Aliens and UFOs
Every couple of years there is some reporting of UFO activity which is typically followed by the question: Is there intelligent extraterrestrial life? Like many, I have been thinking about this very subject since I was a teenager, and I am finally able to conclude (or rather put down on paper) the following answer: “it doesn’t matter”.
Why would I say that? Is it maybe because the question is wrong? No, it is a perfectly reasonable question to ask if there is intelligent extraterrestrial life and there is a mountain of thought experiments on this exact topic, such as the “Drake Equation” that tries to quantify intelligent life outside our solar system.
I have a different point on the subject. I am trying to qualm the voices that are seeking explanations. See, I am not a believer in conspiracy theories that claim that governments around the world have been in contact with alien life, even captured and exchanged technologies etc. etc. I think this is nonsense because it would be extraordinarily difficult to keep such a secret. And yet, there are many that believe such things.
I would like to offer a different viewpoint that is more “Star Trek” inspired and includes the idealistic “prime directive” which basically states that a civilization must not interfere with natural or evolutionary development of another civilization. While the idea was sparked as a response against the US involvement in the Vietnam war, the principles are sound — and of course, we have never abided by them ever, so why would an alien civilization hold itself to these higher goals. But for the prime directive to be relevant there must be engagement with alien life (although one sided). Taking our fallibility into account and projecting it, let us use the prime directive as a framework but setup our own alien encounter scenarios:
A) Intergalactic United Planets (aka. The federation of planets): Let us assume that there is indeed a galactic council that prevents advanced civilization from interfering with us low lifers and have in fact, the clear directive to make a detour around our solar system for that reason — then all is well in the world and we will either develop into a spacefaring species or blow ourselves up. The latter could happen today, the former might take another hundred or so years. But of course, some United Planet member might have reasons to engage with us because of:
B) Intergalactic politics: If two or more alien civilization fight over our solar system (resources, planet grab, galactic ideologies etc.) we might see some evidence of that either in a very direct nature (like battleships in orbit etc.) or at least with faint sounds of battles (radio signals, light flashes etc.). I suspect we would detect something in our vicinity if we can detect something like Oumuamua. But it would not matter, because at best we would only be canon fodder. We could never keep up with the invading forces and would most likely end up eradicated. But before that can happen, we need to be discovered:
C) Galactic exploration & mapping: Speaking of Oumuamua, the first interstellar object could as well have been a mapping exercise from an alien civilization (and now they know we are doing stuff).
D) Hiding Spot: Assuming that not only have we been discovered but we are also being used as a hiding spot; Some galactic scoundrels or traders of illicit galactic material have made Earth their hiding spot. That is why we are seeing objects that seem unnatural — but the last thing they would want is an interaction with the native population because they know we have the numbers to flush them out. So, they decide to hide in unhabitable areas (deep in the ocean, etc.) and only come out when they need to do their deeds. And of course, when you have these sorts of elements you also have:
E) Policing the galaxies: It might in fact be very reasonable for alien lifeforms to police our backyard and do the occasional perimeter check. They would try hard to stay undetected but that may not always work which could be why we see things from time to time. Or in fact observe something:
F) Crash landed: which is literally the Roswell scenario. Given the policing or hiding scenarios, this could be a valid outcome. But what seems far fetched is in fact the Roswell incident. The goal for our accidental visitors would be to hide and not engage with us, so why would they fly even close to civilization and a literal “stone throw” away from a major US military facility (White Sands).
G) Wrong direction: a potential scenario might also be the outcome of policing when in fact the navigator made a mistake and hyper warped into the wrong solar system — maybe living on the third planet from the sun is a common phenomenon and the alien navigator simply pushed the wrong button which could also explain why we have so sporadic sightings.
H) Interdimensional: More extreme in theory but maybe alien visitors are not at all coming from space and instead just teleport from another dimension into ours. This could be a time travel scenario or something where multiple dimensions exist, and aliens find ways to enter ours. We would simply lack the understanding of such a thing and for us this would be magic.
The point of this exercise is to illustrate that regardless of scenario, our role is irrelevant. We are merely innocent bystanders that are oblivious to what is happening around us in larger terms and we have no way to engage. We may as well just drop the whole subject and that is why my answer to the original question remains: “it doesn’t matter”.
Now you can still go on and hypothesize and maybe you are right with some of these scenarios (the list is not exhaustive and there might be better ones) or you can just move on and acknowledge that most likely you will not meet an intelligence extraterrestrial in your lifetime.
I would be interested in receiving feedback here because I have a genuine interest to learn in what makes believers tick and why they think I am wrong. Fire away!