Alien Psychology

by Roderick R. MacDonald

  Another example concerns the little known and geographically isolated Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. A very curious phenomenon has taken place here in that the native inhabitants are of African Pygmy appearance and descent whereas everyone else from the surrounding mainland is Asian. This has been explained by the initial migration of homo sapiens from Africa sixty thousand years ago. With lowered sea levels from the ice age, travel to the islands for a primitive people was much easier than experienced now and it seems likely that a segment of this old population was stranded and culturally isolated once levels rose again. Behaving as they did all those years ago, the present islanders, what's left of them, are a window into time, showing how our ancestors once lived. Still making boats from wooden logs, their technology remains locked in the past.

  In a curious twist to the story, genetic analysis of the population reveals a link to a much deeper past and it is now thought that the initial migrating Africans must have mixed and interbred with an existing, older population. Thus, we have genes surviving from the old Java man population which had existed there for a quarter of a million years.

  And so the Andaman islanders lived in isolation for thousands of years, maintaining their culture and habits until relatively recent events overtook them. Exceptionally hostile to intruders, early traders, including the Arabs, left them well alone until the British arrived on the scene. A prison was established on one of the islands but, despite the might of the Empire, the islanders remained fanatically hostile. Even thirty years ago, approaching some of the islands was impossible; invaders were met with a barrage of arrows and projectiles. Now governed by India, probably as a result of introduced disease and warfare, the numbers have decreased to unsustainable levels. What remains of their population is kept in strict isolation and armed Indian soldiers prevent tourists from venturing near the last remnants of this link to the past. Despite all efforts to resist, the clash of cultures has favoured the mighty. It's like the Borg from Star Trek: resistance is futile, prepare to be assimilated.

  Even language itself exerts pressure for change. As Latin became a lingua franca, so modern English has followed the same course. The language of commerce and science, it may well become the universal language of earth—then again, maybe not. It has distinct advantages over Chinese mandarin in that it's easier to use on a keyboard but with the approaching power of voice controlled software, this advantage may not amount to much in the future.

  History is full of culture clash anecdotes and while most may not be as devastating as the conquistadors, changes to the equilibrium of societies usually mean that the old ways are never recovered. What will happen to earth should the culture of an alien civilisation be introduced even in a supposedly benign fashion? Most think that the consequences will be irreversible; earth will be changed forever. Regardless of the way we or extraterrestrials act, the basic principle moving everyone forward is that of the selfish gene as put forward by Richard Dawkins.

  People protect and promote their own village, vicinity or country knowing that their genes are likely spread out within it and are less likely to appear beyond in unknown or alien realms. Especially where competition for resources is paramountly important, racism has its roots in the superficial identification and protection of gene groups; it has not been unknown for discrimination to exist between ethnic diversities identified by skin colour, and, where this isn't apparent, in artificially enforced class or caste groups.

  The war in Bosnia, which occurred in recent times, saw appalling violence between three groups of people—the Serbs, the Croatians and the Muslim Bosnians. Each carried their own specific racial identity to the limits of cruelty and despair. The idea was to ethnically cleanse one race from the land to the advantage of another and once this was accomplished, it was supposed that all problems would be over. This has happened in the past. It almost happened in Bosnia but with intervention from outside, the process was stopped. Yugoslavia was a reasonably civilised country and yet, within a few years, spurred on by the greed and frailties of nationalistic dictators, it collapsed into a version of living hell. When nationalism rears its ugly head, the good intentions of some can soon turn into the bad actions of others. This is the selfish gene at its worst. The same has happened in Germany, Japan, Rwanda and a huge number of other countries. It could happen in America and Britain. To stop it happening requires discipline from a government and its people, discipline to prevent thoughts from going down a road that leads to bloodshed.

  Taking a step further, all people and all life on earth have the common connection of chemistry and genetics; this is our world, our biosphere, our existence from the amoeba to the zebra, linked by DNA and genetic identity. How would our xenophobia operate when presented with an alien species from another star system in whom we could state with certainty the absence of any of our genes, let alone chemistry or symmetry? It's back to the old tribal warfare game but with immeasurably more defined and deadly boundaries, the only saving grace being that here on this planet we would forget our insignificant differences to unite against a common danger.

  Strangely, the clannish behaviour that has divided us in the past may act to unite us in the face of an exterior foe. Should an alien threat ever materialise, conflict and strife between countries would be set aside. Undoubtedly, the odd country here or there may use the confusion to settle some score with a neighbour but hopefully most people on the planet would unite. It wouldn't matter if someone were black, brown, yellow, white or green with pink spots, so long as they belonged to earth, they would all belong to each other. Rather similar to the movie Independence Day where everyone went out to fight in the last battle, former enemies would pool resources and knowledge in an attempt to counteract the enemy; Iraqis with Israelis, Americans with Russians and Chinese with Japanese. This may be a force for the greater good of all humanity but the grave danger would be that if this were to be handled by the wrong people in the wrong way, we could eventually see the formation of an Earth National Socialist Party along the same lines as the Nazi party—for Jew, read alien!

