Reasons an alien civilization would have to uplift humanity?

[Delana]

to the universe and space travel the knowledge of, for example, swiss yodeling is very unimportant. so what ? think in larger scales here

To the universe you're very unimportant. It's a pretty nihilistic place. We assign value (or lack thereof) to everything.

I'm interested in what you would hope to find, experience, or do with interstellar travel. The opportunity to discover or interact with truly alien cultures is one of the more interesting to me.

[ranzino]

To the universe you're very unimportant. It's a pretty nihilistic place. We assign value (or lack thereof) to everything.

I'm interested in what you would hope to find, experience, or do with interstellar travel. The opportunity to discover or interact with truly alien cultures is one of the more interesting to me.

interstellar travel is not on the same agenda as "discover or interact with truly alien cultures" ? seems like a cool byproduct.
humankind once dreamed to soar up in the sky like birds, it was not a pesky question of "but but what to do with that ??" the feature itself counts, as we tell Blizzard often in discussions about flying in next expansion.

Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars
Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars...

Now add the rings of Saturn, Neptune and Uranus and the Kuiper Belt
Crab Nebula VY Canis Majoris (if still there... ) two Magellan Clouds and Andromeda Galaxy
you are busy for decades with that but you also have to leave some earthly snowflake-ism behind, just my guess.

[Powerogue]

I would imagine they'd deem it too much effort for too little reward like any of us taking the effort to intervene and stabilize North Korea with a less insane government.

translated from xygienese: "We wouldn't help you if you were the last sentient lifeforms in the universe, you pathetic carbon-based warmongering fleshlings."

[ranzino]

I would imagine they'd deem it too much effort for too little reward like any of us taking the effort to intervene and stabilize North Korea with a less insane government.

translated from xygienese: "We wouldn't help you if you were the last sentient lifeforms in the universe, you pathetic carbon-based warmongering fleshlings."

i would assume the "First Directive" the Star Trek franchise is so proud of would not apply in the scenario. space faring aliens may not know such stuff like cultural diversity for aeons anymore or it is just utter insignificant to them.
Aliens may think they do us a favor by eliminating a lot of silly stuff we hold dear and is important to us.

[therealbowser]

To answer your question, why would you want to uplift another alien culture? We are known for trying to impose our view of order on other cultures, so I could see humans doing this to other alien species (and the same to us). Quite simply, they would do it because they want to impose what they think is 'right'.

Perhaps, also, they might do it because we have resources they need and they don't want to go to war. But this is delving into science fiction a bit heavily; this isn't Independence Day.

All you need to know is that it wouldn't be an act of kindness, but at the same time it wouldn't be to manipulate and take advantage of others; it would simply be ordering cultures the way they think is correct. And to be fair, I think if we were to find another alien culture advanced or not, we'd want to learn from them and would be happy to share our knowledge in return, regardless of how primitive or advanced it might be.

Of course, I could be wrong, too. Maybe it really just would be a matter of wanting to be in power everywhere one could be. I can't very well claim to have typical views on life and culture.

[Airlick]

Any practical reasons an alien civilization would want to culturally, technologically or even genetically uplift humanity in a theoretical first contact?

The only practical reason I can think of would be an extraterrestrial civilization wanting to indebt humanity in the event of a planetary wide destruction or war that would require military aid from humans.
@Connal @X Amadeus X @Yvaelle

Probably no practical reasons, and it probably depends on the type of alien civilization. If they were some kind of AI enhanced beings, I guess they wouldn't do it, because it would by no means be practical. And then they could even decide there's no point in letting us stay alive. But they could be, for example, a type of a civilization of artists/engineers that could do that simply to see what would happen and what would we do with our newly gained knowledge - their research wouldn't at all be practical, it would rather be a side project, or just a piece of artwork. They could even be super-benevolent beings that would uplift us simply so that we don't destroy ourselves or don't go extinct due to natural reasons.

[ranzino]

Probably no practical reasons, and it probably depends on the type of alien civilization. If they were some kind of AI enhanced beings, I guess they wouldn't do it, because it would by no means be practical. And then they could even decide there's no point in letting us stay alive. But they could be, for example, a type of a civilization of artists/engineers that could do that simply to see what would happen and what would we do with our newly gained knowledge - their research wouldn't at all be practical, it would rather be a side project, or just a piece of artwork. They could even be super-benevolent beings that would uplift us simply so that we don't destroy ourselves or don't go extinct due to natural reasons.

well well....
what would you leave behind of your personal stances and favourites to get the real opportunity of "fly to moon and play among the stars" ?

[Evil Midnight Bomber]

Any practical reasons an alien civilization would want to culturally, technologically or even genetically uplift humanity in a theoretical first contact?

The only practical reason I can think of would be an extraterrestrial civilization wanting to indebt humanity in the event of a planetary wide destruction or war that would require military aid from humans.
@Connal @X Amadeus X @Yvaelle

I've got a few ideas

1) They wanted us to share the planet.
2) They want to genetically modify us to be better slaves or soldiers
3) They need some specific Earth technology (something that isn't covered in their own technological development) and are willing to trade to get it.

[Yvaelle]

I think technically advanced aliens would look at what we've done to this planet (one of the elusive few, known Goldilocks worlds) and how we treat each other, and say... yeah, these guys have to go before they find our way to us.

We don't have good enough tools yet to detect other Earth-like planets, so Earths may not actually be so rare - we just can't see them.

