Alien assisted extrasolar colonization (RAR!)

[Zor]

Some time soon, the world is amazed as an alien fleet emerges from hyperspace in sol system and converges on earth. While some fears the worst, the admiral of the fleet transmits a message to mankind in various human languages. This is from the commanding officer (A odd spindly creature with six limbs, vestigial wings, four eyes (two on the top of its head, two on the underside), long quills and features that look fairly predatory) of this fleet who says that this is in peaceful expedition (explaining that their would have been no need of deception if this was a conquest fleet) and requests a set of diplomatic envoys from the following states...

The People's Republic of China
The United States
The European Union
The Russian Federation
The Republic of India
The Federative Republic of Brazil
Japan
The British Commonwealth

As well as representatives from the scientific and academic community. This is done and they present them with the following offer. This fleet represents a considerable interstellar policy known as (translated) Council Infrastructural Authority that is one of the two larger political factions that they know of (and they have explored about a quarter of the Orion Arm). They have recently been in conflict with the other state (known as the the Unified Hierarchy), which has been resolved in a treaty. Amongst the various clauses is an article in a area with ten earth like worlds, thirty seven marginal words (having a breathable atmosphere and can support life, but are either mostly desert, the majority of the surface rarely goes above 0 degrees or below 40, has really severe winds and so forth), six ocean worlds (earth like and life supporting, but entirely covered in water) and several hundred worlds which could be terraformed can not be colonized by either side or it's allies. The current government of the Hierarchy has scaled back their military, it is in its best interests to uphold the treaty and this will remain the case for a few decades at least.

For this reason, they have come to humankind. Earth does not figure into this treaty and it would be possible for humanity to colonize these worlds. They can arrange for a set of freelance transports to move people and equipment to this region and deposit them on this worlds, the settlers would then be set down. Manufacture of supplies and equipment for these colonists is our responsibility, save for the matter of a hyperwave transmitter system which will allow us to remain in contact with them. Each of these fleets will be able to carry some 50,000 people and about half a million tonnes of cargo and sixteen of these will arrive within twenty six months, with two more every year for the next thirteen years should we agree. The trip is about six months and the destination will be determined by. As a token of their good will, they give each team the blueprints for an practical automotive hydrogen fuel cell. Eventually (as in within twenty years at least), if the settlements are successful, arrangements can be made for transportation between earth and these colonies and the transfer of spacecraft to human control. Their intentions here are honorable and their is no deception involved. None of these planets have any sapient life on them.

The questions are as follows...
1-How will the nations of the world react to this
2-How should we prepare colonists that are going to be sent out and how should development proceed once they get there, given that transit is covered
3-How would it likely unfold

Zor

[Ahriman238]

okay.

1.) The World's governments react with fear, suspicion, paranoia, and maybe, a cautious and guarded optimism. We've all read too many stories, or seen too many movies/tv shows with benevolent aliens who are secretly trying to screw us over, even if we weren't already inclined to be suspicious.

Expect many pointed questions, them ost obvious being, what happens in several decades when the Treaty is no longer necessairly in their best interests? In the meantime, what are they getting out of this? Then will come the debate about who we send, if we send anyone, what tools will they need, why are the world's major governments sinking so much time and money into hokey space-colonization schemes when there are people starving right here on good 'ol Earth?

2.) Colonists should have decent survival skills, the technical skills to use whatever advanced equipment we send along, and enough knowledge of history to be able to recreate much should they get sent to one planet and their gear to another or similar mishaps. Every colonist to an ocean world should have a nice pair of galoshes and a rubber ducky.

3.) If you're the benevolent aliens? Hilariously. For us, it will be a very long, very politicized debate, followed by the rush to own more real estate than rival nations, maybe a handful of wars before the whole thing is over.

[Eternal_Freedom]

1. China will probably jump on the idea, it's an easy out for their population problems AND they have the economic clout to manufacture supplies for the colonies. India will probably act similarly, they need more space and/or less people, this scenario does both.

Other nations will move in cautiously, until they see China and India jumping in with both feet. The USA will throw itself at the problem to try and keep their (perceived) preeminent position. Think the Space Race but bigger scale.

2. Colonists should have survival skills, and at least initially should be screened for nasty recessive genetic conditions. Stuff that on Earth wouldn't matter, but could be a serious problem on a colony. Like, genes that leave you vulnerable to obesity, or disabilities. Disabled people have a lot to offer the world, but they are of little use in a frontier-colony situation.

Initial set-ups would probably be nothing more than land the ship and begin building a town, using supplies they brought with them before worrying about farming/hunting.

Ideally, we'd send as many ships as possible to the ten Earth-like worlds, as they have the best possible chance of success. With the fact that we have FTL comms, you would probably have a Mayor and other officials appointed by whichever government sent that colony, answerable to the government back on Earth.

3. How it works out? Impossible to say. If this treaty ever gets revoked, the colonies end up in the firing line of a galactic war. Not fun. Also, the other two large states may begin colonisation efforts of their own.

