Extraterrestrial Contact: Will the UN Take Over?

Direct extraterrestrial First Contact could alter the balance of global power. If one nation were to be favored by extraterrestrial visitors (and I’m not saying there are any extraterrestrials out there considering contact) that nation would gain considerable power. If the United Nations were to be the primary point of contact for extraterrestrials, the UN would gain power. Such a development would worry many, ranging from those who perceive the growth of world government as a religious and ethical threat, to those who see the UN as a weak and ineffective bureaucracy in need of reform. These two perceptions may seem similar in the sense that they are critical of the UN. However, they represent two very different mindsets. On one hand, you have people who view any UN activity as a threat to national sovereignty. This group seems most vocal in the United States and for good reason. The US would lose the most power if the UN was to gain power. On the other side, you have reformers who do not fear world government, but see the UN as incapable of carrying out the role, in its current form. One side wants absolutely nothing to do with world government and the other side wants to make the globalization process more open and democratic. And yes, both sides can often agree about problems with the UN.

Direct extraterrestrial contact would bring this quietly simmering debate to the forefront. Extraterrestrial contact of any type would require a global response. The groups involved in that response and the form of decision making used would help determine the future of diplomatic relations between humans and extraterrestrials. The stakes will be high. The debate is likely to be vociferous.

In her book “Hijacking Democracy” Marguerite Peeters says that the issue of national power versus bureaucratic power is already raging inside the UN. Peeters paints the UN as a “self-appointed and unaccountable group of bureaucrats.”

The power of the General Assembly, the body made up of national representatives, is undermined by the entrenched UN bureaucracy and the increasingly powerful international non-government organizations (NGOs). While this type of action may be participatory democracy it is hardly representative democracy. The ultimate issue is who can participate. The UN recognizes hundreds of NGOs and yet leaves out organizations it finds unacceptable. This certainly makes sense from a bureaucratic sense…groups promoting racism and cultural conflict would be harmful to the UN mission. However, it also leaves out room for dissent and debate.

Kenneth Anderson and David Rieff share many of the criticisms of the UN and come to a different conclusion in their essay “Global Civil Society:A Critical View”. They see a vacuum being created in globalization. As organizations such as bureaucracies (UN, IMF and World Bank) NGOs and corporations take an active role in global issues, national governments are giving up sovereignty. The result is what the authors call a “democracy deficiency”. They go on to suggest a reform of the United Nations to offer better representation and national influence.

This may sound like an esoteric debate now. In the wake of Direct First Contact it would likely become the most important world issue. We are not ready to act as a global entity and yet Direct First Contact would require us to speak and act as one planet.

How might extraterrestrial contact impact world politics? That’s just part of the problem in my new novel “The Ashland City Landing”. When I started writing the blog five years ago the primary purpose was to develop ideas for the novel and now it’s finally done. Here’s the synopsis:
Alex Morrison has made a new friend on the Internet. It’s a relationship that could drive his wife and friends half-crazy and that’s if federal agents and newspaper reporters don’t blow it wide open before the big moment. Can Alex hold it all together before The Ashland City Landing?

The Ashland City Landing is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious, science fiction novel about the practicalities of meeting space aliens and having to save the world from itself and also perhaps those very same aliens. Alex fights to keep his sanity, while concocting an introduction that will change the course of human civilization. He’s being pursued by a journalist desperate for a cover story. Alex’s best friend is a real ass and sometimes his psychologist. Alex’s wife does her best to be the Southern belle, but that’s not going too well. And yet he needs them both to pull it off. Along the way Alex enlists help from a burned-out astrophysicist and meets federal agents who are definitely not amused.

The Ashland City Landing is available in printed and Kindle electronic format through Amazon USA, Amazon Europe affiliates and through Nook at Barnes and Noble.

Humans vs. Aliens

We are creatures driven by our biology and environment. Human actions can be attributed to everything from sexual reproduction to geography. The needs of biology and environment form the basis by which society develops. Those needs, however, are also tempered by science and technology. Science can help make the biological and environmental needs less pressing. We can control human reproduction thanks to medical advancements and we can overcome some of the limitations of geography with transportation and communication.