  As discussed already in this book, there is a general feeling amongst the population that, when and if extraterrestrials make contact with earth, it will be a good and wonderful event for us all; taken into the cosmic fraternity, we would be able to benefit from their wealth of experience and knowledge, safe in the belief that they are too beneficent and nice ever to contemplate harming us. It's more likely that instead of thinking of harming us, something which would be meaningless to them, they would be thinking of farming us! To them, we're no more than cattle in a field and just think what we actually do to cattle?

  This idea of aliens not interfering in our affairs in case their influence had an adverse effect on our development, rather similar to the prime directive as expressed in Star Trek, is probably complete nonsense. When they eventually leave us behind it's highly unlikely that they would care one jot as to our future development. Remember, the aliens have been at it a lot longer than us! If we think we're clannish or xenophobic, just think how they will react after a few million years chewing on the same stuff? A small community, genetically identical and untainted for four million years? Their introspective and ultra protectionist nature refrains them from having publicised contact with us; this is the reason they're not appearing to be dabbling in our affairs. Their only reason to be here is to take what they need in the quietest manner possible. If their actions in doing this condemn us to doom at some time in the future, this possibility will not be uppermost on their minds.

  Contact with extraterrestrials as described could subtly effect our future development in ways so curious that we might not be aware of the cause and effect. For example, diseases may appear which we think are natural to earth while all along they've been introduced either accidentally or purposefully by aliens. Would we ever know? However, if extraterrestrials come out into the open and begin to interact with humans, then we will find ourselves at the mercy of a potentially invincible adve
rsary, contest with whom would leave us on the losing side. It doesn't have to be a war: it need only be a cultural exchange. After contacting us, we would be looking for the key to longevity, the defeat of all disease and maybe even the ultimate weapon. There are too many people on this planet for them all to live forever and the multinational companies would go out of business should all our medical and other complaints be solved. How would armament industries react if overnight their latest and most secret weapons became redundant? The extraterrestrials may possibly wish something in return but what would that something be and at what price?

  This last scenario may not be a very likely one. As already discussed, if extraterrestrials are here, they will have the nature and capabilities of the Exordicans. They've come here to gather resources to sustain them on their seemingly endless nomadic voyage through interstellar space. The resources comprise materials from the planets and satellites of the solar system and living material from the planet earth to make biological robots. There may also be the possibility of using living material from earth to augment their own genetic structure. Perhaps they've been here for a few hundred years: perhaps they'll go soon, perhaps not. Because of their nature, they wish to go about their business virtually without a trace. So, one may ask, what's the problem? They'll come here, take what they want and then leave us alone. OK, so a few will have suffered but it will be no worse than the many other disasters that hit us from time to time. It will be no worse than the sinking of a few ships around the world and it will be a lot better than the potato famine, AIDS, the black death, the second world war or cancer. Why not endure it and then forget all about them? After all, it's not as if everyone knows about them being here! If this were only true!

  A question of great importance to ask about extraterrestrials is one of their genetic makeup. Are they compatible with us? Do they possess a similar DNA structure to our own? It could be the case that they do for a couple of reasons, the first being that our DNA, out of all the many possible chemical compositions of DNA, is the only successful molecular structure capable of replicating itself to a sufficient extent to make life a varied and complex concern. In other words, life anywhere in the galaxy must have the same DNA structure as our own! While we don't know a great deal about DNA itself, we know absolutely nothing about extraterrestrial versions of the molecule but the logic of this argument is very self centred and it may well be the case that there are lots of replicating molecules floating about in the universe. The second idea is that life evolved in space and then spread across the galaxy. This would mean that life everywhere had a common origin. Unlikely as this may seem, eminent scientists, including the late Fred Hoyle, believed this to be the case. They put forward the theory that the initial formation of DNA is such an unlikely possibility that it could not have happened in the mere lifetime of this planet. In fact, they say that the required time for DNA formation is trillions upon trillions of years. However, once formed, it slowly spread through space, landing on planets and, as seeds upon the earth, made life appear everywhere.

  There's a slight snag with this latter argument. If life took trillions of years to form, our universe is approximately twelve billion years old. Of course, Hoyle and others didn't subscribe to the big bang theory: opponents in an argument that's lasted fifty years, they said that the universe is in a steady state which has existed for an infinite time. Thus, with infinity at its disposal, life has had ample time to form. The problem with this is that most of the evidence now favours the big bang theory.

