 

[Derren]

Only at extreme cost to themselves, and to no gain for themselves - "taking us out" also means ruining the planet so they cannot use it.

Martians and Earthlings going to war is rather like a war between dolphins and wolves. There's no point to it! Nobody gains anything from it!

They gain security from it. If they can take us out we can't take them out.

 

[jonesy]

They gain security from it. If they can take us out we can't take them out.

But that's the thing. They have no guarantees they can take us out completely enough that we can't return the favour.

 

[Derren]

But that's the thing. They have no guarantees they can take us out completely enough that we can't return the favour.

Thats why it stays a cold war as I said above (unless they are crazy/think very differently).
And there is always a chance that someone develops a counter to the current weapons the other has.

 

[Janx]

I would suspect that 2 planets of "same" tech level don't necessarily have the exact same technologies. Meaning, we both probably have radio and rockets, because on discovery of the other, we're inherently motivated to make contact and exchange something, be it bullets or information.

What we exchange is really the key. Culture has a near zero weight over radio. Hollywood exports its TV to an entire planet already. Shipping BayWatch to Mars could happen.

We also could exchange science. Odds are good they'll be farther along in one science and us in another. Trading notes would likely happen.

Militarily, it's be easy to justify building a planetary defense network, than an assault on their planet. It's also lower risk. Mars likely doesn't care that we have a ring of orbital defense platforms around Earth. They can't get to us. But the military can pitch that we need it "just in case they can" without it appearing to be a hostile move against Mars.

We may exchange some one-way payloads with each other. Objects, stuff like that. Ship it to orbit for pick-up by the other party, or some other agreed upon delivery location. Biological samples may be forbidden as that might give away a biological weakness. it's easy to trust a guy on the internet who can't drop a biological attack on your front door.

Eventually, we may setup a Midway station between Mars and Earth for the first direct contact meeting. Something where it's only half the distance for both parties.

Once we find out what the other planet has of value and vice versa, trade will happen. Science will be pushed to develop the technologies to do it, because business will see a way to make money off it.

Our biggest worry would be if we had plenty of something Mars wanted, but they had nothing we wanted. Like our Water. They would be more motivated to take our water, lacking anything of worth to trade us for it.