Humanity: The Cosmic Connection

There are various enigmas that cry out for resolution, like the Fermi Paradox regarding ET, “Where is everybody?” Then there are enigmas surrounding human origins, evolution and characteristics, extinctions, migrations and colonizations, and the rise to civilization. Finally, much that’s in our global mythologies is anomalous. In modern times we have UFOs and alien abductions. It’s time to wrap all this up in one neat little package, tied up with a nice little ribbon and bow. 

Let’s start off briefly with the Fermi Paradox. In essence, it suggests that if you accept that there has to be one or more extraterrestrial highly advanced technological civilizations out there in the galaxy, in interstellar space, with interstellar space travelling capabilities, then the odds are as close to 100% as anyone would care to bet, that Planet Earth has been discovered and visited. The time it takes to explore the galaxy, every nook and cranny, even without resorting to Star Trek type faster-than-light velocities, is but a tiny fraction of the age of the galaxy. The Fermi Paradox is only a paradox if one tries to argue that ET has never visited our humble planetary abode. So, let’s solve the Fermi Paradox and accept that once upon a time, ET paid Planet Earth a visit – at least one.

About eight or so million years ago, Planet Earth witnessed the arrival of a rather loose federation of extraterrestrials (ET) with a quasi social/religious/missionary goal of assisting in the development and spread of intelligent civilizations across the galaxy and the cosmos while simultaneously creating intelligent, civilized beings who will worship them as their superiors, even perhaps as gods. Since there were no such intelligent, civilized beings on Planet Earth eight million years ago, ET had to work what Mother Nature provided them.

Now eight million years ago is very recent relative to the age of Planet Earth, and extremely recent relative to the age of our galaxy and the cosmos at large. Therefore, this may not have been an ET first visit, but the one which finally yielded up a promising candidate from which they could manipulate to achieve their goal.

That most suitable candidate species to work with, or on, would have been the chimpanzee or a close ancestor to the chimp, found in Africa. And so ET set up shop and laboratory in Africa to start the long process of assisting Mother Nature in the development (creation or origin)and spread (migration) of another (soon to be engineered) intelligent civilization.

Over the next eight or so million years – no great rush; lots of time on their hands; these are an extremely long-lived ET – ET bioengineered, genetically engineered, or otherwise artificially bred and selected our initial primate stock into over twenty initial primate-to-ultimate-hominid species, each species slightly more advanced in IQ, dexterity, bipedal gait, speech, abstract reasoning ability (something other than just food, sex, danger), etc. than the one before.

For starters, individual groupings of each species in their own time and turn would be released by ET into the Africa’s wild environment to see how they coped, just like we humans will artificially breed up populations of endangered species and release them into the wild and hope for the best. Of those hominid species released into the wild, most didn’t – cope that is. Back to the drawing board and more genetics and breeding and artificial selection and on to the next advancement.

A few hominid species that did adapt reasonable to the outside backyard of Africa proper would then be transported to non-African locations and a wider variety of terrestrial environments. There were more failures, but some initial successes with out-of-Africa environments. Homo erectus just about fit the bill – just about, but it too ultimately went the way of the Dodo.

Finally, about 200,000 years ago, the latest in this twenty-plus long line of primate-to-hominid creations were created on the slab in the ET lab in Africa – Homo sapiens. They proved successful in adapting to the natural African environment. Further experiments with transporting and transplanting groups of them to various environments around the globe (except Antarctica) for the most part yielded positives in the Middle East, the Americas, Europe, Australia, Asia, etc. If ET transplanted groups of Homo sapiens to Oceania that was a failure as there are no archaeological sites that verify hominids in Oceania until only relatively recent historical (not prehistorically) times.

Once Homo sapiens became established globally, two things happened. Firstly, individual units of ET headed by a Supreme ET were assigned to oversee the various geographical regions that Homo sapiens had adapted to. For example, ET Yahweh and crew were assigned to the eastern coastline and seaboard region of the Mediterranean. Secondly, these units then assisted these nomadic bands of Homo sapiens in each region in the transition from being wandering hunter-gatherers living by their wits into becoming civilized agricultural-based settlements or rural communities that put down roots - assuming the region in question was suitable to settlements, and not all were, like Australia.   

At this point one might expect “and they all lived happy ever after”. Not so; it was not to be.

It is often said that man was created in God’s image, or in more general parlance, in the image of the gods. If that’s the case, it should come as no surprise that the gods have human traits. Translated, anything humans were (or are) skilled at doing, you can bet the family farm equally that the ‘gods’ were skilled ditto, the good, the bad and the ugly. ET was not above squabbling among themselves over ways and means, and there were power grabs and coups and mutinies afoot, like when Yahweh was nearly toppled by Satan. Collectively, our mythologies lump these ancient ‘star wars’ as Wars in ‘Heaven’.

Humans of course also didn’t live long and prosper either. Like father (the gods), like son (Homo sapiens).

There’s one other mythological anomaly that supports the idea that not only was ET highly advanced in interstellar space travel (well they got here didn’t they), but especially highly skilled in genetic and bioengineering. The genetics experiments of ET were not just confined to building a better hominid species, but creating all sorts of genetically engineered ‘monsters’. If there is one universal above nearly all other universals in the mythologies of primitive ‘man’ it’s the reality of hybrids, both animal-animal hybrids (i.e. – Pegasus in Greek Mythology) and animal-human hybrids (i.e. – the Birdmen of Easter Island). 

Whether misinterpreted by primitive humans, or deliberately misled, ET became the ‘gods’ and interactions between the two became the basis of our global mythologies, which is to a greater or lesser extent really a collection of religiously-themed mythologies since primitive ‘man’ thought ‘he’ was dealing with supernatural deities. Deities of course are there to be worshiped, probably encouraged by ET. Why might ET wish to be worshiped? ET might want to be ‘worshiped’ probably as “thanks” for bringing Homo sapiens into the world and bestowing the gifts of civilization on Homo sapiens.  Every parent expects a “thank you” from their child for special gifts bestowed. ET might have encouraged this misinterpretation as being ‘gods’; it would have been a lot less awkward that explaining astrobiology to them.

Having completed at long last their objective – one more race primed to join the Galactic Club, ET left, albeit leaving behind a token observational team – UFOs – which are still undertaking some genetic modifications with respect to Homo sapiens – alien abductions, apparently an attempt to engineer yet another hybrid – a human-alien.

