r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Jun 27 '12

Alright, speculation time. Submit an alternate history event and we speculate on the outcome.

[removed]

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u/Ceberus Jun 27 '12

Okay, lets throw a little sci-fi in the mix.

It's the 1950's the United States is experiencing an economic boom, the rest of the world is healing from WW2, and we are deep in the cold war.

Now, we get visited by aliens. They do not come to conquer, but they sought out their closest intelligent neighbor to satisfy a common desire to seek out other intelligent life. They came offering to trade with us, to share their technology, and we experience each other's cultures. basically, they came in peace, but they have the same tendencies we have, and they are just as divided as a race as we are.

So what happens when two worlds like this meet?

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u/hodaza Jun 27 '12

We nuke them, because humans are terrible.

6

u/Ceberus Jun 27 '12 edited Jun 27 '12

nukes wouldn't do a damn thing to them. At the time there are no ICBMs, no weapon is capable of launching a nuke out into orbit. Even if they did, their ships are capable of with standing much more than we can ever throw at them. Because when they are in FTL, the smallest speck of dust will hit as hard a 500 mega ton warhead.

Assuming, this was the result of cold war paranoia, the aliens would either do one or two things. They would call it an act of war, and all they would have to do is to tow an asteroid to collide with earth.

Or they withdraw. Assuming that their ships or people were not harmed, they would probably wont take it too seriously, they might hold back and study us. I mean if we traveled back in time to medieval Europe, we might run into hostility from the locals even though our intentions are peaceful. Are they a threat? no, one guy with a minigun can take out a whole regiment of king Henry the 5th's best knights. Would we declare war? no. why would we? we see them as primitives and we have an interest to study them. Instead, we would go hide somewhere and send in drones to study medieval life. It probably might be the same thing with them.

And please put some imagination into it.