Today's question: Do you want science to find aliens or find that we are alone in the universe? Does it scare you to think there are likely other beings out there?
I very much like the idea of aliens. I've enjoyed the utopian version of things like Star Trek, where we all work together. I've enjoyed the monster-movie version of things like Aliens where it becomes survival.
Authors have used "aliens" as an inroad into a lot of difficult topics: racism, colonialism, culture clash, etc. It's an opportunity to use an "outsider" lens to look back at ourselves, imagining how aliens might do things differently and what they might think of how we do things here.
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I kind of doubt that a real life encounter with aliens would prove as cinematic and dramatic as the stories I've enjoyed though.
It might look a lot more like immigration, with a new kind of people meeting with the usual xenophobia followed by slow integration and acceptance. I don't see any particular reason to expect that aliens, if they show up on Earth, will want to eat, enslave, or conquer us.
But it's fun to imagine the possibilities, life forms that are really physically different than humans or animals that we know. Beings that communicate, eat, and breathe differently. If you're looking for some positive alien-human interaction stories, I'll recommend Becky Chambers's Wayfarer series of books and novellas. I LOVE her work.
I've got a couple of alien stories in the works myself and hope to be able to tell you where you can read them soon! In the meantime, what do you think of aliens? How do imagine an extraterrestrial encounter would fall out? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.
I like the idea of aliens too. I can't imagine that meeting them would turn our well with the state of our world now.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it's great to imagine that aliens would come with answers, I worry they would bring their own set of problems.
ReplyDeleteAny sort of contact that takes our minds off our present woes would be great. Just think, it might even shake us up and make us start cooperating to solve our problems.
ReplyDeleteThere might indeed be aliens on another planet. If they came to Earth they might be more frightened of us than the other way around - after all... we're a pretty scary bunch!
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of aliens but the nice ones. But maybe not Tribbles. Tweeted.
ReplyDeleteWith the world the way it is today the last thing humanity needs is aliens showing up.
ReplyDeletePerhaps one day we will make it to the stars and encounter life on other planets.