We like to think that our governments have plans for
every eventuality … although we’re often proven wrong when disaster comes calling.
As we expand our search for extraterrestrial life and civilizations,
it would be nice to know that there’s a master plan for the worst case scenarios. But … is there?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering the extraordinary question:
Is the Government Ready for Alien Invasion?
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The prospect of alien invasion has been on our minds for a long time!
H. G. Wells’ 1897 seminal novel “The War of the Worlds” laid much of the groundwork for the genre
in pop culture. Its premise, involving a sudden invasion and a war against superior alien tech,
has been reproduced again and again. Since then, we’ve learned that Mars probably doesn’t harbor a
hostile extraterrestrial civilization after all. But other discoveries have increased our unease.
Our galaxy is vaster than we could have imagined, with at least 100 billion other planets. Hundreds
of millions might be habitable. These staggering numbers are behind the famous Fermi paradox:
if the chances of alien life are so high, where the heck are they?
One of the most chilling answers is the Dark Forest theory. In his 2008 novel “The
Dark Forest”, Chinese writer Liu Cixin imagines a galaxy where life is common,
but each civilization is like a hunter, stalking through the trees,
killing others on sight to eliminate potential threats and gather resources.
This creates a strong incentive for civilizations to hide themselves in the shadows.
Meanwhile, here we are on Earth, sending out interstellar radio messages and space probes,
waiting for a response. So, is there a plan in place to avoid curiosity killing the cat?
Well, the short answer is no … not that we know about. It would be fairly foolish for governments
to make such a plan public though, allowing alien eavesdroppers to factor it into their own plans.
There are however unofficial recommendations for what to do
in case of first contact. And we can also speculate about how governments would react.
The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, or SETI, connects scientists around
the world as they work on various means of alien detection. A non-governmental group,
the International Academy of Astronautics, has then drawn up post-detection protocols that have
wide support from SETI researchers. IAA recommends that once an alien transmission is verified
and researchers and authorities are notified, the news be shared with the public. It may then
be wise to minimize the use of electromagnetic frequency bands in which the signal was detected.
And an international commission should then decide whether or not to reply.
Of course, these protocols are for the discovery of an alien transmission, not what to do if angry
extraterrestrials turn up on our doorstep! For that, we need to use our imaginations a little.
Presumably, governments’ first reactions to the arrival of an invading force would be to put
orders to shelter in place. Thanks to the global pandemic, we’re now rather practiced at lockdowns.
However, if the threat seemed imminent enough, or the invaders opened fire, governments would likely
take cover in defensive bunkers and usher segments of their populations inside - with priority likely
going to government officials and military personnel. Many of the bunkers we know about
were built during the Cold War. The most famous in the US include Raven Rock Mountain Complex in
Pennsylvania, Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia, and Cheyenne Mountain Complex
in Colorado. However, there are likely more that we don’t know about. That’s in addition to private
shelters, such as those operated by Vivos. In Russia, it’s suspected that Mount Yamantau houses
an extensive bunker complex. Then there’s the rumored Metro-2, a secret metro system beneath
Moscow. But it’s the residents of Switzerland who would perhaps be best off, thanks to an extensive
system of both private and communal shelters that could fit the country’s entire population.
Naturally, the effectiveness of this response would depend on the alien understanding of
human communications and activities. If an alien army anticipated such an evacuation,
we might never reach safety. And, even if we did, bunkers wouldn’t
hold out against invaders forever. But they might buy us some time to respond.
It’s nice to imagine that a common foe would unite us. But a crisis could also
leave countries scrambling for advantage in order to take care of their own - leading to
different responses from different governments. One would undoubtedly be to counterattack.
In alien invasion scenarios in pop culture, it’s often assumed that extraterrestrial aggressors
would have a technological advantage. And this is … very probable! The closest star to us,
Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away - that’s a journey of 6,300 years with our current tech.
