Alien Universe (2 page)

This brings up a very important point. No matter how much science fiction buffs might devour the latest novel from the hot writer at the time, the size of the community of science fiction enthusiasts is relatively modest. Even a very popular Alien novel will reach a small number of readers. The written literature of science fiction has only affected the broader public in a brushing and indirect fashion. It is movies and television that have had the largest impact on the range of Aliens that is familiar to the public. In addition to the limitations of human actors and the need to provide a character with which
the audience can relate, the stories of science fiction in the movies must be accessible to the audience. For instance,
Star Wars
has been described as a swashbuckling adventure, with a captured princess, a prince who didn’t know his heritage, and an evil king.
Avatar
has been called “
Dances with Wolves
with blue people” and is considered to be a thinly veiled commentary on Western civilization’s interaction with indigenous populations. And the movie
Alien
is similar to
Jaws
and any number of teen slasher movies. Science fiction movies are often an indirect commentary on the society and the politics of the time, just as George Orwell’s
Animal Farm
is simply a metaphor for the Russian revolution (and, indeed, many a human revolution).

Many examples of fictional portrayals of Aliens reflect the cares that concerned humanity when the movie was released. The 1951 movie
The Day the Earth Stood Still
, in which an Alien and robot warn the Earth of the dangers of nuclear weapons, reflected the fears of post–World War II America. In a similar way, Edgar Rice Burroughs’s stories of John Carter’s adventures on Barsoom (i.e., Mars) in 1912 were clearly shaped by the last vestiges of postcolonialism. And even H. G. Wells’s many stories reflect both the optimism and worries of the Victorian era.

Watch the Skies …

While we’ve briefly discussed the effect of both scientific thought and science fiction on the public’s vision of Aliens, there remains a final, powerful influence on how the public views Aliens that is an indefinable mix of fact and fiction; a mystery wrapped in an enigma, with a blend of conspiracy and religious fervor tossed in to add spice to the tale. I am talking, of course, about UFOs.

Unidentified flying objects are also sometimes called flying saucers and are believed by some to be spaceships, ambassadors to Earth. Passions run high on this subject, ranging from those who believe we are not alone to others who believe the reports of UFOs come from a mix of charlatans, flakes, and well-meaning, but simply misguided, souls. People have reported seeing Alien craft, while others make the even grander claim of being in direct communication with Aliens. More recently some have reported being abducted by Aliens for various purposes, ranging from simple biological testing to interspecies reproduction. On the one hand, there is no doubt that some of the people who report these experiences believe them completely. On the other hand, it is also totally clear that the field is populated by hoaxes, fakes, and con men.

Although many, if not most, of the UFO/contactee/abductee reports are easily dismissed, some always remain unsolved. While “unsolved” doesn’t mean “true Alien contact,” the remaining air of mystery has certainly caught
the attention of the public, the media, and even governments. Project Blue-book, administered by the U.S. Air Force, is merely the most well known of dozens of inquiries initiated by various government agencies into the UFO phenomenon.

The reports in the press of Alien encounters have an amplifying effect, with people seeing the reports and becoming susceptible to making additional (and confirming) reports. It’s difficult to definitively explain what is going on. UFO believers will tell you that the increase in reported Alien encounters simply reflects a spike in Alien activity. Nonbelievers will tell you that any increase in the number of reports reflects a group delusion in the same way that a new report on the sighting of the Loch Ness monster or the Bigfoot will inevitably spawn more.

Regardless of where you come down on the question of Alien contact with humans, there is no disputing the fact that media reports of Alien contact beget more reports. Similarly they inform the public, science fiction writers, and filmmakers. The entertainment industry often then incorporates details of the reports into their stories. These tales of fiction then reach a larger audience and tell viewers what they should expect. This can induce additional reports, completing the cycle.

The point of this book is not to settle the question of (1) alien life, (2) the existence of intelligent Aliens, and (3) Alien visitation to the Earth. (Although I should probably state my opinion on those three subjects: (1) quite likely, (2) probable but very rare, and (3) exceedingly unlikely, respectively.) The point of the book is to discuss the prevailing vision of Aliens held by the general public both in the past and currently.

Figure P.1
shows some iconic Aliens, made famous by Hollywood and the media. All of these Aliens are recognizable to a majority of Americans, with the central figure being the one most commonly selected by adults when told to describe an Alien. As an exercise, I asked a large group of children, ages 4 to 11, to draw what they thought an Alien would look like. A sampling of these drawings is shown in
figure P.2
. These pictures were drawn independently, but there are striking similarities. Most of the Aliens are recognizably humanoid, with approximate bilateral symmetry. Those that do not have these properties are unlikely to be viable Aliens, as they apparently lack the ability to use tools. One striking similarity between the drawings is that the Aliens are all smiling and happy. Presumably this reflects responsible parenting and keeping the children from seeing too many scary movies. A few children have seen the archetypal “gray” Alien in the media: humanoid, with a high forehead, small chin, large almond-shaped eyes, and made famous by many an abduction tale.

