When First-Contact happens what will we do?
4 min readI often see post about seeing Aliens or UFO (now UAP) sightings but I have never seen a post about what we will do when first-contact happens. I am of the belief that physicists, engineers, biologist, and the like would not be very helpful in the case of human-alien contact. I understand that many films would have us believe that they would be pivotal to understanding such an astronomical phenomenon, but how so?
What would a scientist be able to provide in such a situation? Should there work and effort not be relegated to the actual study of their craft and being?
I believe Arrival was an amazing film, however it poses a few concerns about how first-contact might happen.
Here are my thoughts on how we should handle the world changing event:
A collective, world military must be attentive and at the ready to help keep peace both on the frontline (when the aliens first touch down and contact us) and abroad where panic and hysteria may spread like wildfire. However, it is equally important that the military is not trigger happy, that we will defend ourselves but see that our initial contact is not one of danger.
To that point I am aware that it will not be too feasible to understand the intentions of aliens however in this one case, shooting first is bad policy.
Next, I believe a convening of the UN is VERY necessary. However, those in power must not act unilaterally in their assumed best interest for us all. I know this point might come across as strange but hear me out on this. Most world leaders are come into power after studying law or humanities, or they were a former leader in the military (while this is not always the case it is often times the case). So these leaders may very well help us to manage the situation abroad but should not be given the power to decide how humans and aliens interact.
In thinking of this interaction between aliens and humans I have spent much time thinking who would be on the frontlines working to understand this first contact. In earnest, there are no good options. People do not study the unknown in a truly scientific manner. What I mean by this is that it is impossible to prepare for the unknown. So the professional that would be necessary in a case like this are not available. However, one of greatest strength is ingenuity so using what and who we have in a novel way might help even if a little. For this reason I believe the most important people who can help us get through this highly stressful time would be linguists, psychologists, semioticians, and archeologists who have intense background researching unknown phenomena in pre-history. There may be a few other professions that I am missing but I have selected a few here that I believe would be absolutely necessary in such an event.
The linguists and semioticians might be the most obvious choice, they may begin to interpret how these intelligent beings express meaning either through sound or visual representation. However, I understand that these expressions would quite literally be otherworldly but it is at least a decent shot.
The psychologist is important in that they may take their expertise in studying human behavior and make an attempt a understanding the behaviors and actions of aliens. How the socialize, work together, if they express any temperaments. This would be very important information to have and would a great doorway into a new field -psychology of the cosmos or astronomical psychology (I haven’t decided on a name but I think it’s clear that my bias is showing… I have a degree in psychology and will be continuing my education. So yes, I generally believe psychologists would be a tremendous help but also it’s a really cool opportunity for the study I love so much).
Long aside over the archeologist is another obvious choice because they may have studied contact events in there research or field experience whether hey were open to the thought of early alien presence or not. However, because the individual should ideally had an open-minded approach in their studies, perhaps the most fitting people are those from the Ancient Aliens cast.
(That last line was a joke, laugh).
Edit: I want to take time to clarify what I mean by first-contact as I do not disagree with some comments already made by others that aliens have contacted human civilization. What I mean by first contact is a broad and undeniable presence of alien contact with us. Think less of a crashed ship and more of a landed ship in the middle of somewhere.
