The scientific community and the general community tend to have differences of opinion over the topic of extraterrestrial life, especially intelligent extraterrestrial life with advanced technological capabilities. The scientific community tends to be ultra conservative; the great unwashed are way less critical since they get their news and views from the tabloids and sci-fi programs. Perhaps the middle ground is a more viable option than either side’s extremely conservative or uncritical point of view.
An article titled “7 Huge Misconceptions about Aliens” by Natalie Wolchover has appeared recently on several websites including Space.com; Life’s Little Mysteries (prime site); and the Huffington Post (abridged to just five). It’s all about how scientists view the existence and nature of advanced ET as opposed to the more common perceptions of the great unwashed. The following comments are my addressing of the common misconceptions raised. Let’s see if I agree or disagree with the verdicts, and most important, why. Oh, of course the “THEY” referred to is our intelligent and technologically advanced ET.
THEY MIGHT NOT EXIST: Disagree
This is the only case of the magnificent seven with scientists hedging bets. They “might” not exist. Then too they “might” exist.
Okay, we have no actual alien bodies on the slab in the lab, so the existence of aliens to date is pure speculation. When it comes to life in the universe, we have to speculate from a statistical sample of one – terrestrial life. Extrapolating from a statistical sample of one is fraught with danger. But, when crunching the numbers, so many stars, so many planets, so much time, so much space, so much of the ‘right stuff’ available for life-as-we-know-it, that very, very few scientists would bet their family farm that terrestrial life, and terrestrial intelligent life, and terrestrial intelligent life with advanced technology was the proverbial IT in the cosmos at large.
Certainly SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) scientists, one of which featured prominently in the original essay, wouldn’t adopt the “we are alone” scenario. It would make a mockery of their very own chosen profession and careers. The possible existence of ET may currently just boil down to pure statistics, but those statistics have been crunched and double crunched and tripled crunched again and again and again by the best science currently available to us. The verdict, well SETI scientists have voted to put their time, efforts and energy into, and bet on, the “we are not alone” option.
Finally, if you adopt the quantum (physics) mantra, anything that isn’t forbidden is compulsory; anything that can happen, must happen. Life isn’t forbidden; life can happen – we’re proof; therefore life must happen again and again and again.
THEY WON’T COME IN ‘PERSON’: Disagree
By “come”, the consensus is that flesh-and-blood aliens will boldly go via silicon and metal surrogates that are themselves constructed artificially intelligent (AI), thus saving the biological aliens a lot of time, cost, effort, energy and danger. Sending out zillions of robotic AI space probes to explore the galaxy while the flesh-and-blood aliens stay at home however runs counter to what we humans do. Sure, we invest massive amounts of resources into silicon and steel. Robotic probes are often our eyes and ears from unmanned military drones to spy-in-the-sky satellites to probes to the planets and into the depths of the ocean. But, there is just something crazy enough about the human condition that humans insist on seeing and hearing for themselves, even if supplemented by technology, the wonders of, whatever.
Sure we sent unmanned probes to the Moon – but we followed by sending humans in person. Sure we send unmanned probes to Mars – but humans will go there in person eventually. Sure we explore the ocean’s abyss with robotic submersibles, but humans still go down to look up close and personal at RMS Titanic, even unto the deepest parts of the ocean trenches. Sure we can, and do, send instrumentation into the heart of massive tornadoes, but that hasn’t stopped ‘storm chasers’ from deliberately inserting themselves into the vortex of deadly twisters, sometimes as a thrill, more often as not to advance the science of meteorology and forecasting. Humans constantly put themselves at risk even though robots do the risk-taking better and cheaper. That’s the essence of the question “Why climb Mount Everest ?” The answer, as always: “Because it’s there”. Now of course to do these sorts of things requires technological augmentation, from warm clothes (Mount Everest) to scuba gear (exploring the Great Barrier Reef ) to reinforced steel containers that keep out the outside environment (exploring RMS Titanic or going to the Moon). But the biological entity remains cocooned inside.
If aliens evolve a high IQ and a sophisticated technology, then they no doubt will have that desire to explore and see what’s on the other side of the hill and climb their own Mount Everest . Perhaps firstly by surrogates; but if they have one tenth the curiosity and drive of humans, they will boldly go in person by hook or by crook. Robotic probes might inform ET that the third rock from a stellar body called Sol has a biosphere, but ET will want to see for itself, sooner or later.
Now I might concede that via advanced bioengineering abilities, aliens could augment themselves with technology to such an extent that they might be nearly artificial constructions – our artificial hip joints and dentures and plastic heart valves taken to their logical conclusion. The Daleks of “Doctor Who” are a prime example. Perhaps their mind could be downloaded into something more permanent than wetware like software part and parcel of a silicon and steel computer. But the key bit is that their biological essence (their mind) remains intact and boldly goes.
