The intentions of extra terrestrials

I wanted to take some time to write about an interesting conversation on extra terrestrials I had with some friends.

I visited my friends Ben and Michelle this past weekend along with my wife, Caiti, and friends, Ryan and Drew. Our conversations took the usual course through movies, video games, etc and ended up in the stars and of course the possibility of extra terrestrial life visiting earth. We then inevitably discussed what the intentions of those extra terrestrials may be.

We crossed the usual theories you hear most anywhere: that they want to help us by eventually passing on knowledge, or the more frighting theory that they are here to invade or steal our resources, all of which are valid theories discussed by the scientific community.

My theory is one that I haven't really heard discussed in detail (or at all really), probably because it's so simple and it takes away a lot of the fantasy that UFO enthusiasts hold so dear.

In my opinion I think we're giving ourselves too much credit in thinking that we're a species that an alien race would want to make contact with. If you understand the distance between our galaxy and any neighboring galaxies (roughly 2 million or so light years to Andromeda for example) then you have to accept that a race with the ability to visit our galaxy from such an expanse would have to be unfathomably advanced.

Now take a step back and look at the human race in general. Our society is still poisoned by racism, territorial-ism, greed. For much of what we consider "modern times" we've been at war. It's not too far of a stretch to say that we just hate each other.

Our space exploration, while impressive to me, still pales in comparison to being able to somehow cross millions of light years to visit other galaxies.

So what's my point? My point is that in comparison to such an advanced extra terrestrial race, we are pretty much animals and we are merely being observed as such. It's the same as when we venture into the jungle to observe apes, or to the African Savannah to look at big cats. What do you think goes through the minds of wild animals when they encounter a remote camera we've set up, or even our vehicles? I'd imagine it's the same sort of curiosity we have when we see a UFO in the night sky. Like the animals that catch us observing them, I think UFO's and other extra terrestrial phenomenon is just too far from our understanding to comprehend.

So why just come and observe us? I think it's for curiosities sake and the same thirst for knowledge we share. If you compare earth to the countless other barren planets of the universe our world is a fascinating place. Our planet is covered with thriving life, even in extremes where there should be none. Much of what NASA does these days is sending out probes to other worlds of our galaxy in the search for bacterial life. Can you imagine the excitement we would experience if we discovered a planet teeming with as many life forms as earth? Of course we would want to study it. I'm sure for the extra terrestrials visiting us that earth is a fascinating find and warrants the need for study. Especially if their own galaxy is as filled with barren worlds as ours is.

Okay so what about the thousands of people claiming to have been abducted by Aliens, are they liars? Not necessarily. I actually believe there is truth to this. Again looking at my comparison of ourselves and how we observe wild animals, we do the same thing. Is the scenario of someone being taken aboard a spacecraft to be studied any different than when we take an animal out of the wild to catalog it?

Some people claim to have had implants inserted in their bodies. We do that to animals too, mainly for cataloging and tracking purposes. This theory actually reminds me of the scene from the movie Happy Feet where the bird with a yellow tag around his foot claims that aliens took him and placed it there.

Then there are people who claim to have been given information, or shared visions, or even taught special tasks. I don't necessarily think this a lie, I just feel that if such a thing took place it was probably in the interest of experimentation. Again we've done similar communication experiments with Dolphins, and lab rats are taught different tasks and trials every day.

Now I'm not saying that extra terrestrials have labeled us on the same level as monkey's. Such an advanced race would surely be able to recognize that we've developed vocal communication and our technology, while primitive to them I'm sure, is still a far cry from the tools a jungle ape may have created. I'm just saying that at our current level of society there would be little benefit to them trying to openly interact with us as a whole. It's better for them at this point to just observe us as another life form of planet earth.

Who knows how our society would react to an open announcement from extra terrestrials. Would we attack them? Maybe they think so, it's a valid possibility, it is our nature after all to fear or hate people we don't understand. You can say "that's not me," hell, I say that about myself, but can our society as a whole say it?

Are we simply monkeys dressed in suits? If not then perhaps we should work on abandoning our self centered attitudes, hatred and fear. Until then I think we'll keep our space in the Alien's catalog as a close cousin to the Gorilla.