If tomorrow it was announced that aliens were real, highly intelligent, and in communication with our governments, no one would be talking about it by Halloween
If tomorrow it was announced that aliens were real, highly intelligent, and in communication with our governments, no one would be talking about it by Halloween
Seriously, I doubt it would even take that long. We get used to shit so quickly, and the news cycles have to keep feeding us new things, the only way we'd keep talking about the aliens if they kept doing new and interesting things. I'd be willing to bet a year later there would be some people who straight up forgot about it. "Oh yeah, aliens! Are they gonna, like, visit at some point or just keep exchanging calls with the Whitehouse?"
Hard disagree. Yes, all the other crazy bullshit would continue, but aliens are here among us isn’t something that would just go away.
I'm with you. Yes, people acclimate to all kinds of things, but sentient aliens are going to take more than a few days.
People will absolutely have a hard shit about it when it happens, but I think that, after so much sci-fi exposure in our culture, humanity (or, most of it) would be able to wrap their heads around the idea of extra-terrestrial aliens. Unfortunately, a lot would probably just see them the same way they see any other “aliens”, and be xenophobic (or exoxenophobic as the case may be) jerks about it.
There’s part of an episode in Orville about this very topic. I need to finish up that show.
Within a month, corporations would try to monetize the aliens somehow.
Oh, wow, you’re totally gonna love Star Trek when you finally see all 58 years of the shows and films. Then there’s Dr. Who and Star Wars…
Sci-fi has been a very profitable genre for at least 60 years. Arguably over 150. From Jules Verne to Gene Roddenberry to George Lucas and Russel T Davies, the imagination of humanity has been ignited— even stoked to wildfire - by these visionaries.
And they’ve existed and continued far beyond the realm of simple profit, as many times, they weren’t profitable. Yet they endure.
Ad astra per aspera— through adversity, we reach for the stars.
Yeah. It would trigger a shit storm in 10 years time we wouldn't spend all day every day talking about the day we found out aliens existed, we would be talking about the ongoing wars arising as a result of their tech or some other thing.
Will I have to keep going to work? Then it doesn't change my linfe enough for me to care so much. I know it's a bad thought but life is hard for individuals and it's hard to care to for aliens if they are not helping feed the kids
At some point it would. We still gotta go to work and no one has enough energy to even give a fuck about potential aliens around us.
It depends, I would say. If the aliens ask unpleasant questions, they would probably be talked about and reported on continuously. Like:
Alien Ambassador: "Why are you destroying your habitat with your eyes open? We don't understand. Your scientists have proven beyond doubt that you will become extinct if you don't fundamentally change your ways. Why don't you care at all?"
Continuous headlines:
"Aliens want to ban humanity from traveling"
"Space fascists want to raise gas prices"
"Go home job-stealing aliens: How outer world wokeness is destroying {any given country}"
...
"The only alien I accept is Jesus Christ."
cocks shotgun
"Now it's time for you to phone home."
Nah, you'd end up with something like
It could go that way, but on the other hand they could be more like MorningLightMountain in Peter Hamilton's Pandora's Star, i.e. fascists who exterminate every other organism that competes with them for resources.
Great book if you haven't read it!
Yeah the book has an amazing depiction of a truly alien mind that is fundamentally different because of how it functions.
If nothing else developed from the talks, then yes.
But if it started a new conversation with academics, if it opened trade opportunities, if it brought meaningful new technology, it would dominate world discussion for decades.
But if it was a single message sent at the speed of light and we had to wait 50 years for our reply to get back to them, and then 50 more years to hear any more communication....
Yeah, nobody's going to remember that happened.
Aliens would be so confused if they tried communicating with the white house.
December: "Ahoy-hoy!"
January: "New pres, who dis?"
Aliens: "Huh?"
stupid aliens never heard of jobs or mortality apparently!
General population: I do agree with you. They'd be looking at the next shiney new celebrity scandal or whatever. But there would also be some people who would act like a dog with a bone and not lose interest in the aliens. Scientists and UFOlogists and such.
Shit I'm just a regular dude but I'd be absolutely enthralled with the notion of aliens.
General population: I do agree with you. They'd be looking at the next shiney new celebrity scandal or whatever.
I'm not sure I even believe that. I mean look how much generative AI is dominating the conversation, despite being garbage. I think aliens would have a similar ability to dominate conversation, even for the general public.
Absolutely, but the general populace has so much information thrown at them all day, every day, I really do think most people would just move on from it, because our brains just can't handle everything all at once. Unless there's some specific reason to think about it, we'd move on to the things that impact us more directly.
It reminds me of that thing they do on Jimmy Kimmel, where they ask people about fake news stories, and the people invent answers. It's funny and all, but they do that because it's considered embarrassing not to know about the whatever the fuck insane thing the news just threw at us, while also there being so much of it that it's impossible to remember everything. Plus, we're super suggestable creatures
I think something this momental would make it so that the world won't allow us to forget even if the news does. Think about it. Imagine the fallout that would follow finding out that we're not alone in the universe, that there's something out there way smarter than us and have been in contact with our government. How did contact the government? How long have they been in contact? Are they here already? People would probably go a little bit crazy initially. Doomsday peppers would stock up, like what happened during covid, religious fanatics would probably go haywire because what if aliens had something to do with shaping religion? Then there's the scientific stuff. How are they comminicating? How can the government keep contact? There'd probably be people calling the government into question because how can they hide something so momental from is for however long they have? Then the other governments of the world to. What would they say? Would they be contact to? Would they start fighting because they're not in contact and want to be? I think the world would go crazy enough that'd we'd feel the effects for a while and definately longer than until Halloween.
