RE: Strangers In The Sky - The Fermi Paradox, Space Travel, & The Future Of Mankind [Entry for "IFC S2R1" writing contest]
Excellent first entry in the contest! Glad to see you taking part. :)
Your entry was very well crafted and made me think. The threat of war with other species certainly is a real one in my opinion especially since we are such a warlike people, or at least our governments are. And it seems like we would be at a major disadvantage because most likely any other species we encounter would likely be much more technologically advanced than us, but I suppose it's possible we could encounter one or some that are similar in their understandings and evolution. That's an unsettling thought to think about especially considering how much we battle with each other here on earth already and how much pain and suffering and loss is the result.
I do a bit of research into conspiracy theories and those in relation to space and aliens and I personally tend to think we are already being visited and have been since the beginning of recorded history and that if they wanted to be hostile they would have already done so, however... I suppose it's possible there is the "predator" theory sort of akin to what Don Juan spoke of in the Carlos Castaneda books. And that maybe they are here more covertly and treat us similar to how we treat the farmed animals of this planet. In that case an overt war would be much less likely as they would likely gain more from us not knowing of their presence.
Though from all the testimonials of people getting abducted in the thousands, it seems like only a very small percentage report negative experiences and most report neutral or positive ones.. I personally doubt they are all lying or mass hallucinating so that would imply to me that there are friendly aliens out there as well and that perhaps they have a more benevolent intention. Yet in all reality I've never seen any 100% hard proof so who knows, perhaps we are alone in regards to highly advanced sentience, though I highly doubt that! It just seems mathematically to make sense that others are out there and would be shocking to me if we were indeed alone. Definitely something to wonder and think about though! I wonder what the truth is! Thanks for your interesting and thoughtful entry! Definitely made me ponder the possibilities a bit! Cheers!
Some really interesting thoughts there. Let's talk about that.
Firstly, yeah, it is possible that we have been visited several times before considering the old paintings and carvings in ancient caves and walls that point towards the possibility of alien life that came to Earth for the purpose of providing us with knowledge, maybe, so to boost our technological progress so they can finally communicate with us when we become "worthy enough". And I might be crazy, but I do sometimes think that this is how religion came into existence.
Think about it.
If we humans, millions of years from now, when we are all sci-fi and shit, if we were to visit any other planet where life is new and the primary "human-like" species is still very early in their stage of evolution, they would probably think of us as Gods too because for them we would be the aliens and the marvel that we will perform would seem like magic and they too, will start to worship us because we are just too intelligent for them. This is just a wild guess. But this is something that always intrigues me: to combine the concept of religion with that of our cosmos.
Secondly, about all the conspiracy around alien abduction, if something like that has actually happened (as it's still a highly debatable concept), I think the reason why they would do something like that is the same reason why we research on animals: to know more about them so as to control them and use them as per our needs. Maybe they are doing the same. Abducting people to study mankind and eventually with all the information they need, they will use us as a resource for their advantage. ALL of that, WHILE being almost completely anonymous. That's scary AF!
And about the part where you mentioned friendly aliens, it's pretty likely that alien civilizations will form teams with other alien civilizations to compete with other teams, just like how we do now in wars on our own home planet. Countries support each other in the times of war in the expectation of getting that same help back in the times of need. But soon when all the other teams are defeated, all the galaxies conquered, colonized, used and destroyed, the leading team splits up and fights each other as resources are on the verge of depletion. This is why even the very last civilization, human or alien, might never reach true immortality. Time will kill everything and everyone.
Sure! Sounds good.
That sounds reasonable, though I think it could be for other reasons as well. Perhaps a terraforming event? Or even something more nefarious...
