What Will Aliens REALLY Do To Human Beings?

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What Will Aliens DO to Human Beings?</h4>

What happens next if we discover aliens? Or, more likely, if they discover us? It’s a question straight out of science fiction but, actually, it’s also something that genuine scientists have more than a passing interest in.

In this video, we’re first imagining what might happen if aliens ever find out about Earth. Next, we’ll contemplate how, according to some theories, they could already be here. And finally, there’s that age-old sci-fi plotline to consider; what if us and the aliens ever became genetically entwined?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re taking a closer look at EXACTLY what aliens will do to human beings, if (and when) we finally meet.

We’ve long wondered whether we’re alone in the universe. In the past century, the search for extraterrestrial life has gotten fully underway, as we look for signs within our own solar system, as well as in other star systems. So far, evidence of alien life has eluded us. But there’s a strong possibility that what we’re looking for will find us first. 

If other intelligent species exist outside our own solar system, it’s likely that they too are searching for signs of alien life. Human intelligence and scientific achievements have made us aware of our place in the universe, leaving us curious as to whether or not we’re alone in such  thoughts. Theoretically, intelligent life elsewhere would, at some point, face the same questions. With 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, it wouldn’t be that surprising to discover that life is abundant within our galaxy. Even if extraterrestrial civilisations are unable to reach Earth, due for example to the sheer distances involved, we would still expect to find signals sent by them, or biosignatures. Unfortunately, no such evidence has been found, at least so far. Lacking evidence for sentient life beyond Earth, it could be inferred that it’s very rare for a planet to develop life. This discrepancy, between the lack of evidence for alien life and its high likelihood, is called the Fermi Paradox, and there have been many attempts to solve it. 

One of the common theories to explain our solitude in the universe is called the Great Filter. The idea is that somewhere in the evolutionary process there’s a great barrier that makes detectable extraterrestrial life incredibly uncommon. Currently, we can only guess whether this filter lies before or behind our current stage of development. Historically, humans have adapted their technology to expand outwards as much as possible. Life has always dispersed and spread into new frontiers. Generally, human technology has always moved forwards. So if we extrapolate to our future, we would expect ourselves to continue to expand outwards, slowly colonizing the galaxy and learning to harness new forms of energy. But, with the universe approaching its 14 billionth birthday, why does it seem like no other form of life has left its mark on the universe? 

This is what the Great Filter seeks to answer. The easier it is for life to evolve to our stage of development, the less optimistic our future becomes, and the more likely it is that the Great Filter lies ahead of us. This could be - for example - in the form of nuclear war, or global warming. On the other hand, this filter could also be long behind us, being at the earliest stages of evolution. Neither are particularly encouraging, with one side saying we’re heading towards probable extinction, and the other suggesting that we’re likely to be entirely alone. 

There are other proposed solutions to the Fermi paradox however. One is that aliens do exist in abundance, we just simply can’t see evidence of them. Another idea is that it’s too resource heavy to expand through a galaxy, and space is really just too large to traverse. It could also be the case that the galaxy actually is colonized, but Earth resides in an isolated, backwater region too distant to be worth colonization. Additionally, it might be the case that it’s dangerous to communicate with other civilisations, and that many are actively hiding. Or perhaps the next stage of evolution won’t be to expand outwards, but to focus inwards, in the form of virtual realities. Why bother to explore space, which is harsh and dangerous, when we can create and enter limitless virtual universes instead? Potentially all life ends up finding happiness in a simulated paradise, and gives up on outward expansion. And that’s why we haven’t found anything.

If aliens did discover Earth, first off it would help us understand where the Great Farrier lies. It all depends on the manner of discovery. The idea of first contact, the first meeting of humanity with extraterrestrials, is a common theme in science fiction. It was popularized by H. G. Wells in “The War of the Worlds”, released in 1897. The novel tells the story of Martians arriving on Earth, resulting in a brutal conflict that eventually ends with them dying from bacteria. If aliens did discover Earth, their intentions might not be benevolent. We know this to be true looking at our own history, especially with regard to colonialism. There’s a high chance that if aliens came to Earth, it would be to harvest our resources and control our planet. Of all first-contact scenarios, this is certainly the bleakest. It could be that the Great Filter is actually, in itself, another civilization that works to destroy all others. The signals we send into space might then be unwittingly inviting destruction. It’s a real concern, for some.

