I have a hard time believing that if we actually FOUND another race of beings, or simply organic life, or bacterial life, on another planet, we would simply disregard that and destroy it to make a colony on another planet. Given the fact that we still haven't found life on another planet, I really think that it would be a pretty huge deal if we did.
Now, that being said, if we found plant life on another planet, then sure, I say colonize it. If we found evidence of another race, or some other form of aliens, that are intelligent, then no, stay far away from that.
Because where there are one, there are two, and where there are two, there are many. And those people might have some friends that we don't know about in another galaxy somewhere in the universe with big guns and wrinkled foreheads *cough*klingons*cough*.
I'd really not want to start a war.

In order to survive as a race we have to stop being a one planet species before the sun expands along with the risks of a astroid hitting earth and potentially wiping us out we have expand and colonize new planets and if that means stepping on some microbes then so be it.

If on the other hand if we contact a intelligent race then we may cooperate, afterall intelligent is hard to find and killing it off would be a waste. If they attack us on the other hand then we eliminate their means to make war and if needed control them. Of course all of this is probably irrelevant if we can't find a means to survive the big freeze, or big crunch.

Us colonizing to another planet/moon in this solar system? Probable, and likely (in the very far future).
Us colonizing to a different solar system? Very unlikely.

Are we really so bad? You don't think that we can get better, in the future? How many wars are over resources - something that will either be irrelevant, or so relevant fighting over it would be pointless, out on colonies.

I do believe a timeframe of 800.000.000 years does give us abit of a headstart on the matter. It's not like we're overly pressed for time on that issue.

And more of http://store.wargear.com.au/images/GW/CodexSpaceMarines.jpg.

I'm sure we will screw up any planetary ecologies we find habitable.

Not stuck...Quarantined...Contained, or wiped out, either one works for me.

Hopefully if we dont kill ouselves in a war, or the universe dosent then those microbes will.


Yep I think we are, humans are just greedy violent beings, we just cause more problems, then try to solve them and create more. Nope, we cant get better, we are still even after all these years a violent greedy species sure we may become better e.g now slavery is bad, but we are still far from ood, and chances are we will never be good, I hear worse and worse things everyday so imo we have passed our "pinnacle" of civilised society and are reressing.

Violence isn't necessarily bad. I would rather have us kill every other thing in this galaxy if it meant that man was at peace with itself, than limit us to this one planet and die a slow death. Misanthropy is a non-issue when it's "us vs. them" Human rage cannot be eliminated, but they can be directed. You are also an example. Your aggression exists, only towards mankind. I would rather see it targeted at whatever isn't human.

For all our faults, we are still the only species we have, which is better than non-existence in my mind.

No it can be good if used to stop something bad, but humanity gets violent for selfish reasons, so in most cases yes its bad. Humanity killing everything else to make peace with itself, thats just stupid. Humanity kills itself, others wont matter, people would as soon as everything else is wiped out, turn on eachother, so it would only cause humans to add more destruction to the list of their problems.
I would rather we are incinerated by the sun, that way we dont kill others and dont kill eachother.
Atleast with non-existence there is no fighting, suffering or problems, which seems to be the things humanity is good at making.

Aliens would probably be hostile to human kind due to the Internet.

I mean, seriously, who wouldn't after see Goatse?

When we find other life, I'll bet we resurrect Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee, morph them into one incredible human then get utterly destroyed by it.

If it had nearly all the characteristics of a goldfish, would it not be considered a type of fish? Thats like saying a african elephant and an asian elephant aren't close to related simply becasue they live on different continents.

Or 2G1C :yuck:

Speak of the devil, I was just thinking to my self about this. Inevitably us humans would have to play god, especially on planets with life, but no sentient species. The conclusion I made with myself is that planets absolutely devoid of life would be ok. But we are still playing god and effecting the course of history for that planet. Its a huge thought and really makes you feel small.

Ehm...affecting the course of history for that planet? Playing god?

You need to watch less Star Trek. If we colonize other planets, we'll make do in whatever way possible, and there is nothing wrong with that.

I say that if we find intelligent life on another planet, then we give it its space, but colonize what we can. If we are capable of destroying them, and they turn hostile, then I say vaporize them, because obviously we're better. I'm not joking, I'm more pro-human than pro-alien, if we need the space we'll take it. You snooze you lose.

Also, there is no such thing as changing the course of history, because who says what happened wasn't meant to happen? (Not that I believe things can be meant to happen, that's stupid).

Hopefully it won't be as bad as what we did to the native americans.

Sad, but it was only natural selection, survival of the fittest.

I always thought it was more of a "I have more guns and hundreds more men combined with the fact that we made peace treaties with you then broke them so you never saw it coming ..."

Hopefully there will be some sort of natural disaster that will debilitate humankind from ever letting it malign another planet and its life forms EVER again..

I mean.. woah I didn't mean to type that....

Let's face it, no matter how idealistic people are, given the chance and opportunity, they will think "like pragmatists" and just do the whole "conquistadors" crap over again. To think of self-preservation is natural and etc so it's not like I think we should bend over backwards for alien lifeforms, but I do acknowledge that we have a huge tendency to displace others to make room for ourselves.

I think James Cameron's Avatar perfectly illustrates what humans will do with alien life.


Still not an excuse. Unethical and savage.

That is natural selection, practically the definition.

@Veeno below: It doesn't matter how intelligent you are, you will always want your species, or sub-genre of species to be dominant. It goes back to the very most basic of instincts. If you had to choose between your family or your neighbors to enter a bomb-shelter, who would you choose? Multiply that to an entire race, it's still the exact same concept.

No it wasn't. It was stupid. We are intelligent and sane beings, not mindless beasts (beasts maybe, but not mindless) and that was completely unnecessary.

Look, if the lowliest of creatures, the panda, a creature that has to be helped with reproduction by humans, can survive in this planet, I'm more than certain we will help aliens make sweet love, not war (while we watch, 'cause that's how the human [censored] race rolls).