FIGURE P.1
.
Aliens are among us and have been for a long time. The iconic Aliens depicted here are familiar to anyone with even a modest knowledge of popular culture. See if you recognize them; their identities are given on the last page of the book.

FIGURE P.2
.
While adults have had many years to have learned what Aliens “should” look like, children are cleaner slates. Yet, as these images drawn by children show, some have already learned the “right” answer.

Through the rest of this book, we will explore mankind’s collective picture of Aliens.
Chapter 1
will look at the concept of Aliens before 1900. This was the era where speculation about Aliens was generally the special province of scientists and theologians. Mars, being our nearest planetary neighbor, is a natural location to imagine where Aliens might exist, so I spend extra time in describing the rise and fall of the claims of intelligent Martian life.

In
chapter 2
, I describe “true” stories of Aliens: UFOs, contacts, and abductions. It is nearly irrelevant whether these tales are actually true. While some might object that this question is totally relevant, we must distinguish the question of alien life actually existing from the social phenomenon of Aliens as something embedded deeply in human culture. Aliens as pictured by mankind have their origins in stories in the media and entertainment industries, as well as tales told by a handful of people. Whether those tales are entirely true, a complete hoax, a misunderstanding of a natural phenomenon, or a manifestation of insanity doesn’t matter at all. The stories and how they have moved through culture are what matters, and these stories have significantly shaped public opinion on the nature of Aliens.

Chapters 3
and
4
chronicle the evolution of Aliens in fiction in written literature, radio, television, and film. It is in fiction where authors can use Aliens in situations that are metaphors for the concerns of the society of the day. This is an especially interesting tale.

In
chapter 5
, we change gears. Rather than describing the historical opinion of Aliens, we use the rest of the book to explore modern efforts to understand what an Alien might look like. The first step in that process is to investigate what life on Earth can tell us.
Chapter 5
surveys the various kingdoms of life on Earth, while
chapter 6
ranges more broadly. Modern biochemistry and astrobiology has a lot to say about what kinds of life might exist “out there,” including possible life-forms based on atoms other than carbon.

Chapter 7
completes our saga. In it, we move away from fiction and speculative science, instead focusing on the simple question: If you look for Aliens around nearby stars, what do you find? So far, despite half a century of looking and speculations that began even earlier, we have found nothing.

Until we find Aliens, we will continue to dream them. What we think they look like will tell us more about us than them. I don’t know if we’ll ever encounter extraterrestrial life. But, until we do, please join me and stare at the clear midnight sky and wonder.

ONE
BEGINNINGS

That the present inhabitants of Mars are a race superior to ours is very probable.
Camille Flammarion

A floating silver saucer, perhaps punctuated with colorful lights. A diminutive gray being, with large, black, soul-less, almond-shaped eyes. Ghostly, telepathic voices. A hard, frigid slab. Silver medical instruments. Pokes and prods, especially around the groin. Then a return to where you were, with an unease and a period of time unaccounted for.

These are the elements of many a modern Alien tale.

For more than 70 years, humanity has slowly built a mythos around Aliens. Even those of us who have no personal experience with UFOs, flying saucers, or anything of the sort know the story. In this book, you’ll learn from where those elements have arisen. As we will see, that particular narrative is a recent one, built from a handful of progenitor tales and buttressed from being told again and again both person to person and in the media. But, while the general public’s fascination with the question of extraterrestrial life has grown tremendously in the past century or so, the interest isn’t a new one. In this
chapter, you’ll encounter scholars of the Renaissance who asked the question (and some who died for their temerity). You’ll learn about ideas put forth in the nineteenth century, some in good faith and some just hoaxes to generate publicity. You’ll learn about what our ancestors thought about our celestial neighbors: the moon and Mars.

And so we begin.

To discuss the existence of extraterrestrial life means, we must first answer a different question, specifically that of whether other planets exist. After all, if there are no other planets, it’s hard to even ask the question of whether life exists on places other than the Earth.

The story starts, as it often does, with the early Greeks. Aristotle’s writings had the longest impact on the question, and his argument was rooted in his physics and cosmology. For instance, Aristotle postulated a geocentric universe, in which the Earth was at the center, surrounded by a sphere of stars in fixed positions. Between the two were other spheres, each carrying the sun, the moon, and the wandering planets. These wandering planets were not imagined to be similar to Earth. Aristotle’s physical theories postulated four elements: air, fire, earth, and water. He claimed that each of them had a natural affinity. Earth sank downward toward the planet, fire fled the planet, while water and air had intermediate affinities. According to his logic, this implied that there could be but one planet. Otherwise, earth wouldn’t know where to fall … toward our planet or toward some other one. The logic was simple and the conclusion compelling. (It’s also a scathing indictment of the role of pure logic in scientific discourse without empirical guidance.) While there were competitor ideas at the time, Aristotle’s position dominated scholarly thinking for about 2,000 years.