Almost a year ago I posted about the typical alien invasion scenario one sees in sci-fi books and films, and how those scenarios were unlikely versus possible non-coercive interactions. In a Stefan Molyneux speech I was listening to the other day I was surprised to hear him mention it, though it was only as an aside. Below, he starts in on it at the 0:28:02 mark.
The thinking is sound but I actually think he is a little bit off. If the aliens do have interstellar travel their government could still have some presence on arrival because their state could just appropriate (steal) the privately-developed technology. I don’t think that a state-controlled ship would necessarily instigate war but the likelihood is far greater than if it was commerce-controlled.
It’s pretty simple. Assuming the aliens have a similar psychology and preferences as we do, violence isn’t just going happen because Civilization A meets Civilization B. Think of it this way: if you’re anything like me—and let’s hope you’re not—you simply don’t go about destroying weaker things you come across, just because you come across them, and we don’t go stealing property that isn’t ours. It just doesn’t happen, or happens very rarely, and even without the state there will be repercussions. If I come across Widget A and I believe it will sate a preference of mine, coercive methods of acquiring Widget A are going to be at the bottom of the list for many reasons.
Of course, the paradox here is powerful: fiction is inherently about the unusual, with science fiction more so, and if we are expecting a sci-fi scenario to play out in real life all we have to rely on are our expectations, which have been conditioned by sci-fi itself. If we’re relying on that we’re going to expect what’s not likely to happen at all.