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8 Misconceptions About Aliens 33

8 Huge Misconceptions

About Aliens

By Natalie Wolchover

A typical Hollywood alien is "soft, squishy and
big on mucus," in the words of Seth Shostak,
senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in
Mountain View, Calif. These sci-fi lumps of goo
are inclined to abduct us, probe us, hover above
us and even walk among us (in disguise, of
course). But far beyond Hollywood's limited
scope, aliens might really exist. What are they
like, and how would they actually handle a
human encounter? Astrobiologists have deduced
a few answers by combining their knowledge of
life on Earth with their understanding of the
cosmos as a whole. Their profile of ET might
not be what you expected.

1. They won't come in peace

The renowned physicist Stephen Hawking once
famously warned that humanity's efforts to radio
communicate with extraterrestrials could be based bacteria, they all die of infections. This true cosmos-wide, and so any race of beings
endangering us. If the aliens that detect our wouldn't really happen. "Alien life forms would be expected to advance in a similar
signals are technologically capable of coming wouldn't come here only to be done in by our fashion to humans, gradually becoming more
here — proof that they are far more advanced bacteria, unless they were related biochemically and more efficient through the invention of
than we — "I think the outcome would be much to humans," Shostak told IEEE Spectrum. machinery. By the time an alien race is
as when Christopher Columbus first landed in "Bacteria would have to be able to interact with sophisticated enough to trek between stars,
America, which didn't turn out very well for the their biochemistry to be dangerous, and their they'll more than likely do it from the comfort of
Native Americans," Hawking said. ability to do that is far from a sure thing." their home planet.
But how can we know the first thing "Chances are, the first invaders will be
about ET's behavior, be it malevolent or 5. They won't eat us some sort of artificially intelligent machinery,"
otherwise? Shostak said we need look no farther Shostak said.
than Earth. Aggression evolved as a trait among Just as they would not be recognized by the local
Earthlings because it helps us obtain and protect pathogens as potential hosts, aliens would also 8. They might not exist
resources. Though aliens would have arisen and not recognize Earth's organic matter as a
evolved under totally different conditions, potential food source. They couldn't digest us. The widespread notion that life probably exists
pressure to secure finite resources would And they probably wouldn't need to, anyway. As on many or all of the other habitable planets in
probably have molded their behavior, too. "I Jacob Haqq-Misra, an astronomer at the universe is largely based on the observation
suspect resources would be finite anywhere in Pennsylvania State University, pointed out, "A that it arose relatively quickly here on Earth —
the universe," Shostak told Life's Little society capable of interstellar travel should have within a few hundred million years of the
Mysteries. solved their development issues such that they planet's formation. But in truth, we know next to

do not need humans for food." nothing about the likelihood of that momentous
2. They didn't put us here event. Despite decades of Frankenstein-like
6. They won't mate with us effort, we haven't even come close to triggering
A popular fringe theory holds that humans are the genesis of life in the lab.
alien's gift to Earth. Some people say we were Human DNA can't combine with XYZ, or "Abiogenesis," or life arising from
delivered here during a near pass to Earth of a whatever it is that encodes alien life. "The idea lifeless chemicals, could be exceedingly rare.
life-bearing planet called Nibiru. This alleged that they've come for breeding purposes is more Life on Earth could be an anomaly.
planet, which has not actually been observed by akin to wishful thinking by members of the If you think it improbable that life would
astronomers, is said to skirt the edges of the audience who don't have good social lives," only happen once — and that that life would
solar system and swing inward from time to Shostak told IEEE Spectrum. "Think about how happen be us — that's now known to be a
time. well we breed with other species on Earth, and misconception. A pair of Princeton
"I get emails every week saying that they have DNA. It would be like trying to breed astrophysicists recently applied a new kind of
Homo sapiens are the result of alien with an oak tree." statistical analysis to the early timing of the
intervention," Shostak said. "I'm not sure why genesis of life on Earth, and determined that
aliens would be interested in producing us. I Earth's history says absolutely nothing about the
7. They won't come in 'person'
think people like to think we're special. But isn't probability of life arising elsewhere. Aliens
that what got Galileo and Copernicus into could be everywhere; they could be nowhere. []
As a civilization advances, it tends to let
trouble — questioning how special we were?
machines do its dirty work. Cars replace horses,
But if we're just another duck in the road, it's not
nuclear bombs replace infantries, drones replace For The Very Best Of
very exciting."
fighter jets; it's all about increasing efficiency. Paranormal / Parapsychology
This rule of thumb can be generalized as an
3. They're immune to Earth's bacteria Radio Programming
effort by living things to resist the second law of
24 / 7 / 365
thermodynamics, or the rule that disorder tends
Alien visitors to Earth are occasionally depicted to increase in the universe. In fact, "life" is Visit
in science fiction as being brought down by their sometimes even defined as an entity that www.XZBN.net
own alien nature. Lacking immunity to Earth- struggles for order. The tenet of physics holds