Could Earth be an extraterrestrial zoo?
North Sentinel Island is a place where a tribe that separated from the rest of civilization more
than 60 thousand years ago and who are currently studied from a distance as if they were a zoo.
But... Just as we study the inhabitants of North Sentinel Island as if it were a zoo,
would it be possible that an extraterrestrial race much more
advanced than us could be studying the human race as if we were a zoo? Stay to find out!
North Sentinel Island North Sentinel Island is a
small island in the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. This island is part of the
Andaman Islands archipelago, which belongs to India. What makes North Sentinel Island
unique is that it is inhabited by an indigenous tribe known as the Sentinelese, who have lived in
isolation and with virtually no contact with the outside world for approximately 60 thousand years.
In theory, the island belongs to the administrative district of South Andaman,
part of the Indian union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Still,
the Indian authorities recognize the islanders' desire to live without contact with the world.
Indian laws do not apply to the Sentinelese, who manage their affairs internally. Therefore,
the island can be considered a de facto sovereign entity under
Indian protection since the Sentinelese themselves are unaware of the existence
of said country and their membership in it. Given that the Sentinelese do not, in practice,
carry out any customs activity or maintain relations with anyone outside the island,
these powers that India assumes are more theoretical than real
since the island's inhabitants have never agreed anything with anyone.
Sentinelese tribe is known for their hostility towards outsiders and their resistance to
any form of outside contact. They have rejected attempts at rapprochement by explorers, fishermen,
and Indian authorities on numerous occasions. The Indian government has established a policy
of voluntary isolation and protection of the Sentinelese to preserve their culture and protect
them from possible diseases that could devastate their population since they have no immunity
to common diseases such as flu or measles. Due to the danger of approaching North Sentinel
Island and the established isolation policy, the island is one of the world's most inaccessible
and mysterious places. Access to the island is prohibited by law, and Indian authorities
have implemented an exclusion zone to protect the Sentinelese and anyone trying to approach.
Why has it been decided to leave this tribe alone? It has been decided to leave the island's
inhabitants alone because any contact with modern civilization could pose a mortal risk
for them and anyone who tries to approach them. Throughout history, there have been various
encounters with the inhabitants of this island, some of them are:
1880: The British ship " Rifleman " approached North Sentinel Island,
and the ship's captain left gifts on the beach before departing. Later, a group of Sentinelese
were seen breaking up and squashing the gifts, suggesting that the gifts were not accepted.
1896: The British government sent an expedition led by Maurice Vidal Portman to try to establish
contact with the Sentinelese. The expedition was essentially a failure and resulted in the
capture of several Sentinelese, who were taken to the main island of the Andamans. However,
the captured Sentinelese soon fell ill, and it was decided to return them to their island of origin.
1970: During the 1970s, Indian authorities made occasional trips to North Sentinel in
an attempt to gain the friendship of the tribe. They were usually organized
at the request of leaders in search of adventure. On one of these expeditions,
they left two pigs and a doll on the shore, but later, the Sentinelese hunted the pigs with their
spears and buried them along with the doll, indicating that the gifts were not accepted.
These visits became more regular in the 1980s. The teams tried to land in places out of reach
of the arrows and left gifts such as coconuts, bananas, and pieces of iron.
Sometimes, the Sentinelese seemed to make friendly gestures; Other times, they would
take the gifts into the jungle and then shoot arrows at the group, trying to establish contact.
Apparently, in 1991, there seems to have been a breakthrough. When the researchers arrived at
North Sentinel, the tribe signaled for them to bring them gifts, and then, for the first time,
they approached without their weapons. They even got into the water and approached the
boats to collect more coconuts. However, this friendly contact did not last long.
Although the gift-bearing trips continued for some years, the encounters were not always friendly.
Sentinelese sometimes pointed their arrows at the group, trying to make contact,
and on one occasion, they attacked a wooden boat with their adzes (stone axes for cutting wood). No
one knows why the Sentinelese abandoned and then resumed their hostility toward contact missions.
Still, many researchers think it is likely that after the first approach,
some Sentinelese fell ill and died from catching the flu or measles,
causing the Islanders to distrust the gifts and to return to their rejection and hostility.
In 1996, regular gift-giving missions were ended as many researchers began to question
the logic of trying to contact people who are healthy and content and have lived prosperously
independently for more than 55,000 years. Friendly contact alone had devastating consequences,
and prolonged contact with the Sentinelese would almost certainly have had tragic consequences.
