The Different Types Of Alien Invasion You Should Know About

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The Different Types of Alien Invasion You Should Know About - Part 1</h4>

Humankind has an insatiable curiosity, and our species has long looked up to the stars, wondering if we’re truly alone among them. We’ve told countless stories involving claimed encounters with extraterrestrials - some friendly, and many terrifying. We’ve created whole pop culture genres around the idea of mixing with other beings not of this world. But, so far, for all our estimating, guesstimating and fantasizing… we still haven’t actually seen aliens en masse on Earth. So, what if that were to change? What if, somewhere beyond our atmosphere, there are various severe threats lurking, waiting to strike?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re taking a closer look at the different types of alien invasion you should know about.

We’ll get the ball rolling with what’s possibly the most obvious scenario of all - a full-scale military invasion. This would involve a massive, planet-wide, aggressive invasion, where our alien foes use advanced weaponry and technology to conquer our planet. Suffice to say, it’s inescapably endless bad news for us. Cities get destroyed, our own human military forces get annihilated, and alien rule is eventually imposed upon us all… if, indeed, any of us survive.

It all makes for a pretty terrifying and hefty dose of some serious existential dread. But, the truth is, it’s more than just a made up story. Many believe that if alien contact does ever happen on Earth, then a brutal takeover is probably the most likely way in which it’ll unfold. Stephen Hawking famously warned that alien contact could (or would) be a terrible idea, explaining why by drawing comparisons with what the Europeans did to the Native Americans upon their discovery of the New World. For Hawking, an alien presence here could quickly spell our downfall, either through fighting, enslavement, the spread of new diseases, or through any number of other disturbing upheavals. The unprecedented volatility of such a situation would leave us vulnerable, pitted against an arriving force with far superior knowledge and tech.

But still, even if this were the most probable type of invasion, what’s the motivation behind it? Some claim that there isn’t one, which is reason enough why, actually, it’s likely never to happen in the first place. However, that may only be wishful thinking.

Instead, scarcity of resources could reasonably be a major (and urgent) motivator for any alien group that’s come so far as to come here. Earth is a Cornucopia for certain natural resources, such as water, minerals, and metals. And, while it’s impossible to truly know how alien life would work, it’s a good bet that much of what our world has would be of use. Which leaves us, the lowly humans, as little more than a nuisance that happens to be in their way; like ants on an otherwise perfectly edible, enjoyable and lucrative cake.

Here, though, the possible strategy does split into two. On the one hand, we have the potential for aggressive mining operations, destroying nature without mercy and with blatantly zero care or compassion for us. On the other hand, the same hypothetical alien group might prefer a more sophisticated approach, employing unknown tech to extract Earth’s resources secretly. Either way, it’s clearly bad news for us if something were to just up and steal our oxygen… or siphon away the water. And, after doing so, the invading aliens might not even deem it necessary to hang around for long afterwards. Once satisfied, they may just as well fly back off into the stars, leaving behind a devastated planet entirely void of the life it once had. 

Then again, another alien type might prefer to not just abandon this world as a used up husk. Here, we’re imagining more long-term settlers who do at least deem this planet worthy of their presence… although the outlook is still rather bleak for we, the humans. In the case of an alien group seeking to put down roots and live here, the environment may well need to be drastically altered to suit their requirements. This could involve changing the atmosphere, climate, or even the geographical layout. Wholesale terraforming which, depending on scale, could very quickly render Earth uninhabitable for anyone or thing that had lived here pre-invasion.

Still, though, for the most part we might assume that the likes of Stephen Hawking weren’t only worried about incoming aliens ripping the physicality of our current world to shreds. More often than not, the more pessimistic views are really concerned with what could happen in a social sense… because, for our freshly arrived alien superiors, another motivator could of course be colonial expansion. The starting, maintaining or expanding of an empire, but on an enormous, galactic scale. 