Now make of this what you will, but the scenario does fit the facts as we know them about human origins, evolution, extinctions, migrations, and ultimately civilization. It also jives with our mythologies, and, IMHO, behind every mountain of mythology resides a molehill of fact.

Seven Alien Misconceptions Revisited: Part One

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…

Extraterrestrialism: Our Out-Of-This-World Inheritance: Part One

If asked the question about your ultimate origins, you might reply that you were of this or that nationality, perhaps with ancestry from this or that other place. Perhaps if you’re a bit more clued you’d say “Africa” as the birthplace of the human race. If you’re really cluey, you might say the oceans, the undoubted place where life itself got its start. But no doubt, no matter what, you’d say you were “terrestrial” – of this Planet Earth. Alas, you’re still not cluey enough. You’re extraterrestrial. We are the aliens, directly and indirectly.

Origin of the Universe

* Once upon a time there was this Big Bang.

* Since we are a part of the Universe, and since the Universe had an origin (the accepted standard model being the Big Bang event some 13.7 billion years ago), that alone of necessity means we have an extraterrestrial legacy since everything that makes you, you was born in that event, thereby in a manner of speaking making you 13.7 billion years old!

Origin of Our Stellar Solar System & Earth

* As it was in the beginning, well so too did our Sun and Planet Earth have a beginning.

* We are Star Stuff. Our solar system, our Sun, the planets, including Earth, were all formed out of the remains of extraterrestrial gas, dust and debris from older stellar systems, scattered to the four interstellar winds by supernovae explosions, over four and a half billion years ago. Thus, that too alone, no matter which way you slice it, means we (as beings part and parcel of our stellar system) are extraterrestrial in origin.

Origin of Life

* The terrestrial origin of life may have happened within that petrii dish/test tube called Planet Earth - Or maybe not. IMHO it happened way too quickly and way too soon post Earth’s formation to probably have been a solely terrestrial happening. There’s an alternative called panspermia which expands both the time and space available for life’s origin by many order of magnitudes.

* Panspermia is the idea that Earth was seeded by cosmic spores or microbes that were expelled from some other planetary abode in some other stellar system and drifted across the gulf of space. An incredibly tiny fraction of these cosmic spores lands on suitable planetary environments, where they survive and thrive and evolve. Our Earth was one such place for their lucky landing. It’s akin to a plant producing millions of spores – 99.999% of which fail to land on fertile ground; but that tiny fraction that does is all it takes to keep the species keeping on keeping on. 

* Balistic panspermia is a slight variation on traditional panspermia in that the microbes or spores are inside the protective covering of a solid object – dust or tiny rocks, even massive rocks. These, alone with their microbial passengers get blasted off home turf by incoming ballistic objects (impacting meteors), escape their home planet and a few eventually, by chance land on another suitable abode. That Mars rock, ALH84001 that caused such a stir several years back is one such example of a potential case history of ballistic panspermia.

* Directed panspermia is yet another variation on the theme, only in this case there’s intelligence behind the scenes, either sending out canisters of microbes willy-nilly in a shotgun manner, and/or directing that canister specifically at a chosen target.

* The upshot is if terrestrial life’s origin was via a form of panspermia, then we humans, being a species of terrestrial life, ultimately had an extraterrestrial origin. If a Mars rock full of microbes impacted Earth billions of years ago, well, we might be the Martians transplanted from the fourth rock to the third rock from the Sun. Perhaps our origins were even farther a-field. Perhaps some cosmic gardener planted life here billions of years ago, maybe even stuck around to fertilize, cultivate, prune, and weed that garden. 

Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, Civilization and Technology: The Fermi Paradox

* The Fermi Paradox can be summed up simply enough by pointing out that as long as you assume the existence of at least one other technologically advanced extraterrestrial civilization 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 nothing else, then just as humans explored and colonized Planet Earth in a tiny fraction of the Earth’s existence, technologically capable extraterrestrials would have explored and colonized the Milky Way Galaxy in a tiny fraction of its existence. In the case of humans, 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 have to explain the paradox. 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.

* The ‘Gods’ arrive. Very few people today would try to defend the position what in the vastness of the cosmos we, human beings, are the proverbial intelligent ‘IT’ within that cosmos. Since we are the new boys on the block, having only existed as a unique species several hundreds of thousands of years at best in a Universe that’s 13.7 billion years old, the odds are pretty good that our intellectually cosmic superiors are out there. Now on the likelihood that at least one such superior extraterrestrial intelligence will boldly go and explore the cosmos, let’s define ‘cosmos’ and restrict that term to our ten billion years old Milky Way Galaxy, the time it would take that extraterrestrial intelligence to explore every nook and cranny of our Milky Way Galaxy is but a tiny fraction of the age of our galaxy. By analogy, Planet Earth has existed four and a half billion years; yet as noted above our 100,000 plus year old species crawled all over it in real quick-smart fashion, as did the bacteria, plants, insects, and other life forms as well. Translated, since there’s nowhere to hide Planet Earth from the ‘I spy with my little eye’ aliens, we’ve been found! The extraterrestrials have arrived, not yesterday but millions of yesterdays ago. And since Planet Earth is a hospitable bio-friendly place, one with a pretty unique property – a biosphere – they decided to stick around and set up camp. Because these beings are high-tech, and because any sufficiently advanced technology is something supernatural to any sufficiently lower technological civilization (like us), that supernatural quality gets interpreted as beings who ARE supernatural – deities or ‘gods’ – not interpreted by the great unwashed primitives as flesh-and-blood extraterrestrials. Our cultural mythologies, worldwide, are full of references to ‘star beings’; ‘guardians of the skies’; ‘sky gods’; ‘gods in the heavens’ and gods who come from the stars or who are associated with specific stars and constellations, most notably Cygnus, Sirius and Orion.

