Psh, what if there were aliens who are like Kirk? You know, when they looked at the stars for the first time when they were space cavemen, they desired to travel the stars, and have six with aliens.

This is exactly the problem. We have so little to offer any space-faring civilization that could possibly reach us that their motivations for even coming out this far should make us wary. Especially when our particular planet seems to be so rare in the universe... There may be hundreds of Earth-like planets out there that we haven't even discovered, but they are dwarfed by the number of rocky and gassy dustbowls with hostile environments unsuitable for any sort of life we can fathom. For thousands of lightyears in any direction, our planet (as far as we know) is alone in supporting life, and to anyone looking for such a habitat, our verdant paradise might be a beacon in the dark.

I doubt our species would be capable of interbreeding, and if their technological advantage was sufficient, I doubt they would even bother to eradicate us. Consider how much care and sympathy a building contractor has for the ant hills he bulldozers over, never even realising they were there. Naturally we have a little more reach and depth to us than ants, but we might well find ourselves so outclassed that we're treated little different than scavenging bears on their new frontier homestead - no more than pests to be fenced out.

good god. if that's why they come here, I'll take my own life before I let any alien try and get it's....freak on....with me.

I may have trouble sleeping tonight....

Depends on the alien :hubbahubba:

Earth currently has nothing to offer a technologically advanced civilization at the moment, so if were to happen within the next hundred years or so, it likely would be for it's natural resources.

I found http://simplebutgood.net/?p=123 a while back in the newspaper, which may suggest that earthlike planets may not be as rare as previously thought. We are just now within the last few years really starting to find more and more planets in space, most of which would likely be uninhabitable by any form of known intelligent life. Let's not forget that lower, more simple forms of life can survive in some pretty inhospitable locations (even here on Earth) which theoretically could support more complex life in the far future. Once upon a time Earth wasn't exactly a hospitable place to live.

Interbreeding I think would be an unknown. Could be possible, then again it very well may not be.

It could be possible that life we may find out there won't be hostile at all to us, it could be that they are simply explorers, much the same as human beings are natural born explorers. If we weren't explorers, then America never would've been discovered, and we'dve never put a man on the moon, and now have set our sights on traveling to Mars, and possibly beyond.

I can see how some people might be saying that it is too much, too quick, too soon. The unknown tends to scare us, and the thought of an alien race from another planet gives us images of War of the Worlds in our heads. Reality, when/if that day ever comes when we do make first contact, probably won't come to hostility unless we are still a war happy people that still can't get along amongst ourselves, let alone another intelligent species.

As long as we have Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith, We should roll over them like a breeze

This

...And Sigourney Weaver.

If said Alien race was able to create practical long distance space travel, that would put them high on the Kardashev scale. Thus, they would probably be able to make any resource they wanted and in large quantities. Again, I present that there may not be any Type III civilizations, our Universe is only 15 billion years old. Most of the early stuff stars/galaxies etc. have already been destroyed and make up everything higher than iron, element wise. That probably chops the first 5 billion years off of the "timeline". It would most likely take a technological singularity to get the ball rolling on practical galaxy hopping.

lmao

If it's female, mammal, sapient, and not too disgusting, i'd hit it I know i' picky

To get away from the gutter, i'd say it is very unlikely for the aliens to even locate us, even with us sending messages. Space is far bigger than anyone understands, and has all sorts of electromagnetic radiation zooming about where you can easily lose a civilizations worth of broadcasts.

True. People who are great at something always svck at something else. It's a fact.

That would mean that Australian animals are the deadliest in the galaxy. That's a relief.

Watch the [censored] out, Reapers, I've got a wallaby; I be packin' heat.

It also depends a lot on them having the same cultural values that we do at a fundamental level. The sci-fi novel The Sparrow explored this particular scenario, where the inability of the first-contact team to correctly understand the alien culture lead to the deaths of the entire crew and the severe, permanent maiming of the only survivor. Whenever we imagine aliens we can't help but assign certain basic human characteristics, when really they could be nothing like us at all. Do they have a concept of morality? What's their stance on killing others, especially of a different species? Would they even recognise us as being sufficiently advanced to be considered "civilisation" by their standards? That's essentially the core of Hawking's position: we know so little about any aliens we might potentially contact, that drawing attention to our planet may not be such a good idea when the outcome could be catastrophic.

Could be catastrophic yes. At this time in human development I agree with this advice, but the risk of spreading fear regarding this matter may not have the wisest decision on his part; then again, there are people that refuse to entertain the notion that there is life elsewhere in the universe, and that Earth may not be so special at all . There may come a time in the future of humanity, (considering we don't wipe ourselves out first) that contact with aliens would become inevitable. That would be a time that we would need to be prepared for; whether they be the peaceful type who are nothing more than explorers, or the violent type that would destroy us, or our world.

The big unknowns are: Who are they? What do they look like? What type of civilization are they (violent or not)? What do they want with us?

I think these are questions that not only something that won't need to be answered for quite some time, but eventually will. But at this moment humanity isn't ready to grasp the idea that we are very likely just a small fish in a vast ocean. One day we will have to let go of the notion that we are the most supreme living organism ever, and that there are beings out there that are stronger,more advanced, more intelligent than us. Until that moment comes, I think we can live in blissful ignorance of what lies out there waiting for us.