Alien visitation is the latest nonsense streaming across Twitter and giving me a throbbing headache at the idiocy of it all. For the short-attention-span crowd: There are no aliens. Nada, zilch, bupkisss. Unless you believe Tucker Carlson, the dude who once had a show recommending shining light on your balls for more manliness. (Seriously,
One tiny flaw in the above: There is no reason to assume that a crashed alien vehicle is the same as the alien's interstellar starship. It would be much more likely that vehicle is the equivalent of one of the old Star Trek small shuttles that the crew would occasionally use to travel from the Enterprise in orbit down to a planet (Enterprise = big FTL ship, shuttle = small short-range hop). I can easily imagine a massive starship dropping off a couple of aliens on say the moon, where they set up their listening post or whatever, and have their civilizational equivalent of some creaky old jeeps for getting around the solar system. And one of the laws common across the Universe is Murphy's Law. Stuff breaks. Maintenance is a pain in the posterior tentacle. Some overworked guylike being doesn't check one day that the dilithium is properly crystalized, and the overachieving apes of Sol III end up with some interesting wreckage to paw through.
I've got to disclaim I don't believe alien crashes have really happened. But it's always seemed unreasonable to me that many writers ignore that there's a lot of just-barely-functioning equipment still in use all over the world, especially in very poor countries. And that's likely to be Earth in galactic terms.
I like your concept a lot. You’re right that all too often we think of gleaming spaceships, rather than broken down ones. The Firefly series is a big exception here. But still, I’m going to hold out for the universe is just too darn big!
Sci-fi strategy game Terra Invicta proposes another possible reason for alien ships crashing: the "crashed ships" are one-way drop pods, with only the minimal levels of tech needed to get the alien operative from orbit to ground so humans can't get too much tech reverse engineering the pod's remains.
(No, it's not aliens, just an interesting justification for an old trope.)
You have to understand that everything the Pentagon does is in the service of the one overriding mission of the Pentagon, which is to get more money for the Pentagon. To which end they're very good at practicing psychological warfare . . . on the American People, even as they've lost the competence to do any other type of warfare.
Constantly teasing the presence of super-advanced alien tech helps keep the moolah flowing, even as they must be struggling to keep a straight face when they get off the air. Whatever it takes to keep the dumb, average apathetic American voter signing over their paycheck to Daddy Warbucks . . .
Oh no, of course not, they're not ready to go that far yet -- at the moment they're just planting seeds, conducting shaping operations on the public "information battlespace."
Hmm, according to Erik Hoel, the whole story is much more stupid and tawdry and driven more by the media's greed than the Pentagon's: https://substack.com/inbox/post/102650085
I could actually understand the government trying to cover up evidence of UFOs, assuming they had discovered it. (Whether they'd be successful at covering it up is another story.)
I'll never wrap my head around the idea that *media* outlets would cover it up. Can you imagine what would happen with CNN's ratings if they were the network that reported definitive proof of aliens from another planet? It would be the journalistic scoop of the millennium.
This is also why I don't believe drug companies are hiding the cure for cancer or car companies are covering up engines that run on water or something. If Pfizer found a cure for cancer it would be worth *trillions* of dollars.
I have no idea if other life is out there (given the sheer vastness of space I am inclined to believe yes), but I think it's obvious there is no Star Wars level Galactic Community out there waiting for us: if there were they'd have found us by now (in all likelihood). Sure it's possible that there are pockets of galactic space-faring species that could visit the Earth and maybe they have some level of technology so advanced they're beyond our understanding and ability to replicate. But...again, that's a lot of "what ifs" to be realistic.
The sober and demoralizing reality is: other species probably rose to our level and beyond of technology. They probably already died out; maybe they did visit but we have no trace of them.
One of the scariest movies I ever saw Ad Astra where the protagonist is sent to the far reaches of space to retrieve his father who has potentially gone mad in the outer reaches of our solar system. He was sent to try to find signs of alien life and the sad reality was...he found none. Maybe there is other life out there: but we're alone (at this time), and while that is incredibly daunting, it's also incredibly beautiful.
