Freak Out Over Aliens? Of the ET variety.

[sheepdog 10]

How many movies/Tv shows have you seen where we are visited by aliens from another planet, and for the longest time our government tries to hide them or cover up the truth with some off handed comments like "If the population knew it would create mass panic." Then there are the supposed coverup at Rosewell New Mexico, and area 51, UFO sightings and all that. It does seem our government thinks we can't handle aliens from outerspace. So, my question, do you really think that we would all freak out, go nuts and not be able to handle it. And just what about alien visitation would cause such a terrible reaction in us? A lot of us have grown up with Star Trek, Star Wars, Babalon 5, and the countless other sci fi movies and series. We talk about Klingons like we actually new them and even developed and learned the language of the Klingons. It seems to me that the acceptance of aliens is already rooted in our belief system, so I really just can't figure out why we would freak. Sure there would be the initial fear of the unknown, why are they here, what do they want from us, and the suspicions that would sroing from watching shows like V, but overall I just don't think it would be that big of a deal What do you all think? Are we ready to accept ET?

[rvalkass 5]

It's not just the US government that tries to cover up UFO sightings - other governments around the world have done exactly the same. The mundane reason is that if someone sees a restricted military flight (such as for a new type of aircraft) and mistakes it for a UFO, they don't want a detailed description to hit the press for obvious reasons. In the unlikely event that it was a UFO the government would probably want to be the first to know and sort out some sort of official line, rather than the newspapers or TV news being the first to break the story and cause mass panic in the way they always do.Would we all freak out? No. Would the mass media freak out and create a panic? Yes. That would cause a mass panic among the large percentage of the population who believe everything they read in the papers and see on television. I think the thing that would freak most people out is fear of the unknown. Any aliens visiting the planet may be peaceful explorers, or may be vicious empire-building lunatics. In the latter case we would most likely be doomed. That does freak people out

[mahesh2k 0]

There are no traces of life on this solar system other than earth. If the aliens are there outside then they are likely to be outside milky way or in some another galaxy's solar system. If they have capability to visit other civilizations, then do you think they'll make visible flight systems ? If they're semi advanced when it comes to galactic travel let's assume then why they'll try to show their plane/pod anyway. they may land on dead-areas or ghost towns and from there they may take shape of humans or will do the observation in hidden mode. I don't see any sane or intelligent species coming on this planet with visible sign only to get frightened with lady gaga and sarah palin and then slamming the door to make noise of their departure. It'll not freak me out if they're here, but i have lot of questions for them. Only people outside this galaxy are going to tell you more secrets of this solar system, galaxy. If there is any watchers type of species visiting this planet then chances are we'll never able to figure out their existence and they'll never help in crisis or even do against or in favor to us. They'll just watch, observe, will store the data and will leave once this planet is doomed. Ah my version of not freaking out theory

[Iniyila 2]

if aliens exist (which doesn't) why we should freak out? in many today movies they show aliens as friends of humans. i actually belive aliens doesn't exist but if someday i see a alien i will not loose my mind, because if they exist why we should not accept them as a new creature. the only think that i'm very concerned about is that if the aliens exist are they like humans ? i mean they have male and female ? if they have it's not very bad to see and communicate with some of them .about ufos i have seen many movies in youtube which people have taken and i didn't see anything that proves existance of aliens. i mean you see a flying plate from far distance. you can not say it's a ufo, maybe its only my plate which is gone from my table by storm.

[Harlot 2]

Of course people would freak out and that is primarily why, at aliens were visiting Earth, it would be a tightly kept secret. We talk as if its not a big deal for foreign life to visit Earth. I can see the panic already. People are not friendly towards difference, and we should know that by examining how were treat other human beings. Look at how we treat Muslims and Latinos in the United States, and how we used to treat Japanese, Chinese, Blacks, and Native Americans. If aliens are coming to planet Earth, they better come with big guns to wipe us out, because no matter what their intentions, we will surely wipe them out. We wish to see ourselves as civilized, but the fact is that we are not. I can see aliens now being placed in concentration camps and murders off. In fact, I am not even saying that it wouldn't be the right thing to do. Native Americans reluctantly welcomed in the alien Europeans and look what happened to them. People would be rioting in the streets, and just complete instability if they found out that aliens were visiting Earth. If I were the leader of a country, I surely wouldn't let the word get out. I would call it a military jet or air balloon and move on. Personally, its sort of hard to believe that aliens are visiting Earth. I guess it is no surprise that it is hard to believe when supposedly we have found no life within our solar system. There could possibly be life in our solar system, and our government may be keeping it under wraps. However, if there is no life in our solar system, and we are searching Mars and all of these other planets trying to find any sign of life, then I don't think it is reasonable to assume that aliens are visiting us. We are obviously trying to find life outside of Earth, or at least it seems that our government is doing that. Either they are trying to find life or trying to find somewhere else to live, otherwise they wouldn't be spending billions each year exploring space and researching the ability of different planets to sustain life. I guess we will have to wait and see if wiki leaks released information on it (lol).

