Aliens? We'll probably have a close encounter this century says leading physicist

[JCR]

Hey! I AM a mid-level bureaucrat!

[IconOfEvi]

Hey! I AM a mid-level bureaucrat!

Technically correct! The best kind of correct!

[tercio67]

Just waiting for the Pak to come along...

[junglejim]

If they ever land in the Philippines, they will either be worshiped as Jesus Christ and angels or taste like chicken. Ball's on your court Aliens choose wisely.

[IronFinn]

Presumed Dangerous ...

... Instead of getting a handshake from the head of NASA, it will be handcuffed by an FBI agent dressed in a Biosafety Level 4 suit. ... the alien will be whisked away to the Department of Agriculture's Animal Disease Center on Plum Island, off the coast of New York's Long Island. Here it will be poked and probed by doctors from the National Institutes of Health. A Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST) will tow away its spacecraft.
....
Unless it is spewing exhaust, the craft would be assumed to be nuclear powered. This determination would put NEST technicians in charge of securing the craft and moving it to a DOE facility, most likely in New Mexico, where it would be in close proximity to the Sandia and Los Alamos nuclear laboratories and the White Sands Missile Range. International agreements also put NEST on call if the craft lands out of the United States, as happened in 1978 when a Soviet satellite leaking nuclear fuel landed in the Canadian wilderness.

I don´t think it would be the smartest move to jump on the alien ambassador. I mean aliens who are technically superior and can travel between solar systems might just beat the crap out of us because of it.

[hator]

we ll have very close encounter sometime after 4th of August. I **** you not.

[Atlantic Friend]

Technically correct! The best kind of correct!

Administratively correct is even better.

[West Texican]

If that's all factual, the US gov might want to consider if a species that has the technology to come visit across lightyears of space is going to repsond well to having their ambassador cattleprodded and their **** towed away by a bunch of earpieced suits.

The article looks at the minds of the world in the 1950s. It addresses a scenario where the aliens' actions present a biological and radiation hazard to humanity and the aliens are not respecting those issues. That's when you are forced to call the dog catcher and tow the vehicle. I don't think our first visitors will act like that, advanced beings will know better.

I think the first alien visitors (if not a robotic probe) most likely will be a small band of explorers in a defenseless flotilla of a few fragile ships purpose built for the journey, not an armada of science fiction powered battle stars. Despite any technological superiority of their society they would probably be at our mercy, or hospitality, because they would most likely be living on the edge of survival, a bit ragged and suffering from the effects of life extension techniques that allowed them to make the journey. They could be centuries away from home and have just the bare necessities for living. Most likely they would have broadcast greetings to us decades before arriving to help establish a way of communicating before they arrive so there is no misunderstandings to begin with. If they come from an environment of lesser gravity they will probably never set foot on Earth, rather we will greet them in orbit or on the Moon or Mars. Physical contact may never occur because of the biological barriers. The visitors may die here unable to return, having taken a journey of a lifetime for a lifetime, leaving their ships, gear, technology and bodies to us for study so we can visit their world a few centuries down the road.

All of this is out with the trash if they do have science fiction powered battle stars. Then yea, you would want rethink the cuff and tow policy.

[Switek]

I do believe in alien life but I do not believe in any contact.

[Ought Six]

Another possibility is that technologically advanced aliens are observing us while refusing to make contact. They may realize that revealing themselves would cause chaos in our society. Or they may view us as a threat, and want to keep an eye on us while not giving us any intel about themselves. Or they may view us like an ant nest on the edge of their property. So long as the ants stay away from their 'house', no problem. Once the ants try to infest the house, though, time to call in the Orkin man.

[vryhpyammoadded]

If they exist, they’re likely already here as the Philosophy Corps social engineering us along to compatibility… As per E.B. Cole or even John Carpenters They Live if you like a more paranoid angle. I mean, come on people. How else does one explain today’s world government incompetence and insane behavior? Just take one look at Timma Gietners hair. That man has got to be an alien.

Come on tin foil hat crowd. You need to be revisiting more classic sci-fi pulp and B movies!

[Sootan]

I do believe in alien life but I do not believe in any contact.

I believe in contact, but with humans making the contact, backed by an armada of planet-shattering dreadnoughts.

[T.Cruiser]

I imagine aliens we reconnoitre the planet first with advanced surveillance technologies, maybe nanotechnology stuff that we can't detect. They'll tap into the Internet and learn all about us from our online communications. This means they'll have lots of cat pictures and ****ography to wade through.

[jirishpride707]

I see them all the time on that show Border Wars.