  Another idea allied to this but without necessarily involving the steady state universe is that of panspermia. Early in the life of the universe, life developed in the galaxy and seeded itself either accidentally or purposefully into space. Knowing that the results of their efforts would not be seen by them but by their progeny billions of years hence, maybe a civilisation on the decline sent samples of bacteria into space. Stars coming to the end of their lives, depending on their mass, often explode—the so-called “Planetary nebula” of which the Ring Nebula in Lyra is an example—and in doing so, may spread planetary bacteria into interstellar space. A supernova explosion occurring during the death of a massive star may be powerful enough to blast away environmental bacteria from solar systems light years distant. Without having enough independent samples of life to work on, it's impossible to give a definite opinion but the idea that life did travel through space is attractive. It's certainly possible for bacteria to survive a space environment, living in a dormant state until eventually the correct breeding ground arrives. Falling into lifeless oceans, the bacteria would then begin the long process of evolution. Perhaps we are derived from life that once existed on some long lost and forgotten planet?

  If extraterrestrials visiting earth are genetically compatible with us, then we're in big trouble. Long before visiting our world in person, they would have made a complete survey of the biosphere and subsequently protected themselves totally from the effects of our diseases and reagents. However, the reverse may not necessarily be true. Would the Exordicans care if their bacteria and viruses attacked earth's population? Probably not!

  Taking biological samples to make robots, they would, of course, have to make sure that the earth-derived creatures didn't succumb to anything from the asteroid ship. Most likely, the robots would be made immune to the bacteria and other microscopic forms of life existing there but, if they subsequently came to earth, they could possibly pass the diseases on to those they abducted. Do people claiming abduction suffer more than usual from medical complaints? Could the alien DNA be detected within them? If abductees have picked up illnesses from aliens, the DNA would likely be the same as our own, consequently making detection impossible.

  Maybe the extraterrestrials are carrying out long-term experiments on the human population? Perhaps we are being used to develop antibodies to various reagents? Almost like farming, this would necessitate the return to gather the product, which explains some claims of multiple abductions. This rather unlikely idea cannot be totally ruled out.

  If the aliens are already here and if they are compatible, their total lack of concern for our well-being may, as already claimed, put us at risk from their diseases. Black Death, the plague, tuberculosis, cancer, influenza, AIDS, and so on ... any of these could have an alien origin. Diseases with very mysterious origins, like the 1918 flu, probably don't come from aliens but the idea is intriguing enough for it to be considered, even as the most unlikely explanation. More frightening still, something more sinister and deadly could be ready to pounce.

  Aliens notwithstanding, Fred Hoyle claimed that viruses sometimes come from space when earth passes through the debris tail of a comet thus giving this object a scientific basis to the popular myth that it's a harbinger of doom. An easy way to prove this idea would be to send a space probe to collect and return a sample. This will happen soon: who knows what will come back?

  If incompatible with our biology, they may, as said, just go away when their task is complete. Being ultra cautious, they may not wish to leave a trace of their existence in which case a problem would develop—they may eliminate us. It is more likely, however, that the strategy of minimal contact would leave the least possible trace of their presence here on earth. Certainly, by eliminating us with a specially manufactured disease or even a nuclear holocaust, far more attention would be attracted than with what they've done already. Thankfully we may be left in peace.

  What could they be hiding from? Perhaps more than one nomadic race exists? Maybe they know of each other and take care not to leave traces to follow. Even should this be the case, the chances of two nomadic groups arriving at the same system at the same time are exceptionally slim. Almost as two like electrical charges, they would be mutually repellent, neither race being desirous to meet the other.

  Finally, an idea mentioned from time to time concerning UFO's is that they're here to steal our spare parts. Remember the Gerry Anderson science fiction series made in 1969 and set in 1980 in which
a secret organisation called SHADO protected earth from UFO incursions specifically to remove our vital organs for transplants back on their home world? A problem with this for a long living race like the Exordicans would be the divergent properties of the tissues. Far better to steal the reproductive cells to make a mature body with compatible long life cells capable of being transplanted than go to all the trouble of taking a complete earth being back to the asteroid ship. The idea, in its expanded form, does have interesting possibilities and the message from it is, don't worry, the aliens won't abscond with your heart, lungs or liver, they'll make a father or mother out of you and then chop up your children instead.

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  Phase 15

  Where is the Evidence?

  Although it's a very difficult task to find satisfactory evidence to prove the existence of extraterrestrial UFO's, perhaps there are a few areas where research could be carried out to further the case. This costly research may encounter obstacles and when confronting a government science research council with a proposal to look for aliens within our solar system, justifying the expense could be an impossible task. Such a proposal would be treated with derision, contempt or both and yet, governments may provide much more money to look at esoteric phenomena in the distant reaches of the universe from which little of practical benefit may materialise. A great deal of time and money is being spent on the question of life elsewhere in the universe, in particular the planet Mars where the pinnacle of expectations may well be proving the existence of dead bacteria. Because they would be asked to put money towards the location of live and mature extraterrestrials, so much more advanced than a dead bacterium, the whole subject apparently takes on a loony dimension for which funding is totally inconceivable.