[mahesh2k 0]

if aliens exist (which doesn't) why we should freak out?

Weird. I've seen this in your post. You strongly assume there is no chance of existence of aliens. Unless you have some strong reasoning for that, if yes what is that reason ?. What makes you think aliens don't exist at all in this universe ? Any strong reason to justify that. What makes you think life doesn't anywhere than earth ? or you're one of those who thinks - guy who got died on cross helplessly like kitten is going to be our savior and life exists on this planet only ?

[Iniyila 2]

there is two type of reasons : one when you have a scientific reason which you can argue about and prove it second when you believe in something (or wanting it to be like that) and this is not a scientific reason. my reason for not believing in aliens is from second type, i have no scientific reason in not believing in aliens or i should say i don't want aliens to be existed. because every time you find something new the way of your life changes, i based my studies in physics on not believing anything that seems to be paranormal so this is why i'm always insisting on "aliens doesn't exist". actually i believe the scientists who are investigating on existence of life in other planets, are trying to prove they doesn't exist.

[sheepdog 10]

I don't see any sane or intelligent species coming on this planet with visible sign only to get frightened with lady gaga and sarah palin and then slamming the door to make noise of their departure.

ROTFLMAO!!!
Oh, good one! Now thats and angle I hadn't even thought of to campaign for Sara! And to think I just liked her because she is the only politician I know that could field dress a moose!

[mahesh2k 0]

ROTFLMAO!!!Oh, good one! Now thats and angle I hadn't even thought of to campaign for Sara! And to think I just liked her because she is the only politician I know that could field dress a moose!

You know what ? If i'm alien and want to land on this planet for some serious work then i'll definitely get scared when ladygaga is anywhere near 1km radius area. Palin, sarkozy and turner are atleast worth to look at unless they open mouth. But lady gaga is just scary human species ya know.

[Harlot 2]

there is two type of reasons : one when you have a scientific reason which you can argue about and prove it second when you believe in something (or wanting it to be like that) and this is not a scientific reason. my reason for not believing in aliens is from second type, i have no scientific reason in not believing in aliens or i should say i don't want aliens to be existed. because every time you find something new the way of your life changes, i based my studies in physics on not believing anything that seems to be paranormal so this is why i'm always insisting on "aliens doesn't exist". actually i believe the scientists who are investigating on existence of life in other planets, are trying to prove they doesn't exist.

I don't think that any reasonable scientist is trying to prove that aliens don't exist. In fact, as far as we can see, that would be impossible unless we can travel through an never ending universe. The earth is described as a "spec of dust" in the ever expanding vastness of space. Even if you travel at the speed of light, you wouldn't be able to explore all of space unless you have billions, or in fact, trillions of years to spend doing it. If scientist are trying to proven aliens don't exist, they have a large task and a lot of area to cover. I don't think any reasonable scientist is trying to prove that. I actually believe that any reasonable scientist would at least admit that there is a huge possibility that aliens exist; A huge possibility means over 90%. I would argue that the possibility is 99.999999, and an extremely small chance that aliens do not. Also let me point out what my definition of an alien is....any life that does not originate from earth. You would have to be very arrogant to believe that out of zillions of planets, and billions of solar systems, that we are the only planet with life. Furthermore, we would have to be equally arrogant to believe that we are the only planet with intelligent life, and we obviously exaggerate our intelligence due to the fact that there are billions of solar systems (some would argue more), and we don't even have the technology to physically explore even half of our own.

You stated that scientist are attempting to disprove aliens, and I would beg to say the exact opposite. You don't spend billions of dollars in space exploration and research to disprove something. You spend billions of dollars on space exploration and research in order to find something. That something is planets with life. On example is Mars, where our government clearly stated that they were looking for any sign of life on Mar, and if there was even the slightest sign of life, the planet may be able to sustain human life. We have been out in space for the last 50 or so years looking for planets where humans can expand to, and we have been looking for any sign of alien life. Our governments want to know what else is out there, if anything. If you ask me, it is not only highly likely that there is life out there, but it is also highly likely that there are life forms out there that are far more intelligent than human beings. I can't fathom that out of zillions of planets, if any others have life, we would be the most intelligent. With zillions of planets, we would have to assume that at the very minimum, a few million planets have life. That number is extremely pessimistic of me. A realistic minimum would be at least be in the high trillions. Nevertheless, even with a few million planets with life, it would be very shocking if the most intelligent or advance life form can not even explore their own solar system when there are billions or trillions if them. Another reason I would say that we are probably not the most intelligent is that we have not been in existence long. Humans have only been here for 200,000 years, and Christians who interpret the bible literally would argue that humans have been here for a far shorter period of time..like a few thousand years ago, right after God (according to the Bible) created Earth in 7 days. Nevertheless, according to science, Earth has been here for 4.5 billion years. Out of those 200,000 years, only in the last 100 or so years did we create the car, plane, telephone, nuclear bomb, space shuttle, computer, internet, radio, and the list goes on and on. Most of our technology was a result of either war or greed. The need to effectively kill or the need to effectively produce for profit. Look what came out of WWII, more technology than all of the 200,000 years of mankind combined. We went from riding horseback to flying around in airplanes, and later flying into space. In the 1800s, no one would have ever imaged that a little over 100 years later, they would be flying around in the sky. However, my point is that, what about life forms whose planets existed well before ours? I would assume that they would, in a logical sense, have an advantage in regards to intelligence.

