Writing Guidelines for Future Occupation of Earth by Extraterrestrials (Part #2)

 

Patterns of human collective behavior indicative of appropriate 'rules of engagement' for extraterrestrials

The following checklist is purely indicative but lends itself readily to extension and deeper articulation.

• Destabilization of ecosystems and dependent human cultures by extraterrestrials:
  • Systematic destruction of habits and species, notably leading to their extinction:
    • Theodore Roosevelt: The settler and pioneer have justice on their side [in eliminating 1,000,000 bison]; this great continent could not have been kept as nothing but a game preserve for squalid savages.
  • Promotion of deforestation, notably in favour of slash-and-burn and cash cropping
  • Destruction of traditional sustainable local economies
• Assertion by extraterrestrials of unique authority and status:
  • Promotion of extraterrestrials as uniquely and unquestionably 'chosen' as purveyors of insight
    • Cecil Rhodes: We happen to be the best people in the world
    • George Nathaniel Curzon: There has never been anything so great in the world's history as the British Empire, so great an instrument for the good of humanity.
  • Encroachment by extraterrestrials on traditional human territory (by prior right, Terra Nullius, etc)
  • Cultivation of exclusivism with regard to the extraterrestrial understanding of 'universal' values
  • Promotion of binary ('us and them') logic: humans are 'either with extraterrestrials or against them'
  • Reframing humans as of inferior status to extraterrestrials (including their extermination):
    • Reverend William Yates (of Aborigines): They were nothing better than dogs and it was no more harm to shoot them than it would be to shoot a dog when he barked at you (1835)
    • Anthony Trollope (of Aborigines): Their doom is to be exterminated, the sooner the better (1870).
    • King O'Malley (of Aborigines): There is no scientific evidence that the aboriginal is a human being at all (1902).
    • Lothrop Stoddard: in the title of his pamphlet The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man (1922). The term subhuman (as Untermensch) was later adopted by the Nazis from that book's German title. Certain forms of state violence may be presented as instances of sub-humanity. The term continues to be used, most notably by extreme-right-wing white supremacist groups. It may be applied to those who fail to attain the level (as of morality or intelligence) associated with normal human beings. Even in recent years, homosexuals have been framed in some cultures as engaging in 'subhuman acts', although they have in turn claimed that they are treated as subhuman.
  • Placement of humans under extraterrestrial tutelage:
    • League of Nations Covenant (Art. 22), placing tribal peoples, incapable of withstanding the 'strenuous conditions of the modern world' under national tutelage as a 'sacred trust to human civilization'
• Constraints on freedom of movement of humans:
  • Forced resettlement of humans in reservations (as with tribal peoples in the Americas)
  • Development of walled enclosures isolating humans from extraterrestrials
  • Construction of extraterrestrial settlements on lands previously claimed by humans
  • Restraint on the movement of humans
    • Forced settlement of nomadic peoples
• Suppression of local and minority cultures of humans in favor of that of extraterrestrials:
  • Prohibition of use of minority human languages
  • Prohibition of use of traditional human scripts
  • Prohibition of traditional human scriptures
  • Prohibition of traditional human songs and dances
  • Prohibition of traditional human dress
  • Removal of human progeny by extraterrestrials for adoption and education elsewhere ('stolen generations')
• Misappropriation of human cultural property by extraterrestrials :
  • Appropriation of traditional lands of human cultural significance
  • Appropriation of traditional human knowledge
  • Appropriation of traditional human resources
  • Appropriation of human cultural and spiritual artifacts
• Imposition of 'universal' belief and value system on humans by extraterrestrials:
  • Destruction of sacred places, including their possible replacement by constructs of extraterrestrial significance
  • Construction of edifices sacred to extraterrestrial values ('church planting')
  • Soul-saving 'for the good of the individual', as understood by extraterrestrials, and irrespective of human wishes
  • Sanctions for blasphemy against extraterrestrial shibboleths
• Cultivation of violence in all its forms among humans by extraterrestrials:
  • Violent suppression of dissent:
    • Evoking human violence to justify violent response (false flag operations, etc)
    • Encouraging violent regulation of differences by humans by failing to process concerns
    • Prioritizing violent forms of 'humanitarian' intervention (Iran, Iraq, etc)
    • Incarceration of dissidents (Guantanamo Bay, Bagram, etc)
  • Arming human civilians as a key to the preservation of extraterrestrial political values
