I must admit that I find it disturbingly amusing to contemplate how people view the possibility of non-Earth (i.e., alien or extraterrestrial) visitors, especially how they maintain hope and optimism about the potential arrival of said aliens. Unless you learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it (a notion often attributed to George Santayana).

Why do I mention history in regard to alien visitors?

We have many people (perhaps billions) who believe that aliens (from space, not another country) need to come to Earth and save us from ourselves. Such people see the aliens as saviors, protectors and guardians of the human future, but such people have no grasp on history.

Let’s look at human history, on any continent involving any race, ethnicity, creed, religious belief of whatever and contemplate the results when an advanced civilization encountered a more primitive civilization. Was the response to assist and raise the primitives up? To love and help them be better humans? No, the response was to conquer, enslave and take everything of value the less advanced humans possessed.

Look around the world of today — seems eerily similar, with only the scale and nature of the abuse having changed.

If (and this is giant, huge, immense variable) advanced aliens arrive it is my contention they will not be friendly, they will not be helpful, they will not assist us in making ourselves better — they will want our resources and they will take our resources. The aliens will use the same logic that human conquerors have always used — we will succeed because the Cosmos (or any deity you care to conjure up) wills it so. The aliens won’t feel the slightest remorse about conquering humans and taking their resources because it validates the concept that their way of life (or the adaptive strategy belief system they follow) is superior.

Many people will take unbridled umbrage with my remarks and their response will be that any extraterrestrial civilization advanced enough to arrive here on Earth would be wise, enlightened and super friendly. The challenge with that belief is human behavior itself. We have incredible advanced technology — automation, robotics, machine intelligence, sophisticated food production and distribution, readily available energy on and on… However, even a cursory glance at the news reveals that (for the most part) our human world seems engulfed in conflict, jealousy, hatred, prejudice and stupidity. It is only logical (many people would toss out the idea) that we wait for the extraterrestrials to arrive and save us.

Well, this is assuming other species beyond Earth even exist and (if they do exist) are technologically advanced enough for space travel.

There are some major issues.

Despite entertaining shows/books about faster-than-light travel, worm holes, portals, warp drives, quantum transfer and other space travel techniques, the truth is that our fastest craft would still take something like 10,000 years to reach the familiar target destination of Alpha Centauri (4.37 light years or 25 trillion miles). Of course, we could use earth-based laser beams powering solar sails and get there in mere decades, well, assuming such theoretical technology can actually be built (hint — probably not anytime soon).

We would hope that any aliens, if they do exist and do arrive here, would appreciate the universal value of life and consciousness — but it’s hard for me to envision that scenario when even here in 2026 we humans cannot practice that simple idea among ourselves. I mean, just ponder the current human scenario for a moment. You have billions of people who believe in religions (e.g., Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hindusm, Buddhism, Jainism, etc) that inform their followers that billions of other people who believe in a different religion are wrong and, worse, are evil and should either die or convert. You have billions of people who cannot agree on the best system to manage and distribute resources. Is it Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Capitalism, Egalitarianism, Totalitarianism, or what? Toss in billions of agnostics, atheists and anarchists and you should begin to see the issue here.

Let’s change tact a little and make an assumption that aliens would never arrive here without first examining the planet and its inhabitants — recon as it were. Check it out. Scouts.

If an alien alienist (psychiatrist/investigator if you will) came to Earth and began studying humans by monitoring various digital streaming platforms, I think such a being would rapidly come to the unsettling conclusion that humans were not a very nice, nor stable, species.

Just stop for a non-ludicrous moment and contemplate the various forms of data flow inundating the public — especially news, entertainment and advertising.

News. Our alien observer, after watching any news channel on any station, would rapidly conclude that daily human life was filled with violence, chaos and mayhem because that appears to be all that the news covers. Do such things happen? Yes. Are they widespread? Absolutely not. However, the human news purveyors want people to think discord, hatred and violence surround us like a cloud of noxious fumes. The Establishment then can play Left, Right and Center against each other and make money all along the conflicting pipeline. Still, the alien alienist observing the news would see nothing but conflict and violence and acknowledge that the general state of human news is bad and getting worse.

Entertainment. Why is the vast percentage of shows about monsters, murderers, death, destruction, horror, evil aliens, sex and on and on. I mean, just go look at the top ten movies on your favorite streaming platform. Go look through the available movie list on that same platform. Mindless and mostly useless scat. Is this what the public really wants to view, or is this what is churned out and made available to fit a certain agenda? Is this really the content that the majority of humans want to see?

Advertising. The digital streaming ether is overwhelmed with drug/medicine peddling pushers selling cures for every ill. “There’s a pill for that” seems to be the mantra. Insurance ads seem to be prominent as well, plus odd devices to make your life better. You know, cuz your life sucks and our product will make it better. Plenty of ads offering financial advice (for a fee of course) and so on.

I imagine that, after reviewing all the above, the alien alienist would report back that very few humans were worthy of protection and bring on the armada.

My advice is — be nice to your fellow humans, enjoy your life and keep a wary eye on the sky.

E. Out but not over.