In subsequent years, only occasional visits took place. After the 2004 tsunami, researchers
made two visits to verify, from a distance, that the tribe appeared to be healthy and had
not suffered in any way from the ravages of the tsunami. They also confirmed that the hostilities
continued because when he flew over the island by helicopter, he was greeted with arrows from its
inhabitants. India then declared that it would not attempt new contacts with the Sentinelese.
North Sentinel Island and its inhabitants, who have evolved wholly isolated from the
rest of civilization, do not want or need to establish relations with us. However,
even though they don't want to know anything about us, we do want to know a lot about them.
A human zoo? It is likely that among the island's inhabitants,
some curious people wonder where those men come from who dress in such colorful clothes
on those boats that can cross the ocean. The Sentinelese cannot produce fire,
but it is known that they can manipulate it. When lightning strikes and produces fire, they
can feed it and maintain it for long periods, but once it goes out, they cannot generate it again.
Perhaps after many years since the last contact with our civilization,
the youngest members of the island occasionally see lights in the distance from passing boats
hundreds or thousands of kilometers away and wonder how we can catch the sunlight
in small spaces to illuminate us at night. For decades, several boats were shipwrecked
on the island, and most of them contained metal, which, today, is known to have been
used to make the tips of their arrows harder. This is somewhat paradoxical since although
we have made great efforts to keep the members of the island isolated from the rest of civilization,
we have indirectly provided them with materials and technologies that,
in everyday situations, they would never have. In the case of humanity, we first mastered fire
and then began to produce metal from much more complex processes. Still, the Sentinelese are
taking that path in reverse, having metal at their disposal without first mastering fire.
We have unintentionally changed how they continue to evolve and how they see the world. The most
curious members of the island may occasionally look at the sky to contemplate the stars and
are surprised that every so often, a train of stars that move one after another cross the sky,
and every day they also manage to observe much more colorful stars that blink and
move quickly in seemingly random directions. They do not know that those strange stars
are not stars but creations of humanity, specifically satellites, and airplanes,
technologies they cannot even imagine. We can photograph the island from space
with artificial satellites or observe it with binoculars, thanks to modern technology. We also
have technology to listen to what is happening on the island and cameras to photograph what
they do. In this sense, could we say that the North Sentinel Island is a human zoo?
Although it sounds somewhat cruel, seen from a scientific point of view, it probably is since
zoos are places where a specific species is kept isolated and under observation, trying as far as
possible not to interrupt its natural behavior, or if possible, study it without him realizing it.
The Sentinelese are humans isolated on an island that guards a nation, where we can always know
who enters and who leaves; we can observe them whenever we want and study their behavior all
the time. Furthermore, they do not know that they are being observed and studied by us.
So the question is... Would it be possible that, just as we study the Sentinelese without them
realizing it, an extraterrestrial race could do the same with humans without us realizing it?
It may sound wild, but let's remember that there are many things in the universe that
we do not understand; our technology does not yet allow us to carefully observe what happens
on each planet of each star in the entire galaxy. What if, on the other side of the Milky Way, there
is a type 2 alien civilization on the Kardashiev scale that is currently in the process of becoming
a type 3 civilization and has designated the Earth as a zoo to study life for billions of years?
In this case, this civilization would have designated a sector of the Milky Way as a
huge zoo made up of thousands of stars. All the stars in that sector, including the Sun,
would be part of that enormous zoo, which is the property of this extraterrestrial
civilization with technology to observe what happens on each planet simultaneously.
As well as in North Sentinel Island, human civilization governs itself,
but at the same time, they are part of a conglomerate of stars with an owner and name;
we could be inside that enormous zoo, but we do not realize it.
A sufficiently advanced civilization could study all the time what happens in our
solar system and precisely what happens on our planet just to see how the human race evolves,
and we would not be able to notice since they do not want to contact us; they only want to observe
and study us without interrupting our evolution as a species, just as we did with the Sentinelese.
If the Earth were a zoo, then we would be like the Sentinelese, a civilization being observed,
studied, and possibly even protected by that much more advanced civilization that does not
want to come into contact with us for our safety. Could it be that, just as we have diseases that
could decimate the population of North Sentinel Island,
an extraterrestrial race would have diseases that could decimate the entire human race?
Could we do something to determine whether we are being watched?