As for people freaking out, they would, even if the foreign life form is not a threat. People respond to difference with suspension and ostracism. Some would argue that it is our tribal instinct to categorize and develop an identity and be hostile toward those who don't fit into that identity. I mean serious, look at whats happening in Ivory Coast between different ethnic groups, and also Sudan. All across the world, different ethnic groups are literally at war. This is especially true in Africa, where Europeans lumped them all together after colonization and ignored ethnic borders that existed pre-colonization. Look at the Balkins, where there are still problems in regards to ethnic groups and their desire to have their own country. It really does sound like tribalism, the idea that two ethnic groups can't live in the same country as human beings. Lets not forget how America created Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and blacks, and how it is treating Muslims and Latino today. Also look at Iraq, that has a lot to do with ethnic groups and religion (I hope that alien is a Christian if coming to America lol). We can not even treat each other right as human beings due to differences. So how can we have the arrogance and be so ignorant to believe that we would be enlightened enough to accept a life form that is not even human, and probably has differences greatly exceeds the differences between ethnic groups and races of human beings. That alien would be dead before even being able to say "I come in peace". The first thing people would want to know is what the alien's religious beliefs are. If he doesn't believe in the almighty God, he will be slaughter on sight. He better get off the ship shouting the name of Jesus or Allah...depending on what country he lands in. He would probably still be killed out of fear. Human beings are to tribal based to accept any other life form, and that tribalism is evident by all of the examples I stated above.

I was watching the history channel once, and it told of a time when a radio show faked an alien invasion. People freaked out, and I mean they freaked out hard. However, I wouldn't expect it to be any different if a human lands on another planet with a different life form. Based on my humanly experience, and my limited knowledge of other life forms, my expectation upon lands would be to be killed. If I am invited in for lunch, and place in a luxurious hotel and given the best, I would be culture shocked. I would either expect to be killed or placed in some laboratory to be extensively researched. If aliens came to Earth in large numbers, it would really be a bloody day.

[Teyu 0]

I do not think people would get crazy or mad if she knew of the existence of aliens. But I believe that knowledge would raise many questions and hardly can be answered.On the other hand, the only reason the government decided to cover the existence of aliens is that they knew that they are capable and that's what makes them think that people would go crazy when they know that.

[Bikerman 2]

I do not think people would get crazy or mad if she knew of the existence of aliens. But I believe that knowledge would raise many questions and hardly can be answered.On the other hand, the only reason the government decided to cover the existence of aliens is that they knew that they are capable and that's what makes them think that people would go crazy when they know that.

It simply isn't credible. Governments are incapable of keeping even fairly minor secrets for long. The idea that the US government could keep the lid on confirmed UFO contacts, let alone dealings, is simply a non starter.
The US government is certainly capable of putting out misinformation when it suits and that is what happened with the UFO issue. When the issue began to really take-off it was the height of the cold war. The US had all sorts of secret tests going on and UFOs was a nice cover story for sightings of some of the more radical hardware, like the stealth planes. The military decided to let the UFO stories run - they may even have encouraged a few here and there. The result is that people now ask for papers from the military and find mentions of UFOs redacted (blacked-out). They then assume that this is because the military are trying to hide the fact that they have UFOs when, in fact, various people in the military are just watching their backs and trying to hide any false-stories they might have spread at the time.
The whole notion of UFOs is a no-brainer. Of course there are unidentified flying objects - I've seen a few myself. The notion that they were craft driven by aliens, however, is about the least likely of all the possible explanations, and just because another possibility is not always obvious, that doesn't mean that this shows it was an alien craft.
Likewise aliens - I'm pretty sure there are aliens out there. I'm also pretty sure that they are:
a) Not within range of earth and never likely to be. The speed of light is a harsh mistress and will brook no cheek. It seems to be an absolute limit on velocity within space-time and if so that means any trip to alien planets (or their trip to us) is likely to be a generational affair - taking longer than a person lives and maybe even taking tens or hundreds of generations.
Not abducting people. The notion that aliens would undertake such a trip to simply abduct people and do weird things to them is laughable. If they want samples of sperm, for example, it would be pretty easy to get such samples without kidnapping a yokel and risking exposure. Why would they be so incompetent as to let anyone they abducted stay conscious? Why not simply rob (or better, pay someone else to rob) a sperm bank and have an almost unlimited choice?
Edited December 15, 2010 by Bikerman (see edit history)