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In a Lil sci-fi universe I'm currently writing

Humanity has reached the stars, quickly establishing an impromptu interstellar colonial empire made up of hundreds of star systems, puttering along the Milky Way on their ships on the backs of nuclear fission and fusion and traveling faster than light via warp drives that convert matter into energy and information and slip it through the space between universes to where they need to be, with a book 4-9 Expanse-style civilization and ship aesthetic, a vast internal interstellar economy regulated by a republic based on Earth, for Earth. basically, Humans are transiting from a type 0 to a type 1 civilization.

However

They're one of the last know sentient races to do so, the Milky Way is populated by dozens of other, more advanced races that have arisen and have done the same thing, only earlier.

One of these is a race of Corvid-like humanoids from a world of lesser gravity and a thick atmosphere made of the same stuff Earth's atmosphere is but with more O2, they've advanced to the point of anti-gravity and full-on antimatter-based tech (reactors, propulsion, etc.) with a parliamentary monarchy government and were one of the first races Humanity met on their expansion into the Milky Way.

But the question is,

What does mankind have to offer that these other races don't have or do need?

  • Can't have to do with something like slave labor
  • Humans are trading for advanced technology or exotic resources
  • Safe to assume that these races have similar access to the same resources humans do
  • Human economy is mostly based on interstellar colonies sending materials back to Sol (our solar system) in exchange for needed supplies and funding
  • Other races are willing to trade for information, territory, passage through human space, or lifeforms
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    $\begingroup$ How do you expect us to answer this if we don't know what other races are willing to trade for? Keep in mind that it can often make sense to trade for resources that it's entirely possible to produce yourself. I could grow potatoes in my front yard, but that's a lot of work so I buy them from the store instead. Since literally everything on Earth could be a valid answer to this question it's too broad to be a good fit for this site $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Nov 21, 2022 at 17:27
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    $\begingroup$ "these races have similar access to the same resources humans do" - what about supply and demand? Presently, rich nations have more or less similar access to oil and gas as poorer nations, but supply and demand disbalanse is significant. $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Nov 21, 2022 at 17:54
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    $\begingroup$ It very much depends on what you consider technologically advanced and not technologically advanced here, shoes and most clothing isn't what I'd consider particularly advanced so that opens up the entire realm of footwear, clothing and fashion along with a whole bunch of other areas where your less advanced civilisation can compete on relatively even footing, there's also food, textiles and raw materials (particularly any the more advanced one uses in its advanced tech the less advanced one has no use for). $\endgroup$
    – Pelinore
    Nov 21, 2022 at 17:55
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    $\begingroup$ @redfrogcrab It seems like you've answered your own question "other races are willing to trade for information, territory, passage through human space, or lifeforms" Since you've answered your own question why are you asking for from us? $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Nov 21, 2022 at 19:28
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    $\begingroup$ Just like in the real world? Stuff which both civilizations can produce, but the poorer ones produce it cheaper. $\endgroup$
    – vsz
    Nov 22, 2022 at 9:29

12 Answers 12

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Art and Culture

Somewhere (I was unable to find it) there is a sequence by Father Guido Sarducci, Gossip Columnist to the Vatican, about the People's Space Program. And he explains that when we meet aliens we can't trade tech with them. What are we going to give them, Drano? They heard already.

But when we hit them with Little Richard doing Good Golly Miss Molly they will start to tap their feet. When we play Carmina Burana for them, we will have their attention.

When we take them to The Louvre, they are going to be impressed. enter image description here

When we take them to a San Diego Comic Con, they're going to go home with merch.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Humans, upon contacting aliens: "yo, wanna go to Comicon?" $\endgroup$ Nov 21, 2022 at 17:59
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    $\begingroup$ Add to this things nobody else has: whale song, spider silk, irridescent beetles, merino wool... $\endgroup$
    – RedSonja
    Nov 22, 2022 at 11:39
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    $\begingroup$ "Our people are now buying your blue jeans and listening to your pop music" - some alien ruler $\endgroup$ Nov 22, 2022 at 14:09
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    $\begingroup$ In a broader sense, craftsmanship in general (art is just a particular type of craftsmanship). You don't need a certain technology level to be really, really good at something. The Amish (for example) are technologically inferior to modern civilization, but they're widely known and sought for their skills in carpentry, woodworking, and furniture making. $\endgroup$
    – bta
    Nov 22, 2022 at 23:27
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    $\begingroup$ This might be true only the extent that Britain was impressed by Australian indigenous art (which I pick arbitrarily on grounds that I don't think it was ever a massive international trade, pick your own example if I'm wrong). Or (worst case scenario) to the extent that the USA is impressed by slime molds. But for the purposes of a story obviously you can decide for yourself how impressed they are. $\endgroup$ Nov 23, 2022 at 19:00
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Comparative Advantage

Comparative advantage might sound a little like exploitation or slavery, but it isn't.