Agreed.. And while it is debatable.. I think the sheer number of testimonial accounts all throughout history is extremely compelling.. I don't think they were all lying or hallucinating.. It would make a good amount of logical sense that we have had contact in the past, yet.. I can't say 100% for sure because there just isn't 100% hard evidence and I haven't met any aliens myself.. So.. Even though it seems rather overwhelming.. I just can't say in conclusive manner. So yes it is debatable and yes I tend to agree that they would probably want to study us, but perhaps there's other reasons involved here as well.. Like similar to your first paragraph maybe they want to help us evolve so we stop warring and killing each other so much and then perhaps even spreading that violence outwards into the stars when we venture further out. The way we are now we would be a danger to other forms of life, and it seems like we need to mature a lot spiritually before we go around the universe. Reminds me of a quote by MLK jr that says something like.. "We have technology to create nuclear weapons that destroy life but we do not have the spiritual wisdom to use it properly" I'm butchering that quote but it went something like that.
Hmmm.. That certainly is sort of terrifying and apocalyptic sort of scenario and could end up being the future, though I would hope there's enough renewable resources that it doesn't have to end that way!
Totally agree with you on that one. If all that we're busy doing is war and dirty politics, we would have no time and capital to finance these important research and studies that are ultimately our only hope of survival in the long run. But we humans are greedy and emotional beings. We like to act based on our feelings and not on rational thinking and that's why I think it's gonna take a long time before we come to a global understanding and decide that it's time to focus on what really matters.
Also, I want you to watch this video and share your thoughts on it so we can discuss some things further.
I sort of agree, though I wouldn't say that collectively. Some aren't so bad and I personally think that it's optimal to try to balance our feelings with our rational thinking.
A lot of peoples feelings and rational thinking are both misguided and of "selfish" nature, but if we were to truly care about ourselves and others in consistent logical manner I think that would be ideal.
Also I watched your video last night and while I agreed with the majority of it I feel like it was sort of going off of the most current accepted scientific though and didn't really go into unknown territory itself in regards to much knowledge contained in the conspiracy theory realm.
I do think there is a lot of evidence for visitation and beings elsewhere in the universe whereas the video claimed there was none, it also suggested something to the effect that because of such lack of evidence we are sort of the one the responsibility falls on, though I think it's entirely possible that there are benevolent beings out there waiting for us to get our "shit" together so to speak and that they are letting us evolve for ourselves without intervening directly and that if we try to go too far out into space with our warlike attitude then they will intervene to stop us from destroying other innocent and still developing cultures and beings elsewhere.
I think it's probably that we are laggards and that there are civilizations much more advanced, and that our own governments know this and keep it from us because they are so paranoid and warlike they want to make it seem to their people that they are in control when they are not.
All speculation of course, I can't prove it. Though that's a theory I like to entertain and I also think it's possible that the reality might be something that none of my theories or the ones in the video applies to and the real truth might be entirely different from all of that and something most if not all humans haven't even thought of or conceived yet.
I think that's one problem a lot of researchers into this subject come across is they tend to anthropomorphize the aliens and expect them to be sort of like us, when in reality they might defy every conception we would have of what they should be like.
I remember I wrote a post about the same a couple of months ago explaining how it's quite natural for humans to be "selfish" as it may have been used as a survival strategy in the early stages of evolution which we adapted to and still live by. You can read it 'here' if you want. It'd be cool to know your thoughts on it.
Indeed. Like I said earlier, they might be waiting for us to become "worthy enough", but we're rather slow (because again, we like to waste time on meaningless wars and politics) and that's why, like you said, they might have came to visit us numerous times before, and aid us to boost our technological progress without intervening too much, or to you know.. tear us in half and study our insides.
Though it sounds really cinematic, I'm gonna have to disagree. I don't think the government would hide such a thing because:
But I do get your point though. If they reveal such a thing, it would cause massive panic and people would become uncontrollable and harder to manage because of their fear.
True. We always tend to think of "intelligence" as a human quality, when in reality it could be something totally different for a different species. For example, an ant is pretty dumb, but a whole ant colony is super intelligent and organized. What counts as "intelligent" for one species, might look like total mediocrity for the other.