A recent story in the American Spectator is accusing NASA of inviting an Alien Invasion of Earth. At issues are deep space probes, including Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and New Horizons that have either already left the solar system or will do so eventually.
Each of these space probes contains plaques and other material meant for the attention of any aliens who might come across them in the interstellar gulfs.
Space probes with invitations for ET
The two Pioneer probes contain gold plaques that contain the images of nude humans and other symbols that represent what the missions are for.
The Voyager probes contain records containing sounds and images meant to provide greetings to aliens from the people of Earth.
New Horizons contains a number of artifacts as well, including a CD containing 400,000 names of prominent Earth people including Bill Nye and Elon Musk.
If aliens know we’re here, they might invade us
No less a genius than Dr. Stephen Hawking has warned about these attempts to contact aliens, for fear they might try to conquer Earth in the style of “Independence Day” or “War of the Worlds.”
However, Hawking’s warning begs the question of why would ET want to visit Earth packing heat and ready to rumble. The old excuse of wanting to take resources away doesn’t make any sense.
A lot of unoccupied moons, comets, and asteroids contain more than enough resources for anyone without the bother of fighting the pesky Earthlings for access to them.
A more serious peril is the first contact with an advanced alien species causing culture shock for Earth societies. The theory is that our natural development would be stunted and disrupted by contact with a civilization that has already solved many of the problems we have yet to get a handle on.
One can only hope that if ET is out there, they have a form of a Star Trek-style noninterference policy.
Radio and television are already announcing that Earth is here
In any case, radio and then television broadcasts have already been announcing the presence of an Earth civilization since the 1920s. The first hint that aliens will have of our existence will likely not be stumbling across an ancient space probe, but picking old episodes of “I Love Lucy” or, ironically, “Star Trek.”
News broadcasts dating back from World War II are not likely to impart an inviting impression of Earth. But one would hope that aliens advanced enough to travel between the stars will also know something of sociology and will give us primitive earthlings some understanding.