For a month, we'd talk about aliens. Then, we'd talk about Trump or Musks latest shit takes about aliens.
Tomorrow? Oh, so you already forgot the announcement from last month? Well, I mean I guess we have a lot of our own stuff going on right now…
/s?
Ok I know you have the s but I'm legitimately so confused. Last month people were actually talking about how scientists said that it's likely aliens have been living among us for a long time. And didn't the white house make some big alien announcement a while back??
Am I losing it or is this whole thread just a big joke on how those announcements went nowhere
It wasn't that long ago that the US Government acknowledged that UFO's are real and people barely noticed.
source?
I think 80% of the world would look up, go "huh. Well, anyway..."
The remaining 20% would be split at either side of the spectrum, with 10% on one side freaking out and trying to whip the 80% into a frenzy, while the last 10% would be a mix of, "PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU DON'T LEAVE ME HERE PLEASE", "HnnnnnnNNNGGG IM COOOOOOMING", and "Why do we all have to wear these ridiculous ties?"
I would hope aliens, being intelligent, would communicate with other humans before they get to government representatives. We'd probably never hear from them again.
This POV is too extreme but there’s some truth to it. Not only is the news cycle always relentlessly moving on, and not only are attention spans short, but TBH we’ve seen so much sci fi that discovering real aliens would practically feel like old news.
But two things:
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you’re underestimating how much the news cycle would make of this - it’s a honeypot of ongoing intrigue. It’s got elements of science, government conspiracy, threat of war, and spirituality to it: the media would set up camp around this topic and make a permanent circus of it.
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there are a lot of smart people in the world who would pay a great deal of attention to the details and facts coming out of this. Yes there are more stupid people than ever but I think there are also more smart people than ever. If you belong to those circles and subscribe to the right media outlets then you know. If you just consume an IG feed everyday, you don’t.
When the Pope said it was likely they existed EVERYONE knew that meant they are likely out there. I know that religion is not the best cross section of rational science going folks, but that's the point. When even the angry sky daddy is saying they are somewhere, we are definitely not alone.
Now do we know what they are or if we can even communicate? Fuck if I know.
I know what you mean. The church is usually the last to recognize new realities so if they are open to it that definitely says a lot about where the Overton Window is.
It would be another outrage lever to push in America between Maga and dems.
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People would probably be like are they going to pay my bills? No? Whatever.
❤️ Zebu!
I absolutely welcome our new alien overlords
I think it depends on what they have to say…
Honestly; “You’re not alone “ would fuel philosophy for a hundred years…
“Worship our noodles” would start as many holy wars.
“We’ve been trying to reach you about…”
4chan would explode
"You have five minutes to move your satellite"
Peaceful contact with aliens would tell us something fundamental about the nature of ethics and the universe.
Advanced aliens do not need any material resources or real estate from humanity. We can already interpolate that from existing science. So that is not the reason why there are here. And we know they haven't exterminated us already centuries ago.
Instead it would tell that we share some fundamental values like curiosity and diversity with alien species - as long as they evolved through natural selection and had to raise and teach and love their children. As long as they had to find productive ways to work together as a people.
We would realize that we are not alone and that we are being judged. That we can't just endlessly bulldoze the galaxy and that there are limits to acceptable behavior. Because there is always someone more powerful that could smash us, but they already didn't. That certain ethical ideals are fundamental properties emerging from the universe itself.
It would be a powerful counter to the current nihilistic materialism, that we need to start working to improve our culture.
The news media talks about whatever increases shareholder value. That's why they...
T-t-that's why they... always tell the truth, of course!
Nah. It'd be alien themed-halloween.
Given how obviously impressionable and just not "on top of things" the politicians are in the US these days, I'm not sure someone could come up with a argument that convinced me that alien life with the ability to do interplanetary travel would waste their time trying to communicate with our leaders.
Within a day they would just decide to kill all of us for the safety of the galaxy.
The speed of light is so slow as to make communication difficult. The best possiple case is they are about four light years away meaning a round trip question and answer is eight years. That is best case and those stars are generally thought to not be likely to have life. 20 light years gives the first possibility of life.
Which is to say we will never establish communication as you think of it. Instead we become aware of each other and send what we guess is of interest. maybe we ask questions but odds are a question sent is no longer relavent by the time we get an answeri
even the above is a best possible case. If we become aware of life there, is a good chance it is extinct long ago but evidence is just reaching us. The universe is that large*
Counterpoint: we're still talking about ChatGPT and that, I hope, is not as smart as some aliens capable of intergalactic communication between intelligent species.
Let the Aliens run for president
People as a collective are incredibly stupid. And because of this they’re incredibly easy to manipulate. It has always been this way- it’s just that now, the powers-that-be have figured out exactly how to use them to a perfect advantage.
I just strongly doubt that. Firstly, heaps of people would be dressing as aliens for Halloween and thus talking about it.
Secondly, there's just way too many follow up questions, about them, their culture, their home, their tech, their goals, their language, their biology, the impact they've already had in our history, who knew and who didn't, etc.
So many fields would begin looking into it and throwing up new angles and facts for people to chew over.
Just think of how much time christians would devote to converting aliens to jeebus.
