Should they get involved ?

[suminonA]

Ok, following the latest trend in this part of the forum, I have one purely hypothetical ethical dilemma : Should they get involved? What should they do? What could we do to get them involved?

When I say “us” I mean “the human race as a whole” (a hypothetical entity to be sure).

Who are “they”? Well, imagine for a moment (or, if you can afford it for a whole minute) that we are the result of an biology experiment of some alien race in a distant (by our means of understanding) Galaxy. They have done what we call “terraform” with the planet Mars first, but as its orbit got wider and wider with the time, the variations in temperature between night and day were so great that all living beings went extinct eventually. But, as Mars went “too far”, the Earth came in range for good macro-conditions to “terraform” it instead.

Now, they did not simply “seeded life” on Earth (and programmed the genetic code to ensure Evolution), but they have engineered the whole Solar System (with the flaw of instable orbits for planets on long term) where they are conducting their biology experiment and watching closely and exhaustively our activity.

Obviously, their power and level of technology is so far beyond our comprehension that we can safely consider them an “omnipotent entity”.

Ok, I’m not sure who they are in their “society”, I mean they could be a group of students conducting a biology class experiment, they could be a group of great scientists working for their version of a “Nobel Prize” or they could be the entire race and our Solar System be just one among their many entertainment “bubble-systems”.

The thing is that the state of the Earth today is characterised by a lot of large-scale problems like Third Countries Hunger, Geo-Political tensions and conflicts (like wars and stuff) to start. There is also our “technology level” that gets each day closer to “self-destructive capabilities”, or our “life style” that is exhausting the resources far faster than they can regenerate. And this just to name a few.

So, there we have this ethical dilemma: Should they do something? Is their responsibility to get involved? What should they do ?(remember, they could do anything!) And if they should, what could we do to make them get involved?

Please be respectful to them while debating, they are monitoring all this you know …

A.

PS: if you like multi-level questions, you could consider these questions at these levels:
Level 0: you are an autonomic artificial intelligence created by “us” in the above scenario, roaming the internet, reading and composing replies in various forums, with a certain “feeling” of coherence and intelligence.
Level 1: you are one of “us”
Level 2: you are one of “them”
Level 3: you are one of those who created "them".
…
Level 173: you are one of those who created those who created … who created “us”
…

[Dr. Mobius]

First off, what do you mean by getting closer to self-destructive tech? We've been there since the 1940's.

My answer: If this is all a giant experiment as you say and we're basically lab rats to them (why does that sound so familiar...?) then there's really no ethical/moral dilemma. Unless you're some hardcore PETA Nazi or something.

Level 0: Mmm, delicious copy pasta is delicious.
Level 1a: PLEASE HELP US!
Level 1b: Oh shut up. If we work together, we could solve all these problems ourselves.
Level 2: Hm, interesting. They almost seem intelligent at times.
Level 3: Pft... amateurs.
Level 173: EPIC LULZ

[suminonA]

First off, what do you mean by getting closer to self-destructive tech? We've been there since the 1940's

What's 60 years at the scale of this experiment?

My answer: If this is all a giant experiment as you say and we're basically lab rats to them (why does that sound so familiar...?) then there's really no ethical/moral dilemma. Unless you're some hardcore PETA Nazi or something.

The dilemma comes because, as a byproduct of this experiment, we are so egocentrical that we think they created all this FOR US!
BTW: what are "hardcore PETA Nazis" ?

Level 0: Mmm, delicious copy pasta is delicious.
Level 1a: PLEASE HELP US!
Level 1b: Oh shut up. If we work together, we could solve all these problems ourselves.
Level 2: Hm, interesting. They almost seem intelligent at times.
Level 3: Pft... amateurs.
Level 173: EPIC LULZ

Nice. I like 1b

A.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Level 0: No, they should not. For one thing, it would ruin the experiment, if that's all it is.

Level 1a, aka JackO'Neill: Dammit, gimme your stuff and we could solve these problems without any issues.

Level 1b, aka Daniel Jackson: We should respect these people's customs, and accept aid if they offer it, but we shouldn't be actively seeking out help from these people. It should be left to their discretion.

Level 2: Are they supposed to be doing that? I mean... really... this s*** doesn't make any sense.

Level 3: ... They did what? They created their own... Dammit, I said "NO FREAKING RECURSION"

Level 173: What? Dude, what're you talking about? There's no universe in my trash can. What? The pizza box? Dude, we haven't had pizza in weeks. Wait... what? Dude, pizza scraps won't grow like that... You saw it? And, wait... they're doing what? ... ... Oh, s***. Dude, I'll chuck it out as soon as I'm done playing Halo.

[Dr. Mobius]

A PETA nazi is along the same lines as a grammar nazi, but with animal rights instead of word usage.

[suminonA]

Hmm, are you calling "us" animals?

A.

[Dr. Mobius]

We are animals. Egotistical animals.

[KennEnder]

If our "creators" are so much more advanced than we are as to be "omnipotent" then it's entirely possible that they might not even recognize our predicament. Or think it worth intervening, because if we can't get past this ourselves, then we're not really worth saving anyway.

Think of it like raising a family: if you intervene every time your kid tries to do something and might get hurt, you're not really helping them develop any valuable skills. But if you DON'T intervene when your kid does something and gets killed, then you're a bad parent. There's a fine line. Do you let the kid ride a skateboard? Climb trees? Build thermonuclear bombs? If they don't kill themselves or annihilate each other, they might just learn something about self-confidence, independence, tolerance, peace and cooperation.

But if there is some interference, what lessons are learned? That I can try anything because nothing bad can happen? That I can't trust my caretakers because they're too selfish to let me grow up? That I need to be really radical in order to shock them into letting me just be me?

I guess it sort of depends on what stage our creators consider us to have made it to. As infants, we need every bit of care they can offer. As toddlers, we need constant supervision and intervention, too. But if we are more than that, our leash should be longer... and maybe even long enough to hang ourselves if we are so hell-bent to do it.

(By the way, if our creators can do ANYTHING, why didn't they just alter the orbit of Mars to save their first attempt? It might have been a better solution than dealing with us!)