Given that biology and environment have had such a huge impact on human development, what would that mean for beings with much different biology and coming from a much different environment? Anthropologists, when considering extraterrestrial First Contact, say those differences could be quite dramatic.

There is another aspect to consider when it comes to development, though. Is there a way in which intelligent beings develop so that they actually become more alike? Let’s take human development 200 years into the future. It seems likely we would have overcome many of the limitations of our biology through the use of medical technology. Take that another 500 years in the future. If we’re bright enough to survive that long as a civilization, we might even learn how to overcome our biology altogether, shedding our skin, quite literally, to move our intelligence to a virtual or machine based environment. My timeline could be way off…but that’s not the point. The point is that we would eventually reach a stage of our development that would supersede our biology and environment. What if aliens did the same? Could we meet in 1000 years and have much more in common? Or at least, could we have developed in a way that would leave us more open to differences in extraterrestrials?

The idea of extraterrestrials developing beyond their biological limitations, and the impact that could have during a First Contact event with humanity, is explored in my new fiction novel “The Ashland City Landing”. When I started writing the blog five years ago the primary purpose was to develop ideas for the novel and now it’s finally done. Here’s the synopsis:

Alex Morrison has made a new friend on the Internet. It’s a relationship that could drive his wife and friends half-crazy and that’s if federal agents and newspaper reporters don’t blow it wide open before the big moment. Can Alex hold it all together before The Ashland City Landing?

The Ashland City Landing is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious, science fiction novel about the practicalities of meeting space aliens and having to save the world from itself and also perhaps those very same aliens. Alex fights to keep his sanity, while concocting an introduction that will change the course of human civilization. He’s being pursued by a journalist desperate for a cover story. Alex’s best friend is a real ass and sometimes his psychologist. Alex’s wife does her best to be the Southern belle, but that’s not going too well. And yet he needs them both to pull it off. Along the way Alex enlists help from a burned-out astrophysicist and meets federal agents who are definitely not amused.

The Ashland City Landing is available in printed and Kindle electronic format through Amazon USA, Amazon Europe affiliates and through Nook at Barnes and Noble.

Extraterrestrial Contact: Liars

Trust would be an important issue in any First Contact event. It would be especially important in a Direct First Contact event, where we meet the aliens here on Earth or somewhere in our solar system. Why the different in importance? It all comes down to threat. First Contact of any sort brings with it a certain level of threat. Just knowing there are other intelligent beings in the universe would raise the question of threat. The closer those beings are to Earth, the greater the level of threat.

And, as I have said before, the threat doesn’t truly diminish if the aliens seem to be nice and helpful. They could be lying. They may also have a logic system that we don’t understand leaving it hard for us to understand or predict their actions. They might want to keep some things from us, for our safety or for their safety.

So, how do we know if aliens that we might meet in the future are telling the truth? The short answer is that we don’t. That raises many implications, both for our response and preparation. I have a new novel that takes that concern up a level. What do we do if there are two alien civilizations approaching us at one time? Perhaps one group offers certain benefits to starting a relationship? Maybe the other provides alternative reasons for diplomacy?

That’s what Alex Morrison needs to weigh in my new fiction novel “The Ashland City Landing”. Alex Morrison has made a new friend on the Internet. It’s a relationship that could drive his wife and friends half-crazy and that’s if federal agents and newspaper reporters don’t blow it wide open before the big moment. Can Alex hold it all together before The Ashland City Landing?

The Ashland City Landing is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious, science fiction novel about the practicalities of meeting space aliens and having to save the world from itself and also perhaps those very same aliens. Alex fights to keep his sanity, while concocting an introduction that will change the course of human civilization. He’s being pursued by a journalist desperate for a cover story. Alex’s best friend is a real ass and sometimes his psychologist. Alex’s wife does her best to be the Southern belle, but that’s not going too well. And yet he needs them both to pull it off. Along the way Alex enlists help from a burned-out astrophysicist and meets federal agents who are definitely not amused.

