Originally Posted by Papa_Complex (Post 366226)

I don't think that they'd be peaceful necessarily, so much as just disinterested. Why would they even bother with us, in any way, when a true spacefaring race would be able to get everything that they needed from gas giants and the Oort Cloud? Why even waste the resources to drop into a gravity well at all, if you don't need to?

Originally Posted by defector (Post 366289)

The same reason humans climb Everest?

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex (Post 366296)

Jupiter is Everest. Earth is the local kiddie ski hill.

Originally Posted by Homeslice (Post 366298)

I don't think many gas giants contain water, nor do they have any metals until you go thousands of miles down into them.

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex (Post 366301)

Asteroids for metals. Gas giants for methane, which is CH4, or mine the Ooort Cloud for methane ice. Solar, fission, and fusion for power. You never really need to make planet-fall.

Originally Posted by Trip (Post 366302)

Food and water?

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex (Post 366303)

Synthesized. Hell, we can do it now with our current technology.

Originally Posted by Trip (Post 366304)

You know it's not as good as wild food. I don't fish small wild trout vs large stock trout for no reason at all.

Originally Posted by Papa_Complex (Post 366305)

What are kids eating today and what sort of relation does it have to real food? That happened over a couple of generations. What would people be able to stomach after 10 generations in space?