OT: A question about the Human Ability to Cope

[Starhawk]

Kevin_Raven said:
everyone keeps saying that humans are remarkably resilient and have a good ability to adapt to new situations, but really, we don't have any benchmarks to compare the human race to, making it hard to describe any defining characteristics of the human race. Perhaps our adaptability, or some other trait that seems unremarkable to us would be a useful resource for an alien species, or perhaps humans are a thoroughly dull and useless race... at any rate, I'd imagine that it would be a lot easier and more effective for alien civilizations to simply establish trading bases on earth and use it as a resupply area than to wipe out the entire planet and start over. When you consider hideous invading alien monster-race, it's hard to imagine a good motivation for wanting to destroy the earth.

Meh I'll post the more polite version- craps and giggles-

Seriously though the reasons you would invade Earth could by myriad afterall we humans don't often have reasons for attacking one another look at WWII and Nam did Hitler have a good reason for starting WWII other then he was an ***........no did we have a good reason to go to Nam........uh not really unless you listen to the line about "Communists outnumber us and we have to limit that" but they still outnumber us anyway and the idiot politicians ran the war and screwed it up lol (AND NO FREAKIN comments about "Don't Forget Bush" because that's damn irritating people act like he did it alone heh when in fact the president can't take a crap without a hundred people giving permission lol)

Anyway it is easy to note the abilities of the human race afterall we are HUMAN and we watch our own history just study history and you'll found out humans are adaptable and resiliant and able to cope with a LOT of things that we never thought we'd be able to until the situation hits us

[Fyron]

Starhawk said:
(note)...we have definately brought in a lot of new laws that never would have been considered pre-9/11...

Yes they would have, and they were. There have been numerous forms of "sedition acts" and "patriot acts" passed at various points in US history. During the early years, during every large war, and some other random times. We sure are a paranoid lot... The bombings of 9/11 are just more in a long series of unrelated trigger events.

[Thermodyne]

Starhawk said:


Meh I'll post the more polite version- craps and giggles-

Seriously though the reasons you would invade Earth could by myriad afterall we humans don't often have reasons for attacking one another look at WWII and Nam did Hitler have a good reason for starting WWII other then he was an ***........no did we have a good reason to go to Nam........uh not really unless you listen to the line about "Communists outnumber us and we have to limit that" but they still outnumber us anyway and the idiot politicians ran the war and screwed it up lol (AND NO FREAKIN comments about "Don't Forget Bush" because that's damn irritating people act like he did it alone heh when in fact the president can't take a crap without a hundred people giving permission lol)

Anyway it is easy to note the abilities of the human race afterall we are HUMAN and we watch our own history just study history and you'll found out humans are adaptable and resiliant and able to cope with a LOT of things that we never thought we'd be able to until the situation hits us

From a 1930’s German point of view, Hitler had a very good reason for going to war. He had restored the German economy with a massive military build up. People were working to build munitions; they in turn spent their income on consumer goods. The excess labor pool was absorbed by the military to fill out the ranks. Problem was that it was all being financed with red ink in the books. Hitler went to war to secure a means of balancing his books. Quick gains were to come from looting the conquered states. Long term gains were to come from the increase in land under till by German farmers as they moved into the newly acquired land. Remember, in the 1930’s farming was the foundation of every advanced state. Farming created the basic wealth and funneled it into the rest of the economy. The average worker spent 1/3 of his income on food. Wouldn’t today’s farmers like to see a return to the model of the 30’s and 40’s?

Japan went to war to secure resources and land as did Italy.

The war in SE Asia was different. First, it was to contain communist expansion. Second it was to make sure that we had access to oil in the South China Sea. Arab oil might not have been available had the cold war gone hot. It was far to close to the Soviets, who could get there by land. And it has to pass through several choke points during transit to the US. Also our main ally in the area at that time was located on the border with the USSR and would have been at great risk, the rest of the region was not happy about our support of Israel and were already, or about to be Soviet client states. Thinking of the time was that it would much easier to keep the Soviets out of the SC Sea than it would be to keep them out of the Middle East. After all, the Pacific was still thought of as an American Lake back then. Take a look at the time line and notice the draw down of American troops and the start of North Slope oil production. And while the US had plenty of oil that could be had close to home back then, our allies did not. To this day the lion’s share of North Slope oil goes to Japan.

[Kamog]

If I encountered some sort of strange and powerful creature that is completely unfamiliar to us, I would think it's an alien rather than a demon.

[El_Phil]

You cant make a broad generalisation without someone taking it personally. What is the world coming to?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

It's not really going anywhere. It's going round and round in a circle.

[NullAshton]

What about an oval? Maybe a octagon, stop being so specific.

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
During the Napoleonic era, the french army was one of the best in the world.

AHEM the French army yes..... but just look at the amount of foreign recruits..... and what nationality was its leader?

*****

If SETI were to receive a signal, the world governments (i.e. the US government which thinks is the world government) would immediately shut down the program and start arming for war.

If an alien landed in Hyde Park, there'd be a crowd of media people around it within hours. It would probably get so freaked out (just think how much a TV camera looks like a rocket launcher or an energy weapon if you don't know what it is, and then there are the helicopters.....) it would either get back in its spaceship and take off again, returning some days later with a battle fleet, or it would attack the crowd, get fired on by the military, take off in its space ship and return some time later with a battle fleet. Either way, we lose.

*****

In an entirely unrelated matter, I've just noticed SETI hasn't sent me a new data package for at least three days.....

[Baron Munchausen]

Strategia_In_Ultima said:

AHEM the French army yes..... but just look at the amount of foreign recruits..... and what nationality was its leader?

*****

If SETI were to receive a signal, the world governments (i.e. the US government which thinks is the world government) would immediately shut down the program and start arming for war.

If an alien landed in Hyde Park, there'd be a crowd of media people around it within hours. It would probably get so freaked out (just think how much a TV camera looks like a rocket launcher or an energy weapon if you don't know what it is, and then there are the helicopters.....) it would either get back in its spaceship and take off again, returning some days later with a battle fleet, or it would attack the crowd, get fired on by the military, take off in its space ship and return some time later with a battle fleet. Either way, we lose.

*****

In an entirely unrelated matter, I've just noticed SETI hasn't sent me a new data package for at least three days.....

Actually, in that era the French army was almost exclusively French. And the population of France was almost 1/3rd of the total population of Europe at that time, so they could field huge armies relative to any other European state. Sheer numbers had a lot to do with their successes. But Napoleon himself was Corsican, yes...

[Strategia_In_Ultima]

Sheer numbers indeed. With enough bodies to throw into the breach, you could win if you were centuries behind in technology respective to your enemy. Also, I believe that the main reason the French conquered Europe lies in the army's leadership. Non-French leadership.



*****

Hey, it also seems like SETI's site is gone.