Lessons from history.
Well, I couldn’t write an article
on this topic without mentioning Cortez and the Aztecs, or the early
Americans and the Native Indians now could I? Our own history is full
of similar situations. An advanced culture comes into contact with a
less advanced culture and bang what happens? The lesser one usually
ends up getting destroyed. But why is this? I think it has to do with
the more advanced civilisations motives. What I mean by that is this.
Cortez, the early Americans, the British, whoever we use as an example
visited those areas of the world not for peace, not to spread knowledge
and enlightenment, but to conquer, to acquire gold, wealth and resources
and most importantly, to settle. So by extension, if we were to make
first contact with a lesser civilisation, our actions and methods would
depend on our motives.
Making first Contact
If we were there for genuinely peaceful
purposes, we would naturally be very careful not to interfere with the
civilisations societal structure and culture. We would not want to cause
them panic. It would be important to study them for some time beforehand
to understand their culture, to find some common ground to start from.
It might also be important that the civilisation is a global one, not
a local or regional one. It would be difficult making First Contact
(meaning the whole planet knows of an alien presence, not just
Governments)
if a planet is divided up into tribal nation-states. They would
presumably
be in competition with one-another and would likely quarrel over access
to technology and the benefits of First Contact. If we discovered and
had to make First Contact early, before a civilisation was ready, we
would have to keep it limited only to those responsible enough to handle
it.
Making First Contact would have
benefits
for both parties, both culturally and scientifically. Were we to
initiate
contact with a lesser civilisation, it would be done not by Governments
or politicians, but by scientists. It would be a meeting of scientists
from both sides. This is advantageous because scientists generally are
open-minded and not oppressed by religious dogma. This would be very
important in establishing First Contact, as a person’s
religious/personal
views could affect the meeting, possibly negatively.
Receiving first contact
Many people say that if aliens are
here, buzzing round the heavens, why don’t they just openly show
themselves?
Well, either they don’t want to or we won’t let them. It could be
that they don’t think we’re ready for it, maybe they consider us
too primitive to have a dialogue yet. There has been a massive increase
in UFO sightings the past few years, so maybe now they’re beginning
the long arduous process of getting the population accustomed to their
presence before revealing themselves. Some people also believe that
it is our own governments are preventing them from revealing themselves.
Aliens making First Contact with us would change everything. It
would change the entire power structure on Earth and maybe those in
power don’t want that. I’m not a big fan of this argument however,
as I’m sure any such visitors could do pretty much whatever they wanted
and our governments could do very little about it.
I personally believe First Contact
has already been made and was made too early, at a time when the Earth
was not ready, probably in the late 1940’s. We were still very tribal
and had just ended another World War by dropping an Atomic Bomb on a
population. Contact was limited to secret meetings with Earth’s
best scientists. Only now are we starting to see the beginnings of the
process leading to First Contact. It may take another 200 years before
we’re ready, but we are seeing the birth of our first global
civilisation,
a pre-requisite necessary before First Contact can be made.
So, what could THEIR motives be? Some
argue that they can’t be hostile, because if they were, they’d have
attacked by now. Not necessarily. It’s possible the visitors so far
have been scouts, checking us out before backup arrives. Maybe we’ve
over estimated their industrial capabilities, it could be they’re
building up their forces as I write this. All I’m saying is we shouldn’t
get too complacent.
Hopefully, they come in the name of
Galactic peace and brotherhood. If not, we’ll go the same way as the
Aztecs, Native Americans and Aboriginals.