Origin of Humanity

* Just about every religious mythology, and every culture has one, well you’ll find something along the line that the gods (or God) created human beings. Let’s take that at face value. Now ‘created’ doesn’t mean creating something from scratch. If you ‘create’ a plank of wood, you create it from an existing tree or log, not from your home chemistry set (though in theory you could do so since ultimately chemicals make up wood). You probably ‘create’ your meals from ingredients you got from the supermarket. Again, your home chemistry set had nothing to do with it, and even if you did grow your own vegetables and herbs and raise your own chickens and pigs, you still started from existing ingredients – seeds and other advanced biological products like eggs and baby pigs. That analogy equally applies to the case of the ‘gods’ creating humans. They didn’t start from clay and dust and the gods’ equivalent of a home chemistry set. They started work on pre-existing advanced ingredients.

* At this point of course, based on previous remarks, you realise that there are no gods. The ‘gods’ are of course just technologically advanced extraterrestrials with intellectual powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal humans.

To be continued…

The Fermi Paradox: The Theoretical Reality Supporting Extraterrestrial Visitations

Where is everybody?" was a question posed by physicist Enrico Fermi. The 'paradox' is that extraterrestrials should be here, yet there is no indisputable evidence to support that. Or is there? Those pesky UFOs just will not go away!

The Fermi Paradox (after physicist Enrico Fermi) briefly goes as follows. Extraterrestrial intelligences with advanced technology and interstellar spaceflight capability exist. Sub-light interstellar spaceflight violates no laws of physics. Adopting the mantra of quantum physics, ‘anything that’s not forbidden is compulsory’. The time it takes to explore every nook and cranny of our Milky Way Galaxy via sub-light interstellar spaceflight is a tiny fraction of the age of the Galaxy. There’s at least one universally valid reason to boldly go – species survival. No star, no solar system lives forever. We (Planet Earth) can’t hide from alien exploration and/or colonization. So, where is everybody? [By analogy, terrestrial life forms like bacteria, ants and cockroaches, birds, and of course humans, have explored and colonized Planet Earth in tiny fractions of the time that Earth itself has existed.] So again, where is everybody?

I can hear screams of ‘objection, objection’ now. It’s obviously too far and takes too long to get from there (wherever that is) to here. Well, life wasn’t meant to be easy! Seriously, if you think about it a while, methinks you protest too much!

Firstly, aliens could have a very long natural lifespan relative to us carbon-based terrestrial bipeds. There’s no natural law that confines intelligent life forms to an existence of just three score and ten.

Secondly, advanced extraterrestrials may have perfected various hibernation techniques. Put your spaceship on autopilot and sleep the long journey away. 

Thirdly, there’s that way old sci-fi chestnut, the multi-generation interstellar spaceship. While I feel that’s an unlikely concept, especially for exploration, it might not be quite so far out if the objective is interstellar colonization.

Then there’s bioengineering, turning an organic body into something that’s more machine than flesh and blood, perhaps akin to Doctor Who’s Daleks. Given advances in artificial body parts for humans, albeit it hip replacements or dentures or even mundane tooth fillings, that’s certainly a valid possibility.

Fifthly, why stop there? Send 100% machines – artificial intelligences in the form of cybernetic ‘organisms’ or robots or androids or tiny nanotechnology machines. One obviously things of Data from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’, or something akin to the original ‘Battlestar Galactica’ Cylons. Think of the savings in not having to provide life support and other life essentials for biological organisms. We’ve made a start already down this path. There’s nothing different in principle between a Cylon and our Pioneer 10 & 11; our Voyager space probes. It’s just that a Cylon is a lot more sophisticated. The day will come when our Pioneers and Voyagers will morph into something approaching a Cylon, or any one of multi-dozens of similar ‘beings’ in the sci-fi literature. Since AI is nearly immortal (relative to flesh and blood), that takes care of travel time arguments, and the possible environments fit for relative easy exploration (colonization?) are expanded greatly.  

Lastly, maybe, just maybe, a sort of warp drive, faster-than-light ship is possible. Aliens whose science is thousands of years more advanced than ours just might have gotten around Einstein’s speed limit. I wouldn’t want to wager any money on it, but I’d be less than open minded not to admit the possibility, however remote.  Add to that, theoretical but allowable ‘gateways’ between distant points of our Universe, maybe even to other universes – wormholes and Black Holes. Maybe, just maybe, an advanced alien civilization has the ways and means to manipulate such objects and forces to facilitate easy travel in space (and time too maybe).  An excellent hardcore science based sci-fi novel that doesn’t rely on pseudo techno-babble that illustrates this is Carl Sagan’s “Contact”.

So yet again, where is everybody?

Answers include (but aren’t really limited to) general concepts that suggest that…

They don’t exist; never have and never will. What’s wrong with that? Well, given the vastness (100,000 light-years across) and timelessness (over 12 billions of years minimum) of our Milky Way Galaxy’s entire expanse, the odds that we are the proverbial IT, the one and only, is extremely unlikely. It’s a massive violation of the Principle of Mediocrity or the Copernican Principle.

We’re the first kids on the block, not the new kids on the block. What’s wrong with that? Again, the odds that in all the vastness of our Milky Way Galaxy we should happen to be the first, is unlikely in the extreme. Our Solar System is but 4.5 billion years old; our Galaxy is way, way, way, way older than that.

They exist but don’t care to explore space, to seek out new life and new civilizations. They don’t want to boldly go or seek communications. They want to be left alone – isolationists. What’s wrong with that? That might be true for one, or several alien civilizations, but to extrapolate and suggest that that applies across the board to each and every extraterrestrial civilization is illogical.

They boldly go, but haven’t come our way yet. What’s wrong with that? Again, it doesn’t take that long to explore the entire Galaxy. It would be a fluke if we hadn’t of been noted and logged in some other civilization’s database.

They’re here, but leave us alone. What’s wrong with that? Again, that might be true for one, or several alien civilizations, but to extrapolate and suggest that that applies across the board again strikes me as illogical. There is such a thing called the Zoo Hypothesis to explain the Fermi Paradox. It’s both a Star Trek ‘Prime Directive’ concept combined with that of a zoo. Aliens (the zoo keepers) don’t interfere with us (though of course every now and then the zoo keepers have to interact with the animals (humans) in the zoo), don’t allow others to interfere with us, yet probably wouldn’t allow us to escape the cage (meaning probably the confines of our solar system – I mean we have been allowed to travel to the Moon).

They’re here and interact with us and our environment - UFOs anyone? What’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing!

UFOs are a perfect answer to the Fermi Paradox!