The Ashland City Landing is available in printed and Kindle electronic format through Amazon USA,

Amazon Europe affiliates and through Nook at Barnes and Noble.

Extraterrestrial Contact: Conflicting Aliens

We like to make it so simple. We imagine First Contact as occurring with just one alien civilization. But what about two alien civilizations? Better yet- what about two conflicting alien civilizations? I know- farfetched, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. If there is another civilization out there, then why not two, three or four? As we know from human experience- often intelligent beings don’t get along so well. Could humans get caught in an extraterrestrial squabble of some sort? It would certainly make things more difficult. Not only would we have to cope with First Contact human response issues, but also find a way to sort out alien conflicts and decide how to proceed. It would step up the urgency of the situation significantly, especially if the aliens were hostile with each other. Now granted, having two competing alien civilizations announce themselves at one time seems pretty unlikely. But if they are concerned about currying favor and developing a relationship with humanity, conceivably the actions of one alien civilization attempting to make contact with humans could lead to a preemptive hello from a competing group. Why would we be so popular? Who knows? Considering how unpopular we are right now (with no contact at all) that would depend on alien motivations. Those motivations could be quite complex, and perhaps beyond our understanding.

Still, it does raise an important point. Have we considered the complexity that First Contact could bring if there are multiple civilizations out there in contact and conflicting with each other? It’s the scenario I explore in my new book “The Ashland City Landing”. When I started writing the blog five years ago the primary purpose was to develop ideas for the novel and now it’s finally done. Here’s the synopsis:

Alex Morrison has made a new friend on the Internet. It’s a relationship that could drive his wife and friends half-crazy and that’s if federal agents and newspaper reporters don’t blow it wide open before the big moment. Can Alex hold it all together before The Ashland City Landing?

The Ashland City Landing is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious, science fiction novel about the practicalities of meeting space aliens and having to save the world from itself and also perhaps those very same aliens. Alex fights to keep his sanity, while concocting an introduction that will change the course of human civilization. He’s being pursued by a journalist desperate for a cover story. Alex’s best friend is a real ass and sometimes his psychologist. Alex’s wife does her best to be the Southern belle, but that’s not going too well. And yet he needs them both to pull it off. Along the way Alex enlists help from a burned-out astrophysicist and meets federal agents who are definitely not amused.

The Ashland City Landing is available in printed and Kindle electronic format through Amazon USA, Amazon Europe affiliates and through Nook at Barnes and Noble.

Extraterrestrial Contact: Should it beYou?

Let’s say that you’re an alien ready to say hello to human beings. How would you do it? Perhaps, you could email the United Nations? Or you could call Jill Tarter at the SETI Institute? I wonder how that would go over? We know the answer: it wouldn’t go far. In all fairness, Jill Tarter and the SETI folks do have alternative contingencies for contact falling outside of their primary “signal in space” expectations. Still, the primary issue is the signal to noise ratio. How many nuts are already pretending to be aliens and would all of that “noise” make it impossible to sort out the real thing? Aliens, even those who could easily visit Earth, might be best sending a signal from far-off space in hopes of getting our attention, since currently that’s our only organized method for dealing with First Contact.

I know that Direct First Contact is the least likely form of First Contact, but it’s a scenario that has always interested me. I think that my answer to the alien dilemma would be this- contact one person to help you organize a welcome for the entire planet. Clearly, you would have to pick the proper person- someone outside the primary systems of scientific and governmental bureaucracy. However, that person should have the knowledge and skills to help in staging such an event. Michael Michaud, Paul Davies of Douglas Vakoch would be good candidates. They have a solid base of knowledge, proven communication skills and, most importantly, the ability to be creative in problem solving. First Contact would come with plenty of problems.

Why do you need a human? Aliens could simply land a craft in a major city and then come outside to have a news conference. But such an unaided event could easily backfire, leading to misunderstandings and perhaps violent conflict. Aliens could also hijack our communications system, taking over TV channels worldwide. This would be tough to do, but one would assume that aliens able to visit Earth would have highly advanced technology at their disposal. So, why get a human to help you? Humans would be much less of a threat than aliens. Human help could also provide a buffer of sorts, to safely introduce the welcome before aliens actually presented themselves. Finally, humans would best understand and respond to the reactions of other humans. No matter how long aliens had studied the human race, they would still be at a disadvantage in managing the fine points of human interaction. Having a human guide could help.

