this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2024
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A civilization capable of interstellar imperialism* would be focused on long-term exploitation of less primitive societies, so they would probably manage us better than the current elites do. A more educated, healthy worker is simply more productive than the alternative, especially in the long term.
Or they would manage us to their own desires. I wouldn't say imperialism of conquered peoples went well for people on Earth.
Hell, there are several noted cases of deindustrialization, like the British Raj in India, where the imperial power pushed a civilization back into resource extraction. Why would an alien civilization colonize us for anything other than natural resources?
And there are several examples where humans weren't treated well in a resource extraction economy. Sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean were where slaves went to die.
Space is full of mineral resources, going to a random planet with a relatively high gravity well just for some rocks would be counter productive. And an advanced civilization would probably use a lot of automation for resource extraction.
That part is true. But the question is what could the aliens get from us that couldn't be made for cheaper closer to their planet?
It doesn't have to be mineral wealth. It could be biological in nature, like cash crop farming.