We make movies about it all the time. Books, TV shows...it pervades the entertainment industry.
What would happen if we came across alien life?
Of course, one of the popular scenarios involves humans defending the Earth against hostile aliens, perhaps with the help of a few benevolent ones. There's a reason people love this version of alien encounter stories - we protect the Earth, make a few allies, discover new and fascinating things...The danger only lasts until the climax, and we're very pleased with that climax.
In all of these plots, though, there lies an assumption: the aliens we encounter are more advanced, more evolved than humans. That's why the danger in these tales is so great. We are the weaker species. More vulnerable, more easily destroyed. Less important? The hostile fictional aliens seem to think so, but the benevolent ones maintain our value. Different species, evolved at different times, born of different circumstances, equipped for different atmospheres. All equal.
Here's the thing - we can't even treat the different species of Earth as equal. How are we going treat aliens any differently?
Suppose the human race found another habitable planet, younger than Earth. The weary but resilient travelers discover, not a species with advanced tech and the super-human powers so many hope we'll evolve into, but beasts instead, who have no art, no science, no education, just the instinct for survival and the need for their pack's support.
And what would the human visitors do? Hunt them, no doubt of it. Eat their meat, use their hide for clothing, their teeth for mementos of victory. Because these aliens are merely beasts. No human religion welcomes them into their congregations, no employer hires them, no government gives them citizenship. They have one purpose: keeping the newcomers alive.
It's not that they're not smart, these beasts. They're quick, stealthy, tenacious. They protect their own. They're clever, but young. They have no art or science or education, so to the human visitors they're nothing. Nothing but meat for someone's empty stomach, a mount for some hunter's wall, a skeleton for some new museum, a prisoner for curious schoolchildren to observe at an alien zoo, a subject for scientists to run tests on.
And just like that, we've become the hostile aliens.
Now imagine the alternative - we meet a species much, much smarter than ourselves. They know things we've yet to dream of. We are the clueless, vulnerable beasts. Our language is primitive nonsense, our houses are anthills. We are at their mercy.
What would you have them do? You certainly wouldn't want them t treat us the way we treat our fellow animals here. It becomes quite dark when you imagine the scenario like that. It now becomes a horror story, not a survival story, in the eyes of the human race.
Perhaps, in the end, it won't be anything like that. Perhaps this advanced alien race realizes the value of all creatures, young and old, intelligent and foolish. That is the race we would want to meet. That is the race we should want to become.
And if we finally learn to treat the other creatures of Earth with some respect, we can spread kindness, rather than chaos, when we travel the vast cosmos.