  • Inhumane weapons pose a special challenge given their acceptability and use by the most developed countries, notably including permanent members of the UN Security Council upholding the highest human values, indicating that it would be quite appropriate for extraterrestrials to engage in:
    • Development and manufacture of such weapons
    • Promotion of trade in such weapons
    • Encouraging competitive use of such weapons (to sustain further development and trade)
• Ethnic cleansing of minority human cultures according to extraterrestrial criteria:
  • Development of eugenic techniques and practices to improve the quality of the human race -- notably with the purpose of eliminating any defined to be subhuman
  • Genocidal massacre of inappropriate humans (List of events named massacres)
  • Distribution of infected products to humans to ensure their elimination (as with smallpox-ridden blankets)
  • Promotion of rape of humans as a weapon of war and of cultural cleansing
• Deprecation, abuse, and exploitation of humans by extraterrestrial authorities:
  • Religion: abuse by extraterrestrial priesthoods in the promotion of their values
  • Science: suppression of human knowledge systems and methodologies by extraterrestrial scientists
  • Medicine: the marginalization of human remedies by extraterrestrial techniques and therapies
• Extensive use of humans for experimental research by extraterrestrials:
  • Biomedical research: Following the pattern of widespread human use of primate species for the advancement of biological and medical knowledge, notably through vivisection, it is to be expected that extraterrestrials will make extensive use of humans to test pharmaceutical products, surgical techniques, organ replacement, and the like
  • Psychological research: It is to be anticipated that extraterrestrials will consider appropriating the long-term use of human prisoners for research on behavior modification
• Exploitative working conditions imposed on humans by extraterrestrials:
  • Facilitation of the methods of 'multiplanets' (analogous to those of 'multinationals')
  • Systematic development of human 'sweat shops'
  • Promotion of human 'bonded labor' and 'child labor'
• Encouragement of unsustainable human behaviors by extraterrestrials:
  • Promotion of unsustainable economic growth
  • Promotion of unrestrained human population increase
  • The exploitation of non-renewable resources, exported for the extraterrestrial benefit
  • Keeping people alive at all costs (and irrespective of their expressed wishes) for the benefit of extraterrestrials
• Cultivation of human dependency on extraterrestrials:
  • Promotion and disseminating of relatively costly extraterrestrial foodstuffs
  • Promotion and dissemination of (highly) addictive substances
  • Promotion and dissemination of seductive belief systems
  • Promotion and dissemination of seductive entertainment
• Cultivation by extraterrestrials of disinformation and misrepresentation:
  • Systematic use of strategic deception (eg: 'weapons of mass destruction')
  • Systematic use of information and news management ('spin')
  • Systematic use of misleading advertising
  • Systematic use of mis-selling (eg subprime mortgages, financial derivatives)
  • The systematic promotion of human exemplars of extraterrestrial values (awards, rewards, etc)
  • Cultivation of double standards in the respect for values, principles and commitments
• Dependence of extraterrestrials on extralegal processes (notably in the light of their understanding of 'ticking bomb' scenarios):
  • Cultivation of bribery and corruption (notably for major contracts)
  • Use of arbitrary arrest and incarceration
  • Use of extraordinary rendition
  • Use of extrajudicial executions and targetted assassination
  • Ensuring selective immunity and impunity, including the sale of indulgences
  • Use of enhanced interrogation methods
• Invasive and systematic surveillance of humans by extraterrestrials
  • Promotion of neighborhood watch and informant schemes to detect initiatives hostile to extraterrestrials
• Consumption of terrestrial species by extraterrestrials:
  • The practice of cannibalism among humans: Previously widespread in the past among humans throughout the world, continuing into the 19th century in some isolated South Pacific cultures. Many instances of cannibalism by necessity were recorded during World War II.
  • Consumption of intelligent species by humans: Humans have exhibited little reluctance to consume animals which studies of animal cognition reveal to be relatively intelligent (most notably primates, cetaceans, and elephants). In whatever discernment they practice with regard to foodstuffs, it is, of course, possible that extraterrestrials may place greater emphasis on some of the other forms of intelligence identified by the theory of multiple intelligences, or on factors such as empathy
  • Consumption of human-related species: Of potential interest is the possibility of application of a more technical rule by an extraterrestrial in terms of the percentage of shared DNA. Suitable foodstuffs may be determined by measures of the degree to which DNA is not shared with the consumed species. Clearly, this may give rise to a problem if extraterrestrials -- however humanoid -- share very little DNA with humans.