Further readings: The Fermi Paradox

Hart, Michael H. & Zuckerman, Ben (Editors); Extraterrestrials: Where Are They?; Pergamon Press, N.Y.; 1982:

Hart, Michael H. & Zuckerman, Ben (Editors); Extraterrestrials: Where Are They? [2^nd edition]; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; 1995:

Verma, Surendra; Why Aren’t They Here? The Question of Life on Other Worlds; Icon Books, Cambridge; 2007:

Webb, Stephen; Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life; Copernicus Books, N.Y.; 2002:

UFOs: Speculations off the Deep End

If bona-fide UFOs are extraterrestrial visitations, then it’s highly improbable that our generation would be the generation to be privy to said visitations. In all probability, such visitations should have and would have extended back into historical times, ancient times, and pre-historical times; in fact they could extend right back to when Planet Earth was just a lifeless ball of solidifying molten rock.  They – the extraterrestrials - could have taken an active role in shaping terrestrial evolution while considering themselves stewards of Planet Earth.

If one accepts the idea that UFOs are extraterrestrial spaceships, and one accepts the idea that extraterrestrials have been around for quite some considerable time (ancient astronauts), then one can and should extrapolate back in our planet’s history even further and postulate that they might have been around for most, if not all of our geological history.

This essay is totally speculative; it’s time to really jump off the deep end. The general gist of the speculation centres on the idea that, an answer to the Fermi Paradox, ‘where is everybody?’ is that IMHO, ‘They’re heeeere.’ UFOs, well the bona fide UFOs (those that retain their ‘unidentified’ status after proper investigation) are a manifestation of extraterrestrial visitation to Planet Earth. That extraterrestrial – Planet Earth connection goes back a long, long way.

And, I think we’re property!

Panspermia is the idea that simple, microbial life can be transported around the cosmos via natural means. For example, meteorites can carry spores inside them and when they intersect a suitable abode, seed said abode. That’s ballistic panspermia. There’s also direct panspermia. That’s where the seeding is done not naturally, but artificially – by intelligent life forms or extraterrestrials as far as we are concerned.

If we accept that direct panspermia is a possibility; that there could be alien Johnny Appleseeds out there deliberately seeding barren but otherwise environmentally suitable (as in bio-friendly) planets, and if we accept that Earth would have been noted, logged and in the cosmic databank way before humans were thought of in anyone’s philosophy, and we accept the possibility as outlined in the introduction to The War of the Worlds that Earth life might be to aliens what “creatures that swim and multiple in a drop of water” are to us, well, maybe we’re the petrii dish! We were seeded, we evolved, and we’re under the microscope. [Actually the Appleseed bit is optional for the following discussion, though it might help account for a ‘we are property’ attitude.]

Panspermia doesn’t invalidate Darwinian evolution, although it might be difficult from the fossil record to distinguish natural from artificial selection, in case aliens took a hand in guiding life’s pathways along. The only possible evidence I could see for that might be evolutionary biologist and palaeontologist (the late) Stephen Jay Gould’s evolutionary theory of ‘punctuated-equilibrium’ where life forms exist for lengthy periods of time where hardly any evolution happens, interspersed with brief time periods where all evolutionary hell breaks loose and there’s rapid change.

By analogy, one can look at the canine branch of the tree of life. It’s probably been fairly steady-as-she-goes for millions of years, then ‘all of a sudden’ dogs of all shapes and sizes and breeds appear. It’s a punctuated-equilibrium happening. Why? Humans, that’s why. It’s not natural selection but quick-smart artificial selection. Dogs aren’t the only example – all manner of crops, tropical and goldfish breeds, and any and all manner of organisms that take human’s fancy have been subjected to artificial selection for reasons ranging from the highly desirable (drought resistant wheat) to the totally frivolous (goldfish with ultra-bludging eyes; dog breeds who resemble their wolf cousins as closely as chalk resembles cheese). Well, perhaps, in terms of the abduction scenario, we strike ET’s fancy!    

Okay, so that’s a hypothesis. Surely sceptics would argue that aliens would have prevented the asteroid that slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago resulting in a mass extinction event that included all the non-avian dinosaurs. Well, not necessarily. We don’t watch our lab animals around the clock. Our aliens might have been off duty, on R&R, 65 million years ago. Maybe they only pop around once every 10,000 years or so to check on things and thus totally missed the big extinction event. Or, they may have deliberately let it collide, not because of any non-interference directive, but because the event was part of the natural scheme of things and wanted to see what would happen – a natural experiment. I mean we’ve no qualms about introducing a penicillin bullet into a microbe inhabited petrii dish just to see what happens. We also rarely interfere in the natural scheme of wildlife biology. I mean we may film a pack of hyenas chasing down and killing their prey for a TV documentary, but we don’t interfere. 

If aliens allowed that mass extinction, if aliens seeded Earth, if aliens indulged in prehistoric artificial selection, then aliens might be taking a hands-on approach (abductions anyone?) with regards to our species. But surely, sceptics would argue, we are an intelligent species, several cuts above microbes and plants and fish and such. Surely aliens wouldn’t think of us as lab rats and study us in that War of the Worlds cold and calculating manner? Would they? I wouldn’t bet on it.

Quite apart from us humans breeding, raising, artificially selecting, and either slaughtering, hunting or experimenting on lesser mammalian species, even those quite evolutionary close to us, a hardly uncommon practice and totally encouraged by the Bible by the way, we equally hunt and slaughter and experiment on species we know to be intelligent – like apes and whales. And we can hardly pat ourselves on the back in our treatment of fellow humans. Quite apart from illegal homicides (as in murder) and legal homicides (like sanctioned warfare or executions), there’s the treatments dished out by the Inquisition (all in the name of God). Then there’s, for your consideration, the experimentation the Nazis did on undesirables; actually producing useful, even valuable medical knowledge in the process – knowledge in the textbooks studied by today’s medical students. The military is well known for using the common troops as unknowing (and probably unwilling if they had known) guinea pigs or cannon fodder, in particular when it came to CBR (chemical – biological – radiological) warfare. Drugs, sooner or later, have to be tested on humans. Someone – actually a group of someone’s – has to be the first guinea pig. “As we sow, so shall we reap”, I believe the saying goes. So, if we can’t take any moral high ground, how can we assume aliens would? Aliens, even if not quite in the Klingon or Romulan class, shouldn’t of necessity be expected to be all lovey-dovey and all caring. They could easily be quite amoral. It’s not invasion, but it’s equally not diplomatic relations. Perhaps they consider us as their property!

