Extraterrestrial Contact: Negative Scenarios
My cat is quite jumpy. He was born feral and even though he lives in the house, even I can cause him to jump from time to time. It’s for good reason. There are plenty of things out there that would like to eat a cat. Caution is what keeps him alive. Caution is also what keeps humans alive. I suppose you could call it reasonable fear. So, it’s hard to fault anyone for having concerns about extraterrestrial First Contact. If it ever does occur, alien visitors could just as easily harbor ill will towards us as they could practice beneficence. As I have mentioned before, I think it is even more likely that aliens would have a complicated mix of motives, many of which could be hard for us to understand. Even good intentions on their part could be quite harmful to the human civilization. So, caution on the part of humans would be important for keeping our human civilization alive and healthy. A group of researchers published some scenarios for First Contact recently in Acta Astronautica. They point out that developing scenarios is important in preparing a risk analysis for First Contact. They also delve into the more complex side of scenarios, points that most writers ignore. So, in the spirit of the article I suggest these possibilities, on the negative side:
-Outright aggression: This is the Hollywood classic attack on planet Earth. It seems unlikely we would get any advance notice.
-Extreme hidden deception: A favorite of conspiracy folks, this scenario involves a secret alien invasion of the covert type that subverts our government and other institutions.
-Extreme outright deception: In this event the aliens would come out and say hello, but in reality have a destructive hidden agenda. Think of the television series “V.”
-Hidden manipulation: A bit different from hidden deception. This would involve the aliens making secret treaties with one nation or group of nations, to the detriment of others.
-Outright manipulation: A public welcome aimed at one particular nation or group of nations. It would be designed to show open allegiance to one particular style of government, religion or culture. It could be used to support a wider agenda.
-Subtle manipulation: A public welcome for the entire world and then a slow and subtle move towards supporting particular governments, religions or cultures on Earth. This might be the most dangerous, because it would be hard to recognize at first.
-Agenda setting: In this scenario, the aliens want us to behave in a certain way. It could be benign, as in encouraging us to take better care of our environment, or intrusive, perhaps supporting a religious or philosophical view they have.
-Galactic political manipulation: If there are many extraterrestrial civilizations out there, and if they have regular contact with each other, there could very well be political conflict between those civilizations. First Contact with Earth could be a first step in trying to influence humans in a much larger political arena; one that we never knew existed. This would be extremely dangerous for us in the long-term. We could be forced to get all of our information about galactic politics from the one set of visitors, with no access to objective information. This scenario could be much worse if active warfare is waged as part of that galactic political conflict. We could get drawn into a military conflict that we do not understand and without the technology to protect ourselves.
-They don’t give a damn about us: This might seem like a neutral scenario, but it could have negative consequences. Perhaps we discover an extraterrestrial civilization, even one passing nearby, and yet they want nothing to do with us (there is a classic science fiction story with this exact premise: Arthur C. Clarke’s “Rendezvous with Rama”). We are left with the information that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are out there, with very little knowledge about their intentions or numbers or level of technology. That would be scary. How would we react? Would we go into a frenzy of planetary defense building? See the own worst enemy entry coming up for the rest of the story.
-Good intentions, bad results: The aliens could come with perfectly noble intentions, such as providing us with the technology to solve our energy problems and helping us protect our environment. However, that information could be damaging to our systems of science, research and discovery. We could become dependent on alien knowledge and flaccid in the areas of research. Such a process could undermine human civilization in ways that we cannot imagine.
-Our own worst enemy: I’m going to call this the most likely negative scenario. In this event, the aliens don’t do anything negative and yet we have dangerous conflict between nations on Earth, as we attempt to deal with the new reality and as we fight for advantage. Conflict of some sort between nations is inevitable After First Contact. The true question is if we will allow that conflict to grow and be destructive, or whether we will use the conflict as a thoughtful debate that helps us to make better decisions and move forward.
These scenarios are not pretty and in some circumstances they could cause an early demise for humanity. So, what do we do? I propose that we act exactly like my cat. He knows that there are plenty of things that would like to eat him. He faces threats each and every day. Yet, every morning that cat goes running outside with his tail up and heads straight into the woods to face his fears. He’ll probably be rather jumpy out there and hopefully cautious in where he goes and what he does. I think that humans will need to do the same. The reality of extraterrestrial life should not cause us to isolate ourselves, smother our quest for knowledge or freak out with a massive arms buildup. If First Contact with an extraterrestrial civilization ever occurs, we must face it with equal parts of excitement and caution. We should proceed with optimism and skepticism. We must think critically and act boldly. We must make the changes needed to strengthen the human civilization and prepare ourselves for a challenging future- a future full of risk and opportunity.
YOUR DISCERNMENT REQUIRED ABOUT THIS ARTICLE AND IN REAL FACT ALL ARTICLES THAT YOU READ
MY OPINION IS THAT THE EXTRATERRESTRIALS THAT WE WILL MEET AND THE ONES THAT ARE HERE ARE BENEVOLENT BEINGS COME TO HELP US
Comments
hey ravinder brother, I love how you have a infinite quench of thrist for infinite knowledge and info! So beautiful and wonderful, you must have a beautiful imagination! I can tell you about two dreams I had with krishna. One, we were dancing, and talking to echother, I never in my life ravinder have seen such a beautiful being in my life as krishna. His body was all blue neon looking, and he had some much love and beauty! He then showed me 9 levels and gateways to enlightenment! Some day, I would like for you to come visit my arcturian family on the starships ravinder! I will see if I can get more info for you on my past lives with krishna as I will have to go meditate on a very deep level! namaste brother
Yes Sir Tiamacious i get strong vibes when i read about Shamballa, Telos, Sanat Kumara, Adama Head Priest of Telos, Venus and the Arcturians..i feel a strong connection as i tend to want to know more about the ones i mentioned.
Tell us all you know about Krishna as we would all like to know more about him..like where is he now...what is he doing...how to connect with him, what did he do in his past life here and anything more you can tell us about him would be great to know?
and good karma it will bring you serving the star beings brother, and your fellow citi''zen'' Do you have any memories ravinder? I am told I have worked with krishna is past lives. I am Arcturian
I actually feel like i am an extraterrestrial myself ...looks like i have joined forces with them
Any being with heart presence can easily feel all the GFL allies in the starships all around us. Fear based questions are from mind, not heart. What if this? Or what if that? Scenarios? In the realm of love, is only presence.
My opinion: All the intergalactic alliances and councils who worked in the GFL is harmless for humans. So i have no worries ahead. I am so glad that they are here now in the critical time we live in on Earth. Together we will create HEAVEN ON EARTH. I believe Earth will be a mix from Arcturus, Pleiade, and Sirius, mostly.