This may sound nutty, but if you think about it, such a scenario does make sense. There are certainly a multitude of ways aliens could make contact with humans. And aliens would probably have very different considerations in making contact, considerations that could be tough for us to understand. However, it is a scenario worth considering. I decided to explore human introduction in my new novel “The Ashland City Landing”. Alex Morrison has made a new friend on the Internet. It’s a relationship that could drive his wife and friends half-crazy and that’s if federal agents and newspaper reporters don’t blow it wide open before the big moment. Can Alex hold it all together before The Ashland City Landing?

The Ashland City Landing is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious, science fiction novel about the practicalities of meeting space aliens and having to save the world from itself and also perhaps those very same aliens. Alex fights to keep his sanity, while concocting an introduction that will change the course of human civilization. He’s being pursued by a journalist desperate for a cover story. Alex’s best friend is a real ass and sometimes his psychologist. Alex’s wife does her best to be the Southern belle, but that’s not going too well. And yet he needs them both to pull it off. Along the way Alex enlists help from a burned-out astrophysicist and meets federal agents who are definitely not amused.

The Ashland City Landing is available in printed and Kindle electronic format through Amazon USA, Amazon Europe affiliates and through Nook at Barnes and Noble.

Extraterrestrial Contact: Land it Here

If aliens want to bypass governments and reach all humans at once, they would be well-advised to land a craft in the United States. Why? Our mass media system guarantees swift coverage and worldwide reach.

The scenario is this: an alien civilization decides it wants to say hello to humans. They don’t want to deal with any one particular government, to avoid political entanglements. So, they decide to leverage the news media to make First Contact. The process would be quite simple, at least on the surface. They could simply land their alien-looking craft (the more alien-looking the better) near a medium to larger city in the United States. The size of the city is important for only one reason: the size of the television market. The bigger the television market the more resources and better technology available to TV news stations. News operations in small markets don’t have helicopters, satellite trucks and dedicated fiber lines to the network. Larger television markets do. All of those tools are critical for fast response. Why does fast response by the media matter? It’s a question of who would drive the event- the media or the authorities. If the TV media has access to live pictures immediately, television stations would stay with the story. If that craft was to land the media would be there quickly and that would establish a transparent nature of the event immediately. Needless to say, if authorities drive the response they may want to keep the media at bay, thus losing the leverage such coverage could provide. It’s important to attract media attention quickly and help them to arrive at the scene before law enforcement can take over.

What happens then? Well, that would be up to the aliens. Perhaps a news conference? The local media coverage would go national within an hour if the event is dramatic enough (probably much quicker if the pictures are good). A short time later the international media would pick up on the story. Within just an hour or two of landing a craft near a large city in the United States aliens could have access to a large section of humanity via the news media. If they moved quickly enough they could perhaps even make their first welcome without government agencies taking control.

This scenario is featured in my new science fiction novel “The Ashland City Landing”. Alex Morrison has made a new friend on the Internet. It’s a relationship that could drive his wife and friends half-crazy and that’s if federal agents and newspaper reporters don’t blow it wide open before the big moment. Can Alex hold it all together before The Ashland City Landing?

The Ashland City Landing is a sometimes-funny, sometimes-serious, science fiction novel about the practicalities of meeting space aliens and having to save the world from itself and also perhaps those very same aliens. Alex fights to keep his sanity, while concocting an introduction that will change the course of human civilization. He’s being pursued by a journalist desperate for a cover story. Alex’s best friend is a real ass and sometimes his psychologist. Alex’s wife does her best to be the Southern belle, but that’s not going too well. And yet he needs them both to pull it off. Along the way Alex enlists help from a burned-out astrophysicist and meets federal agents who are definitely not amused.

The Ashland City Landing is available in printed and Kindle electronic format through Amazon USA, Amazon Europe affiliates and through Nook at Barnes and Noble.