Should We Fear Aliens? Part III: Enlightenment.

‘Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.’ (H. Wells. The war of the worlds.)

Looks like I’m not Vox Clamantis In Deserto anymore. Well, there have been two of us supporting this contention: Stephen Hawking and me, although even his authority and expert opinion have apparently counted for little… until now.

It turns out that NASA luminaries finally came to senses and took notice of concerns I expressed in my articles ;) about the dangers of contact with aliens, although gung-ho techno geeks usually dismiss my ideas as a hindrance to progress. I'm glad my hard work has borne fruit at last and my articles managed to make NASA boffins see the light. (Note that they didn't even bother to credit me ;)) It’s not really rocket science to come to this conclusion and elaborate the report — all it takes is common sense and high school level literacy.

Should we fear aliens? Part II: First Contact — Glad Hand.

Stephen Hawking in Zero Gravity (NASA)

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. 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 colonise whatever planets they can reach. If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans.” — Stephen Hawking.

Although I’ve already expatiated at length on the reasons why we should fear aliens, it turns out there’s yet another cause for alarm — our infinite fatuity and brainlessness. The other day I heard one of these stories on the news that make you wonder if it’s Orson-Wells’-recital-of–The-War-of-the-Worlds style hoax, or the powers that be are once again kidding the populace. In times of economic crisis, UN decided to splash out and assigned a Malaysian boffin to greet aliens on behalf of the entire humanity.