One tiny flaw in the above: There is no reason to assume that a crashed alien vehicle is the same as the alien's interstellar starship. It would be much more likely that vehicle is the equivalent of one of the old Star Trek small shuttles that the crew would occasionally use to travel from the Enterprise in orbit down to a planet (Enterprise = big FTL ship, shuttle = small short-range hop). I can easily imagine a massive starship dropping off a couple of aliens on say the moon, where they set up their listening post or whatever, and have their civilizational equivalent of some creaky old jeeps for getting around the solar system. And one of the laws common across the Universe is Murphy's Law. Stuff breaks. Maintenance is a pain in the posterior tentacle. Some overworked guylike being doesn't check one day that the dilithium is properly crystalized, and the overachieving apes of Sol III end up with some interesting wreckage to paw through.
I've got to disclaim I don't believe alien crashes have really happened. But it's always seemed unreasonable to me that many writers ignore that there's a lot of just-barely-functioning equipment still in use all over the world, especially in very poor countries. And that's likely to be Earth in galactic terms.
I like your concept a lot. You’re right that all too often we think of gleaming spaceships, rather than broken down ones. The Firefly series is a big exception here. But still, I’m going to hold out for the universe is just too darn big!
Ever notice how the ship on Firefly gently takes off but still manages to reach escape velocity?
Sci-fi strategy game Terra Invicta proposes another possible reason for alien ships crashing: the "crashed ships" are one-way drop pods, with only the minimal levels of tech needed to get the alien operative from orbit to ground so humans can't get too much tech reverse engineering the pod's remains.
(No, it's not aliens, just an interesting justification for an old trope.)
You have to understand that everything the Pentagon does is in the service of the one overriding mission of the Pentagon, which is to get more money for the Pentagon. To which end they're very good at practicing psychological warfare . . . on the American People, even as they've lost the competence to do any other type of warfare.
Constantly teasing the presence of super-advanced alien tech helps keep the moolah flowing, even as they must be struggling to keep a straight face when they get off the air. Whatever it takes to keep the dumb, average apathetic American voter signing over their paycheck to Daddy Warbucks . . .
Except that, I don’t think the military gets any money because of fear of aliens. I’ve never seen that in any appropriation discussion.
Oh no, of course not, they're not ready to go that far yet -- at the moment they're just planting seeds, conducting shaping operations on the public "information battlespace."
Hmm, according to Erik Hoel, the whole story is much more stupid and tawdry and driven more by the media's greed than the Pentagon's: https://substack.com/inbox/post/102650085
Good read.
Is Tucker Carlson trying to get a job at the Weekly World News?
I could actually understand the government trying to cover up evidence of UFOs, assuming they had discovered it. (Whether they'd be successful at covering it up is another story.)
I'll never wrap my head around the idea that *media* outlets would cover it up. Can you imagine what would happen with CNN's ratings if they were the network that reported definitive proof of aliens from another planet? It would be the journalistic scoop of the millennium.
This is also why I don't believe drug companies are hiding the cure for cancer or car companies are covering up engines that run on water or something. If Pfizer found a cure for cancer it would be worth *trillions* of dollars.
I'm going to copy this comic from The Oatmeal:
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/oracle
I have no idea if other life is out there (given the sheer vastness of space I am inclined to believe yes), but I think it's obvious there is no Star Wars level Galactic Community out there waiting for us: if there were they'd have found us by now (in all likelihood). Sure it's possible that there are pockets of galactic space-faring species that could visit the Earth and maybe they have some level of technology so advanced they're beyond our understanding and ability to replicate. But...again, that's a lot of "what ifs" to be realistic.
The sober and demoralizing reality is: other species probably rose to our level and beyond of technology. They probably already died out; maybe they did visit but we have no trace of them.
One of the scariest movies I ever saw Ad Astra where the protagonist is sent to the far reaches of space to retrieve his father who has potentially gone mad in the outer reaches of our solar system. He was sent to try to find signs of alien life and the sad reality was...he found none. Maybe there is other life out there: but we're alone (at this time), and while that is incredibly daunting, it's also incredibly beautiful.
Isolated pockets of intelligence, still alone. I think it's quite possible. Nice comic, btw. Thanks!