Who is the caretaker of martian life?

[Nibb31]

And that's how the concept of Humanity as a multiplanetary species dies before it ever had a chance to live

That preoccupation is premature by at least a couple of centuries.

[KerikBalm]

Advanced alien life would be completely beyond our comprehension. It would be seen as a threat by one our 150 governments and attacked on sight.

There's really no reason for them to contact us at all.

Right... they show up in the asteroid belt to start mining... and our governments decide to build a big rocket to launch a KEW at it, knowing nothing about their retaliatory capacity.

The 150 govt's would be crapping their pants, they'd know that whoever they were, they could wipe us out if they wanted, and there's little we could do to prevent it.

Its best not to provoke them.

MAD doesn't work here, because we'd be completely at their mercy.

Our govt's would be on their best behavior.

[Nibb31]

But, yeah. On a subtler note, I think we can all agree that if knowledge of an advanced civilization were to come out tomorrow, we'd have total chaos on this planet. We know it, so the E.T.'s surely know it, and they're doing the responsible thing by NOT landing on the Whitehouse lawn.

I don't think so. If it's like any other major news item, it will make (misinformed and click-bait) headlines for a few days and then everyone will switch back to the Kardashians and The Voice.

[KerikBalm]

Anyway, as the inferred water activity of these perchlorate brines is less than 1/3 of that required for proliferation of any known Earth life, as the rover did not come from a place where there were likely to be halophiles ore Xerophiles, as the rover was sterilized and there was just one minor breach with loading the drill bit (in only a semi-sterile environment), as its been there a long time, and already used that drill bit (I assume its loaded another by now), as it wouldn't even be drilling because the slopers are too steep, and they'd probably only want to use the scoop anyway, as its also been subjected to vacuum and UV since then, and anything that is just falling off the rover gets blown around by the wind anyway

I think the risks are insignificant, and the rover should be sent to investigate, at least with its spec and "chem cam"

[baggers]

I don't think so. If it's like any other major news item, it will make (misinformed and click-bait) headlines for a few days and then everyone will switch back to the Kardashians and The Voice.

Unless these extraterrestrial have some "civilization dream" and cultural stuff to share with us.

[PB666]

Low gravity and a thin atmosphere, better to build there and haul to orbit, than here

if those are your criteria, its better to build on phobos. Very low gravity, less of a gravity well, no life to worry about, and no atmosphere.

- - - Updated - - -

Well, there's the fact that we're already in the middle of a mass extinction here. Maybe expanding to Mars would give some portion of humanity a chance...

Back to Mars (not) terraforming thread. Mars is not an escape pod.

- - - Updated - - -

Right... they show up in the asteroid belt to start mining... and our governments decide to build a big rocket to launch a KEW at it, knowing nothing about their retaliatory capacity.

The 150 govt's would be crapping their pants, they'd know that whoever they were, they could wipe us out if they wanted, and there's little we could do to prevent it.

Its best not to provoke them.

MAD doesn't work here, because we'd be completely at their mercy.

Our govt's would be on their best behavior.

MAD? Mothers against drunks?

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think so. If it's like any other major news item, it will make (misinformed and click-bait) headlines for a few days and then everyone will switch back to the Kardashians and The Voice.

Already Done...........now its the zombie apocolypse....tinder.......reddit

- - - Updated - - -

Unless these extraterrestrial have some "civilization dream" and cultural stuff to share with us.

Unless some tactile advertisement laden additive [anti] social networking platform we will ignore it.

How did we go from helpless martian bacteria to autocratic utopian space invaders?

[RainDreamer]

MAD? Mothers against drunks?

Not sure if this is sarcastic and I am missing it. But the context seems to be pointing to the term "Mutually Assured Destruction" - a situation where two forces of equal power agree to not being hostile against each other as the resulting conflict will destroy them both in the end. Usually used in the context of nuclear warfare.

[PB666]

This made me think of a new possibility... Having received our simplistic radio-wave transmissions for decades, the (obviously) more advanced alien culture decides that a majority of the populace can be subdued by utilizing some of our more ancient superstitions. They send down a single representative to 'work miracles' using their advanced technology, and impersonate the return of the Jesus Christ, the boddishatva, Li Hong, and all the other messianic figures in our various cultures, claiming that they were the ones who planted those traditions long ago...

SG1, done, we've moved on....so sorry Mr.alien dude, but you sould have been reading FB and twiiter feeds from Donald Trump... Next alien.