Ever wondered what would happen if Aliens visited Earth, especially this year? Read the article to know about the best possibilities and what to expect.
Science fiction has convinced us that alien life is bound to exist. In the observable universe alone, there are countless stars and planets, so it is, statistically, almost impossible for us to be alone in the world. We are in the prime stages of space exploration, and it is natural for us to wonder: what would happen if aliens visited earth?
But before we can answer what would happen if aliens visited earth, we need to consider why we haven’t seen any alien life yet, what that life would look like or if we even want them to reach out in the first place!
Where Are All The Aliens?
Humans have always looked up at the night sky and wondered what is out there. It is why we were so anxious to leave our planet and go searching for answers. To date, we have explored more of space than our oceans! That is basic human curiosity; we explored the beaches until we learned what most fish look like, and then we got bored. Our restless nature and desire to go big or go home is why we had no other option but to point our lenses to the vast abyss of space.
Strangely enough, since we first started venturing upwards and outwards in the 1960s, we haven’t encountered anything that could be evidence of extraterrestrial life. So far, there have been no UFOs or super-advanced civilizations. There haven’t even been shards of debris from what might be alien technology. We keep asking what would happen if aliens visited earth, but unfortunately, the universe seems frighteningly empty.
But how can that be? Scientists estimate that there are at least four billion planets similar to Earth ( that is to say, they lie within the habitable ‘Goldilocks Zone‘ of a star roughly the size of the Sun). If even one percent of these planets supported life, there would be ten million life-bearing planets in the universe. So, how can we be the only life forms (let alone intelligent beings) for billions of light-years around?
The Fermi Paradox:
The universe is trillions of years old, and life on earth has only existed for 3.5 billion years, only 250,000 years of which have supported human life. Furthermore, we have only really been looking to space for 100 years or so. Surely the universe has had enough time to be teeming with life. So, where are all the aliens?
This is the Fermi Paradox. The problem that asks why no life in a universe has been presented with countless opportunities. Before we can answer what would happen if aliens visited earth, we need to solve the paradox.
The Great Filter:
The most popular answer to the famous Fermi Paradox is that of ‘The Great Filter.’ This solution proposes that there are certain hurdles or filters that a species has to cross before it can become a truly advanced civilization capable of intergalactic travel.
The Great filter says there is one impossible hurdle that civilizations have yet to cross. There is supposedly one moment in every race’s history that condemns them all, a barrier that leads to their doom.
The first scenario is that The Great Filter is behind us. Life is incredibly complicated, and it may just be a beautiful accident. After all, complicated life only evolved because a hunter cell ‘ate’ another cell without killing it. It was only then that one cell could provide energy while the other guarded it, providing it with food and shelter.
This mitochondrial evolution was such a hyperspecific accident that its entirely possible that life is not as ordinary as it is on Earth. Or perhaps the development of consciousness is an incredibly tricky process. We still don’t fully understand the knowledge (what it is or how it emerged). If either of these is the case, then we are the first.
After all, our understanding of life is based on our own experience with it. A rich kid who never saw the life of the impoverished may think that the luxuries he is used to are ordinary.
Despite our reasonably self-aggrandizing nature, it is still hard for us to imagine that we are the first life to exist. No matter how ridiculous that notion may seem, we must remember that someone has to be the first. Why not us?
In that case, it is less about what would happen if aliens visited earth and more what would happen if we visited alien planets?
The second scenario is that the barrier is in front of us. Maybe alien life came and went before we came into existence. Perhaps there is something that wipes out a civilization before it can become advanced enough to visit us. Nuclear war, some unknown technology, or even extinction events like star deaths and black holes extinguish life eventually.
If you’re wondering ‘well then why haven’t we discovered ruins on alien planets,’ it is likely because the millions of years during which we were dormant could have decomposed all trace of their existence. Not to mention, we are just in the first stages of space exploration, we haven’t gone past our solar system yet!
Both of these scenarios tell us that we are and always will be alone in the universe. If this seems too bleak and depressing for you, do not worry because there are many other answers to the Fermi Paradox. We can continue to wonder what would happen if aliens visited earth.
Solutions To The Fermi Paradox:
Distance:
Our universe is colossal, and while that increases the chances of there being extraterrestrial intelligence out there, it decreases the chances of ever finding them. Hypothetically if during our search for extraterrestrial intelligence, we manage to find aliens on the other side of the galaxy, it would take us 100 000 years to reach them if we traveled at the speed of light!
So perhaps aliens exist, but they are just really far away. We might just have to sit tight and wait for them to find us.
Detection:
Our radio telescopes and radio waves may seem like cutting edge technology to us, but it may be primitive and outdated for other aliens. They could have a means of communication that we have yet to discover. Or perhaps they speak in frequencies we cannot hear and thus use communication methods that would not be comprehensible to human minds.
Think of it this way; if you are sending your friends SMS messages, but all of your friends only use Social Media DMs, you would think that they are ignoring you when in reality, they just don’t know that you are trying to contact them at all! Perhaps to aliens, we are currently undetectable.
