The UFO Singularity (18 page)

For instance, consider an advanced race of insects—or at very least, beings that would appear insect-like to you or me—that have evolved to a point of technological proficiency that greatly exceeds our own. Growing and adapting to a planet in a distant star system, these beings might have developed specific attributes fitted to their environment that we would consider very alien indeed. For the sake of example, let’s suppose that through time they managed to develop a sort of “hive mentality,” similar to the theories of psychologist Carl Jung that involve a collective consciousness that humans subconsciously share. Aliens with similar underlying conscious unity, though obviously to a far greater degree than any that humans may possess, might go about sustaining their civilization with very different moral standards and priorities than we would, on account of this shared form of consciousness.

Remember: This concept is not unlike the ways that some insect species here on Earth are known to operate. We see species such as ants that, rather than being concerned with self-preservation, tend to work collectively in an intricate operation that exists as a variety of miniature elements, culminating to form one standalone, synchronous presence within their humble little anthill. With this in mind, could similar standards of evolutionary operation cause our present, slightly idealistic species of “insect aliens” to work toward preserving its race in strange ways—and at all costs? Also, if this were the case, the notion of mutually assured destruction, which had been so paramount within the context of Drake’s Equation, might now seem less likely. We nonetheless might assume that our insectoid neighbors would find it suitable to do such things as attack and destroy another civilization such as ours, as long as doing so benefited their own long-term survival. Again, that hive mentality would seem to prevail strongly.

Taking this a few steps further, what other kinds of biological factors might cause differences in the way a species evolved on distant planets, specifically with regard to their eventual development of intelligence, morals, society, and culture? Would we expect a species of intelligent reptiles—or at least a life form similar to reptiles, as we know them on Earth—to behave differently than evolved mammals such as humans? If so, in what ways would we expect their behavior to differ, based on what we know of reptiles we have interacted with? Would they be more
prone to violence and conflict with others, and if so, would this present a threat to their galactic neighbors? Or, would Drake’s and Sagan’s conclusions be correct in this instance, in that an inherently violent race of reptilian aliens would be less likely to harness advanced technology in the long run on account of their own self-destructive potential?

Then there is the question regarding the physical size of intelligent alien life forms. Could intelligent aliens exist that are diminutive—perhaps only a few micrometers tall, or smaller—but still possessing complex intelligence and the ability to manipulate mass around them in ways that allow them to master their environment? Should we consider whether technology and its applications are typically relative to the physical size and characteristics of the species that harnesses them? And what if a species that was far smaller than humans in stature, but more advanced than we, managed to harness advantages or disadvantages over us with regard to, for instance, a hostile take-over or colonization attempt here on Earth? Alternatively, what about a species so large that their physical presence alongside our own would liken humans to the size of a common field mouse? Though the existence of a creature so large may be impossible on a planet such as Earth, with the amount of gravity our planet exerts on the life forms that populate it, such restrictions may not apply on distant alien worlds.

With that in mind, let’s go ahead and consider how environmental factors such as these might affect creatures
in different ways from one planet to the next. We are again faced with the notion that various intelligent species, and the physical attributes they would have developed through time, might cause them great difficulty in terms of being equipped for travel to other worlds. The giant I alluded to in the last paragraph, evolving on a planet far smaller than Earth where the demands of gravity on his physical body had been greatly reduced, may find it troubling indeed to visit a planet like ours, where his tremendous musculature would become virtually immovable.

Playing devil’s advocate, when we question things such as the physical size of alien beings, perhaps there are certain universal constants that would warrant a few predictable qualities aliens might have instead. For instance, what if the size of quantum particles in the universe acted as a sort of constant, and thus became conducive to—if not an entirely determinant factor in—shaping the size of creatures such as humanoids or other beings with an aptitude for intelligence? This would likely also be relative to the size of a planet where such physical life had appeared, and the resultant gravitational and other physical conditions acting on life as it evolved. In this sense, the evolution of certain intelligent species may indeed be reliant on a fixed set of criteria, in which physical conditions must be met in order for a civilization to evolve in relation to their environment that would lead to advanced intelligence.

