As IF Times

Source: Why Stephen Hawking is Right to Urge Caution Before Contacting Alien Civilizations

Someone’s been watching too many movies from the ’50’s; reading too much science fiction or just plain removed from reality.

Imagine the scenario of an Alien civilization coming into contact with Earth and invoking that famous line, “take me to your leader!”.  Who would that be? What if the craft landed in Arghistan and the spokesman for the planet wound up being the local head yak herder?  What if they landed in the deep Amazon jungle and their odd appearance and strange language caused them to be ushered into a large soup pot?  What if they landed on Chicago’s south side and after being shot, led to the crib of a Snoop Dog gangsta twin?

All of these are less scary than if the Aliens were to land at UN headquarters and exposed to that body of idiots.  Is it really in the realm of possibility that someone, some body of people would speak on behalf of all Earthlings?  You can’t even get people to agree on how weather happens.

There are likely 2 scenarios under which an Alien lifeforce would make contact with our planet.  One scenario would be under the general realm of discovery.  They figured out how to get here and they’re curious to have a look.  We’d be a curiosity to them as an ant farm would be to a 9 year old.  Another possibility is that they have some reason to exploit whatever resources we may have.  In that case, the human population are just nuisances like noseeums at a beach.

Either way, the advice of anyone as to how to deal with this is as useful as an inflatable dart board.  Yet, someone has funded some society named Breakthrough Message, that wants to design a message to be transmitted to the galaxies in order to contact Alien civilizations.  The program pledges to: not transmit any message until there has been a global debate at high levels of science and politics on the risks and rewards of contacting advanced civilizations.  I wonder if Christopher Columbus was given similar guidelines when Queen Isabella sent him off.

It’s laughable that this policy statement includes high levels of politics as a requisite for contact.  To imagine that there would ever be a spokesman for the planet is science fiction.  To require that such a person would be chosen with political consideration is outright fantasy.

link Massive solar storm to hit Earth in 2012 with force of 100m bombs – Yahoo! India News.

Just when you think it’s safe to come out, another imminent disaster for mankind rears its head.  I suppose it’s possible that a solar storm of 100 million bombs will hit earth.  It’s also possible that aliens at this very minute are thinking of nuking the earth with an earth shattering kaboom because it’s obstructing their view of Alpha Centauri as in the old Bugs Bunny cartoon.

There must be a disaster control room somewhere where pessimists congregate to lay out the next calamity to hit man.  Obviously an influential group because over the years, this gang has brought us the following dire warnings, some natural and some man made:

Looming ice age/Global Cooling  http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2010/20100517155839.aspx

Overpopulation  http://www.science.org.ge/3-1/Kapitza.pdf

Food Crisis  http://www.voanews.com/english/news/environment/UN-Expert-Warns-of-Looming-World-Food-Crisis–86256217.html

Water Shortage  http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/07/02/28/the-water-shortage-crisis-in-america–amp-the-world-a-quick-overview-of-a-most-dangerous-crisis.htm

Energy/Oil Crisis  http://futurepositive.synearth.net/facing-the-truth/

Nuclear annihilation  http://www.globalcrisisnews.com/world/castro-warns-of-nuclear-war-breaking-out-very-soon/id=1713/

Banking Crisis  http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/03/banking-crisis-globalization-opinions-contributors-peter-mandelson.html

And of course, Global warming, we won’t need links to that.  It’s a wonder anyone bothers to plan beyond Christmas holidays or make loans longer than one year.  People must have an affinity for darkness and gloom akin to the attraction that teenagers have for horror flicks.  It’s genuinely amazing that man has been able to dodge all these existence ending bullets for all these years.  What’s even more amazing is that doomsayers continue to attract the attention of people, or more precisely, politicians who waste money on dumb programs based on imminent extinction.

If we are to be imminently bombarded by a force of 100 million bombs (  think Austin Powers’ Dr. Evil  ), what exactly are we supposed to do as a species?  It’s probably too late to jump to another planet since the lead time for making enough spaceships is too short.  Especially if they are to be union built.  Even if we could, who would get on board?  Politicians and actors first?  Would there be levels of accommodation in the cabins?  How would you get enough experienced drivers for the journey which could take up to 60 years barring heavy traffic.

It’s more likely that industries will pop up to create deflector shields which block the harm of such an impending calamity.  How, I don’t know, but you can bet government money will be mobilized to find a solution.  Do not laugh at the possibility of an extensive ‘use sunblock’ campaign, harking back to the tin foil hat solution during the nuclear war threat of the 1960’s.  Someone always makes money out of calamities which logically means the public gets fleeced.  Somewhere out there is the next disaster billionaire waiting for his time.

I wonder why there’s not a an equally influential Pollyanna club, that forsees nothing but good things for mankind.  Why doesn’t someone forecast the imminent onset of flowers and rainbows?  What if this looming massive dose of solar activity opens up large areas of the earth which are presently non arable? All of a sudden, the food crisis is solved.  What if the massive amount of sunlight melts icebergs and create not only plenty of fresh water, but also lots of new beachfront property?  I can already forsee a booming market for rose colored glasses.