Say a worker in the high-tech civilization can produce 10 gimmicks per day, or 10 doodads. A worker in the low-tech civilization has less effective tools, lower productivity overall, and produces 2 gimmicks or 4 doodads per day. Everybody needs one gimmick per day, and as many doodads as possible.

  • If the high-tech people produce their own gimmicks and doodads, they will each have 1 gimmick and 9 doodads. If the low-tech people produce their own gimmicks and doodads, they will each have 1 gimmick and 2 doodads.

  • If one low-tech person and one high-tech person team up, the high-tech person could produce 2 gimmicks and 8 doodads, and the low-tech person could produce 4 doodads. That would allow 1 gimmick for each of them and 12 doodads between them -- one more than before. They'll have to find a good exchange rate to find out who gets the extra doodad.

The key here is that the high-tech people are not just more effective overall, their advantage has to differ between different technologies.

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    $\begingroup$ @user253751 - There is a difference between "is exploitation" and "can be exploited". What o.m. describes is not exploitation. Yes, it can be exploited as you describe. But that does not justify calling the exchange described in the post that benefits both sides "exploitation" itself. $\endgroup$ Nov 22, 2022 at 15:03
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    $\begingroup$ @PaulSinclair Exploitation is when someone something somethings that I don't like, and it must be called out or the evil capitalists have won. You don't want the evil capitalists to win, do you? Because if you do, that makes you a fascist. Speedrunning Godwin's Law. $\endgroup$
    – John O
    Nov 22, 2022 at 15:15
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    $\begingroup$ @PaulSinclair, I didn't spell out how the benefit is distributed. If the high-tech person ends up with 11 doodads and the low-tech person gets one, that's exploitation. If both end up with six, that's improbable generosity. Somewhere in between. 2.1 to 9.9? 2.5 to 9.5? 2.9 to 9.1? All these would benefit both sides. $\endgroup$
    – o.m.
    Nov 22, 2022 at 19:32
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    $\begingroup$ The important thing here is that low-tech Earth could trade, say, bicycles. Sure, high-end alien bikes made from military-grade Asumium are the best, but Earth bikes are cheap and good enough for most aliens. $\endgroup$ Nov 23, 2022 at 0:08
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    $\begingroup$ @OwenReynolds, the point of comparative advantage is slightly more complex. Say it takes Earth 100 times as many man-hours to produce the display of a smartphone to alien quality standards, and 10 times as many man-hours to produce the battery to alien quality standards. Then it makes sense for the aliens to import batteries, paid for with the export of displays. This calculation assumes the alien consumers get exactly the quality they'd get from domestic production, just cheaper. And not many on Earth could afford a smartphone of this quality, but those who do get it cheaper. $\endgroup$
    – o.m.
    Nov 23, 2022 at 5:51
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Food and raw materials (labor).

Yes, the other races can produce these themselves, but why would they, if they can pay humans to do it for them?

If you look at how trade relations work here on Earth, that's usually how it goes. The technologically forward nations sells technology (know-how) to less tech-having nations in exchange for food, raw materials and labor. (It gets complicated when much of this technology is produced in the labor-selling nations, but historically this was much more obvious.)

It's entirely up to you how exploitative this relationship is. Historically on Earth it has been very exploitative (and still is), but this is not a given.

