On alien life, and whether it is possible

[nadinbrzezinski]

every time we have a story... we have the same thing... no it could not, yes it could... yada...yada... yada.

So let me propose a scenario... NOT BASED ON ACTUAL SCIENCE beyond the Drake Equation... as well as actual, honest to goodness... human history.

Let's assume for a second that ET actually comes and lands in front of insert home of head of government here... you know the famous take me to your leader scenario.

So far so good.

Here are a few things implied by this... a few philosophical and a few technical.

1.- We are NOT alone... perhaps not even the center of the universe This will lead to a small crisis of faith for at leaset three major world religions... I mean Genesis one is a bitch and genesis two is not that well known... (even if that should be the actual explanation even for them)

2.- yes, our lovely aliens were able to cross space time... and we have NO FRAKING idea how they did that.

See this leads to this little problem... not only are we not alone, but if these aliens are NOT friendly, regardless of Independence day and good product placement... who doesn't love that Apple used to insert a virus? ACHOOO! We really are that behind the power curve. It will be indeed like oh ... the Aztecs, still stone based civilization, trying to face the Spaniards, who used lead ball, steel and gun powder. This is why some nobodies like Hawking, have actually said that contact with aliens is not that bright of an idea.

Now if ET happens to be friendly perhaps they can use their so far more advanced technology to help us solve some of our problems, such as global warming. If they are not that friendly, perhaps we wil not have to ponder number one.

Oh and why would they come?

Well intellectual curiosity comes to mind. I mean why send anthropologists to the Amazon to make contact with cultures in the depth of the Amazon? WHo knows Gliesse 589 might have a similar class...

Resources, why did Cortez go to Tenochtitlan? to cure that disease of his that could only be cured with Gold... (Ok greed cannot be cured, but you get the point)

It's there... why else did we have people climb Everest?

The reasons for aliens to cross that ocean (assuming for a second that it is possible... and lord knows I am aware of the problems) are many. Some, i suspect, we cannot even imagine since they are not part of our nature.

This is what? Oh yes, so far the fodder of the science fiction writer... in space operas our aliens tend to be violent, greedy and good fodder for fiction... but on a more realistic matter, ET at this point will likely be of the less advanced, with perhaps two to five actual civilizations at a time that could make contact. Given that species on earth have an average 300,000 lifespan... the time we have to make contact is rather limited in a geological time frame...

On a philosophical POV tough even accepting that there is a possibility that there is life OUT THERE, means we are not that unique.. .and that life is not that unique. To some this is a threat, a philosophical threat.

Of course on the more humorous answers to this from the 1950s, that book is a cook book!

Oh and it goes with out saying, if this scenario ever came reality...

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke, "Profiles of The Future", 1961 (Clarke's third law)
English physicist & science fiction author (1917 - )