A Thought Experiment for our World

If we can imagine ourselves in this world that we live in as being advanced to a point of having the ability to travel through space and visit other planets, and solar systems this is what I believe will be the next question for Humanity. Can we find a planet that is inhabited with intelligent beings, perhaps similar to Humans, that does not fall into 1 of 2 categories?

The first category is one where there is a significant portion of the population that is exploited or enslaved for the benefit of another portion of the population.

The second category is a utopian society. One in which everyone is happy and shares equally in all the prosperity.

I don't believe that we can or would find another planet's population that would be categorized as being in between those two categories.

Now, if what I am suggesting would be true, how would we then view our society on Earth. We would have to include our planet in all of the other planets that we have already studied and would have to conclude that ours falls into category number 1. How would that affect our philosophy towards our civilization? Would we attempt to change things here?

I see 2 problems with that. Number 1, there would be a portion of our population that would be strongly opposed to making any changes. People that the general population would label as "elites" won't want any sweeping changes. Things are working very well for them. Their thoughts would be "it ain't broke, so don't fix it". The other problem would be - and this is a bit more complicated - is that because we are observing, and studying another planet that would be perhaps categorized as utopian, it would be by default less evolved than ourselves. Not because it is utopian, but rather because we are there studying them in a stealth mode. One in which they wouldn't know that we are there observing and studying them. So, for that reason, many people would be opposed to taking any of their ideas and trying to implement them into our society. We are more advanced than them so why would we want to think that any of their ideas would work for us.

Now if you're asking yourself why would every planet we observe and study be less advanced than us. Well, firstly, if and when we did discover a planet that is more advanced than us it is highly doubtful that we would have the ability to observe them without them knowing that we were there. And observing, studying, and recording our findings would have to be done in secret. We would have to undertake that project without that particular civilization knowing that we were there. If they did know that we were there watching them it would not only interfere with their development, but it would most assuredly give us false information. Those observations would have to be done in secret.

In dealing with the exploration of new planets, ones that are more advanced than we would probably not be comfortable with us doing observations that I am suggesting. It is also more likely that the more time we attempt such maneuvers with civilizations more advanced than us that in time, or rather quickly, they would find a way to exploit us. We probably could get away with stopping in, saying hi, and introducing ourselves, but we in many cases probably wouldn't want to hang around there for an extended period.

If you're thinking that is a pessimistic viewpoint let me remind you of this; good and evil permeates throughout the galaxy and probably the universe. For every civilization we find that is more advanced than us that is welcoming, and friendly, there will be one that will probably seek to destroy us. How do we make that determination before committing ourselves to an introduction?

The point of this thought experiment is not to contemplate the dangers, and perils of space exploration, or the exciting discoveries, but rather how would we view ourselves after observing multiple other worlds? Would we attempt to want to improve our civilization, or work on developing the means for domination of our galaxy? I don't think we could do both.