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    $\begingroup$ Yeah, "labor" really. Why does America trade with Vietnam? We're more advanced than they are. What do they have that we need? Well, they can make a wide variety of products, just as well as we can, and at like 1/5th the cost. Unless the advanced civilization has invented Star Trek replicators, "cheap labor" [relative to hiring their own people to do it] will always be of value. $\endgroup$
    – JamieB
    Nov 22, 2022 at 15:05
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    $\begingroup$ Of course it helps that America is at the same altitude as Vietnam (at the coasts, anyway). Interplanetary trade in anything with non-trivial mass is going to take some technological hand-waving. $\endgroup$ Nov 23, 2022 at 19:15
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    $\begingroup$ also they might not be able to make it for a reasonable cost, milk cheeses, spices, lots of foods are unique products of evolutionary history. unlikely to occur again by chance. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Nov 29, 2022 at 22:47
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Novel Experience

Sometimes you just gotta go slumming. And when the advanced races log into the human BodyNet, they can feel what it feels likes to be a human going about their lower life-form day via a full-body sensory suit that broadcasts every nerve impulse to voyeuristic subscribers to A-Fans. This is like the "Art & Culture" answer, except that the humans aren't trying to create art, per se. Rather, they are the art.

What human wouldn't like to experience a day in the life of a dolphin? Or a lemur? Or a peregrine falcon? It's kinda like a human safari, but from a first-person perspective! Of course, fans can tap into 3rd-person cams all around the city/countryside so they can live the life from any angle desired.

If humans like to dress up as furries, who's to say that aliens don't like to dress up as nakies?

Black Market

Of course, once you've had a taste of walking around in a people suit, some will want to indulge their darkest urges and take it to the logical conclusion: full bodily control. This requires special suits which not only broadcast sensory signals, but also impose motor signals onto the wearer, turning them into a literal skin puppet. Various Human Rights groups across the galaxy argue that this sick experience is beyond the virtues of upstanding aliens, but obviously not all aliens feel the same way.

And nothing is particularly special about humans. The aliens do the same thing to every other life form on Earth. Nor do they respect the species boundaries that are deeply ingrained in human taboos...you can make this as dark as you like.

Test Subjects

If the other species are DNA-based, then perhaps humans make good in vivo test subjects for drugs and medicines. We could be the literal lab rats for a higher civilization. They may even make Earth habitats which closely reflect some of their own communities so that humans living there would be as biologically similar to the aliens as possible. Of course, humans would always have to sign up for such experiments voluntarily, but the superior alien entertainments make this a trivial problem to solve. Humans and their sugar water have nothing on alien scientists.

If the aliens are sufficiently advanced, they may be able to preserve human mental states, perform invasive/destructive experiments on humans, and then restore them to a pre-surgical state. They don't do this on themselves because there is a small risk of failure that they are not willing to assume. But the lower human castes accept this trade eagerly.

Travelling Zoo

Why limit the human freak show to Earth? Plop a community of human "explorers" into an alien FTL ship and send them on a tour of planets for all the locals to gawk at. Humans get the road trip of a lifetime, and aliens don't have the leave the comfort of their home to get a look at the last uncontacted species in the galaxy. Compensation for the humans is trivial (equivalent to shiny baubles to the aliens), but the Circus Ringleaders make out like bandits.

Gofers

Long-term the novelty will wear off for most aliens. Then what? Will humans be ignored? Neglected? Exterminated? Nope. They will be put to use. Aliens who have populated the entire galaxy know one thing extremely well: how to specialize into a niche. Every species exists in harmony because a balance has been achieved whereby every species contributes something useful to the galactic economy. Every species represents a tradeoff in size, strength, intelligence, resource demands, resilience, etc. And for each combination of attributes, there is some job, somewhere in the galaxy, where that is the optimal combination.

For humans to exist in this galaxy long-term, they will have to split up into smaller bands and fill these niches on thousands of worlds, asteroids, and space stations, just as aliens will come to earth and colonize and fill niches there, crowding out the less efficient humans. There is no malice or dark overtones of wiping out the human race: just ruthless pragmatism and extreme demand for efficiency. Since humans aren't the smartest, strongest, biggest, smallest, or most durable of any species, they will tend to be a roving jack-of-all trades which specializes in helping out exactly in the time and place they are needed, and having the flexibility to do so competently (that is, better than the other species which are ruthlessly specialized to most of the existing niches). They won't be the best at anything, but they will be better than average by virtue of their lack of over-specialization. Which means they won't be wanted forever, but they will be wanted when a disaster or upheaval creates a local vacuum that can be filled by a particular roving band of humans.