I’d like to explore this idea that we (i.e. – Planet Earth) are property. Is it so outrageous to think that one day some private mining magnate may buy (actually probably lay claim to) a mineral rich asteroid, or will all Solar System real estate be forever kept out of private ownership? What about the greater beyond – real estate in interstellar space? If a group of private citizens travel to Vega or Sirius or Tau Ceti or Epsilon Eridani with a view to becoming interstellar real estate entrepreneurs, who’s going to stop them laying claim to one or more of the planets that might be orbiting around these stars? - The United Nations? I think not. If there happen to be any natives in the vicinity, perhaps our entrepreneurs might negotiate with these alien locals to somehow buy (or barter more likely as not) for an entire planet. And is there anything fundamentally different in principle between buying or settling a quarter acre block vis-à-vis an entire planet? 

But surely the presence of indigenous life forms would make a difference. Wanna bet? You buy a corn field – the corn plants get no say. You purchase a dairy farm with dairy cows or a racing stable stocked with horses – they equally get no say. You buy a home – the indigenous residents of termites, cockroaches and rodents get no say. You could buy a remote island complete with indigenous wildlife – which of course has no say in the matter. Now I ‘own’ two cats. I am responsible for them under the law. They don’t know that. If they did know that they’d probably object in the strongest possible way, like scratch my eyes out! Still, they are property and no correspondence can be entered into on the matter. So, we own other lower life forms and they don’t know it. Maybe a higher life form owns us, and we don’t know it!

But surely there must be some interstellar code against owning an abode with intelligent life on it. Why? And how intelligent does the intelligence have to be? - Octopus level? - Parrot level? - At dolphin level? - Maybe at gorilla level? I just think that owning a planet having intelligence on it doesn’t cut any ice, especially if possession occurred before that intelligence evolved or the intelligence in question isn’t in any position to argue the point.  This doesn’t mean the owners have invasion or occupation as an agenda. As with the Zoo Hypothesis (we’re the animals in the zoo; aliens are the zoo keepers), you can buy a zoo and be kind to the residents or study the residents, even experiment on the residents of the zoo. But for the most part, the owners leave 99.9% of the locals alone 99.9% of the time – but the residents are still property.

The alleged alien occupants of UFOs leave 99.9% of us humans alone, 99.9% of the time. Maybe they see us as property, maybe they don’t. But there’s nothing in the concept that belongs exclusively in The Twilight Zone.  

The ‘we are property (in a zoo)’ hypothesis explains the Fermi Paradox; it explains the observations that UFOs are no threat to national security; it explains the lack of any alien invasion; it explains the lack of any alien’s ‘take me to your leader’ scenario; it explains the general UFO abduction phenomena*; it probably accounts for the overall ‘cattle’ mutilation area. It doesn’t explain crop circles - unless one would equate them with the sort of diversions, toys, monkey bars, bird swings and other associated furniture you can find in any pet store that we give to amuse our own owned animals. Or, alternatively, perhaps crop circles are akin to the sort of symbols (pictograms) behavioural scientists have used in experiments in communicating with apes and monkeys.

*The UFO abduction phenomena makes sense in that it mirrors what wildlife biologists often do in the field – capture, study, tag and release.

The Colonization of Space

We have seen via the Fermi Paradox that without any violation in the laws of physics, and given even modest technological assumptions, that the time that it takes to explore and colonize our galaxy (The Milky Way) is but a small fraction of the age of the Milky Way Galaxy. So where is everybody? Where are our cosmic neighbours? Let’s now assume that there is no everybody, or anybody, or neighbours, just us. We’re the proverbial “It” and the galaxy beckons as our cosmic playground. So what happens next? Do we boldly go, or do our machines?

UFO sceptics would have you believe that interstellar space travel is at best highly improbable, and at worst impossible. Therefore, UFOs cannot represent the technology of a space-faring race of extraterrestrials. Hogwash! Unfortunately for the sceptics, fact number one is that one doesn’t need any wormhole or theoretical ‘warp drive’ or other ‘Star Trek’ type techno-babble to explore the galaxy and boldly go where no alien has gone before.  Sure, space is really BIG! Planet Earth was really BIG to human society many centuries ago, but that didn’t stop the planet being explored from pole to pole, even if individual journeys took many years. And bacteria, insects, birds, and other life forms preceded us in exploring and colonizing Planet Earth. Terrestrial analogies aside, what if you have an alien race with life spans way, way surpassing ours?  Then there’s a possible likely alternative, a bit of the old genetic engineering to increase life expectancy? Or there’s the likelihood of enhanced bioengineering (part flesh; part machine) to accomplish the same goal. What if an exploring race were to adopt those old stand-by sci-fi concepts of suspended animation or a multi-generation interstellar spaceship?

But when crunch comes crunch, sure space is really BIG, but it is also very old. There’s lots of time available to explore and colonize starting a few light years outward at a time. Consolidate, and then expand some more. Repeat as often as required. The time it would take to explore and colonize the Milky Way Galaxy (that is, via interstellar travel) is but a small fraction of the age of that galaxy even if a race of ET’s never travelled at more that say 1% to 10% the speed of light. Such velocities, while pretty fast by our current abilities, shouldn’t be beyond the means of a technologically advanced race. Consult any elementary astronomy text for the relevant distances and volumes and ages and do the calculations for yourself if you doubt this.

And once here (within easy reach of, or in our solar system), having a nearby base of operations as it were, one can easily have a whole plethora of UFOs visiting Earth on a regular or routine basis.  It’s not a case of one UFO taking ten thousand years to visit, then returning home taking another ten thousand years in the process, and having hundreds or thousands of such alien spacecraft doing the same. If you want to explore the South Pole over the long term, you don’t make a daily commute from Sydney or New York – you set up a long-term base camp near or at the South Pole! 