[Speaknoevil]

Could you imagine the discussions?

I know you think you are being clever, but any species that has mastered faster than light travel would have long ago mastered changing physical characteristics at a whim. Natural hair color, mating protrusion size, biological sex.

[CmdrShep2154]

Maybe we're the Krogan of the real world?

How would you feel if there was really a race of blue alien space cheerleaders out there in some part of our galaxy?

[Deleted]

I always found it more likely that they put us in quarantine, forbidding us from venturing beyond our or planet or solar system.

Or just exterminate us right away.

[Deleted]

Maybe go ask Elon Musk?

After all, it seems like that's what he's doing.

If you mean to say that Musk sees himself as alien, as Other to humanity, as some greater intellect upon whom is bestowed a responsibility to drag the human civilisation to a more enlightened level through his rapacious capital investment then I agree.

[Lochton]

none just like how humanity doesn't try and uplift any of the smarter animals.

Or each other at times. .

[Sharein]

Could you imagine the discussions?

Alien: “I see you’re a human female based on your possession of two X chromosomes”

Human 1: “WHAT! I’m a trans male you bigoted fuck!”

Human 2:“YEA! I’m gender fluid. Fucking bigoted space aliens”

Alien: “Wait, you’re serious? Headquarters this is Mmboodu 147, we’ve made a huge mistake. This species hasn’t even mastered basic biology and values arbitrary chemical elevation to logic and fact. Disengage from first contact.”

QFT.

Humanity is still a very primitive species, so, I doubt they'd even have an interest in us other than looking at some stupid donkeys for their amusement.

[Kokolums]

Any practical reasons an alien civilization would want to culturally, technologically or even genetically uplift humanity in a theoretical first contact?

The only practical reason I can think of would be an extraterrestrial civilization wanting to indebt humanity in the event of a planetary wide destruction or war that would require military aid from humans.
@Connal @X Amadeus X @Yvaelle

In 100 years or so, humans technology will have advanced to the point where we can come pretty close to reading minds. It will get to the point where we can detect the firing pattern of neurons in our brains to reasonably record dreams, thoughts, etc. An alien race that is way ahead of humans will have perfected this technology to the point where it is impossible to lie. They would not have lying. To them, sentience is defined as always telling the truth. Animals lie. They could not converse with us because we lie all the time. We are animals to them.

[Beazy]

Reasons to help us?

They would need reasons not to vaporize the entire planet. .

[Sykol]

Aliens already came once and uplifted an entire species of beings right off the planet. We call them dinosaurs.

[Flarelaine]

Any practical reasons an alien civilization would want to culturally, technologically or even genetically uplift humanity in a theoretical first contact?

The only practical reason I can think of would be an extraterrestrial civilization wanting to indebt humanity in the event of a planetary wide destruction or war that would require military aid from humans.
@Connal @X Amadeus X @Yvaelle

Try as I might, I can't really come up with practical reasons. Even thinking through stories I've read, the motivation of the Overlords from Childhood's End comes closest and even that is partly ideological.

[Danner]

Any practical reasons an alien civilization would want to culturally, technologically or even genetically uplift humanity in a theoretical first contact?

The only practical reason I can think of would be an extraterrestrial civilization wanting to indebt humanity in the event of a planetary wide destruction or war that would require military aid from humans.
@Connal @X Amadeus X @Yvaelle

Technologically? Too dangerous!
Genetically? That's breaking the point of aliens in the first place.

So, say you are a highly developed martian living on Mars. Being an intelligent and curious lifeform, you always wondered if there was intelligent life out there, somewhere, in the universe.

And lo and behold, you found it. Just down the solar system; Earth. Though it is a planet with very weird features. They breathe oxygen, a massively explosive gas. They devour each other for sustenance rather than absorbing energy from sunlight like civilized lifeforms. They are highly aggressive featuring instincts to fight rather than reason as expected of a planet with that kind of life. Yet extremely resilient, able to survive heavy leakage and puncture wounds, self-repairing and adaptive as a species. And also, monumentally stupid, driven by greed and shortsightedness, killing each other over emotions, and fighting each other over territories or anything at all. Oh, and they seem to have settled on using base ten, the least sane number system imaginable.

So, the one sane conclusion - these guys are neat, studying them is a treasure trove of xenobiology, culture studies and whatnot - but they are oh so dangerous. If you visit, they would attack you on sight. Likely using nukes. Then develop a space program to launch more nukes at mars, just to be certain they got you.

These guys are literally as volatile as the air they breathe. Give them any tool, and they will find a way to weaponize it. Give them one generation and they will again wage war over peanuts. The only sane option is to not interfere. Instead, observe. Wait until they develop. One day. If they haven't broken themselves in the process.

In fact, the one sane field to lift humans up in, would be mentally. Make them drop the aggression, emotions, fighting and volatility. You cannot really interact with these guys as long as they are as unpredictable as they are, and interacting is half the point right? But in doing, so you also break what they are. So... why would you?

As an alien, why would you want to ruin that treasure trove of scientific information by altering them to be like you? That doesn't add up. Your own species and culture is already there, up for study, without all that interplanetary travelling. Changing these humans to become you is literally pointless. Maybe one day they will become like you by themselves. Maybe something awesome and spectacularly different. You can wait until they find you.

Now, I have to add that I don't actually believe earth is being observed by martians in flying saucers, and this is all hypotetical.