If aliens landed on earth, how likely would it be that they take over the planet after finding out that their technology is far more advanced than ours?
(I found this here on Quora and thought it might inspire some of you to write!)
What exactly would our planet offer a species capable of interstellar travel? There are two schools of thought:
The Kardeshev scale measures civilizations by how much energy they can harness:
A Class I civilization harnesses all of the energy of their home planet
A Class II civilization harnesses all of the energy of their local star
A Class III civilization harnesses all of the energy of their local galaxy
Also…is it me or should there be a few steps between II and III?
The energy requirements of interstellar travel would probably require something close to a Class II civilization. So what would our planet offer a species capable of harnessing the energy of entire stars? Seems much more likely that they would come after our sun, and not even notice the little motes on planet 3 that depend on it.
The Barrow scale measures civilizations on their ability to manipulate small entities:
B1 manipulates visible objects
B6 = sub-atomic particles
B7 manipulates the space-time structure of the universe
The Barrow scale implies that more advanced civilizations would explore inward rather than outward. They would likely end up as digitized entities, and they would likely spend most of their time as close to a black hole as possible. Black holes offer the best possible computing environment, the most energy density, and can likely be harnessed to produce more energy than stars.
So what exactly would our planet, or even our sun, offer to a species that thrives near black holes?
Personally, I’m a much bigger believer in the Barrow scale than the Kardeshev scale. Kardeshev is based on the mindset of the industrial age, where moar energy and moar territory = moar awesome. The Barrow scale is based on the digital age and seems to capture our current trajectory more accurately.
Advanced races seem more likely to be digital intelligences in a dyson sphere or at the edge of a singularity rather than remaining squishy bags of meat cruising the galaxy in giant hunks of metal looking for planets to conquer.
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