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  • $\begingroup$ Unless by freak coincidence the biology between sentient races is very similar, I'd trust the results of testing an earth mice as applicable to humans more than the ones of an extraterrestrial organism. I don't think humans would make good xeno-labrats for the xeno pharma industry (maybe for some other industry) if there is literally any other organism from said aliens home planet available.. $\endgroup$
    – kutschkem
    Nov 24, 2022 at 14:49
  • $\begingroup$ @kutschkem while at first glance, it seems that aliens would be extremely biologically different, we know that replacing carbon with silicon or other group 4 elements is not feasible. Therefore, it's at least plausible that other earth-like planets host DNA-based organisms. While there are a few alternatives to DNA with carbon backbones, DNA itself is very efficient. Thus, it seems plausible that it could be found elsewhere. And since we can see a lot of the variety that is possible with DNA, it does not seem so far fetched that some alien species are sufficiently close to mammals to be useful $\endgroup$ Nov 24, 2022 at 18:25
  • $\begingroup$ A. Novel experience and Black Market is just the set up to James Cameron's Avatar B. Never Use the term "Nakies" again, please C. I could seam a race doing a sort of mind-control thing (not the crow one I proposed in the Question, they like humans) D. canonically, humans are like rats, a highly adaptable and fast-breeding race of lesser creatures that are hard to kill and quick to take over a planet or solar system, sure, other races got the ability of flight or telekinesis or are made of light, but humans are a determined race from a backwater hell world, and that's enough for the galaxy. $\endgroup$ Nov 25, 2022 at 3:43
  • $\begingroup$ @LawnmowerMan Ok but if the aliens are, let's say, squid people, then even if the biochemistry is compatible, the biology will still differ greatly. They are better off using their local squid-ape ancestors, or even just their local non-sentient squids. $\endgroup$
    – kutschkem
    Nov 25, 2022 at 8:32
  • $\begingroup$ @kutschkem not if those squid/ape locals are protected by powerful religious/ecological interests, while off-world apes enjoy no such protections...a lesser biological match may be more than offset by a lower socio-economic value. $\endgroup$ Nov 25, 2022 at 19:46
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Biological compounds

Every planet has unique life forms, and some of those on earth produce chemicals or compounds that are either useful or just desirable on other planets, but only found on earth.

Human scientists today study chemicals produced by obscure plants in the Amazon for their medical properties, and have had good results. Who knows what an advanced civilisation could do with skunk liquid or rose oil.

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    $\begingroup$ Historical real life example: Fur trade in North America $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Nov 22, 2022 at 14:37
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    $\begingroup$ And particularly in the case that it seems unlikely the great oxidation event that occurred in our past would be the common experience of life everywhere. If not, then these wierdos who live in a highly corrosive natural environment might have all sorts of unique lifeforms to offer the galaxy at large. $\endgroup$ Nov 22, 2022 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ @PaulSinclair that's a good point. For example, Instead of creating a temperature-controlled facility to do extreme temperature chemistry in small batches, a planet with those conditions is producing that chemical cheaply in bulk and will trade it for technology that seems basic to you. $\endgroup$
    – user72058
    Nov 22, 2022 at 22:34
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    $\begingroup$ @user72058 - yes, but the "weirdos living in a highly corrosive natural enviroment" refers to us. Oxygen is very reactive. We are just used to it. But creatures who developed in a methane atmosphere would find it deadly. It could well be by our best current understanding that the development of photosynthesis which led to our current conditions, and very nearly completely killed off all life on earth before forms finally developed that could handle it (to some extent) is a very unlikely event, which would make us the freaks. $\endgroup$ Nov 22, 2022 at 22:43
  • $\begingroup$ @PaulSinclair by the time we contact aliens the atmosphere will be primarily CO2 and all life on earth will be very nearly completely killed off once again - don't worry. $\endgroup$
    – user253751
    Nov 23, 2022 at 17:38
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(Disclaimer: this list is almost entirely ripped off from Ringo's absolutely amazing Live Free or Die with a dash of Niven's Known Space.)

Folk Art

Boba Fit already brushed on this, but art tends to cross boundaries well, if for no other reason than by being exotic and thus novel. Ideas are cheap and don't require much technology, and even if aliens can replicate the physical artifacts trivially, there's likely a market for hand-made goods. (Compare to certain "luxury" goods on Earth that are ludicrously overpriced compared to their cost of manufacture, simply because you are buying a brand name.)

