How would humanity react if Mermaids were real?

[CaptainChewbacca]

So many of you have seen the 'Mermaids' documentaries on Discovery/Animal planet. Its a FICTIONAL presentation of scientists discovering evidence for actual mermaids living in the world today.

They don't look human, but appear to be tool-using marine mammals diverged from humans millions of years ago. My question is, if this were true and on June 1st 2013 there was real incontrovertible proof made public that a second sentient race of humanoids was living in our oceans, how do you think the world would react?

Would we teach them? Partner with them? Would they be a curiosity and put in preserves?

[Thanas]

Japanese would eat them.

The rest of the world would try and make contact and predictably fail.

[Ahriman238]

I foresee decades of whether they're truly sentient or people (tool-use isn't terribly specific or revealing) and what to do with the knowledge as we try and communicate. Most people's day to day living wouldn't be much affected.

Ironically, I see scientists erring on the side of caution regarding mermaid's sentience and the worth of their lives, and religious people demonizing them.

Long term, maybe a boost to "not dumping crap in the ocean" environmentalism.

[Purple]

Demonizing them? I don't know. It all depends on if they wear clothes or not. IIRC if they do than they have the idea of shame and thus have a soul and need to be Christianized. If not than they are animals. I am sure I watched some documentary or the other that talked about people in the middle ages musing like that about dog people and the like. So this should be no different.

[Simon_Jester]

Why would you expect people to react exactly the way they would a thousand years ago as if nothing has changed?

If you told a man of a thousand years ago what modern structural engineering makes possible, and asked him what he expected us to do with it, he'd say "build mile-tall cathedrals." Because that is what they did with their greatest architectural knowledge: spent decades working slowly and laboriously on giant churches that were larger than any other building in their home city, often orders of magnitude larger.

Today we don't do that. So why would you expect people to react to other, unexpected stimuli with medieval instincts. Primitive maybe, but not specifically medieval.

[Purple]

Not people, just the various churches. Or rather just the official response of the various churches. I am not talking priests or bishops here either but the actual official response. Any church out there primarily wants more followers. And when it comes to discovering a new sentient species their first priority would likely be to look for some way to identify if they are worth of being christianized or not. And to do that they have to fall back on what ever established doctrine they can find. And if the way church doctrine keeps getting updated to match modern times is any indication that might well be something quite old. Seriously, the churches can't even cave in to social pressure about minor things. It is not likely that they have even seriously considered changing their policies on animal people.

[TOSDOC]

Would we teach them? Partner with them? Would they be a curiosity and put in preserves?

Likely all three. And Japanese trying to eat them. The difficulties we encounter trying to communicate with other marine mammals may not be so apparent if these creatures are tool makers and can use their hands to sign or draw abstract symbols. Provide them with pen and slate and see what happens.

I am a bit disappointed in the Discovery Channel/Animal Planet for airing what should have been on Scyfy, for precisely the reason that I do a Google for the program and see all these people asking if the show was real or not. It reminds me of Orson Wells' War of the Worlds radio show. What would happen if they aired a mockumentary on Chtulhu?

[CaptainChewbacca]

What would happen if they aired a mockumentary on Chtulhu?

I don't know, but now I really want to find out.

[Hawkwings]

Disney is the first to capitalize on the discovery. Real mermaids are soon part of Disney parks worldwide.

[Simon_Jester]

Not people, just the various churches. Or rather just the official response of the various churches.

You didn't specify that.

Besides, is the official response of the churches even relevant, when the vast majority of humanity lives under secular governments that ignore churches when it suits them to?

[Purple]

Not people, just the various churches. Or rather just the official response of the various churches.

You didn't specify that.

Besides, is the official response of the churches even relevant, when the vast majority of humanity lives under secular governments that ignore churches when it suits them to?

Well I did not explicitly make a quote but my post was a reply for Ahriman238, in particular:

and religious people demonizing them

I got used to not quoting people when I post right under them.

As for it mattering or not that is irrelevant. After all this is a speculation thread about what if mermaids are real. So me speculating on how a subset of human kind would react to them relevant or not is still fair.

[Lord of the Abyss]

I figure that there'll be a big push to use them for undersea development, and probably military uses. Dolphins are already being used militarily, and they don't even have hands. The exact details on what would happen depend on how intelligent and communicative they turn out to be.

What would happen if they aired a mockumentary on Chtulhu?

They get an award for Best Mockumentary when everyone who watches it goes mad?

[MrDakka]

I figure that there'll be a big push to use them for undersea development, and probably military uses.

Use them as underwater boarding parties for enemy submarines?

Disney is the first to capitalize on the discovery. Real mermaids are soon part of Disney parks worldwide.

Nope. BP would hire them to man their oil derricks.

[Ahriman238]

I said demonizing, because that's honestly what I see happening. I see the religious right getting involved very early in the debate about mermaid sentience/rights, and not in favor of the fish-people.