If there are no advanced extraterrestrial races out there, and that’s a possibility that has to be considered, then eventually we’ll reach that hypothetical level of technology that we current assume aliens might have. Now while such significant, but still subluminal velocities are beyond the capacity of the human race today, eventually, perhaps 1000 years from now, maybe more, maybe less, we’ll advance towards and attain that level of technological sophistication. And 1000 years (give or take) is but a nanosecond in terms of cosmic and galactic time frames. Recall the level of technological sophistication humanity had 1000 years ago! Leaps and bounds have been made since then, and then some. What will another 1000 years bring?

[Note that intergalactic space travel (one galaxy to another galaxy) is quite another can of worms. The distance from one side of our galaxy to the other is tiny relative to the vast distances to our neighbouring galaxies. Even Star Trek stayed within our own galaxy, and they had warp drive!]

When viewing what exploration of space we’ve achieved to date, we note that the first pioneers weren’t the right stuff, flesh-and-blood human beings, but devices composed of hardier stuff, like metals and plastics. An orbiting metallic Sputnik preceded any journeys by Russian cosmonauts. The unmanned lunar surveyors preceded Project Apollo. Unmanned space probes have landed on Mars, Venus, Titan, boldly going where no human has yet even remotely ventured. And so that will probably be true as well as humanity extends its reach beyond our solar system.

Way back when, human society was mainly a rural one with manual back-breaking existences, not only for man, but animal as well. Then came the industrial revolution and labour got easier and machines took on more and more of the burden. Our mental burdens got easier too. We don’t have to read anymore as we have radio, TV, talking books and DVDs. We don’t have to add and subtract – calculators do it for us. We don’t need to spell as our PCs come equipped with spell checkers. Our technology isn’t just making our muscles less necessary, but our brains as well. And while human muscles and the human brain haven’t increased much in strength or potential intellectual capacity over the past multi-thousands of years, our technological muscles and brains have. It’s been pointed out that the average home PC today has vastly more ‘brain power’ than the computers used to guide Apollo to the Moon. And how many of us could beat a computer at chess, or checkers? Silicon chips are becoming ‘intelligent’ at a vastly faster rate than the brain stuff we are made out of - CHON (Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen & Nitrogen). Silicon’s ‘brain cells’ or computer chips, and the software to utilize them are becoming ever more sophisticated and at a rapid rate of knots. We’ve all seen a sci-fi robot, android, whatever. The phrase ‘artificial intelligence’ has entered into common usage.  How much longer before science fiction becomes science fact and silicon software replaces carbon wetware? 

The question has been posed whether or not artificial intelligence is the next logical evolutional step. And while humans may remain in control (or maybe not), they will be dependant on that technology, of that you can be assured. So, the question arises, why send CHON flesh-and-blood into space when silicon chips and software will do, and do better? It’s been argued that artificial intelligence can make the trip to the stars on our behalf. They don’t need life support – food, oxygen, a narrow range of temperatures, sleep, gravity, or as much protection from radiation, etc. They can exist on a minimal energy source, nuclear most likely.

It’s been postulated that artificial intelligent space probes could explore the cosmos, land on suitable abodes and using the local resources found there (minerals, metals, available energy supplies, etc.), ‘reproduce’ themselves from internal programming given before the fact, and thus spread throughout the galaxy. Such probes are called von Neumann probes, after the famous mathematician who advanced the idea.  Meantime, while they do all the dangerous dirty work, we humans just continue to inhabit Terra and live the good life.

Two objections can be raised to a galaxy filled with space travelling artificial intelligences. Firstly, it’s going to take a lot to extinguish the human spirit of exploration. We want to experience the cosmos, and exploring via a surrogate isn’t going to cut the mustard in the long term.

Secondly, I find it difficult to visualize a space probe, however artificially intelligent, that can somehow reproduce itself from scratch using the raw resources of another planet. I find that a pretty tall order.  Just visualize the various technological processes that would require. It would have to be able to mine, perform smelting operations, manufacturing, fine detailed precision work, all at various locations etc. I won’t say it can’t happen, but I somehow doubt it will happen.

All up, while silicone and steel might be the pathfinders, CHON, even if it’s alien CHON, will ultimately explore, colonize and rule the galaxy. Again, for the purposes of explaining the Fermi Paradox, there exists no extraterrestrial CHON, only terrestrial CHON, so that explains the ‘where is everybody?’ question.

Artificial intelligence apart, human beings have taken control of their own evolution, it’s no longer just natural selection, but artificial enhancement. For quite some considerable time now, we’ve augmented our flesh-and-blood with artificial materials and devices, cosmetic and life enhancing – plastic heart valves, hearing aids, artificial joints, wigs, dentures, etc. And while not quite artificial in terms of non-organic materials and devices, we now have artificial selection in the sense of genetic engineering, the era of the designer baby.

So, sooner or later, humanity’s flesh-and-blood, assuming we’re still flesh-and-blood and not composed mainly of sturdier materials (CHON plus iron and silicon and plastics and ceramics, etc.), we will desire to get away from it all (Earth and our solar system). That’s true even if we have evolved into something more akin to a hybrid of the biological and the artificial, and/or evolved ourself into a race of quasi-supermen (and women). 

But desire is one thing. Might there be something even stronger forcing us to ‘boldly go’?

So what’s that other more seriously driving incentive to ‘boldly go…’? I mean scientific curiosity is all well and good, but it’s going to be expensive to satisfy that curiosity. Wanting to vacation on some idyllic planet around another star system is fine, but extra-solar tourism is a luxury, not a necessity. There is another incentive, a far more powerful one, and that is survival. No star lasts forever. Sooner or later, our star is going to make our existence a misery. In fact, sooner or later, our sun will be the death of us all. If humans are still around when that peril makes itself apparent, we’ll need to escape to another star system. Finding a suitable one is going to call for us to be ‘boldly going…’! Of course other earlier disaster scenarios could force us to flee sooner – the threat of a swarm of killer comets dislodged from either the Oort Cloud and/or the Kuiper Belt heading our way or the likelihood of a nearby star going supernova would give us incentive to get the hell out of here!

Further readings:

Gilster, Paul; Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration; Copernicus Books, New York; 2004:

Macvey, John W.; Interstellar Travel: Past, Present, and Future; Stein and Day, New York; 1977:

Exobiology: Bibliography: Part Two

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. To investigate life-in-the-Universe one needs a solid grounding in the relevant literature. A comprehensive relevant bibliography would run to many thousands of pages and be rather off-putting. So, perhaps something on a slightly smaller scale might be more in order to help the novice get started. 

