Alien Invasion

Every morning I start my day day by watching the local news on ABC. Our local station has a daily "Question of the Day".  Viewers tweet, text, facebook, or email in their answers throughout the broadcast and then just before they sign off to hand it over to Good Morning America, they provide viewers with the answer.  Last week the question was something like this;  "Statistics show that Americans reporting this has decreased 90% over the past two decades, What is it?" and of course the answer, given the topic of my blog today, was UFO sightings.

So after giggling a bit, I recognized that part of the decrease might be attributable to Pop Culture.  20 years ago the rage was all about the alien. We had X-files with David Duchovney which ruled the air every Friday night. There was V - the original, not last years attempt at a remake that fell sadly very short. Roswell, provided its brand and twist on the Roswell conspiracy. Aliens ruled the world, or at least our entertainment options. Aliens have captivated or  fascinations and imaginations since the Roswell incident. Their mystery and perceived threat of danger was reaching its pinnacle and about to crescendo two decades ago. But remember , every thing comes back around.

You can see how it would happen. Look at the hype and obsession with Vampires/Werewolves/ and witches today. We always need that iconic fascination that defines a generation.

Anyway....if I set aside all of that and look  simply at the realism, what would we find.

How could an Alien Invasion happen? Why would Aliens want to invade Earth?

Let's ask why Aliens or other intelligent (more dominant) species of some kind would want to invade us. As far as we understand our planet we enjoy the benefits of habitable eco-systems, fresh water, and a means to produce foods.  These things would be the most likely reason for an alien invasion... Assuming that we are not alone in this vast cosmos....

Why isn't this theory a crock? Taken to account that there are roughly 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy, the probability of life on other planets is a likely one.  Also the infinite number of parallel universes, there the possibility of life on other planets is expanded quite a bit.  Extraterrestrials would have quite a bit of searching to do just to find our big blue ball in an infinite sea of possibilities, in this case.  The reasoning behind an invasion could stem from any number of things.  Their own planet could be in the grip of over population, that they have depleted their own native resources and drained the planet.  Over pollution is as well another possibility for their migrations.  If there were resources native to only a few planets, Earth included this would be another cause for invasion.

FLT : Faster than light travel would likely be needed for them to reach us. Our universe is theorized to be one thousand trillion trillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) meters, should our planet be found in the vastness of possibilities, how would we be reached from the depths of space?  Traveling at a year at the speed of light one would have gone ten trillion kilometers (10,000,000,000,000) one would have to possess superior technologies that could propel them at faster than light speeds, and/or through "wormholes".  A theoretical distortion of space-time in a region of the universe that would link one location or time with another, through a path that is shorter in distance or duration than would otherwise be expected.  If one were able to harness faster than light speeds, faster than 300,000 kilometers per second as well as travel through wormholes, then an invasion would be quite possible within a few years as opposed to a few million, billion, or trillion years. Physicists today are coming closer to the answer of this question although the technology is something out of our current reach.

Could we stop an alien invasion of our planet?

Oh sure, I'll get Will Smith on the phone - and we'll be kicking their asses Independence Day style in no time....

NOT!

Given the technologies that these beings could possibly possess, or other transport options that we couldn't fathom, it is quite likely that they would possesses weapons that would remove us completely without endangering their new possible home.  In another case, they may even just kill off the excess and use the rest as slave labor.  Such fantasies as seen in the science fiction books and movies where humans won the day through whatever means would be exactly that, fiction.  An intelligent species would have taken the time to study this planets physiology and technology to learn what viruses and possible threats that were resident here and take precautions.

In the event of an unknown threat, we would have no hard information on how to defend ourselves against a threat such as this.  Being an unknown enemy is the best tactic that an enemy has.  We would either kill ourselves, and the planet with nuclear weapons in the remote chance that it would remove the threat, game over for everyone.

Not....likely....

Having said all that,  am I living in fear? Of course not. Truth is, the probability is high that if they exists, they are already living among us. It could be your neighbor, or your neighbors dog for that matter.  Myths and legends all start somewhere grounded in reality. I never laid claim to Earth as mine, I simply share it with all of you and whatever else may come. I am the guest, and like all guests, when its time to leave, I will do so graciously. :)

Live Long and prosper, Nanu Nanu.
:)