Michio Kaku argues advanced aliens would likely ignore us rather than attack. He compares humans to deer in front of a developer, notes Earth has little they'd want, and says Shakespeare means nothing to a civilization that shares only physics with us.
So if aliens do. Alien species were to make contact, forgive me for staying on aliens for a bit longer. Do you think they're more likely to be friendly, to befriend us or to destroy us?
Well, I think for the most part they'll pretty much ignore us. Viewer, a deer in the forest. Who do you fear the most? Do you fear the hunter with his gigantic 16 gauge shotgun or do you fear the guy with a briefcase and glasses? Well, the guy with the briefcase could be a developer about to basically flatten the entire forest, destroying your livelihood. So instinctively you may be afraid of the hunter, but actually the problem with deers in the forest is, is that they should fear developers because developers look at deer as simply getting in the way. I mean, in War of the Worlds by H.G. wells, the aliens did not hate us. If you read the book, the aliens did not have evil intentions toward Homo sapiens. No, we were in the way. So I think we have to realize that alien civilizations may view us quite differently than in science fiction novels. However, I personally believe, and I cannot prove any of this, I personally believe that they're probably going to be peaceful because there's nothing that they want from our world. I mean, what are they going to take us? What are they going to take us for? Gold? No, gold is a useless metal. For the most part it's silver. I mean, it's golden colored, but that only affects Homo sapiens. Squirrels don't care about gold. And so gold is a rather useless element. Rare earths, maybe platinum based elements. Rare earths for the electronics? Yeah, maybe. But other than that, we have nothing to offer them. I mean, think about it for a moment. People love Shakespeare and they love the arts and poetry, but outside of the Earth they mean nothing, absolutely nothing. I mean, when I write down an equation in string theory, I would hope that on the other side of the galaxy there's an alien writing down that very same equation in different notation. But that alien on the other side of the galaxy, Shakespeare, poetry, Hemingway, it would mean nothing to him or her or it.
