Terms

I’m trying to keep this blog as down to Earth as possible. So please, take this next entry with a grain of salt. I don’t believe that aliens have visited Earth and I don’t believe in alien conspiracy theories. I do enjoy thinking of what might happen to our human civilization in the wake of extraterrestrial First Contact. I use a number of phrases in this blog. Some may sound a bit “new agey,” but I think defining the major concepts requires some sort of vocabulary. Here is a brief outline of the phrases:

Before First Contact: Humanity, naïve

Direct First Contact: The physical meeting of members of an extraterrestrial civilization and humans

The Event: The means to leverage the news media for fast global reach

First Contact: The event, the introduction and the beginning of the process

Explosive First Contact: Quickening the event to get to the process without governmental interference

Transparency: The event, introduction and process all carried out in public, and for a global audience

The Process: The execution of the event and the development of a diplomatic response

The Original Requests: Requests made of the visitors at the start of the process to define and stress human self-determination and a policy of non-interference

The Internal Conversation: Humanity talking it through

After First Contact: Humanity, disturbed

The Relationship: The results of the diplomatic effort

The External Conversation: What we learn from them

The Reaction Chaos: The tumult in human society caused by First Contact

The Extremists: Those who will attempt to use First Contact as a rallying point for their particular cause and leverage fear to build a power base, primarily during the reaction chaos

The New Isolationists: Those who will call for humans to buffer themselves from extraterrestrial contact

The Welcoming Contingent: Those who will want humans to have as much contact with extraterrestrials as possible, and contact without any controls or process

The Calm Few: Those leaders who will help to restore balance after the reaction chaos

The Rational Majority: The humans, worldwide, who will rally to take control when extremists threaten the relationship

The Bridge Cohort: All those born Before First Contact, now charged with moving humanity into a new way of being

The New Perspective: Our future After First Contact