This is just a short, easy-to-read paper I keep in my bookmarks and go back to occasionally. It explores, qualitatively, the various outcomes that contact with alien intelligence might have. I think it’s a really cool 25-page exploration of possibilities that are fun to think about. Some choice quotes:
ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence) might attack us not out of selfishness but instead out of a universalist desire to make the galaxy a better place.
perhaps ETI make contact with Earth to welcome us into the Galactic Club but only after we complete a set of required bureaucratic tasks
They may be interested in incorporating us into their civilization so they can sell us their products, keep us as pets, or have us mine raw materials for them.
if ETI place intrinsic value on lives, then perhaps they could bring about more lives by destroying us and using our resources more efficiently for other lives
My favourite section is the “unintentional harm” outcomes, which suggests the possibility that they just might squish us by accident.
One non-biological physical hazard that we could face from direct contact with ETI is unintentional mechanical harm. For example, ETI might accidentally crush us while attempting an unrelated maneuver.
Can’t for the life of me find where I first heard of this, but I just wanted to share it for being fun and fairly silly yet still officially worked on by NASA.
For sure a scary and possible thing. If we had that kind of benevolent contact we’d have to put faith in the aliens to understand that America is just… America, and we’re still a diverse world.
In regards to the western viewpoint, I think perhaps that’s what I appreciate most about this paper - it totally considers a large range of outcomes, and actually does the same, criticising those that do like you say and consider only a very narrow possible window of existence.
ie if your modus operandi was exploit everything to the max like a capitalist, you wouldn’t get very far in space.