What would happen if aliens visited earth could be that they would be unable to communicate with us.
Differences:
A small change in an environment can cause breathtaking diversity. We can see this on planet earth as the biodiversity in a desert and forest are so amazingly different. Perhaps alien life is the same. After all, if one planet can have so much diversity, why would aliens on an entirely different planetary ecosystem be anything like us? To us, curious humans, exploring outer space is practically a necessity, but it is possible that extraterrestrial intelligence does not feel the same way. Maybe they are perfectly content being left alone.
After all, a dog cannot understand why we got to work or come home to stare at screens. No matter how smart it is or how much you train it, the dog will always think that all there is to life is food and play. Maybe we are just too different from aliens, and our goals are not the same!
But let’s assume for a moment that we cross all these hurdles. Aliens found a way to reach us, they want to explore the galaxy the same way we do, and they can communicate with us effectively. What then? What would happen if aliens visited the Earth?
What Would Happen If Aliens Visited Earth?
To begin answering the question ‘what would happen if aliens visited the earth,’ we need to consider what aliens would look like.
Scientists generally agree on the Kardashev scale – a scale that measures four different ‘levels’ of an alien civilization. The measure of any intelligent society is its consumption of energy. The better and more efficient a race is at harvesting the power available to them, the more advanced they are. The answer to what would happen if aliens visited earth would change significantly depending on the type of aliens.
A type one civilization would be able to extract and utilize all the energy of their home planet. Humans are currently at zero points seven on the scale. We evolved from only being able to use the power from our muscles to discovering fire, and now we can harness the energy from the sun, wind, fossil fuels, and tides.
We have altered our planet for our convenience, built megastructures, and have just started to venture off our world. We could become a full type 1 planet in the next 100 years or so. What would happen if aliens visited earth now and what would happen if aliens visited the land in 100 years as we would be more prepared to deal with them?
A type 2 civilization would be able to extract and use all the energy from its star and solar system. Giga-structures like Dyson Spheres (a network of panels that form a sphere around a star to directly extract its energy) would be easy for type 2 civilizations to achieve, allowing them to have practically unlimited power to further their technology. Becoming a type 2 civilization is possible in theory, but it may be centuries before we can even come close to such a thing. That is what makes the question of what would happen if aliens visited earth so much more pressing.
A type 3 civilization would be able to utilize all the energy from their galaxy. This is a monumental step up from a type 2 civilization, but with a type 2 civilization’s level of energy consumption, achieving that kind of technology may be entirely feasible. These kinds of cultures would be the kind of superintelligent beings of science fiction. To these beings, we are the same as an ant colony.
A type four civilization would be like gods to us. They would control and colonize multiple different galaxies. Their motivations, reasoning and thought processes would be entirely incomprehensible to our minds. Conspiracy theorists claim that type 4 civilizations may actually exist and maybe controlling the world we live in now, acting like gods over our planet and perhaps others. However, these claims have no evidence to back them as of yet.
What Would Happen If Type 1 Aliens Visited Earth?
Type 1 aliens would be similar enough to us that we can expect them to treat us as an equally intelligent species. They will most likely have made a long and lonely journey, the only justification for which would be that they, like us, wanted to know if they were alone in the universe. They could have gotten resources from their solar systems, so the only reason for venturing so far outwards is that they were curious.
In this case, the answer to ‘what would happen if aliens visited the earth’ would be that we would offer them some refreshments and get to learn about each other!
What Would Happen If Type 2 Aliens Visited Earth?
Intergalactic travel would be a mild inconvenience to a type 2 civilization at best. It would be the same as a long flight is to us. So if we use our own experiences as a guide, we can assume that this type of extraterrestrial life would be looking to colonize other planets to allow their population to spread and to collect more resources. A race as advanced as that would have no obstacles to still its growth, so this would be the next natural step if they are anything like us.
In this case, we can only hope that they can be negotiated with. Their technology would be far more advanced than ours. It would be like a dog pleading its case to a vet. Even still, innocent animals have not stopped us from deforestation. If these aliens do decide to invade, our only option is to wage a guerrilla war so lengthy and costly that the aliens decide it’s not worth it and leave us alone. If humans are anything, it is resilient. What would happen if aliens visited earth, in this case, is we would hope for mercy but will not go down without a fight.
What Would Happen If Type 3 or 4 Aliens Visited Earth?
The answer to what would happen if aliens visited earth from a type 3 or 4 planets, to put it simply, is that we would be toast. We wouldn’t know they were there if they didn’t want us to, we can’t say they had plans to attack until we were already under fire. We wouldn’t know we were in trouble until we were already dead.
However, there is no need to go raising hell in the streets! There is no evidence of type 3 or 4 civilization, and we should not assume that they would be violent. We cannot presume to know the wish of the gods, after all.
What have we learned?
So we have concluded that there is a slim chance that aliens will visit earth if they even exist. If they do visit the planet, we can only do as we have always done; keep calm and carry on!
Read more: https://www.icytales.com/what-aliens-may-look-like/
Last Updated on by Steffy Michael