From the beginning, this type of invasion should at least be most organized, the implication being that Earth is unlikely to be the first other world to have fallen to our alien foe. Nor, based on all statistical approximations, are we likely to be the first other civilization that our ET overthrowers will have encountered. Again, this could then go one of two ways. On the one hand, an efficient alien race would just do away with us within moments, with zero chance of us surviving to even say hello. On the other, an efficient alien race may well have come to realize that cooperation is key whenever you have a new planet ready to add to your portfolio. Here, seeing as we’re not instantly dead, things would get interesting, with the incoming aliens seeking to establish their own governance - bringing Earth in line with all of the other worlds it has conquered beforehand. Ultimately, though, it’s only interesting (or tolerable) for us if the best case scenario does happen, and the new arrivals wish to cooperate. If they don’t, but they also don’t kill us straight away, then humans could become second-class citizens very quickly. Most likely, we’d all be enslaved. Destined and doomed to live out the rest of our lives as insignificant, barely recognized cogs in the alien machine.

Finally, though, and while so far we’ve dealt with invasions that you very much do know are happening, there is an alternative; covert infiltration. This is when our alien aggressors breach society by disguising themselves as humans… or by in some way controlling influential individuals. Just as much as with the guns and hellfire of a military battle, it’s a scenario that’s also proven popular in science fiction.

Now, the goal for any alien with eyes set on Earth is to carefully and secretly gain power, influence affairs, and gather intelligence. In the stories, we might see world leaders, famous faces, and anyone in a position of authority be unknowingly transformed into extraterrestrial puppets. Or even, eventually, they might reveal themselves as aliens directly. The showdown comes when they finally reveal themselves from the shadows, perhaps after a long period of time, and their subtle invasion is thereby confirmed. It’s probably just as disconcerting as the idea of an alien war… but in a much different way. And, for those who favor it as a more likely route toward alien domination, then it could also double up to explain the Fermi Paradox. The paradox famously says that alien life has a high likelihood to exist, but we have a contradictory lack of evidence for it. We believe they should exist, so why have we never encountered them? But now, if covert infiltration really is their way forward, and if they really are already controlling us… then that’s why we don’t know they’re there. It’s all by elaborate and brilliant design.

Something called the Zoo Hypothesis takes this idea a level or two further. First formulated by the MIT radio astronomer John Ball in 1973, it says that intelligent enough aliens probably know we’re here already, but they’re purposely keeping their distance. He suggested similarities to Star Trek’s prime directive, which doesn’t allow spacefaring societies to interact with less advanced civilizations. The Zoo Hypothesis says that the same thing could be happening in real life, so that we’re being watched from afar… as though we’re animals in the enclosure of a zoo. As to why an alien group might opt for this strategy, the optimistic idea is that it’s for them to ensure that humanity develops organically to one day become sufficiently advanced and mature enough to explore space for itself. Perhaps our zoo keepers believe that we have problems to overcome, such as war and climate change, and so they’re busy controlling us in secret until such a point as we solve those issues. A more pessimistic interpretation, however, is generally known alternatively as the Lab Hypothesis. In this version of events (again proposed by Ball) it’s said that humanity is nothing more than the subject of an alien experiment. No matter the end goal, our world is their petri dish, and there’s nothing we can do about it.

Somewhat thankfully, both the Zoo and Lab Hypotheses can likely be checked by scientists within the next century. With how far advancements have come, some believe that we’ll soon be able to detect if we’ve been isolated in this way. Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, or METI, is an organization created to test hypotheses such as these, although it isn’t without its critics, either. For those against METI, actively seeking contact with ETs could, in itself, be dangerous. In the context of Earth being either a zoo or a lab, any attempt by us to break out of our confines could (it’s thought) result in the zoo or lab being shut down. And that’s certainly no good for us.

So, what’s your verdict? Are any of these invasion types likely to happen soon? Or are you still feeling perfectly safe here on planet Earth? Does the threat of an alien overlord terrify you senseless? Or are you still quite calm and unconcerned? Let us know in the comments, and keep your eyes peeled for more options that an alien conqueror might consider in a follow up video, coming soon!