What will our first encounter with extraterrestrials look like?

What will the third type of encounters look like and how will they affect us? Uriel Brizon with the far-reaching solutions, possibilities and implications

Uriel Brizon, Galileo

The spaceship is slowly descending from the sky. Its shape is like a thick plate, its color is metallic. It passes through a layer of clouds, disappears, and reappears above the roofs of the city. In peaceful movement without engine noise, it settles over the square in front of the city hall. Suddenly a white beam of light emerges from the center of its lower side.

The beam moves quickly, hits the center of the extension and stops shining. Then the crowd that has gathered in the nearby streets notices that in front of them stands the representative of the visitors who have come to our planet. He is not human but his form resembles a human and he demands to meet with the leader of humanity.

The encounter between the human race and visitors from another world is the source of many science fiction stories. There are different versions of these stories in which the event of the encounter is presented in different ways. There are stories that describe a meeting in the town square and there are those in which it takes place far from Earth.

Sometimes the first encounter is a sudden attack followed by an interstellar war, and sometimes the encounter is friendly and leads to the creation of an alliance between worlds. There are descriptions in which the form of the extraterrestrials is human, and those in which it is not understood or perceived by humans at all.

changing the image of the world
But in any case, and in all the different descriptions, the meeting is accompanied by a feeling of enormous importance. The very knowledge that the vastness of the universe contains other beings, brothers in the family of the sons of reason, has the power to change the image of the world of man and the form of his life. To conclude that we are not alone, there is no need for a face-to-face meeting (or face-to-face with the extraterrestrial equivalent), a radio transmission, or some other signal carrying intelligent information is enough.

But in the literature of the Madev, the personal meetings are common due to the plot advantages inherent in them. The first contact with beings from another world, whether it occurs for the first time in a broadcast or in a meeting, will bring about a revolution. The day humanity knows it is not alone will be, without a doubt, the most important day in human history.

For those who are not fans of science fiction, talk about meeting extraterrestrial beings is met with an embarrassed smile or open disdain. "Why aliens... extraterrestrials... nonsense" is an acceptable response and in a sense even justified. After all, no one has met extraterrestrials (at least not in a documented and accepted way) and there is no historical mention of this type of encounter ever (unless you accept dubious arguments like those of Erich von Daniken and his ilk - aka "Chariots of the Gods").
Why, then, should the possibility of meeting extraterrestrials be taken seriously when there is no indication of their existence or their imminent visit? Why is it interesting to deal with the question of meeting extraterrestrials and not, for example, the possibility of meeting angels and fairies? The reason is that unlike fairies and angels, the hypothesis regarding the existence of life outside the earth is not getting weaker along with the development of science, but is getting evidence and reinforcements.

Life is more durable than we thought

In recent years, more and more animals are being discovered that are able to deal with harsh environmental conditions and different from those prevailing on Earth - intense heat, extreme cold, enormous pressure, the absence of an atmosphere, the absence of water, strong radiation and more. Life is proving to be much more durable and adaptable than previously thought.

At the same time, worlds are discovered on which life may develop. New planets are discovered around distant suns almost every month. The probes sent by the American space agency NASA to Mars revealed that in the past water flowed on the surface of this planet - the basic component that allows the development of life.

First data will soon arrive from the surface of Titan (Saturn's largest moon) and researchers believe that many surprises await us due to the special chemical composition of its atmosphere. Science, it seems, is moving towards the conclusion that the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial life is high.
This is not enough, of course, to determine that it is only a matter of time before we receive a visit from another world. There are many different considerations about which we have no idea: the prevalence of life, its nature, the likelihood of the development of intelligence, etc. But it seems that the stories related to an encounter with life from another world are anchored in an assumption that is becoming more and more established: that such lives do exist.

Mind games
Despite the problematic image that surrounds the idea of ​​meeting extraterrestrials, an image created by groups of eccentrics who sometimes claim to have met or been abducted by extraterrestrials, thoughts on the subject cannot be dismissed casually. The perception that one day there will be an encounter with a race from another world does not contradict any scientific law, but rather is in line with the intuition of many scientists. The many MDB works dealing with the meeting try to glimpse into the future and imagine what it might look like.

The encounter with creatures from another world is the basis for interesting stories due to the chain of events it entails. The reader is invited to have fun with the following thought experiment and become a science fiction writer for a few minutes: try/try to imagine the day of the meeting with visitors from another world, and do it against the background of the everyday reality we know. One can imagine the headline of "Haaretz", "Yediot Ahronoth" or "Maariv" the next morning: "Spaceship over Rabin Square". (I wonder what size the title letters will be printed).

Are we alone in the universe?
One can try to imagine what the Prime Minister will say at the press conference he will enter: "Citizens of Israel, today is a day that will be remembered in the history of the nations... I ordered the Air Force to be on alert for... gilded…". What will the market vendors shout? "Only today will I have a great watermelon before the alien arrives."

Will Haim Yavin appear on television and ask the experts in the studio to interpret the consequences of the historical event - and will they interpret? What will the neighbors say who go out to the street to watch the spaceship above? Will they argue with each other about the influence of aliens on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Will we go to work on the day of the meeting? Will there be traffic jams in Ayalon?