For something that doesn’t yet exist, extraterrestrial life, intelligent or otherwise, has hatched a massive amount of literature, both technical and popular, in English and otherwise. There are speculative books, articles, documentaries, etc. that number in the tens of thousands. Add the sci-fi contributions into the mix, and you have tens of thousands more entries. Here are just a few more samplings of some of the non-fictional monographs that have touched on some of the topics raised so far.

Further Readings: Intelligent Life on the Moon

Leonard, George H.; Somebody Else Is On the Moon; David McKay Company, Inc., New York; 1976: 

Wilson, Don; Our Mysterious Spaceship Moon; Dell, Publishing Co., Inc., New York; 1975: 

Wilson, Don; Secrets of Our Spaceship Moon; Sphere Books Limited, London; 1980:

Further Readings: Our Solar System

Brack, Andre & Clancy, Paul & Horneck, Gerda; Looking for Life, Searching the Solar System; Cambridge University Press, New York; 2005: 

Carle, Glenn C. & Huntington, Judith L. & Schwartz, Deborah E. (Editors); Exobiology in Solar System Exploration; NASA SP 512; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.; 1992:

Horowitz, Norman H.; To Utopia and Back: The Search for Life in the Solar System; W.H. Freeman and Company, New York; 1986: 

Ponnamperuma, Cyril (Editor); Chemical Evolution of the Giant Planets; Academic Press, Inc., New York; 1976:

Further Readings: Mars

DiGregorio, Barry E. & Levin, Gilbert V. & Straat, Patricia Ann; Mars: The Living Planet; Frog, Ltd., Berkeley, California; 1997: 

Goldsmith, Donald; The Hunt for Life on Mars; Dutton, New York; 1997:

Sawyer, Kathy; The Rock from Mars: A Detective Story on Two Planets; Random House, New York; 2006:

Further Readings: Intelligent Life on Mars

Carlotto, Mark J.; The Martian Enigmas: A Closer Look; North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California; 1991: 

Hoagland, Richard C.; The Monuments of Mars: A City On the Edge of Forever; North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, California; 1987:

Further Readings: Europa & Titan

Greenberg, Richard; Europa, the Ocean Moon: Search for an Alien Biosphere for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon; Springer- Praxis Books, New York; 2005:

Greenberg, Richard; Unmasking Europa: The Search for Life on Jupiter’s Ocean Moon; Copernicus Books/Praxis Publishing Ltd, New York; 2008:

Lorenz, Ralph & Mitton, Jacqueline; Titan Unveiled: Saturn’s Mysterious Moon Explored; Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey; 2008:

Further Readings: The Rare Earth Hypothesis

Brownlee, Donald & Ward, Peter D.; Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe; Copernicus Books, New York; 2000:

Further Readings: Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Gould, Stephen Jay; Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History; Vintage, London: 2000: 

Morris, Simon Conway; The Crucible of Creation; Oxford University Press, New York; 1998:

Morris, Simon Conway; Life’s Solution: Inevitable Humans In A Lonely Universe; Cambridge University Press, New York; 2003:

Seielstad, George A.; At the Heart of the Web: The Inevitable Genesis of Intelligent Life; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, Boston; 1989:

Further Readings: SETI

Davies, Paul; The Eerie Silence: Are We Alone in the Universe?;

Allen Lane, London

; 2010:

Drake, Frank & Sobel, Dava; Is Anyone Out There? The Scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; Delacorte Press; New York; 1992: 

McConnell, Brian; Beyond Contact: A Guide to SETI and Communicating with Alien Civilizations; O’Reilly & Associates, Sebastopol, California; 2001:

McDonough, Thomas R.; The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: Listening for Life in the Cosmos; John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York; 1987:

SETI Institute Science & Technology Working Group; SETI 2020: A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; SETI Press, Mountain View, California; 2002:

Shostak, Seth; Confessions of An Alien Hunter: A Scientist’s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence; National Geographic, Washington, D.C.; 2009:

Further Readings: Exploration and Colonization of Interstellar Space

Gilster, Paul; Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration; Copernicus Books, New York; 2004:

Macvey, John W.; Interstellar Travel: Past, Present, and Future; Stein and Day, New York; 1977:

Further Readings:  The Fermi Paradox

Hart, Michael H. & Zuckerman, Ben (Editors); Extraterrestrials: Where Are They?; Pergamon Press, N.Y.; 1982:

Hart, Michael H. & Zuckerman, Ben (Editors); Extraterrestrials: Where Are They? [2^nd edition]; Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; 1995:

Verma, Surendra; Why Aren’t They Here? The Question of Life on Other Worlds; Icon Books, Cambridge; 2007:

Webb, Stephen; Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life; Copernicus Books, N.Y.; 2002:

Further Readings: Ancient Astronauts

Blumrich, Josef F.; The Spaceships of Ezekiel; Bantam Books, New York; 1974: 

Castle, Edgar W. & Thiering, Barry B. (Joint Editors); Some Trust in Chariots!!; Westbooks, Perth, W.A.; 1972:

Daniken, Erich von; Chariots of the Gods? Unsolved Mysteries of the Past; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; 1969:

Daniken, Erich von; Gods from Outer Space: Return to the Stars or Evidence for the Impossible; G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York; 1971:

Daniken, Erich von; In Search of Ancient Gods: My Pictorial Evidence for the Impossible; Souvenir Press, London; 1974:

Downing, Barry H.; The Bible & Flying Saucers; Avon Books, New York; 1968:

Drake, W. Raymond; Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient East; Sphere Books, London; 1974:

Drake, W. Raymond; Gods and Spacemen in the Ancient West; Sphere Books, London; 1974:

Norman, Eric; Gods Demons and UFOs; Lancer Books, New York; 1970:

Story, Ronald; Guardians of the Universe?; New English Library, London; 1980: 

Story, Ronald; The Space-Gods Revealed: A Close Look at the Theories of Erich von Daniken; Harper & Row, New York; 1976: 

Temple, Robert K.G.; The Sirius Mystery; Sidgwick & Jackson, London; 1976:

Wilson, Clifford; Crash Go the Chariots; Lancer Books, New York; 1972:

Wilson, Clifford; The Chariots Still Crash; Signet, New York; 1975:

Wilson, Clifford; The War of the Chariots; S. John Bacon, Melbourne, Victoria; 1978:

Exobiology: The Fermi Paradox: Where Is Everybody?