And yet, guesswork such as this, regarding the conditions and varieties of alien life elsewhere in our universe,
need not be entirely accurate in order to illuminate the tragically anthropomorphic ideals we force onto our galactic neighbors. Our general notion of what may constitute alien life is plagued by projections of our own attributes and the limitations of our human conditioning. Spotting an alien life form, once we restrict them to the rigid confines of being physically “like us,” may in the end become virtually impossible. Along with our tendency to presuppose that aliens will bear humanlike traits, there is yet another fundamental flaw with all such presumptions regarding the evolution of an advanced race elsewhere in the universe: All the scenarios set forth up to this point have been contingent on there being a
physical location
(that is, a planet) upon which our presumed aliens would appear and evolve. But how likely is it that there could be other ways intelligent alien life might come to exist in our universe?

Researcher Jay Alfred, citing research by NASA into the potential for what would essentially constitute plasma-based life, discussed in his article “Plasma Life Forms: Dark Panspermia” what other kinds of life might be in existence in various regions of space. Presumably, energetic beings of the variety Alfred describes could also remain largely undetected by us, due to the limitations of human perception and a general lack of scientific instrumentation required for their observation:

Weird life may not only be “out there”…but it may very well be in your living room. NASA’s astrobiology team would need to categorize the life forms that have been described as ghosts, angels and
deities as weird plasma-based life forms and study them within a scientific framework to the extent allowed by current technology. Any confirmation of their existence would revolutionize our understanding of the scope of evolution at many different levels of existence, not just the biochemical level.
⁸

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that such energetic forms might, by all accounts, constitute a sort of life
not as we know it,
and that they might even be able to exist in the absence of a planetary atmosphere. For all we know, perhaps such entities could rise into existence within the otherwise-uninhabitable extremities of the vacuum. And yet, although speculation of this sort
does
help to broaden our concept of alien life that could populate the broad and empty spacescapes resting between galaxies, their presence alone does little to aid in helping formulate a model for how alien beings might arrive here on Earth. In other words, if we were to suppose for now that even a
fraction
of known UFO reports have to do with some sort of extraterrestrial intelligence, we’re left with tackling the manner in which they arrived and the technology that could have allowed it.

One of the most often-cited arguments against the extraterrestrial hypothesis has to do with the fact that space travel, especially on the scale necessary to reach the nearest populated star systems, would be impossible for physical beings such as you or me. We would likely be incapable of reaching such locations within a single
lifetime, at least in the absence of propulsions systems that carried us through space at light speed or better. Here we find certain issues begin to arise, just as well; traveling through space at such tremendous speed would put any physical body within the spacecraft in question at the mercy of g-forces and other strains, which it is believed that no living body could endure. So even in the event that speeds could be attained that would allow for travel to a distant star system within a single lifetime, the stress this would impose on a living body might nonetheless render such travel impossible.

This would be the case, of course, unless
the physical bodies in question were modified and improved in some manner,
which might allow them to become better suited for space travel. This, as I referenced earlier, is reminiscent of the characters portrayed in popular fiction such as the
Transformers,
in which Optimus Prime and the Autobots represent some form of sentient intelligence, but one that is mechanical, rather than organic in nature. Furthermore, they are—and have
always
been, as far as they know—robotic in nature, rather than being the result of cybernetic modifications that supplemented (or even replaced altogether) some kind of organic physical body.

