If you were extraterrestrials and you were sent to Earth to observe.......

[Agent Smith]

If you were extraterrestrials and you were sent to Earth to see if you could build interstellar relations with this planet, and you observed humans from January 1st - 1935 through December 31st - 1945, what would your final report say about humans after those 10 years of observation?

[Shadowferal]

Curious timeframe choice.

[PrimiOne]

It's a weird question because it implies I ( the alien) spend a decade in this planet but choose to ignore the whole documented story of humankind ( I understand that if I'm here I can read a book ,right?) to focus on an very specific timeframe.

Well my report would be the inherent truth of our species: there's this guy called Hitler but there's another guy called Bethoven too...they have a Pol Pot but they have a Picasso too...they have a Stalin and a Ghandi....they are a complex species akin to extreme horrors and extreme empathy at the same time.

[Unholyground]

I would definitely selectively breed ape species until we got super advanced ape species over generations upon generations, totally not what actually happened and why we know how to selectively breed species too and have been doing it for 10's of thousands of years lol.

[zhero]

That they are puny and unworthy of our time. -Klingon Empire

[Mister K]

Teenagers with plenty to learn and not ready to sit at the adults table.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Full blown 'Mars Attacks!' their ass.

[PACOX]

You ever see an ant hill pop up in your yard and say "yup, better handle that before it gets out of hand." We be that ant hill.

[StayTuned]

Why wouldn't I?

Any intelligent alien specie out there will quite likely be the apex predator of their own home world, so they won't be strangers to conflict. I find this whole notion of "Ohh aliens are surely super peaceful and would abhor our brutality" ridiculous.

Why not? Their ancestors might have been apex predators until they eventually figured out that bio/eco-synergy with their planet(s) are more beneficial and that they only developed into a multi-stellar race through peace, trade and unity?

Overly predatory behavior like humans tend to display seems to result in the planet's and its biodiversity's destruction

[PACOX]

Why wouldn't I?

Any intelligent alien specie out there will quite likely be the apex predator of their own home world, so they won't be strangers to conflict. I find this whole notion of "Ohh aliens are surely super peaceful and would abhor our brutality" ridiculous.

As intelligent apex predators who get by more from out brains than our braun, how do we react when another predator enters our territory?

[Coolthulhu]

If Zerg:

"Terran main hive. Distinct lack of desirable assimilable qualities. Without overriding will, are beasts. Less. Not worth establishing relations with. Suggested course of action: obliteration."

If Protoss:

List of purified worlds:
This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• Antiga Prime
• Braxis
• Chau Sara
• Endion
• Gystt
• Haven (partially)
• Mar Sara
• Taurus IV (partially)
• Urona Sigma (partially)

[StayTuned]

As intelligent apex predators who get by more from out brains than our braun, how do we react when another predator enters our territory?

We pretend that its stealing our jobs and then we try to shoot it in the face

[Doctor Amadeus]

It would depend on if I had actual data from all world governments even what they didn't share with each other or their own people, I would suggest humans a a species were dangerous and should be destroyed or made incapable of advancing anymore technology for good of the rest of the galaxy and ourselves.

However if I was only able to gather information from each particular government according to their policies. I would think that Humans were fucking stupid and insane Or, Overtly noble, honorable, and held the integrity of life above all else. The first being worthy of a nuke from orbit, the other being worthy of a quick hello.

[PACOX]

It would depend on if I had actual data from all world governments even what they didn't share with each other or their own people, I would suggest humans a a species were dangerous and should be destroyed or made incapable of advancing anymore technology for good of the rest of the galaxy and ourselves.

However if I was only able to gather information from each particular government according to their policies. I would think that Humans were fucking stupid and insane Or, Overtly noble, honorable, and held the integrity of life above all else. The first being worthy of a nuke from orbit, the other being worthy of a quick hello.

Integrity of life above all except when a dollar is involved.

Yup, the scout would have glassed the planet themselves.

[Rampant Rabbit]

It's a weird question because it implies I ( the alien) spend a decade in this planet but choose to ignore the whole documented story of humankind ( I understand that if I'm here I can read a book ,right?) to focus on an very specific timeframe.

Well my report would be the inherent truth of our species: there's this guy called Hitler but there's another guy called Bethoven too...they have a Pol Pot but they have a Picasso too...they have a Stalin and a Ghandi....they are a complex species akin to extreme horrors and extreme empathy at the same time.

I don't see the implication. I think the premise simply 'stations' you in that time frame. How you observe the world and learn more about it would be up to you, no?

OT: I think it would have been an inappropriate moment to reveal yourself as a species, since you haven't really been able to observe how the human race deals with the possession of nuclear equipment and weapons. Although you could argue it would have been a great moment to reveal yourselves, to provide guidance.

I can't imagine that guidance would have been accepted so freely though, so it would've resulted in more of a colonization than anything else, I think.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Integrity of life above all except when a dollar is involved.

Yup, the scout would have glassed the planet themselves.

Correction I should have said governments stated policies.

You’re right.

[Thekri]

Integrity of life above all except when a dollar is involved.

Yup, the scout would have glassed the planet themselves.

That is a problem of applying human morality onto a non-human species though. There is no reason to believe an advanced alien race would view the Holocaust or any other atrocity with anything more then scientific curiosity. We observe ants and termites slaughtering other colonies of their respective species, and don't apply any particular morality to it. It isn't cruel when a pack of wolves tears apart a musk ox calf, it is just the wolves nature.

From a detached, non-human perspective, the failings of our race are more of a scientific observation them a moral judgement. The only relevant metric that we would be judged on is our potential relationship with their species, not how we interact with our own. We don't hate mosquitoes because they are dicks to other mosquitoes, we hate them because they bite us. And the nature of that relationship with their species completely depends on what that species is. We might be tasty protein, or we might be a pest, or a scientific curiosity. No way of really knowing.

[Saucexorzski]

I would have conscripted the human race for further use in interstellar conflicts.

[Ursus]

I would report that humans need to be isolated and studied so it can be determined what nutrients they have that might be extracted for our personal use.

[Rustedsaint]

Disinterested and write a note to the boss saying to come back every century to see if them stupid monkeys make something out of themselves