I had lunch yesterday with a few girlfriends. Our conversations always range all over the place so one of my friends mentioning she had seen an article about aliens wasn’t too weird. She couldn’t find the article online (on her phone) but that didn’t stop the rest of us from glomming on. Another friend said she’d seen a theory that aliens are already here.
I suggested that if there were actually aliens here we would never know it. Considering how far we have yet to go to even get ourselves to Mars, any aliens who have the considerable enough technology to get here would certainly have enough technology to go undetected by us.
After a bit more silly discussion I asked WHY these aliens would be here among us. Maybe we’re just an amusement part for these aliens. Another friend said the article claimed that the aliens were here to save us. Another big WHY from me at that point. Maybe we’re some alien high-school kids science project – kind of like an ant farm.
None of my friends actually believe in aliens, at least not little green men in mental saucers. I fall into Carl Sagan’s camp when he says in his book Contact “The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space.” Although if there were a way to bet that we would be done as a species before we made any contact from elsewhere in the universe, I’d take that bet.
Do you have a favorite alien book or movie?
Trail Baboon 
There are certain folks around, especially in the wake of the recent election, who can be termed as a “waste of space”. I hope I’m not among them.
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If the government had secrets about alien presence among us, 45 would have spilled the beans.
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What if 45 IS an alien – it would explain so much!
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I am reminded that the alien in The Pod People was called Trumpy.
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As Linda said.
MST3K.
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Not only equated with them but also in their vicinity.
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Read that as a response to David Alexander.
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E.T.
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Two of my very favorite space books are both by Andy Weir. The Martian and The Hail Mary Project. Both of these fall into the category of books I love so much that I will never see any movies based on them.
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Even without seeing the movie of The Martian, I’ll bet when you imagined Mark Watney you saw Matt Damon. I know I did and I haven’t seen the movie either.
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In a stroke a very good fortune, the ads for the movie The Martian were out right about the time I read the book. So yes, when I read the book it was Matt Damon all the way in my mind’s eye.
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I’m reminded of a German Shepherd whose owner told a story about treats given to the cat. YouTube. I’m sure everyone’s seen it. Heartbreaking, it was, to witness that poor animal’s dismay. If I could, I’d give him a steak sandwich.
Andy Weir? Really? Pout appended by reference.
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Snort!
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Yep. That’s the guy. Poor thing.
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I don’t even want to admit to how many times I’ve seen this over the years.
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It never gets old.
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No favorite aliens.
I had a coworker who believed in many things that I don’t. She insisted to me that aliens are living among us now, and that they’re in human form. Their purpose is (she says) to mate with us until we have mostly alien DNA. Then they will return us to the mother ship. She said a percentage of our DNA is already alien.
Yeah.
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Yeah this is another one of those if they had the technology to do that, why would they need to cross the universe to reproduce? And I’m not sure I’d want to take the risk of any of our DNA mixing with theirs.
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I do love “So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space.” I don’t doubt that there are other beings out there, and someone knows enough to get to Warp Speed. But I’d be surprised if they were in our solar system.
We really enjoyed Resident Alien on Netflix, the two seasons we’ve seen. Loved the outrageous characters. Also a fan of StarTrek The Next Generation.
I haven’t read enough alien stuff to talk intelligently…
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Not really into science fiction or aliens. I liked Mork and Mindy, though
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Harvard professor Avi Loeb, who has written several books about the probability of aliens in our space, has said he especially likes Arrival, the movie with Amy Adams.
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When I was a child I loved Andre Norton’s book “Star Ka’at,” because the aliens were intelligent cats who could communicate (telepathically, I think). These days, knowing the bit I do about stellar distances, radiation, and so on, I am certain that, while intelligent life may flourish on any number of planets, we will never meet any of them and it’s vanishingly unlikely we will even receive communications from them–far better to work on communicating with the intelligent species on this planet, like whales/dolphins. That said, I have a soft spot for my friend Eleanor Arnason’s goxhat from her Lydia Duluth stories, which are essentially giant spider accountants and think of themselves as collective units, not as individuals (it’s hard to explain, but see this link: https://apex-magazine.com/short-fiction/the-glutton-a-goxhat-accounting-chant/ )
–Crow Girl
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OT-Husband drove to Bismarck this afternoon in awful road and weather conditions for a court hearing tomorrow morning. He is there and safe.
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Just went out for my Wednesday donut fix and it’s just starting to snow. Just a smidge so far – we’ll have to wait to see if it “really” snows.
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NNNooooooooooo!
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