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?”
Peaceful contact with aliens would tell us something fundamental about the nature of ethics and the universe.
Advanced aliens do not need any material resources or real estate from humanity. We can already interpolate that from existing science. So that is not the reason why there are here. And we know they haven’t exterminated us already centuries ago.
Instead it would tell that we share some fundamental values like curiosity and diversity with alien species - as long as they evolved through natural selection and had to raise and teach and love their children. As long as they had to find productive ways to work together as a people.
We would realize that we are not alone and that we are being judged. That we can’t just endlessly bulldoze the galaxy and that there are limits to acceptable behavior. Because there is always someone more powerful that could smash us, but they already didn’t. That certain ethical ideals are fundamental properties emerging from the universe itself.
It would be a powerful counter to the current nihilistic materialism, that we need to start working to improve our culture.
My friend and I came to this conclusion like 20 years ago. Once the shock wears off everyone’s minds will adapt, with most people falling into “great, there’s aliens, but I’ve still got to get to work.” I mean the US only sorta screeched to a halt for like a week after 9/11, and most of that was the airline industry. The pandemic was way worse, but the problem was very different. So unless the aliens do something (good or bad) that affected everyone directly - war, disease, super powers, apotheosis, free global WiFi, w/e - we’d all be back up and running in like 4 hours.
Hard disagree. Yes, all the other crazy bullshit would continue, but aliens are here among us isn’t something that would just go away.
I’m with you. Yes, people acclimate to all kinds of things, but sentient aliens are going to take more than a few days.
People will absolutely have a hard shit about it when it happens, but I think that, after so much sci-fi exposure in our culture, humanity (or, most of it) would be able to wrap their heads around the idea of extra-terrestrial aliens. Unfortunately, a lot would probably just see them the same way they see any other “aliens”, and be xenophobic (or exoxenophobic as the case may be) jerks about it.
Idk. A few years ago the US Government released videos of UFOs taken by US Fighter Pilots, and the conversation about the videos didn’t even last a day.
The clue is in the name. The U stands for unidentified, which means you don’t know what it is, which does not in turn mean that it’s aliens. The only thing those videos proved was that someone’s camera recorded something weird. Prove that those weird things were actually aliens and not some obscure sensor glitch or weather phenomenon or a secret government tech demo, then we’ll freak out.
The speed of light is so slow as to make communication difficult. The best possiple case is they are about four light years away meaning a round trip question and answer is eight years. That is best case and those stars are generally thought to not be likely to have life. 20 light years gives the first possibility of life.
Which is to say we will never establish communication as you think of it. Instead we become aware of each other and send what we guess is of interest. maybe we ask questions but odds are a question sent is no longer relavent by the time we get an answeri
even the above is a best possible case. If we become aware of life there, is a good chance it is extinct long ago but evidence is just reaching us. The universe is that large*
It’s not because of a lack of interest. It’s not because we “get used” to things to quickly. It’s because it doesn’t matter. Like, alright. So aliens are real. Aliens have secretly been communicating with all the world’s government.
So… What actually changes?
Is this new information going to fix the housing market? Is capitalism going to change? How is this information going to change corporations squeezing everything dry? Aliens being confirmed is awesome, wondrous news! But… How will I, an average dude, be part of it? What is the point if I wake up tomorrow and everything around me is still the same? Wars are still the same, religions are still the same, the economy, hell, even the information these aliens bring to Earth, only benefits the top 1%.
If I still have to work a shitty job just to barely afford living in a single room, what difference does knowing aliens exist make?
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.
If tomorrow they announced that it had been happening for a while? Perhaps we’d move on.
If tomorrow were First Contact? Everything would change.
There are no new things in the news. It’s the same ol tired outrage over and over again. I’m over it. I don’t care anymore. It’s all engineered to make us unhappy, and angry, and it works. So, I have opted out.
I think something this momental would make it so that the world won’t allow us to forget even if the news does. Think about it. Imagine the fallout that would follow finding out that we’re not alone in the universe, that there’s something out there way smarter than us and have been in contact with our government. How did contact the government? How long have they been in contact? Are they here already? People would probably go a little bit crazy initially. Doomsday peppers would stock up, like what happened during covid, religious fanatics would probably go haywire because what if aliens had something to do with shaping religion? Then there’s the scientific stuff. How are they comminicating? How can the government keep contact? There’d probably be people calling the government into question because how can they hide something so momental from is for however long they have? Then the other governments of the world to. What would they say? Would they be contact to? Would they start fighting because they’re not in contact and want to be? I think the world would go crazy enough that’d we’d feel the effects for a while and definately longer than until Halloween.
If nothing else developed from the talks, then yes.
But if it started a new conversation with academics, if it opened trade opportunities, if it brought meaningful new technology, it would dominate world discussion for decades.
But if it was a single message sent at the speed of light and we had to wait 50 years for our reply to get back to them, and then 50 more years to hear any more communication…
Yeah, nobody’s going to remember that happened.
I just strongly doubt that. Firstly, heaps of people would be dressing as aliens for Halloween and thus talking about it.
Secondly, there’s just way too many follow up questions, about them, their culture, their home, their tech, their goals, their language, their biology, the impact they’ve already had in our history, who knew and who didn’t, etc.
So many fields would begin looking into it and throwing up new angles and facts for people to chew over.
Just think of how much time christians would devote to converting aliens to jeebus.
I think it depends on what they have to say…
Honestly; “You’re not alone “ would fuel philosophy for a hundred years…
“Worship our noodles” would start as many holy wars.
“We’ve been trying to reach you about…”
4chan would explode
“You have five minutes to move your satellite”
It wasn’t that long ago that the US Government acknowledged that UFO’s are real and people barely noticed.
This has already happened. And your prediction is correct: nobody talks about it.
People would probably be like are they going to pay my bills? No? Whatever.
