Friday, February 14, 2025

Who Watches the Watchers Watching; without Watching?

I am aware this is a website dedicated to the idea of First Contact and from that perspective it may seem and even be reasonable to assume that I am a conspiracy addict. Quite the opposite. I do not hold to any fervent belief that First Contact has already been made and that the powers that be are hiding it from the public. I do not even hold to the belief that First Contact is possible. As stated elsewhere on this website, the purpose of these posts are to be thought exercises. Nothing more. And yes, I do feel that is a good thing. I feel that it is necessary. In any scenario where we might find ourselves confronted with a First Contact situation, there are elements of cultural, ethical, and realistic ramifications to consider. To put it simply, we should indeed consider these things if are to also to take up time seeking out the possibility of alien life.

I agree with the sentiment that should see clearly, and as this article points out, we should continue our observations without conspiracies.

Recall a Babylon 5 scene from “The Deconstruction of Falling Stars,” (1997) There is a television interview where one of the pundits, perhaps both of them, are saying that no one individual changes the course of history, that it takes a collective effort. Now, normally that is true, but not in this case. It took the One; the One who was, the One who is, and the One who is to be, to resolve and bring interstellar peace. If we are to harmonize ourselves into a community where we can even hope to raise such a One, there will need to be radical changes. I will get back to that.

If I were to ascribe to any type of conspiracy that First Contact has already been made I believe the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode, “Who Watches the Watchers” and the Star Trek film, Insurrection, offer the best plot development for our conspiracy to be laid out. From that episode and that film, we see an observation post maintained by the Federation on what is deemed to be primitive species. What is the point I am making? If intelligent alien life could make it to the Sol system, what reason would they have to interact with us? At best, they might want to observe us. Sure, that sounds believable to me. I can see how humanity might be interesting enough to want to make an effort to observe. If we really want to make First Contact and for ourselves to travel among the stars we should start looking within; we should maintain our ecosystem, our ecology, and the harmony of successful life on this planet and hope that we might evolve. Perhaps we may be surprised where that light can take us.

If we do want to prioritize interstellar travel, life, and activities, we may simply need to hope that there is one person capable of changing human progress in such a way that an intelligent alien species would even want to make first contact with us. Without radical social, political, and educational changes, when First Contact does come, it will most likely be disastrous. I have recently come to change my mind about a lot of things. For instance, I no longer believe that education reform itself can root out violence in our culture and our way of thinking. I had argued that a greatly reformed educational foundation, over several generations, could bring that light. I am simply sobered up on that notion. No, that will not do it.  

There are many ways to argue that the universe is teeming with life, and there are many ways to demonstrate that it is unlikely that we are alone. The universe is a big place. Yes, I think it is valid for others in specific departments in specific chambers of our scientific elite to consider these humanities practices. We have to prepare ourselves for what kind of alien life we want to attract; this is true. We also, first and foremost, must prepare for how we would want to present ourselves when that time does come. That is what this website is for.

[Image: free general image of communications satellite]