Seriously, I doubt it would even take that long. We get used to shit so quickly, and the news cycles have to keep feeding us new things, the only way we’d keep talking about the aliens if they kept doing new and interesting things. I’d be willing to bet a year later there would be some people who straight up forgot about it. “Oh yeah, aliens! Are they gonna, like, visit at some point or just keep exchanging calls with the Whitehouse?”
It depends, I would say. If the aliens ask unpleasant questions, they would probably be talked about and reported on continuously. Like:
Alien Ambassador: “Why are you destroying your habitat with your eyes open? We don’t understand. Your scientists have proven beyond doubt that you will become extinct if you don’t fundamentally change your ways. Why don’t you care at all?”
Continuous headlines:
“Aliens want to ban humanity from traveling”
“Space fascists want to raise gas prices”
“Go home job-stealing aliens: How outer world wokeness is destroying {any given country}”
…
“The only alien I accept is Jesus Christ.”
cocks shotgun
“Now it’s time for you to phone home.”
It could go that way, but on the other hand they could be more like MorningLightMountain in Peter Hamilton’s Pandora’s Star, i.e. fascists who exterminate every other organism that competes with them for resources.
Great book if you haven’t read it!
Yeah the book has an amazing depiction of a truly alien mind that is fundamentally different because of how it functions.