Made into a personal article at http://resan.link/discoverer-always-becomes-the-destroyer-animals-humans-and-aliens/
Discoverer always becomes the destroyer
It can be said that a foreign species introduced into a new environment always cause catastrophy for the native species. This applies, not only to animals, but also to how we look at humans and the potential of alien contact in the future.
Animals as invasive species
An invasive species is generally defined as a species that is introduced to a new environment, who thrive at the cost of harming the native species or environment (Colautti & MacIsaac, 2004).
- They bring with them uncontestable advantages and/or destructive caharacteristics to which the natives have never seen before. The natives therefore have no time to adapt and starts dying out.
- This upper-hand can be that the invasive species has no natural predators in its new environment or has very fast reproductive cycles, therefore its population exploads out of control; taking up resources of the natives. For one example, it is where the saying “Breeding like rabbits comes from” (Earth Rangers, 2014).
- They can also bring with them destructive diseases such in the case of the Crayfish Crisis from 2017 (South West Peak, 2017).
- Most times these conjectured assumptions of ‘invasive species’ looks at them as evil and takes a preplanned approach to its destruction. However, invasive species still only have the nature of doing its best to survive. And being invasive is a great way to ‘survive’ if not thrive. Furthermore, in the purpose of furthering its survival, the newly introduced species does not have an agenda of the destruction of other species or its environment. But they only the side effect of its own struggle to survive.
Humans as an invasive species
In a similar light, humans can be viewed as an invasive species of itself. For one, in history, humanity has not only been destructive to all other species in the world, but they are also destructive to themselves. Foreigners can bring new uncontested destructive capability against natives of lands. Such in the case of European’s discovery of North America, and the proceeding genocide of the indegenous through the introduction of guns, germs, and steel (Silverman, 2016). This was not a one off case either (Genocide of indigenous peoples, 2013). For many of our destructions though, were not of evil malice, evil intents, or thrill of destroying others species. However, the suffering of all others, is merely the side effects of humanity thriving.
- As mentioned, Europeans brought with them the destructive smallpox, measles, typhus, and cholera unpurposely (Silverman, 2016).
- Humans industrialized to be more productive, build luxury, and improve living standards. However, as a side effect, many of the world species suffered due to the polluted air, water, and ground without the direct intents of human.
- We, up until recently, did not care either, what destruction we cause to reach our goals. As a frequent analogy, humans would, without question, wipe out a colony of millions of ants to construct a house. This act is not one for the sake of the suffering of ants, but in the perspective that ants are a simple inconvenience to deal with towards an unrelated larger goal of constructing the house.
Aliens as an invasive species
Recently, with the reveals of never before seen clarity of the image of the universe from the James Webs Telescope, I thought of idea sprouts for this article after watching this video. With us looking deeper than ever into space in such a short period of development, there is bound to be an alien species looking back; if they have not discovered us millenias ago. It is once again important in the matter of who discovers who first. As the discoverer and visitor are more than likely possess the capability of faster than light travel, they would also most likely possess scarier capabilities than transport. Wether it be humans who discovers and travel to an alien species first or vice-versa, the discoverer is bound to possess the capability to destroy the discovered. However, we can also ask “For what reason would an alien species wish our destruction if they found us?“. It is once again the role of the invasive species, in this case the aliens, that can be unintentional in their harm to us. Aliens may have larger objectives, through which the destruction of humanity is just a small step. An alien species might not think twice about wiping out humans if it serves their goal; similar to how we conceptualized destroying millions of ants to build a house. Therefore, in the risk that our discoverers may cause us harm; intentionally or not, should we risk it? In the dark and silent forest, should you be the one to shout “I’m here!”, while everything else kept silent?
References
Colautti, R.I. and MacIsaac, H.J. (2004), A neutral terminology to define ‘invasive’ species. Diversity and Distributions, 10: 135-141. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1366-9516.2004.00061.x
Earth Rangers (2014), Ten of the World’s Most Invasive Species. Retrieved July 16, 2022, from https://www.earthrangers.com/top-10/ten-of-the-worlds-most-invasive-species/
South West Peak (2017) Crayfish in Crisis. Landscape at a Crossroads. Retrieved July 16, 2022, from https://www.southwestpeak.co.uk/projects/natural-heritage/crayfish-in-crisis
Silverman, D. J. (2016). How did the introduction of guns change Native America? | Aeon Essays. Aeon. Retrieved July 16, 2022, from https://aeon.co/essays/how-did-the-introduction-of-guns-change-native-america
Wikpedia (2013). Genocide of indigenous peoples. Retrived July 16, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide_of_indigenous_peoples