Let’s be real here. This is a perfectly valid question. It sounds ridiculous because of the millions of videos of blurry UFOs and the horror stories of cow abductions. Aliens get a bit of a bruising in the media. They are either destroying ships in the Bermuda Triangle, or they are getting shot in the face by Will Smith. It’s all a big joke, but I, for one, want to believe!
Let’s start off with ancient sites. You know the ones I mean: Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Easter Island, and all those other weird places that science still hasn’t quite been able to explain. How on Earth did all those pesky Druids drag massive rocks hundreds of miles across the land to make an outdoor monument that somehow aligns with the sun and stars and all that? F*ck knows, really!
Yet, just because something is unexplained, doesn’t mean that aliens did it. That sort of thinking comes from too much time spent watching the History Channel. Aliens didn’t always do it. They might have done some of it, but I find it equally likely that we underestimate the knowledge and building prowess of ancient civilisations.
We want to think that our society is the best it’s ever been and at is historical peak, so we paint a picture of older cultures as less advanced and sometimes savage. Yet, the evidence is right in front of us that they clearly knew what they were doing… Look at all that cool sh*t they built!
Possible hints of aliens and strange beings appear in ancient buildings, books, and artwork, as well as in modern art and literature. We are obsessed with alien life, but aside from the odd YouTube video of a cow floating into the sky, we really have very little evidence, don’t we? This means that I am left to dwell on philosophy—namely, the Fermi paradox.
The Fermi paradox draws attention to the fact that there is actually a pretty high probability that intelligent alien life has already visited the Earth, but there seems to be little or no evidence to support this.
In an infinite (or pretty bloody expansive) universe, there are billions of stars similar to the sun. Some probably have Earth-like planets. Some of these probably have intelligent life. Some of these would probably have interstellar travel and/or advanced comms. Some of these would find or communicate with Earth. Yet there’s a distinct lack of conclusive evidence to support visitation. Why is this?
There are many answers to this question. Aliens could already be living among us. This might seem far-fetched, but there’s a 5/1 chance that you believe this theory yourself, which is about the same chance as winning on a roulette spin if you bet on six numbers at the casino. These aliens could be here, yet they remain undetected or unacknowledged. They could be too alien for us to recognise or communicate with. They could even be cats.
Of course, this kind of thinking will get you in metaphysical hot water pretty quickly (especially if you have a cat living in your home). It’s much safer to believe that, because humans are clearly the most intelligent and highest form of life possible in the universe, no species is intelligent or technologically-advanced enough to reach out to us.
Others theorize that the reason we lack actual evidence of aliens, despite a high probability that they exist, is because we are not listening properly. We could be using the wrong equipment, measuring the wrong signals, or tuned in to entirely different frequencies. Maybe everyone is too busy listening, while no one is actually transmitting a signal.
My personal favourite theory is that it is the nature of life to destroy itself or others. This seems logical. We haven’t met anyone else in the universe because they have already perished or because by the time we gain the ability to engage in space travel, we will have annihilated ourselves. That sounds about right.
Maybe aliens have already reached out to us, but SETI and the government are keeping it all a secret, either for security reasons or for personal and economic gain. I guess that’s possible. I mean, the Men in Black film tells it all.
I like the idea that maybe aliens are highly-advanced, not just in technology, but also in consciousness. Many people who ingest special plants, or shaman-types who live in tribes, have reported seeing and communicating with strange alien beings. Perhaps truly intelligent life doesn’t need to burn millions of gallons of fuel to send rockets on space missions. There could be a psychic element to it all.