THEY WON’T MATE WITH US: Disagree
Alien biochemistry wouldn’t be absolutely identical to our biochemistry, or translated, their genetics wouldn’t be absolutely identical to our genetics. Just like humans can’t mate and reproduce with petunias, though both are terrestrial life forms and share DNA, humans are even less likely to be able to mate with ET. So, why do I disagree with this most obvious of the obvious? Four reasons: 1) Genetic engineering; 2) Mythology; 3) Modern animal mutilations and 4) UFO abductions. Taking each in turn…
Genetic Engineering: If ET is technologically advanced enough to get from there (wherever that is) to here, then it’s logical to assume that they are technologically advanced in lots of areas – like genetic engineering. Okay, humans can not naturally mate with petunias. But, assuming they wanted to; couldn’t our geneticists take a human reproductive cell and the reproductive cell of a petunia, and manipulate both to such an extent that a union between the two might be possible? Okay, that’s pretty far out, but geneticists have already combined two dissimilar species genes into one – the ‘Frankenfish’, patented as the GloFish, combining the Zebrafish with various genes of fluorescence proteins from other species comes to mind as just one example. Collectively, the field is known as producing genetically modified organisms (GMO’s)! There’s much controversy that rages about GMO’s as human foods. That aside, in theory, a human-petunia combo is possible. We share some genetics and DNA with the petunia.
Mythology: One would be hard pressed to find a culture who’s mythology didn’t include examples of their ‘gods’ mating with us mere mortals. Greek mythology is a no-brainer given the ever randy Zeus. Biblical mythology also records sex between the ‘sons of god’ and the ‘daughters of men’. Now do scientists accept all of the multi-thousands of deities of the world’s cultures as supernatural entities? - Probably not. That then leaves them a choice between all of these deities being as 100% fictional as the Easter Bunny and Sherlock Holmes, or else they are aliens. To me, probability dictates that the more logical option of the two is ET – a speculation that also solves the Fermi Paradox – “where is everybody?”
The Fermi Paradox can be summed up simply enough just by postulating the existence of at least one other technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization in our Milky Way Galaxy that’s older than our civilization by at least a few millions of years and with the same sorts of ‘boldly going’ drives as we humans have (i.e. – plain old curiosity, the “what’s on the other side of the hill?”). If that alone is taken as a given and nothing else, then just as humans explored and colonized Planet Earth in a tiny fraction of the Earth’s existence (ditto microbes, insects, birds, etc.), technologically capable extraterrestrials would have explored and colonized the Milky Way Galaxy in a tiny fraction of its existence, even at say rippling out at one to ten percent the speed of light. Planet Earth is part of that Milky Way Galaxy, so “where is everybody?”
In the case of humans enveloping Earth, we don’t need to ask “where is everybody?” We’re everywhere. In the case of ET, we do ask “where is everybody?” They should be here. Scientists say they’re not, never have been, and thus they have to explain the Fermi paradox by other means. On the other side of the fence, those who see evidence in those ‘ancient astronauts’ and in UFOs have no paradox with which to have to come to terms with.
Animal Mutilations: Animal mutilations are certainly well documented, and the cause(s) are mysterious to say the least. If human culprits, why hasn’t anyone been apprehended, tried and convicted of violations of animal welfare laws, destruction of private property (if livestock) and trespass? If natural predators are to blame – well that should be bloody obvious if true and no controversy should therefore ensue. If extraterrestrials, well that explains a lot that natural predation can’t like precision incisions and lack of blood and no hoof/paw prints and no signs of a struggle, though it also leaves mega-questions unanswered. Presumably, it has something to do with ET interest in terrestrial biochemistry and genetics.
UFO Abductions: If UFO abduction accounts are taken at face value, and I’m not prepared to call these ‘victims’ either liars or deluded, then extraterrestrials are mightily interested in the creation of more hybrids – not animal-animal hybrids like the Chimera, or human-animal hybrids like the Mesopotamian Shedu (winged bulls with human heads) but human-alien hybrids, something perhaps akin to those alien-human close encounters of the intimate kind (those ‘gods’ mating with humans) referred to above in all things mythological. If you know your mythology, you’d be aware that there are more hybrids than you can tick off on your fingers and toes –squared.
Of course “won’t mate” is not the same as “can’t mate”. If we assume advanced aliens are skilled enough to ‘mate’ with humans, why the hell would they want to? Of course this isn’t apparently mating in the traditional way, rather aliens harvesting human gametes and doing their technological thing with them, hence an alien version of artificial insemination or in-vitro fertilization. Again, if the human abduction ‘victims’ are taken at face value, some sort of alien-human hybrid program is underway. Why a human-alien hybrid program is the $64,000 question. Perhaps someday we’ll have an answer. Perhaps it’s similar to why we created the ‘Frankenfish’ or why the ‘gods’ created the Minotaur or the griffin or even demigod/demigoddess hybrids like Hercules or Helen of Troy.
To be continued…
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