In Transhumanism, we see many similar themes begin to emerge. In addition to the potential for cybernetic modification of a physical body to improve one’s natural abilities, we also see the creation of artificial intelligence that is wholly autonomous and in the absence of any underlying
organic entity. In keeping with the varieties of modified or entirely artificial beings that Transhumanist thinkers have envisioned for our own future, there are perhaps a handful of UFO researchers today who have surmised how some instances of unexplained aerial phenomena (UAP) might also represent some kind of robotic intelligence. Even going as far back as the Project Bluebook years, a few accredited scientists had questioned whether UFO craft might be something akin to robotic “drones” that were dropped into our atmosphere by a larger mother ship, which rested well outside Earth’s atmosphere.
⁹
But the underlying theme here is centered on the advantages any intelligence that had undergone vast technological enhancement might retain. Indeed, they might become far better suited for the sorts of seemingly impossible tasks we often associate with space travel, in the absence of having physical bodies the likes of which you or I would know. Beings so advanced might not only be physically suited for space travel themselves, but they could also very well harness technologies that would limit the strains which space travel at tremendous speeds might impose on a group of interstellar travelers.

Beings such as these may have even divorced themselves from the necessity for having bodies at all, favoring instead a variety of “psychic embodiment” that frees them from having any physical and intellectual confines. The philosophical study of
embodied cognition
presents us with the concept that the physical form of the human body largely determines the human mind and its processes.
What kinds of thoughts and motivations would drive an intelligence that transcended physicality altogether, having essentially attained a higher form of immortality? It might not be illogical to assume, given these criteria, that the attainment of some form of immortality could even be a requisite for intergalactic space travel and colonization.

As this discussion indicates, the rapid advancement and concurrent physical changes a civilization might go through following technological Singularity, let alone decades and decades of further advancement following the singular point itself, would vastly change the attitudes, motives, and even the innate form of such a race of beings. Having not yet reached this point ourselves, humanity still operates in a veritable Stone Age, in which we have barely harnessed rudiments beyond crude wheels and the sparring use of fire. And yet, we’ve managed to convince ourselves that simple tools along these lines would still be in use by entities elsewhere in the universe, whose technology instead should far exceed our own. Thus, our search for alien life up to this point has remained void of the proper logical guesswork needed to ascertain what forms, mediums, and motives any highly advanced intelligence might utilize, having undergone technological changes that exceed our own by
at least
several centuries—though probably much more than this.

I feel, in all reverence, that perhaps at this time I should indeed point out that I am by no means the first to have ever conceived of such cosmic variety as what I posit here. A fine (and far earlier) example was afforded us by
none other than Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the famous writer of weird fiction, during the early part of the last century. Lovecraft had surmised that the varieties of life on alien worlds

would deal with beings organized very differently from mundane mammalia, and obeying motives wholly alien to anything we know upon Earth… whether laid in the solar system, or the
utterly unplumbed
gulfs still farther out—the nameless vortices of never-dreamed-of strangeness, where form and symmetry, light and heat, even matter and energy themselves, may be unthinkably metamorphosed or totally wanting.
¹⁰

To speak of the
unthinkable,
there is also the conundrum we could assume with regard to how, without reference to anything similar, the human mind might even attempt to reconcile with intelligence so advanced and different from our own. Let’s think, for a moment, back to times far earlier than our own. Had our Cro-Magnon ancestors ever witnessed an SR-71 Blackbird in flight, breaking the sound barrier as it cruised through the sky high above, they likely would have assumed this object to be some great and mighty bird, whose godlike presence brought the sound of thunder with every beating of its wings against the air. The presence of such a magnificent animal, although perhaps rendered a deity on account of its abilities, would nonetheless be grouped alongside various natural phenomena that were known to the ancient mind. In the absence of any better explanation or further
ability to observe this strange bird, its presence would be largely accepted as merely being a part of life, exemplified by some variety of phenomena that could not be fully understood. All this might indeed have been the case, of course, only in the event that ancient humans had harnessed the capacity for thought necessary to even
perceive
such phenomenon. For all we know, the complex circumstances an SR-71 Blackbird in flight might have presented to the Cro-Magnon brain would have rendered it virtually
invisible.