Page 7 - 20120708 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - July / August 2012

Why Would Aliens Invade? Why Would Aliens Brand™ Life to work with. And no, I don't apple. Invade? believe for a second that they have visited Earth Grim Living already. Analysis by Ian O'Neill So, looking back at our own history, the root causes of most conflicts are resources and In a recent article by Ken Croswell for National ideology. If one country has a resource another Geographic, my blog "Life is Grim on the Late on Feb. 24, 1942, reports of flares and blinking lights in the skies over southern nation wants, they might take it, with force. If Galactic Rim" was quoted when discussing the one nation has a different ideology to another, California caused a succession of nervous they might attack that perceived threat. likelihood of life in the outermost reaches of our alerts. Only three months earlier, the U.S. had This is a massive oversimplification of galaxy. The upshot is that studies show the entered the Second World War after the warfare history, but it is a fact that our planet galactic rim as being a very bad place for shocking attack on Pearl Harbor by Japan, so it planets, and therefore life, to form. is understandable that the West Coast was on the possesses massive resources; would a resource- One study, by Chikako Yasui of the hungry, sufficiently advanced alien civilization look-out for enemy aircraft. want to take our resources for themselves? National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, By the early hours of the following showed that young stars in our galaxy's morning, on Feb 25, military radar detected an Would they take it with force? outermost reaches lacked protoplanetary dust Having said that, aliens might just turn unidentified flying object 120 miles offshore up, unannounced, wanting to exterminate us for disks due to their low metal content (i.e. any approaching the coastline. This was followed by no reason (as most alien attack movies would element heavier than helium). This means that reports of a squadron of aircraft over LA and a have us believe). It might not be about the young stars are anemic and planet formation balloon-borne flare over Santa Monica. A is rare. barrage of gunfire from anti-aircraft artillery resources, perhaps they just want to be the only If any planets did form, it seems logical intelligent life form in this region of the galaxy? was ordered, causing the skies to erupt "like a Perhaps killing things is their ideology. to assume they would have a very limited volcano," according to eyewitness reports. But now I'm speculating about the supply of the materials required to support a This may sound like the storyline from a growing, advanced civilization. work of fiction, but "The Battle of Los Angeles" beliefs and motivation of an alien race, which is This study serves as a reminder that definitely happened in the early morning of Feb. well beyond the scope of even my imagination. other star systems are not like ours; depending 25 and will forever fuel UFO conspiracy on where you are in the galaxy, there's a theories. Why Assume They're Friendly? variation in the supply of resources. If a space- Indeed, this event inspired the most faring alien civilization came from one of these recent alien invasion movie, "Battle: Los Last year, world-renowned physicist Stephen "less fortunate" systems -- or they've simply Angeles," where an aggressive alien race Hawking caused a storm when discussing the exhausted their supply of once-bountiful attacks Earth. possibility of alien invasions in his Discovery resources -- that would be a potent motivator to The storyline focuses on present-day Channel documentary "Into the Universe." For explore other star systems, claim resources and LA, and rather than the 1942 false alarm being some reason, the international press went nuts expand their civilization. caused by jittery war nerves, the anti-aircraft when they found out that Hawking believes our How long could it be until one of those guns were actually shooting at an encounter would be less like "ET: The hungry alien races come knocking on our door? extraterrestrial "scout" spacecraft spying on Extraterrestrial" and more like "Independence Would they send out a diplomatic attaché to southern California nearly 70 years before the Day." negotiate for the resources under our feet? Or aliens landed. Hawking's argument was that perhaps would they dispense with the pleasantries and Movies featuring angry aliens are mankind should stay quiet and refrain from nuke the natives without a second thought? always fun (unless you had to sit through trying to send signals into outer space. After all, I'd argue that if it's just about resources, Spielberg's "War of the Worlds," that is), but we have no clue about the nature of these an alien race probably wouldn't bother pillaging ignoring our obvious uneasiness with the hypothetical aliens, why assume they're Earth. As we know by now, the galaxy is phantom alien menace that might lurk in our friendly? In principal, I agreed with Hawking's teeming in worlds to exploit, and many in our galaxy, there is one question that keeps popping concern, but not trying to communicate with cosmic neighborhood will contain similar up in my mind: Why would extraterrestrials other beings in our galaxy could resign us to a materials to Earth. There are far easier pickings attack us? dull and ultimately self-destructive future. out there rather than landing on a planet filled (There's also the point that perhaps any with a civilization that takes great pride in Resources? A Strong Dislike for aliens in our backyard should be worried about building big weapons that could hinder attempts Humans? us. We have an awful track record of living in at mining the planet. So, what is the motivation behind the harmony with the other species' on our own planet. Remember "District 9"'s "Prawns," poor invading hoards of gun-toting extraterrestrials You could counter that question with: Why guys.) in "Battle: Los Angeles"? wouldn't they attack us? but either way, the Hawking's main concern was that a fleet They want us dead. Our aliveness answer is as speculative as the search for of alien spacecraft could turn up wanting to strip offends them. extraterrestrial life itself. There's no precedent mine the Earth for its bountiful resources. Any Either that, or it's their idea of a for life beyond Earth, we only have Earth life would be just brushed off, like ants off an vacation, Malibu is lovely this time of year. []