Cixin Liu's postscript

[Steph]

I am wondering what readers thought of the author postscript. I thought that Liu's (Cixin's?) point about the misplaced sentimentalism turned outward toward extraterrestrial intelligence whilst we continue, in a way, to colonise and ravage countries we intrude upon here on Earth to be a very interesting one.

Also, I haven't read much speculation about what extraterrestrials would be like so I am looking to find some opinions about whether or not they would be malevolent or benevolent, if it even makes sense to talk about such things.

[Richard]

Consider this. Is humanity good or evil? I would think the answer could be applied to extraterrestrials as well. When Europeans arrived in the new world, they initially lived alongside indigenous people only to eventually dominate and minimize their culture. Were all the new world seekers good or were they evil? I don't think it can be reduced to that. Interaction will be more complex. It will depend on what motivates the extraterrestrial entities to interact with us.

[Outis]

Steph wrote: "I am looking to find some opinions about whether or not they would be malevolent or benevolent, if it even makes sense to talk about such things."
Much of SF has dealt with that issue. I think you'd need to be more specific for it to make sense because it's not clear on what basis we would judge extraterrestrials to be malevolent.
The Fermi paradox can be used to argue that if there are long-lasting spacefaring civilizations in our galaxy, they probably have different values than ours (else humans would likely have discovered some evidence of their existence by now).