Amongst the nations of Earth, their will be much distrust, and after a few years probably the odd war. I woudl expect Earth scientists to be desperately trying to figure out the FTL tech and the engineers will be salivating to learn how to build large space vessels. Hopefully, before the time period is up, we'll have some of our own ships to augment the ones we are given.

Long-term, humanity doesn't just get it's foot in the door to the stars, it gets picked up and bodily thrown through. Nothing will ever be the same again.

[SpaceMarine93]

I will just answer question 3.

If we know anything about human nature, where a more advance society would inevitably crush down a less advance one under its boots, we should know that such a treaty would not exist in the first place.

The first thing they would do when they come out would be to completely wipe us out because we might try to colonize those worlds in the future, or even because of the slim possibility we might become an extra overburdening threat next to their other enemy.

After all, what is life and evolution we know of, other than that of more vicious and adaptable species triumphant over that of less vicious, less adaptable ones? Our ancestors survived and prospered not because they were cute fuzzy apes, but because they became a vicious, adaptable super-predator that is good at killing, so much that they wiped several species out, many of them humanoids with shared ancestry, with nothing but STICKS AND STONES, and we are still killing each other to this day, with NUKES at our disposal.

Less likely is that they have a more sinister motive, namely to give us technology (with weaknesses only they can find and exploit), uplift us, send us to those worlds to colonize so they can conquer our empire later so to save the trouble of colonizing those worlds themselves and build/manage infrastructure from ground up.

If something like this occurs, and you want to know how it unfolds in the end, we are f**ked, pure and simple.

[Zor]

In the meantime, what are they getting out of this?

By allowing us to colonize these worlds, they eventually hope that interstellar trade with them will benefit their economy. It will also create an faction on the interstellar scene which is more likely to side with them then the hierarchy.

Zor

[The Romulan Republic]

I will just answer question 3.

If we know anything about human nature, where a more advance society would inevitably crush down a less advance one under its boots, we should know that such a treaty would not exist in the first place.

Ah, but we're not dealing with "human nature" (which is not, I think, as homogenous and unchanging as you seem to believe in any case). We're dealing explicitly with non-humans.

The first thing they would do when they come out would be to completely wipe us out because we might try to colonize those worlds in the future, or even because of the slim possibility we might become an extra overburdening threat next to their other enemy.

Oh God, another jackass who asserts with absolute certainty that alien civilizations will automatically resort to preemptive extermination on first contact?

After all, what is life and evolution we know of, other than that of more vicious and adaptable species triumphant over that of less vicious, less adaptable ones? Our ancestors survived and prospered not because they were cute fuzzy apes, but because they became a vicious, adaptable super-predator that is good at killing, so much that they wiped several species out, many of them humanoids with shared ancestry, with nothing but STICKS AND STONES, and we are still killing each other to this day, with NUKES at our disposal.

Right, and we'll just ignore that we've refrained from using those nukes for nearly 70 years. We'll also ignore all the progress humanity has made. We'll ignore all the times we've risen above "survival of the fittest".

Less likely is that they have a more sinister motive, namely to give us technology (with weaknesses only they can find and exploit), uplift us, send us to those worlds to colonize so they can conquer our empire later so to save the trouble of colonizing those worlds themselves and build/manage infrastructure from ground up.

If something like this occurs, and you want to know how it unfolds in the end, we are f**ked, pure and simple.

Possibly. But if they're going to attack us eventually, we're better off taking those colonies now and trying to build up our strength as opposed to telling them to piss off, right?

[Simon_Jester]

I will just answer question 3.

If we know anything about human nature, where a more advance society would inevitably crush down a less advance one under its boots, we should know that such a treaty would not exist in the first place.

[Raises eyebrow]

Really? Or is this just more of your usual hyperparanoid huff-puff OH GOD EVERYTHING WILL KILL US bullshit?

Do you just not grasp the idea of intelligent lifeforms not reflexively destroying everything they come across? Do you have this problem in normal life, this sudden urge to kill potential competitors? Does anyone you know have it?

Zor's scenario, say what you will about it, is predicated on the assumption that the aliens have no rational interest in the area in question, and that the resources they commit are insignificant compared to their own resources. There is a ready-made reason for them not to be planning some long-range trick: they don't want to end up in a huge war with their neighbors. If that isn't enough, keep in mind that there are plenty of other places for them to go- 'losing' these worlds won't inconvenience them at all seriously.

After all, what is life and evolution we know of, other than that of more vicious and adaptable species triumphant over that of less vicious, less adaptable ones? Our ancestors survived and prospered not because they were cute fuzzy apes, but because they became a vicious, adaptable super-predator that is good at killing, so much that they wiped several species out, many of them humanoids with shared ancestry, with nothing but STICKS AND STONES, and we are still killing each other to this day, with NUKES at our disposal.

Right, and we'll just ignore that we've refrained from using those nukes for nearly 70 years. We'll also ignore all the progress humanity has made. We'll ignore all the times we've risen above "survival of the fittest".