Of course, there are other, more optimistic visions of first contact, too. The popular franchise Star Trek portrays a future where humanity has abandoned all materialistic desires in favor of learning and exploring the universe. When new intelligent life-forms are discovered, humankind avoids interacting with them until they progress to a certain level - specifically, when they develop space-faring technology. Perhaps aliens do the same thing in reality to avoid interfering with other civilizations' development. In this scenario, it might be the case that aliens have already discovered Earth, but deemed us not advanced enough to justify making first contact. Maybe aliens visited Earth millions of years ago, when dinosaurs controlled the planet, long before the dominance of primates. If this happened, they would be unlikely to have any meaningful interactions with Earth’s past habitants. For all we know, they may have left equipment behind to watch our planet’s growth, potentially hidden on the Moon, elsewhere in the solar system, or even on our planet itself - according to some theories. Currently though, no evidence supports this claim.

Then again, perhaps aliens will make first contact in our lifetimes, and it will be peaceful! There are actually various protocols drawn up by researchers for what to do. There are still potential problems, though. None of these protocols are binding under any nation’s laws, and scientists therefore believe that they are likely to be ignored. The first was created by the SETI Institute, and is called the “Declaration of Principles for Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence”. This protocol contains eight steps. The first is that once a sign of alien life is detected, it must be verified. Once verified, various global scientific unions need to be informed, and following on from this the discovery needs to be made public. The discoverer has the right to make the announcement themselves, however no one is authorized to reply to any signals without international agreement. 

A separate protocol, called the “Proposed Agreement on the Sending of Communications to Extraterrestrial Intelligence” has also been formulated. It recommends that an international committee would be formed to create a reply, forbidding any messages being sent without the committee's clearance. This is in case the alien life is deemed to pose a threat to humanity, and aims to prevent replying in a fashion that would strengthen this danger. This protocol hasn’t been made into law either however. Hopefully, extraterrestrials are friendly towards humankind, and we may share knowledge with each other resulting in benefits on both sides. Unfortunately, our own human history has many examples of civilisations meeting new ones, and it usually leads to invasion and colonization. We would like to think this age is behind us, but if other life has evolved similarly to us, it may not be a feature exclusive to humanity. 

If aliens discovered Earth there’s a chance it could usher in a new age of technological advancements and developments. On the other hand, it could also bring about our destruction. We will only be able to know for certain once first-contact is made.

It’d be a near-impossible task to keep outer space aliens from visiting Earth if they ever set their minds to it. And according to Enrico Fermi – a Nobel Prize winning nuclear physicist, creator of the nuclear reactor, and the so-called architect of the atomic bomb – considering the immense number of stars and planets “out there,” aliens should have reached Earth by now. So, the question is pretty simple: Have we already been invaded by aliens? 

Of course, many people (maybe most people) would say “no”, full stop, because there are no aliens. This argument says that Earth is the only planet that harbors life – period. This train of thought rests largely on the Rare Earth hypothesis - the idea that life emerged on our planet in the way that it did only because all of the right pieces were in the right place at the right time. The Earth was located an appropriate distance away from a sun that was itself not too big or not too small, and our orbit was regular enough that we had basically consistent temperatures. Also, any huge objects that crashed into us weren’t enough to totally pulverize us. And there’s an abundance of water here, which is kind of essential. So, it could simply be that no other planet has been as life-lucky as we have. 

Other alien naysayers also suggest that if there were life out there somewhere, then we should have communicated with it by now, somehow. After all, we’ve been searching for quite a long time – decades if you consider physical space exploration, millennia if we’re including ancient cavemen yelling up at the moon. In many ways it's a fair argument, but it leaves an endlessly vast universe with only us in it. From a law of averages point of view, it doesn’t add up. 

As for the reasons why we haven’t found life in outer space yet, maybe we simply lack the technology, or there are communicative differences between us and them. Whatever the cause, could we simply be confused? Could aliens have already invaded us, and we simply don’t know it? There is evidence to say they have. For starters, look at any of the many ancient mysteries that defy explanation. From the giant statues on Easter Island, to the puzzling and freaky assemblages at Stonehenge. The great pyramids, too, are quite the enigma, as are the Nazca lines in Peru. These are drawings formed by lines in the Earth that are so huge that their true shapes can only be ascertained from a high-in-the-sky vantage point. Not only are they difficult to explain as products of ancient technology, but looking at these things, you’d be forgiven for wondering if some aliens didn’t just drop by Earth in the old days for some extra-terrestrial doodling. 