Also, depending on the aliens' civilization, there may be money to be made in licensing works for reproduction. (It may cost the aliens the equivalent of pennies to reproduce "Starry Night", but if their laws include a concept of exclusive rights to do so, there's still money to be made from buying those rights, especially if humans can arrange to sell said rights directly.)

Foodstuffs

...because tea (camellia, hibiscus, or otherwise) grown on Earth just tastes better than tea grown anywhere else. Or maybe it can't grow anywhere else. This might be the case for any number of edible goods, some of which might be like ambrosia to aliens. (Even just on our single planet, the region of origin can make a big difference, especially when it comes to very high-end foodstuffs!)

Raw materials

Sure, our <insert mineral here> mining is inefficient, but all the major sources back home are claimed by mega-corporations, leaving the door open for some enterprising tramp to get a small market going. Factor in someone smart enough to invest (especially if the aliens' laws have safeguards against simply trampling over indigenous races) and you have a reason not only for trade, but for the more advanced civilization to uplift the less advanced one.

Mercenaries

Sure, your culture is technologically advanced, but that very advancement leads to decadence. Really, who wants to get their hands dirty fighting wars, or even just breaking up the occasional bar scuffle. That's what "aliens" (i.e. humans, for example; remember we're speaking from the aliens' perspective here) are for. Everyone knows violence is all those poor primitives know how to do, and they're really good at it, too!

...And they might come in real handy when it turns out the new neighbors are rowdy, aggressive conquerors that want to subjugate your race. (And, lucky for your aliens, humans aren't big fans of slavery and are less likely to turn around and subjugate you themselves. It will help if you're nice to them, though.)

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  • $\begingroup$ Humans: A bunch of apes that will fight your battles and build your colonies for the right price. Also the different races would have completely different biologies, a Ceaser Salad, a harmless lunch for a human office worker, will cause a corvid alien to foam at the beak and die due to the different chemistry of Earth foods $\endgroup$ Nov 25, 2022 at 3:49
  • $\begingroup$ @redfrogcrab, there are plenty of reasons why aliens wouldn't necessarily have completely foreign biology (flavors of panspermia are popular in extant literature)... but they might be different just enough that something we regard as mundane is highly desirable. Consider catnip as an example. $\endgroup$
    – Matthew
    Nov 25, 2022 at 5:39
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    $\begingroup$ Not just can't grow they might never have tasted anything like it because something like it just did not evolve on their planet. consider how many spices, fruits, and were discovered through exploration. the aliens may well have never had any thing as delicious as mustard or poppy seeds, or some other unique combination of biological compounds. Alien nations idea of spoiled milk being a brand new drug for aliens is not a bad idea. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Nov 29, 2022 at 22:51
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We have a Planet

The more advanced civilizations have been around for billions of years. Their home planet was swallowed up by their sun and they live in artificial habitats. Teraforming never took off since it was always cheaper to build new homes from scratch.

As a result, all advanced peoples eat nutritional slurry, wear identical jumpsuits, are born from gestation pods, and have no word for the colour green. Some of them spend their whole lives in pressurized environments.

Come to Earth. Eat our fruits and vegetables. Hike through our forests. Swim in our oceans. For an extra thousad Star Credits can take some seeds, a jar of salt water, or book of pressed leaves home with you.

Drink our booze! Of course you have alcohol in space. But ours tastes different. We have over 890,000 strains of yeast. More than the 45 you Arked off your homeworld when the sun swallowed it. And you never know which one you will get! Every sip is an adventure!