Exobiology was the original term given to the sciences central to the question of life-in-the-Universe. It’s now been largely replaced by Astrobiology, but I’ll stick with the original. To investigate life-in-the-Universe one needs to look at what the most likely distribution of extraterrestrial life will be apart from Little Green Microbes. Assuming one or more extraterrestrial civilizations with advanced, interstellar spaceflight capability exists; then they must know about Planet Earth. So, as physicist Enrico Fermi asked, “Where is everybody?”

The concept that aliens have and are visiting Planet Earth is plausible in both theory and observation. The theoretical part is often called the Fermi Paradox (after physicist Enrico Fermi). The Fermi Paradox goes something like this: Extraterrestrial intelligences with advanced technology and interstellar spaceflight capability exist. Sub-light interstellar spaceflight violates no laws of physics. Adopting the mantra of quantum physics, ‘anything that’s not forbidden is compulsory’. The time it takes to explore every nook and cranny of our Milky Way Galaxy via sub-light interstellar spaceflight is a tiny fraction of the age of the Galaxy. There’s at least one universally valid reason to boldly go – species survival. No star, no solar system lives forever. We (Planet Earth) can’t hide from alien exploration and/or colonization; we can’t hide from potential alien eyes. So, where is everybody?

By analogy, terrestrial life forms like bacteria, ants and cockroaches, birds, and of course humans, have explored and colonized Planet Earth in tiny fractions of the time that Earth itself has existed. So again, where is everybody? The ‘paradox’ part comes into the picture only if you maintain that they should be here and they’re not. If they’re here, or have been here there’s no paradox. Of course in the exceedingly unlikely event there is no ‘they’, never has been, well that too resolves the ‘paradox’.  

So where is everybody?

I can hear screams of ‘objection, objection’ now. It’s obviously too far and takes too long to get from there (wherever that is) to here. Well, life wasn’t meant to be easy!

Firstly, aliens could have a very long natural lifespan relative to us carbon-based terrestrial bipeds. There’s no natural law that confines intelligent life forms to an existence of just three score and ten.

Secondly, advanced extraterrestrials may have perfected various hibernation techniques. Put your spaceship on autopilot and sleep the long journey away. 

Thirdly, there’s that way old sci-fi chestnut, the multi-generation interstellar spaceship. While I feel that’s an unlikely concept, especially for exploration, it might not be quite so far out if the objective is interstellar colonization.

Then there’s bioengineering, turning an organic body into something that’s more machine than flesh and blood, perhaps akin to Doctor Who’s Daleks. Given advances in artificial body parts for humans, albeit it hip replacements or dentures or even mundane tooth fillings, that’s certainly a valid possibility.

Fifthly, why stop there? Send 100% machines – artificial intelligences in the form of cybernetic ‘organisms’ or robots or androids or tiny nanotechnology machines. Think of the savings in not having to provide life support and other life essentials for biological organisms. We’ve made a start already down this path with our Pioneer 10 & 11; our Voyager space probes. The day will come when our Pioneers and Voyagers will morph into something approaching artificial intelligence (AI). Since AI is nearly immortal (relative to flesh and blood), that takes care of travel time arguments, and the possible environments fit for relative easy exploration (colonization?) are expanded greatly.  

Lastly, maybe, just maybe, a sort of warp drive, faster-than-light ship is possible. Aliens whose science is thousands of years more advanced than ours just might have gotten around Einstein’s speed limit. I wouldn’t want to wager any money on it, but I’d be less than open minded not to admit the possibility, however remote.  Add to that, theoretical but allowable ‘gateways’ between distant points of our Universe, maybe even to other universes – wormholes and Black Holes. Maybe, just maybe, an advanced alien civilization has the ways and means to manipulate such objects and forces to facilitate easy travel in space (and time too maybe).  An excellent hardcore science based sci-fi novel that doesn’t rely on pseudo techno-babble that illustrates this is Carl Sagan’s “Contact”.

So yet again, where is everybody?

Let’s examine the possibilities in greater detail. Answers include (but aren’t really limited to) general concepts that suggest that…

They don’t exist; never have and never will. What’s wrong with that? Well, given the vastness (100,000 light-years across) and timelessness (over 12 billions of years minimum) of our Milky Way Galaxy’s entire expanse, the odds that we are the proverbial IT, the one and only, is extremely unlikely. It’s a massive violation of the Principle of Mediocrity or the Copernican Principle.

We’re the first kids on the block, not the new kids on the block. What’s wrong with that? Again, the odds that in all the vastness of our Milky Way Galaxy we should happen to be the first, is unlikely in the extreme. Our Solar System is but 4.5 billion years old; our Galaxy is way, way, way, way older than that.

They exist but don’t care to explore space, to seek out new life and new civilizations. They don’t want to boldly go or seek communications. They want to be left alone – isolationists. What’s wrong with that? That might be true for one, or several alien civilizations, but to extrapolate and suggest that that applies across the board to each and every extraterrestrial civilization is illogical.

They boldly go, but haven’t come our way yet. What’s wrong with that? Again, it doesn’t take that long to explore the entire Galaxy. It would be a fluke if we hadn’t of been noted and logged in some other civilization’s database.

They’re here, but leave us alone. What’s wrong with that? Again, that might be true for one, or several alien civilizations, but to extrapolate and suggest that that applies across the board again strikes me as illogical. There is such a thing called the Zoo Hypothesis to explain the Fermi Paradox. It’s both a Star Trek ‘Prime Directive’ concept combined with that of a zoo. Aliens (the zoo keepers) don’t interfere with us (though of course every now and then the zoo keepers have to interact with the animals (humans) in the zoo), don’t allow others to interfere with us, yet probably wouldn’t allow us to escape the cage (meaning probably the confines of our solar system – I mean we have been allowed to travel to the Moon).

They’re here and interact with us and our environment - UFOs anyone? What’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing!

UFOs are a perfect answer to the Fermi Paradox!

In conclusion, “Where is everybody?", that Fermi paradox that extraterrestrials should be here, yet there is no indisputable evidence to support that idea. Or is there? Those pesky UFOs just will not go away!