Primary Focus: War
http://www.nickbostrom.com/existential/risks.html
"Killed by an extraterrestrial civilization
The probability of running into aliens any time soon appears to be very small (see section on evaluating probabilities below, and also [66,67]).If things go well, however, and we develop into an intergalactic civilization, we may one day in the distant future encounter aliens. If they were hostile and if (for some unknown reason) they had significantly better technology than we will have by then, they may begin the process of conquering us. Alternatively, if they trigger a phase transition of the vacuum through their high-energy physics experiments (see the Bangs section) we may one day face the consequences. Because the spatial extent of our civilization at that stage would likely be very large, the conquest or destruction would take relatively long to complete, making this scenario a whimper rather than a bang."
Analysis:
The extinction of man kind is possibly one of the biggest topics in depictions of the future. Will we last or not is the main question which leads to questions like: If so, for how long? Will we be our own imminent demise?What will the human extinction look like? Many people dream of intergalactic relations but with it obviously comes the possibility of intergalactic wars. Astronomers are said to be sending out radio waves into space in hopes of having extraterrestrial life picking up the radio waves in order to find us. But the biggest concern with is, how can we know whatever we may contact our there will be friendly? The popular Tom Cruise movie War of the Worlds shows what might happen if alien life forms plot our demise - the movie shows that the humans were completely powerless to the invader's super advanced technology and our only chance of survival was when the aliens could not resist the threat of Earth's bacteria. But what if aliens DO in fact decide to attack us after picking up these radio waves being sent out into space and we stand no chance against them and the human species gets wiped out? This would be another common example of how human curiosity and technology would be our own downfall in the future. The possibility of contacting other lifeforms who we could have good relations with sounds great, but the threat that also comes with it seems to not make it worth it at all. But also whats to say that if there are aliens out there with advanced enough technology to get to us, that they don't already know about us without even needing the radio waves being sent out to space? That would be a problem completely out of our hands.
This introduces an idea we have yet to discuss in class. Nice job thinking outside the box. Given your analysis, however, I wonder if the movie would have been a better choice for this topic. Remember that you need to comment on form (techniques, etc) in addition to content. Including the film (perhaps posting a clip) would have been a great addition to give this post more punch.
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