Should we contact the aliens?
I found an article in The Independent titled, "Meet the neighbours: Is the search for aliens such a good idea?"
It is an interesting question. After all, any alien race that could contact us must be very advanced technologically, or be supernatural in some way (i.e. not bound by our current understanding of the laws of physics). Otherwise, they couldn't get here at all. Thus, the wisdom of announcing ourselves to these superior entities should be questioned, especially since we cannot know the disposition of these entities (assuming they exist, of course. The discussion is no fun is you just say they don't exist!)
It's also very fun from a sci-fi perspective. But, first, here is what scientists have to say on the subject:
George Dvorsky, over at Sentient Developments offers this take: "...If advanced extraterrestrial civilizations wanted to, they would have destroyed us by now. It's the Fermi Paradox all over again -- but this time, instead of wondering, "where is everybody," we find ourselves asking, "why haven't we be destroyed already?"
He makes a good argument. His logic follows this pattern: we don't see anyone else, thus, there isn't anyone else out there, or the entities that are out there are killing everything in sight. After considering the fact that we haven't been destroyed yet, he comes to the sobering conclusion "Nobody is listening and nobody cares."
Noted physicist Freeman Dyson takes the alternative view, stating "...It is unscientific to impute to remote intelligences wisdom and serenity, just as it is to impute to them irrational and murderous impulses," he says. " We must be prepared for either possibility."
Frank Drake took a more pragmatic approach. He said, "The point here is that Earth has made its presence known by sending a multitude of signals. It is too late - we have made ourselves visible". All of our TV, radio and satellite signals have long since announced our presence.
I have a different take than most of these scientists - and, admittedly, it is more a science fiction tale than actual fact. There is significant material available describing theories that suggest that aliens have already been here. These aliens not only visited the planet, but actually "seeded" the human race by genetically altering the indigenous ape-like creatures that were already here. This theory is put forth in the famous Enuma Elish myth, and by Zecharia Sitchin with the Annunaki.
So, what if aliens really did visit the earth in our ancient past and these stories are actually true? Why did they leave? In my story (stay with me here), we (that indiginous, genetically altered ape-creature) got smarter and smarter...and eventually rebelled against our slave masters.
In short, I say that we kicked their extraterrestrial ass.
Ok...maybe the extraterrestrial ass-kicking is hyperbole. And, sure, any alien visitor would have had far advanced technology than we have today. Our distant ancestors had fire and the lever. But, we would have had numbers.
In any alien contact scenario, we have to assume that there will be a limited number of aliens in the contact force. You would not assume an million alien invasion fleet - it would be too hard to support. So, let's say in this scenario, the alien visitors didn't want to exterminate the planet, but simple exploit us for labor (as in the myths). If you were an alien, you might put down a few of your more rabid slave pets; but, you want the labor, so you really just want to maintain order among your given pets. You don't want to slaughter your labor force using your advanced technology; you just want order. If our ancestors got lucky and killed one or two of their alien overlords, it might have been enough to get the point across that they had evolved, and could no longer be easily controlled. Thus, the alien overlords left our planet, since it became too much trouble to keep the slaves in line. Freedom for the humans!
Wow...I really need to flesh out that plot and write a nice sci-fi book out of this, don't I?
