[lofaszvanitt]

Imagine an alien species comes here and sees all this totally fucked up human centric thinking. They put fish in small fish bowls, for their own enjoyment. They deform trees for their own enjoyment... and the list goes on. Bleh.

[wing-_-nuts]

I assure you, any species capable of interstellar travel will have a capacity and willingness to bend their environment to their will that absolutely dwarfs our own.

[lofaszvanitt]

Assuring me, based on what experience? :D

[dmos62]

Capacity and willingness are orthogonal.

[TFNA]

Why do you think they would be so bothered by what humans do, when the same kind of thing is done across the animal world? Read about ants milking aphids, for instance.

[lofaszvanitt]

That's a mutual thing since ants give them protection.

[TFNA]

The topic here is a mutual thing, too. You can see that people sculpting trees are keeping the tree alive when it might otherwise be cut down. Possibly taking pains to ensure it gets enough water, too. After all, the sculpting process relies on the tree continuing to grow.

[lofaszvanitt]

They wouldn't have grown the tree if they couldn't somehow control it. The control aspect brings forth the need to grow a tree.