I think tribal aboriginal people can handle making contact with ETs just fine. And there are already myths in many tribes of encountering ETs.

I think most people could handle it, actually.

The problem is the Power Obsessed wouldn't want to lose their status, so there is a chance they would spread mass hysteria about the ETs.
Think about how governments banned psychedelics.
Why should they be made illegal rather than regulated? Who benefits?

The majority will believe whatever their leaders tell them about the coming ETs, and the ETs would probably contact the leaders first before revealing themselves to the masses. This has likely already occurred and it was agreed to not happen. — Yohan

You are probably right as all tribal wisdom tends to get ignored in the name of 'progression' always. The morally wisest wisdom always seems to get shoved under whatever oppertunistic carpet.

There is a lot of factual truth to your words and which has been proven many times throughout history, our gullibility has always been used to keep us under and controllable to the likes of the power hungry. During whatever intergalactic contact politics most probably wouldnt be much different from what we allready know is occuring albeit on another scale entirely. Come to think of it, perhaps it also wouldnt be that hard for an advanced species to throw us into total chaos by eliminating the very same groups we so much depend upon.

It depends on whether the aliens have any resources that we can exploit more cheaply than from anywhere else. — absoluteaspiration

It could come down to that and it is very likely we obsess over their energy science(s).

Or would it be more likely that they come to exploit whatever they can find here? Somehow they will have achieved technology that we can only dream up to have gotten here in the first place. Many episodes of early Star Trek demonstrated in thought how vulnerable we might be with our primitive brains and machines — magritte

Considering their advanced knowledge and science there wouldnt be all that much we would have to offer them (back) in the first place. Perhaps the best we could hope for is for such visitors to be non-invasive scientific explorers who actually come in peace.

Thanks! :smile: