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The more time passes, the more likely it is that other life forms exist in the universe. The question of the new year that has just begun: how can we communicate with aliens if we have such a hard time understanding each other?
The year 2024, full of surprises, ended with a claimed invasion of large flying objects spotted by the thousands in the skies of the United States. There was little talk about it in the rest of the world, but the alarm was sounded there; added to the previous accusations against China were new ones against Iran: TVs were overfilled with people shouting: “The government can’t tell us what the hell is flying over our heads!” The FBI and a national security spokesman did not provide convincing explanations, but instead exacerbated old accusations. Donald Trump did not extinguish the people’s fears, but rather stoked the flames by tweeting: “Mysterious drones are spotted everywhere. I don’t think it can happen without the government’s knowledge. Clarify it now. Otherwise, shoot them.”
Fear of military attack exacerbated the sense of vulnerability: what security can there be if unknown objects roam the skies with impunity? What if they were carrying chemical, nuclear, or bacteriological weapons? Many people say they’re sure these are aliens, with only one doubt: are they are coming or leaving (in this version, the aliens are escaping: the Earth ship sinks, and the aliens, not dumb, move to less messy places).
It has been observed that “Are we alone?” is one of the three strange questions that have plagued humans since the days of caves, during academic breaks at the first campfires. The other two are: “What happens after death?” and “Is there a God, judge, and creator?” The contemplation of aliens is mixed with fear of the devil and the heavenly Father, in uncomfortable anticipation of punishment and the afterlife; it has been a constant in the Western imagination since the time of Homer and Virgil.
Ufology is not a down-to-earth version of theology, but a science, as explained by J.A. Hynek in 1972. The benevolent vision of the celestial dome culminated in the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which gave the aliens anthropomorphic and simple imagery, and at the other pole is the amazing creative genius of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1972 Solaris, one of the masterpieces in film history. Aelita by Yakov Alexandrovich Protazanov was a colossal precursor in 1924.
Hollywood portrayed the theme of sky insecurities with its enlightening forebear in 1956’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which has had endless variations and revivals, especially of the 1979’s Alien, which systematized the topos: xenomorphs take over human bodies, assuming their physical appearance – you think you’re talking to your aunt, but instead it’s a nefarious alien. It took possession of her and her looks. You can’t trust anyone anymore. Exorcist stuff.
Only one step separates the idea that aliens may live camouflaged around us from the idea that they are inside us. Some suspicions had been lurking for some time. The idea that we are to blame is a very old one; it looms large in Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and reaches all the way back to the now legendary Pogo strip: “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
Recognizing that in a sense the enemy is within us and that we are the first bad guys can lead to a rediscovery of forms of cooperation between enemies that are unthinkable today
Every cloud has a silver lining. Recognizing that, in a sense, the enemy is within us and that we are the first bad guys can lead to a rediscovery of forms of cooperation between enemies that are unthinkable today, but that have just as unthinkably occurred in the past. Between the 1950s and 1980s, during the worst decades of the Cold War, when there were instruments, plans, and mutual threats of aggression and nuclear destruction between the Americans and the Soviets, an unlikely alliance existed between the USA and the USSR: radio astronomers from the two countries cooperated honestly in researching extraterrestrial civilizations, despite living in a completely and mutually hostile strategic and communicative environment.
The incredible collaboration took place in secret. It is only now, at the end of 2024, that the first light has been shed on this almost unknown story. The Iron Curtain was not that closed, as a common ground of understanding emerged on both sides. Just as radio astronomy has intertwined a complex and extensive network of converging interests, the same has happened in many other sectors. Americans and Soviets were hostile, alien, strangers to each other, but some understood the value of cooperation.
From the Fermi paradox to Liu Cixin’s two axioms, aliens have contributed in many ways, reminding us that we have a responsibility to survive the uniqueness of the human adventure. They may be evil and perverted, but there is already so much that is disturbing among us that we don’t even have to expect the same from the sky. The H5N1 virus has made an alarming surge in species numbers among cattle in Texas, with no one dropping it from the clouds. According to Le Monde, the USA is endangering the entire world.
The question of life in the vast expanse of the universe ultimately begs an intimate and troubling question about ourselves: how can we communicate with aliens if we find it so difficult to communicate, to reason, to understand each other? Many people wonder. The cosmic unexplored becomes less if we mix the celestial and the terrestrial.
One hope is to remember that there is a fundamental inclination within us to communicate, connect, and socialize. In the Bible, God recognizes that man cannot live alone, and natural human sociality is magnificently proved from the beginning by Confucius and Aristotle. Even without aliens, we must hope that somewhere, in silence, someone is working to acquire by 2025 a new understanding of humanity’s survival – not alien survival, but our own nefarious impulses.