Is man at the center of creation?
Beyond the initial reaction to the encounter, it is interesting to think about its deeper implications. It seems that the understanding that man is not the only intelligent creature can bring about a change in the heart of many people's world view. An interesting question is related to the reaction of the established religion to the encounter event; After all, on the one hand, there is a threat here to the entire worldview, which is based on man being created in the image of God.
If non-human beings arrive here, maybe man is not at the center of creation? Could it be that man, the image of God, is not the most complex of creatures? As a result of an encounter with extraterrestrials, will the religion be shattered into pieces? History shows the amazing abilities of religions to adapt themselves to changing conditions and to reshape their underlying ideology according to developments.

It is likely that very quickly theologians will be found who will tailor different explanations to the new situation. The rabbinic establishment may explain that the issue of outsiders is discussed in detail in the Talmud and that they must be treated according to the laws customary among Gentiles and obligate them to the seven mitzvot of the sons of Noah. The Catholic Church may explain how the extraterrestrials acted as an arm of the Holy Trinity and helped convert Emperor Constantine to Christianity by painting crosses in the sky.

The Muslims may announce that Muhammad's flight to heaven actually took place on top of a spaceship like the one of the aliens, only bigger. One can even think of ways in which clergymen will use the encounter with extraterrestrials as a basis for deepening the faith of their communities. On the other hand, many MDB writers (primarily Arthur Clarke) described the meeting day as the point where humanity began the journey of renouncing religion. In the absence of the feeling of man's uniqueness as God's chosen and the center of his creation, they claim, faith in him weakens.

A catalyst for positive changes, or not

Will the meeting affect the world order? Will this be the end of the war-saturated old era and the beginning of a new generation? Let's assume for a moment that the outsiders do not interfere in the day-to-day affairs of society but are only present here and there. Will the diagnosis that what unites us as human beings is greater than what separates us, a diagnosis that will be strengthened in the face of the image of another and different race, help eradicate the conflicts that led humans to wars?

In the shadow of a hostile alien race, it is easy to imagine humans uniting against the foreign threat, but will the mere presence of a foreigner, even one that is not an enemy, be a catalyst by virtue of which positive changes will occur in the relations of nations? Can soldiers from opposing armies keep shooting at each other as spaceships from another world move overhead?

An informal review of relevant MDB stories shows that most writers would answer this question with a shy "yes". Most of them assume that additional persuasion will be required, beyond the meeting itself, to dissuade the person from his militant ways. On the other hand, in many stories the same necessary persuasion is not late in coming.
How will science be affected by an encounter with an alien race and alien science? If we assume a meeting where the aliens came to us in space vehicles and that they have more advanced technology, then this is an extremely strange situation. In this case there are two possibilities: the first is that the aliens will allow the human scientists unrestricted access to their knowledge bases (after a proper translation is done of course).

study the alien

In this case, science may turn from an active and researching field of activity into a field where most of the activity is theoretical and includes memorizing and studying the knowledge accumulated by the extraterrestrials. If the gap is significant, then years or decades of educational scientific activity will be required. After this period the human race may forget how to do active experimental science. There are stories in which extraterrestrials use their scientific advantage to sink humanity into a kind of passivity that serves them later.

The second possibility is that the aliens limit access to their knowledge bases. In this case humanity may develop suspicions as to their intentions. In the shadow of technological ability overshadowing human ability, one can imagine the concerns that will arise immediately. The aliens will be able to do whatever they want without fear of the reaction of the human race.

A feeling of helplessness can drive people to act in an extreme way even before any hostile acts have been committed against them. In many encounter stories, the hero is sent to sneak onto the aliens' ship in order to learn their secrets. In some stories, the penetration is received with a certain understanding on the part of the outsiders, who have learned to know the nature of man and his limitations, in other stories, the infiltration ends in disaster.

In any case, it is difficult to imagine human science sitting idly by when an opponent stands in front of it who embodies in its image what has not yet been discovered and what has not yet been learned. Could it be that scientific curiosity is the basis for friction between the human race and alien races? Simultaneously with the development of science, the accepted worldview changes and man's place in the order of things changes.

Our star is not special

In the Aristotelian worldview, the earth and the people on it were placed at the center of the universe. Religions also placed man at the center of creation. Science has shown us that we are not at the center and that there is nothing special about our sun, our galaxy and probably our earth as well. The more we learn about the world we live in, the more we realize that man is not at the center of things and apparently is not particularly important in the order of the universe.

Science has no data, at this stage, about life on other worlds, but scientific intuition, which is consistent with the latest discoveries, indicates that the probability that life developed only and precisely here is extremely low. There is no reason to assume that out of all the billions of billions of worlds only ours is special.
We do not know anything about other lives, but it is likely that they are there and that one day we will meet them. If we're lucky, there might even be intelligent (and friendly) races among them. On the day of the encounter with creatures from another world, our history will change. We can only imagine how or use the imagination of MDB writers who are good at describing such encounters and their consequences.

We can hope that some of the dreams of the writers of the Madev will come true and that we will be able to live in a fascinating period in which a meeting will take place. It is also worth hoping, in the same breath, that the nightmares of the pessimists among the writers will come true. There is no doubt that the thought of the day of meeting creatures from another world is as frightening as it is fascinating. Personally, if it was up to me, I would take the risk.

The article was published in the journal Galileo