Breakfast

Science fiction stories, whether portrayed in movies or books, often feature the idea of what humankind would do if it encountered another intelligent species in the universe. Would our collective consciousness be able to handle the social consequences of realizing that we are not alone? Would the other species be friendly or hostile? Would the other species see us as friendly or hostile (or even intelligent)? Would we be able to establish communication with beings from other star systems, or would we simply have to content ourselves with the knowledge that someone else is out there?

These are interesting questions, and they often make for good stories. But sometimes I wonder what humankind would do if, after developing interstellar travel, we encountered another planet with other carbon-based life forms and discovered that none of them met our criteria for being an intelligent species. If we found a planet like Earth, with its own versions of the African savannas, the South American rain forests, the Middle Eastern deserts, and the North American plains, and if we discovered that those environments each had their own proliferation of plants and animals that vaguely resembled organisms on Earth (as statistically improbable as this scenario might be), how would we react?

I think, if we found unintelligent life on another planet, we would try to eat it.

It makes sense. A team of astronauts—with or without civilians—would have been traveling through the void of space for a long time, subsisting on freeze-dried food, concentrated drinks, and possibly some scrawny vegetables grown in cramped hydroponics gardens. They would likely not be carrying more food than they would need for the journey, leaving more room for the necessary fuel and air. Not only would these people be craving some variety in their diets, they would be a little on the hungry side, and I’m sure the newly-discovered flora and fauna would have some culinary appeal.

I’m not saying we’d promptly wipe out entire species and gorge ourselves in their remains. I’m just saying that scientific conquest would not put up much of a fight when challenged by a hungry extraterrestrial colonist who has come face-to-face with a potential meal. I think we’d do a superficial examination of the plants or animals we first met, determine that they were neither intelligent nor dangerous, and cook them up.

My idea isn’t all that far-fetched. Look at some science fiction stories in which advanced alien races visit Earth. In these fictional representations, isn’t that exactly what some of them try to do us?