am a NASA junkie. I watch every space launch and landing that comes around. I waited for the double boom BOOM of the Space Shuttle as it flew over Mississippi on its way to landing at Kennedy on Tuesday morning. I love space exploration. But what if we are not alone?
I was watching a new documentary titled "Into the Universe With Stephen Hawking" Sunday night on The Discovery Channel. The British physicist says aliens are out there, but it could be too dangerous for humans to interact with extraterrestrial life. Why? The 68-year-old scientist said a visit by extraterrestrials to Earth might well be like Christopher Columbus arriving in the Americas , "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," Hawking said. "I imagine they might exist in massive ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.”
I mulled over what he was saying and you know…he is probably right. Throughout history, there have been UFO’s reported. People that see the UFO’s are regarded as nut cases by the people that didn’t have the experience. But just because you never have the close encounter doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Think Area 51.
Are we really so arrogant to believe that we….the inhabitants of the 3rd rock from the sun that we have called Earth…. Do we really think that we are the only intelligent life in the Universe? Is God so limited in His imagination that we are it?
I have to admit that I agree with Mr. Hawking. One only has to look through a telescope into the myriad of stars in the vast night sky and look at the million and billions of pinpoints of pulsating lights and realize that we are probably just one of several spots in the unknown swirling galaxies that are probably supporting some form of intelligent life. And they are probably not all lovey dovey and benevolent. When you factor in the 100 billion galaxies in our universe, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational. The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.
I don’t really think that it might be the perfect idea to be trying to communicate and let ET know that we are sitting here. Aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding. I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t even begin to understand. And they (ET) probably would not understand us. Just as I can’t understand quantum theory, there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.
What if the visitors are predatory? Do we really think that we can outsmart them? After all, they are the ones that traveled through the time space continuum to reach us. If they have that kind of travel technology then they surely have weapon technology beyond our puny imagination.
So I will keep my telescopes handy and continue to star gaze and wonder. But I am not too sure that I really want to find out about any other intelligent life forms that might be out there. What if?