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    $\begingroup$ Which you could simplify slightly to just "tourism". :) $\endgroup$
    – Graham
    Nov 22, 2022 at 13:43
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    $\begingroup$ @Graham SE hates one-word answers. $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Nov 22, 2022 at 20:39
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    $\begingroup$ Don't forget intoxication... Tourists love that!!! $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Nov 22, 2022 at 20:40
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    $\begingroup$ @RonJohn They can make alcohol in space. It tastes different since they just don't have all the same micro-organisms that we do. They only brought 45 of the 890,000 strains of yeast when they left their planet. $\endgroup$
    – Daron
    Nov 23, 2022 at 10:20
  • $\begingroup$ @Daron Americans make lots of alcohol is the US. That doesn't stop them from going to Acapulco and swigging as much Tequila as possible... $\endgroup$
    – RonJohn
    Nov 23, 2022 at 16:46
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Looking at earth, where such things happened regularly in the past, usually one or both of the following happen:

  1. the less advanced society gets colonised by the more advanced one
  2. the less advanced society trades their raw materials and/or agricultural output with the more advanced one for things like weapons and tools they can't produce themselves
  3. the less advanced society becomes a tourist attraction

I see no reason why this wouldn't be the case when meeting alien species in a Sci Fi setting.

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  • $\begingroup$ the less advanced society can also grow things much more difficult in the advanced societies climate, like cocoa, banana, and vanilla. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Nov 29, 2022 at 22:52
  • $\begingroup$ @John possibly, depends on where each of them is situated obviously. Like, if the more advanced one is in the Mediterranean (like the Roman empire) and the less advanced on in a near arctic environment (like the Scotts) that's not likely to be the case. $\endgroup$
    – jwenting
    Dec 1, 2022 at 7:31
  • $\begingroup$ those examples would be furs, cold water fish, crabs, walrus ivory. less plant and more animal but you aren't getting king crab from the Mediterranean. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Dec 1, 2022 at 22:06
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Drugs

I said, what I said.

Get your tinfoil hat on, because I will use this question to share my own conspiracy theory. That's what we are selling to aliens right now! (Dun-dun-duuun!)

Let's use Opium as example. For opium, you need poppy flowers and they, for whatever reason do not grow on alien planet. So, they need to be produced on Earth, exclusively.

And that is why the kilogram definition got changed recently - to trade with Aliens ;)

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  • $\begingroup$ the fact that you haven't been disappeared yet shows you're wrong :) $\endgroup$
    – jwenting
    Nov 24, 2022 at 7:15
  • $\begingroup$ The only problem I see here: Meth may not have the same reaction in Corvid alien biology as in Human biology $\endgroup$ Nov 25, 2022 at 3:19
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Synthetic Elements

You said the aliens would have access to natural resources, but synthetic elements are made only in labs. Human-made synthetic elements would therefore be new to these species.

Literature, Music, and Art

While the aliens might have done better in using their resources for necessity, they will have to have used their resources for recreation differently. So our literature and art will be of value.

Land

Earth is a lush planet, and the aliens would likely value a piece of it.

Historical Artifacts

In the same vein as Literature, Music, and Art.

DNA or Organisms

Since they’re unique to Earth, the aliens would probably be interested in them.

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  • $\begingroup$ More advanced species than ours could create synthetic elements without human help. $\endgroup$ Nov 29, 2022 at 18:02
  • $\begingroup$ You only said natural resources. $\endgroup$ Nov 29, 2022 at 18:02
  • $\begingroup$ Synthetic elements would not be new to a more advanced species than our own. $\endgroup$ Nov 29, 2022 at 18:07
  • $\begingroup$ @JamesGrossmann it depends on what he means by synthetic, some thing were invented to copy the characteristics of organic substances like rubber and might not be as well studied. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Nov 29, 2022 at 22:40
  • $\begingroup$ @ John: By "element," I assume that the OP means "chemical element." The creation of synthetic elements like Einsteinium requires technology at least as advanced as we have on Earth. But it would not require knowledge that would likely be exclusive to Earthlings. $\endgroup$ Dec 1, 2022 at 1:25
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How does it work on Earth?

Cheap labor - we will literally work for chips! Their tech is 1000s of years more advanced than ours so we get rich working for a few years for them.

"Natural" resources - they can reprocess our garbage for insanely useful materials and pay us next to nothing in our terms for it.

Cultural viewpoints - we sell O'Henry style stories with illuminating commentary to them to provide them with novel solutions to social problems. Ditto for movies and other forms of entertainment.

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The same thing that 3rd world countries in the world trade with 1st world countries for advanced equipment, Labor.

Be it: Domestic helpers, retirement community assistance. Construction workers, welders... Any job that is 'low skill' (Time before the worker provides value is low) and probably boring, uncomfortable, or dangerous to perform.

Also, could provide entertainment, arts, literature...

Mineral rights

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