[CaptainChewbacca]

Its hard to say something isn't sentient when it can build a spear and hunts in coordinated groups.

[Ahriman238]

Its hard to say something isn't sentient when it can build a spear and hunts in coordinated groups.

Was that part of it? Okay, that's a strong argument. But let us never deny the awesome power people have to deny the obvious when they don't like the idea.

Oh, and here's another change, Marine Biology becomes a lot more ineresting, gets more funding and bright-eyed young students/interns.

[Irbis]

Collectors would pay a lot of money for pair, no questions asked.

USA shows no inhibition of using submarine sonars near dolphins/whales, expect any mermaid group close to their shore to go deaf pretty quickly, if not die outright from pulse. These would necessarily have only a fraction of whale's ear size (and thus less shielding/durability).

Ditto for US fishermen from the south, all civilized countries and US north install escape hatches in nets, rednecks just close them shut with wire so Muslim sea terrorist varmint don't steal their catch (already happens with sea turtles and dolphins).

Some enterprising lawyer sues US companies on shore dumping waste on their behalf, Republitards pass laws stating only US citizens are able to do so and deregulate waste management further in response, mostly out of spite and/or because Joe the Rich cannot be assed to pay for new filters in his factory dump pipe.

About sums it up.

[Enigma]

Humankind's greed will completely exploit them to oblivion. Massive amounts of money will be made at the mermaids' expense. I do not see any good coming from this.

[Purple]

Humankind's greed will completely exploit them to oblivion. Massive amounts of money will be made at the mermaids' expense. I do not see any good coming from this.

Really? Why not?

[Enigma]

Humankind's greed will completely exploit them to oblivion. Massive amounts of money will be made at the mermaids' expense. I do not see any good coming from this.

Really? Why not?

Because to the world at large and especially here in the U.S., mermaids and mermen are an untapped resource. They'll be used, exploited and profited from until they are forgotten.

Sure, civil rights people and the environmentalists will use this to further their agenda (they better do). There will be token efforts by the governments to protect the merfolk but unless they're similar to human in sentience and sapience, they'll be treated nothing more than a curiosity, profited from and then shoved aside.

Worse, will be those who will wonder if they are tasty and try hunt them for food.

[Purple]

Because to the world at large and especially here in the U.S., mermaids and mermen are an untapped resource. They'll be used, exploited and profited from until they are forgotten.

Well yes. But this is something that happens even to our fellow humans all the time. And if anything human kind would stand to get a benefit out of things this time round as the victims are not us for a change. Especially if it turns out that they are less mere-people and more mere-chimps (see the rest of the post). So I am not sure I can settle for evil just yet.

Sure, civil rights people and the environmentalists will use this to further their agenda (they better do).

I am not sure if this falls under civil rights or animal rights thou. It all depends on just how sentient they are and how advanced their intelligence is. As in if they are closer to us or to chimps and other tool using monkeys. There are after all tool using intelligent acting animals today that we don't quite classify as people. Do they have a language? Culture? Or are they just aquatic tool using mammals. As in are they mere-people or mere-chimps? The OP did not give us enough data to work with to determine that.

There will be token efforts by the governments to protect the merfolk but unless they're similar to human in sentience and sapience, they'll be treated nothing more than a curiosity, profited from and then shoved aside.

Well the same is true for much, much more important issues such as human rights. In light of that I can't really settle for "bad" on this. More like "meh". But maybe I am just jaded.

Worse, will be those who will wonder if they are tasty and try hunt them for food.

That I don't think will happen. We already have serious social taboos about eating sentient looking animals like monkeys. I don't think society as a general would buy into merefolk flesh. Some random people might do it. But it isn't likely to become a standard.

[Thanas]

That I don't think will happen. We already have serious social taboos about eating sentient looking animals like monkeys. I don't think society as a general would buy into merefolk flesh. Some random people might do it. But it isn't likely to become a standard.

And there are some societies on this planet who do not give a fig leaf about those standards and who try to promote eating sentient looking animals as a standard.

[Purple]

That I don't think will happen. We already have serious social taboos about eating sentient looking animals like monkeys. I don't think society as a general would buy into merefolk flesh. Some random people might do it. But it isn't likely to become a standard.

And there are some societies on this planet who do not give a fig leaf about those standards and who try to promote eating sentient looking animals as a standard.

Indeed. But I newer said that there would be no people that do it. I am sure some societies and groups would do it. Hell to be blunt I probably would not decline it if offered some. But if present experience with monkeys and the like is any indication they should represent a rather small subset of the human population.

[SpaceMarine93]

Remember the Tasmanians? THAT is going to happen (minus the warfare, plus loads of poaching).

[Irbis]

I think Thanas meant Japanese/Scandinavian stance on whales/dolphins...