Page 47 - Extraterrestrials, Foreign and Domestic

Anthropic Fallacies

Zorbach, perhaps more familiar with the popular cinematic and
literary forms of hypothetical extraterrestrial invaders, was all ears
and overactive imagination.
“I get it. They want their giant robots to plant little microchips
in our heads so we’ll do their bidding.”
“No, no, that’s not it.” George Buck suppressed laughter.
“Various components of the alien cybernetic contingent, acting
through our project team, have set up shop in certain locations
around the country, all of them military bases the public never
sees. They are building and testing various vehicles for use in their
new environments; those are the ‘flying saucers’ and ‘rocket ships’
people have spotted from time to time. It is our hope to pick up a
few tricks of the trade from this operation, but most of their
metallurgy and electronics are totally mystifying. And they
obviously are programmed not to give away any of their
technology: they are ethical enough to leave us in peace, but
cautious enough not to want us breathing down their necks for
several lightyears.”
“Oh.”
“As for their need for human beings, it is completely non-
threatening. Under the guise of our astronaut training program,
dozens of young men and women—unknown to them—were
screened by alien devices back in the Sixties. Of those, a certain
number received training from the alien data banks. They are
volunteers, willing to absorb the mindset of another species. Once
their indoctrination begins, they are beyond our authority.
Whatever they are first taught, it instills a new loyalty in them to
the alien venture. True, there have been rejects, but they have
nothing of interest to tell us. Early on, some misguided officials
attempted to foil the aliens’ game plan in various ways; they were
firmly but gently expelled from the project. The volunteers paired
off, married and produced a generation of offspring raised as
human beings with alien psychologies—at least to some extent: we
are not sure what they will retain of our culture once they are
quiesced and shipped out. Yes, they are the ones who will go, not
their parents. They are now adults, and will soon depart. After this
new diaspora has been launched, the original pod will clean up

46