Heh. It's not even that. People who think the way SM wants to believe people think are unfit, because they destroy each other like rabid beasts at the drop of a hat and have no ability to cooperate to perform difficult tasks. If humanity were like this, we wouldn't even still be living in caves, we'd be dead.

I won't say that highly advanced species will be 'too enlightened' to fight wars, even very destructive wars. Or 'too enlightened' to refrain from hurting weak neighbors casually.* But to presume that all life in the universe is so timid, so vile, and so utterly unable to imagine anyone else deciding to destroy them in light of their known tendency to destroy others... it's just raving, gibbering bullshit.

*Possibly as a side effect of some other activity- consider the infamous hyperspace bypass of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, stop laughing for a moment, and that's exactly what's happening to Earth at the beginning of the book.

[MrDakka]

Aren't most people who have survival skills usually military trained? I get the feeling that the nations listed will more than likely send in military units, maybe combat engineers with a couple technical experts.

Personally I'd think about sending some farmers for some long term sustainability.

[speaker-to-trolls]

Spacemarine93: Your argument is a grossly oversimplified misrepresentation of evolution, 'survival of the fittest' does not require one, or a group, or a species, to destroy all of its competitors, doing so frequently opens it up to more risks than would do it any good. You cite our late fellow hominids as examples of the unpleasantness of evolution in action, but you have to remember that A) This happened in a time long ago, before there was any kind of coordination across the areas they fought over, or anything like the national space politics at play in this scenario which would be likely to complicate such things beyond mere 'survival of the fittest', and B) What happened was not some kind of genocidal campaign against our slopey-foreheaded brethren, but a long, long period of competition for hunting grounds between tribes in which the other hominids slowly lost out and eventually died due to being unable to cope with harsh conditions as well as our ancestors. Also C) Their contact was far from entirely antagonistic, and there is a little bit of neanderthal man in you right now because there was a little bit of your ancestors in neanderthal women, if you know what I mean.

Also, if you will look at the history of nations on Earth, you will notice that the consistent trend is for bigger nations, that is, those made up of larger numbers of different groups of people, to beat smaller nations, that is, ones made up of smaller numbers of groups. Now, you might point out that many of these groups were empires, where a single state controlled the actions of a large number of subordinate states, so that's not a model that supports these aliens being nice to us.
Well, I don't think anyone is arguing the aliens are being nice for the sake of being nice, and I think that since they know where our home planet is, have the capacity to destroy it, and have a total monopoly on our access to alien space gizmos, I think they can be said to have a few decent means of controlling us.

So, I predict we'll be vassalised, but not exterminated. Still not an ideal situation, and frankly I think Earth might well end up wanting to ask the CIA (HA!) to station some of its spaceships around us, since as the head of a buffer state we are now a target for the Heierarchy and its allies if they decide to act up again. On that score, I am certain the Heierarchy would at the least be trying to send its own vassals into the neutral zone once they heard about this, which would result in even more conflict.

PS: Every time you oversimplify the theory of evolution to 'the successful species are the ones that destroy their competitors' Charles Darwin's ghost pulls a single hair out of his beard in frustration. You should see him, he barely has any facial hair left now.

[Ryag Han]

1-How will the nations of the world react to this

combination of fear, curiosity, racism, and probably every other positive and negative feeling in our arsenal. this is first contact with an alien race. the governments would be considering it, as off world colonies means possible trade in the future. but in the short run, they might think of it as crap. we have enough trouble here. of course, having millions of people shipped off world has its benefits for different types of people. say you take poor etiopians to a more fertile planet as an example. they start an agricultural colony and end their hunger. it would certainly be considered.
NOTE: by "Ethiopians" i mean people who don't have anything to loose by going there but everything to gain: a chance to a new and better life.

2-How should we prepare colonists that are going to be sent out and how should development proceed once they get there, given that transit is covered

take the Ethiopians example. giving enough training they might become quite the pilgrims of space colonization. the resources involved would be significant, but justifiable in the long run.
i doubt they would want to go to the nasty, nasty planets. one they are competent enough in every skill (some in one skill, some in other) they begin shipping there. for start, they chose the best place on the planet. on a desert it would be just between a tropic and the polar region, or the temperate zone, for less heat. an earth like world is similar. land ships, and begin deploying the supplies, and start the colony.

3-How would it likely unfold

hope they succeed. i don't know further.

[Chirios]

Hmm.

There'd be long debates followed by cautious movement forward, however given what we know about the political situation we'd be fools to trust them completely.

[sirocco]

Concerning the reaction of the different nations, I think that the most important question is whether they will act all as one (very unlikely) or each on its own (by each I mean the bigger and most influential nations). I think that you'll have at least 3 main factions:
- the US,
- the European Union + British Commonwealth,
- China,

The other ones will ally with any of those 3 big ones,
- BRI (Brazil+Russia+India),
- Japan

And you have pretty much everyone else. Arabic countries will surely fund some of the projects, Iran and Turkey will object that they are great nations too. In fact all the other countries would be affected indirectly by the outcome of this debate.