• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    15 days ago

    Or they would manage us to their own desires. I wouldn’t say imperialism of conquered peoples went well for people on Earth.

    Hell, there are several noted cases of deindustrialization, like the British Raj in India, where the imperial power pushed a civilization back into resource extraction. Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?

    And there are several examples where humans weren’t treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.

    • Justas🇱🇹@sh.itjust.works
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      14 days ago

      Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?

      Space is full of mineral resources, going to a random planet with a relatively high gravity well just for some rocks would be counter productive. And an advanced civilization would probably use a lot of automation for resource extraction.

      And there are several examples where humans weren’t treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.

      That part is true. But the question is what could the aliens get from us that couldn’t be made for cheaper closer to their planet?

    • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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      15 days ago

      Eh, natural resources are far easier to extract from asteroids and moons than to haul out the gravity well of the biggest rocky planet in the area. And they wouldn’t have to mess with the nasty apes for any of them.

      • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        14 days ago

        The only interesting thing on earth is life itself, as well as intelligent life and its culture. Literally everything else can be found everywhere else

          • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            14 days ago

            Why would they farm on alien soil? That sounds like a terrible idea. Just make space bases dedicated for farming

            No, they’d just use earth for scientific reasons, exploring and cataloguing our life. And perhaps maybe for artistic/cultural reasons, enrichment basically

        • Olhonestjim@lemmy.world
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          14 days ago

          Regardless, there are far more resources much easier to obtain in deep space than we have down here. That doesn’t change even if gravity is less of an obstacle to them.