Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Robert Wright, who knows just enough philosophy to be dangerous, fails to distinguish two questions: (1) How will aliens treat us (or, conversely, how will we treat aliens)? (2) How should aliens treat us (or, conversely, how should we treat aliens)? The first is a factual question; the second is an evaluative or normative question. Aliens might treat us well even though they needn't, and they might treat us poorly even though they shouldn't. We might treat aliens well even though we needn't, and we might treat them poorly even though we shouldn't. How things are and how they ought to be are entirely separate questions, which is why scientists have nothing to say about how we ought to live.