How Candidates Would Respond to an Angry E.T. Threat
Two-Thirds of Americans Think Barack Obama Is Better Suited to Handle an Alien Invasion Than Mitt Romney
“In regards to national security, nearly two-thirds (65%) of Americans think Barack Obama would be better suited than fellow presidential candidate Mitt Romney to handle an alien invasion. In fact, more than two in three (68%) women say that Obama would be more adept at dealing with an alien invasion than Romney, vs. 61 percent of men. And more younger citizens, ages 18 to 64 years, than those aged 65+ (68% vs. 50%) think Romney would not be as well-suited as Obama to handle an alien invasion.”
Searching for ET, But No Evidence Yet, OSTP
“Thank you for signing the petition asking the Obama Administration to acknowledge an extraterrestrial presence here on Earth. The U.S. government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race. In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public’s eye. However, that doesn’t mean the subject of life outside our planet isn’t being discussed or explored.”
This is hilarious, as any “alien invasion” scenario will NOT happen – at least not in way that is depicted in SF movies. No surprise – no one would pay for movie that is 5 minutes long and ends with planetary genocide of homo sapiens.
MaDeR M,
“planetary genocide” would require destroying our planet, or at least making it non-habitable for any species that could have lived on it instead of us, so what would be the point of that? What exactly is it you’re suggesting?
Steve
Second, actually.
The solar system and possible the rest of the galaxy seems to be completely full of water and just about every resource you could want. Meanwhile, current research is suggesting there could over a hundred million habitable-zone terrestrial planets in this galaxy.
The only thing that makes the Earth very special is _our_presence_.
The Earth under us might be uniquely resource-poor; we use the hydrocarbs, heavy metals and PGMs and these things only matter to advanced societies. Goats don’t care about PGMs. And any planet that does not already have civilization is likely to have a whole lot more of these things.
So if an advanced, space-faring race decides that we are a _competitor_, it’d probably be as a competitor for everything off the Earth; a potential expanding competitor for everything in space, rather than a competitor for the sources _on_ the Earth.
If eliminating that competitor means wiping out everything else on the Earth, than that is still perfectly sensible; carpet bomb the planet with relativistic rockets and don’t bother actually invading.
Obviously all this presumes that one would see the situation as competitive in the first place. That’s not a safe assumption but it’s the topic…
And while we’re on the subject of silly scenarios, which candidate would make the better Pokemon trainer.
pubicans tend to be weary of aliens and scream and holler about them at the border;but then to quietly hire them in the middle of the night.
donkey party people embracing science tend to believe in the friendly alien who should be embraced and cherished; might be some one who brings new ideas and technology investments
I gotta say, whoeverer did this survey can’t serious, surely??? If bad ET comes knocking on our door, there is nothing we can do about it. If they can cross interstellar distances simply to kick ass, then its highly likely they will have something a bit more effective than nuclear weapons with which to wipe us out. Bombard us from orbit with antimatter bombs, throw asteroids at our planet, unleash a lethal virus, or do some terraforming to make Earth uninhabitable – we are toast. They don’t need to land. If they want to enslave us, then that’s different, but once again, chances are very high their military will be far superior, so they’d wipe the floor with ours, and with any rabble of resistance we could cobble together from gun toting civilians. We are toast. If they want to occupy us, to grab our resources, same deal.
I don’t believe a credible alien invasion scenario ends with human victory. So it does not matter who is in the White House. Its end-game for humanity. The best one can hope for is that bad ET – if they exist – simply ignore us, or pass us by because we are not a threat to them or have nothing of interest they need.
Time better spent would be a survey on which President would be better to handle a ‘First Contact’ event, with all the very serious and significant implications that would have not only for the American people, but for humanity as a whole. We are talking one step beyond microbes on Mars or multicellular life in the Europan oceans – we are talking first contact with intelligent aliens. That transforms humanity forever, and so how do we deal with that event, and the ramifications for human society, and our key beliefs and understanding of ourselves as an intelligent species. For example, what if nice ET communicates with us, and it becomes apparent they don’t believe in a God. How does the world’s religions handle a vastly more superior species who says religlon is myth? How do we relate to them if their value system is vastly different to ours? How do we handle prejudice if they look vastly different to us? We have real problems just because of differences in skin colour among humans, let alone if the entity sitting across the negotiation table is silicon based, or perhaps is entirely non-human – even a machine based species.
Then there is the issue of how not only a President, but indeed the world leaders manage ‘uplift’ if it were to occur – if an alien race that we engage peacefully (i.e. we make it through First Contact without starting a war) begins to provide their technology and knowledge, and accelerates our civilisation’s progress. What do we as a species do if perhaps we gain the ability of star-flight, or we end death and disease, or we begin employing sentient AIs to shape our future. How does that change us?
These bigger questions are far more significant, and although we have thought through the processes and mechanics of detecting a signal with SETI, I doubt we have given great consideration to what comes next if First Contact actually were to occur. I’d be very interested to hear what Obama or Romney actually thought about such an event.
Dr. Malcolm Davis
Gold Coast,
Australia
All this fuss about an article that amounts to nothing more than a plug for a show on the most disappointingly inane and sleezy television network out there is disheartening. The real issue should be why a magazine with such a distinguished history associates itself with such awful content on its television channel.
All I have to say is, Benghazi. The real problem would be the MSN covering the Alien Invasion up.
ICE and Border Patrol are armed to the teeth so they should put up a heck of a fight if space aliens land without filing proper visa and green cards. But then if space aliens visit is a friendly one, we (at least here in USA) will not greet them very well with current “anti-alien” attitude.
Romney would try to buy a controlling interest in the aliens. Obama would send in the drones.
Now that MIB Agent Obama is reelected we can rest easy. Once Voyager 1 finally ??? finishes crossing the Great Barrier, the heliopause, into local interstellar space, the aliens may take notice and come to call. Start practicing your Vulcan hand greeting. Live long and prosper, Mr. President.