It’s safe to assume, then, that a sudden alien arrival would be thanks to technological
know-how that far outstripped our own. Depending on their numbers,
alien ground troops armed with weapons beyond our imagination might make short work of us.
Of course, intruders might also just bombard us
from space, forcing us to just wait out biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons.
Several countries, including the United States, have operational defense systems
that use anti-ballistic missiles to intercept airborne weapons. But these are limited in scope,
intended to counter small scale intercontinental ballistic missile attacks. While US President
Ronald Reagan proposed a much more robust system, named the Strategic Defense Initiative,
or “Star Wars program” in 1983, it was controversial and never realized.
As for firing back, a few nations, such as the US, Russia, India, and China, do possess
anti-satellite missiles that launch from the ground or planes. These missiles can reach their
targets in just a few minutes. If the enemy was close enough, and wasn’t fast enough to intercept,
we might land a shot. Regarding weapons already in space… yes, the United States
does have a Space Force. However, since 1967, the Outer Space Treaty has prohibited the use
of space for military purposes. So while a lot of off-Earth weapons systems have been proposed,
such as lasers and particle beams, we’d need to build and launch them first!
That leaves another, final, governmental response: negotiation. Our leverage in an alien invasion
could lie in whatever resource brought them to Earth. So what makes our planet special?
For one, there’s liquid water. It’s estimated that Earth holds 326 million trillion gallons of water.
About 3% of it is fresh. While it’s thought that several moons, such as Jupiter’s Ganymede,
and Saturn’s Europa, have even more, their oceans are imprisoned beneath thick layers of ice.
Perhaps liquid water is very rare, then, luring aliens toward us;
or perhaps their craft was simply experiencing shortages as they passed by.
Something else unique to Earth is the composition of its atmosphere, which is 78 percent nitrogen
and 21 percent oxygen. Even more valuable however might be life itself, particularly
intelligent life. Or simply Earth, as a whole, being a habitable world. Whatever the case,
knowing what they wanted would give us room to negotiate. Governments could then threaten to
destroy whatever resource the aliens were after - although this would probably lead
to a very temporary and Pyrrhic victory. An even grimmer thought is that governments
could instead offer to help, in exchange for special treatment or mercy. Certainly,
this has happened before in human history… making for a dark prospect indeed.
We can’t reliably predict what sort of complex beliefs could also be motivating
an invading alien force, which makes it hard for governments to plan any response. For example,
while it’s been argued that an advanced civilization wouldn’t harbor such dark or
violent impulses, our own history doesn’t seem to support that. As our technology has advanced,
so too has the destructive nature of our weapons.
Fortunately, given the immense distances involved, a surprise attack would still be difficult to
pull off. Unless aliens have discovered the secret to faster-than-light travel,
or can cloak their ships. we’d likely see visitors coming from far away.
That should give us - and our governments - some hope. Currently, NASA, and other space agencies,
track 28,000 Near Earth asteroids, including some that are just a few feet in diameter.
We’re also improving year-on-year at spotting things further afield. So it’s not as though
the authorities would be uninformed, as there’s already plenty of data to act on.
If we detected an alien ship in advance, it could even turn out very badly for the invaders. Using
our current technology as a template, it takes 150-300 days just to get from Mars to Earth.
It took New Horizons nine-and-a-half years to reach Pluto. So, even granting alien
visitors some technological improvements, we may well spot an invading army dozens,
hundreds, or even thousands of years before they actually get here. This would give us
time to revive something like Reagan’s Star Wars program and then some - launching lasers,
particle beams, and other military systems into orbit to protect Earth.
In this case, we’d have ample time and resources to develop new weapons,
while the extraterrestrial force would be limited to just the facilities and resources
aboard their ship. Perhaps, if invasion ever does happen, this would be how our
leaders would most hope it unfolds… because ultimately, right now, governments probably
aren’t ready for an alien attack. Though we might stand a chance, given enough time to prepare.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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