And, if they dropped by way back when, then maybe it's possible they've regularly returned through the years. It’d explain the truly impressive (and ever-growing) number of Unidentified Flying Object sightings, at least. Since 1905, when they started officially recording UFO sightings in the US, there have been about 105,000 reports of strange, soaring….somethings. But, really, UFO claims were made long before the early 1900s. As far back as 1440 BC, “fiery discs” were said to have levitated around ancient Egypt. With so many people having claimed to see weird flying thingies, it stands to reason that not all of them were tricks of the eye, hallucinations, or someone’s spaced-out bid for attention. Certainly, the U.S. government has taken it seriously in the past, having authorized an entire program from 2007 to 2012 – the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program – to look into the situation. And, of course, there’s the world-famous Roswell UFO incident, with many believing that aliens crashed there in 1947. Officials at the time reckoned it was only a weather balloon; decades later they changed their story to a nuclear test surveillance balloon… but the conspiracy theorists out there just don’t buy it, and insist that Roswell is actually a hotbed of alien activity. 

Even a seemingly unlikely source – the Bible – provides support for the existence of aliens, at least according to some interpretations. Genesis refers to the Nephilim residing on Earth, and some translate Nephilim as “The Fallen” – as in they ‘fell from outer space’. Others have interpreted the tale of Elijah being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire as referring to an alien abduction. And could the “wheel in the sky” that Ezekiel claims to see in fact be an alien spacecraft? Let’s say for the moment that it’s beyond doubt, though… that aliens have already landed on Earth and are here still; How did they get here? They must have a transportation method that enables them to move at obscene speeds. And they themselves must be able to withstand the ravages of space travel. Essentially, their tech and their bodies are way, way more advanced than anything we can even imagine. Of course, they didn’t necessarily use a spaceship. Maybe they came here via a fax machine – of sorts. With a now-admittedly old-fashioned fax, information is taken from one piece of paper, transmitted across wires, and replicated on a new piece of paper. Perhaps some alien civilizations have developed a way to adapt that mode of transmission into viable transportation – ala that staple of all sci-fi stories, teleportation. Under this theory, an alien being’s consciousness would be removed from its body and transmitted across space into a new receptacle here on Earth. Perhaps that receptacle was an empty vessel of some kind. Or perhaps it was the body of an already-existing human being. The latter would certainly explain why aliens could have invaded us and avoided detection. If the new receptacle was still alive, there’d presumably be some sort of personality change in that person... If the receptacle was dead, it’s at least one explanation for the various folk tales about zombies, vampires and other believed-to-be-dead humans coming back to life. 

But, by now we’re deep, deep into crazy conspiracy territory – right? So, let’s dial it back a bit. Thinking slightly more logically, maybe aliens got here by a much more prosaic way – like hitching a ride on a meteor. Earth has been struck by countless hunks of careening space rock in its past, large and small, and over billions of years. Perhaps some (or even only one) of those carried passengers that survived the impact and put down roots here. In this case, it’s more likely that the life passed on was not so much human and instead more microbial. Of course, the assumption that aliens should be humanoid is viewed by most speculators as completely flawed, anyway. Traveling through space on a slab of rock means that whatever life was hanging on would’ve had to have been able to survive extreme cold – but also extreme heat upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere. Microbes are much better at that sort of thing. 

The ‘what would they look like?’ issue does raise arguably the most important point of all: perhaps aliens haven’t been spotted as an invading force because we can’t actually recognize them as life. We don’t typically think of even Earthly microbes when discussing intelligent life, but perhaps some alien microbes would qualify. Or maybe they take on other forms that don’t fit our frame of reference, like a ray of light or a liquid. Another intriguing possibility (and pretty popular theory amongst advocates) is that an alien race could have some form of disguise mechanism. Like some sort of super-charged chameleon, they might change color or somehow arrange themselves to blend into a background. Or maybe aliens have already mastered the awesome trick of invisibility. It’s ultimately just a matter of bending light around an object after all, and if an advanced being can figure out how to travel light years to get here, bending light probably isn’t so hard. Then there’s the well-pedaled suggestion that aliens have seamlessly blended in because they’re so incredibly similar to us, and we simply can’t tell the difference. Which would mean all of those 1950's science fiction movies were right after all. Or maybe the real reason we don’t know that aliens have invaded is because we’re the aliens. There are some who believe that our ancestors traveled here eons ago from a previously doomed planet. Or else, we started off as microbes thrown from a meteor onto this world and evolved into the walking, talking life forms found here today. 

If aliens have already invaded the Earth, it inexorably leads to another important question. What kind of effect have they had? Has civilization grown exactly as it would have without them? Or have aliens actually helped us to develop language, implement scientific principles, understand how to treat illnesses, and generally live our lives? Or have they instead encouraged warfare, kept us divided, and urged us toward destruction?

J. Allen Hynek was a legendary scientist and UFO researcher who, among other things, played a vital role in Project Blue Book, America’s most famous official UFO investigation. During his research, Hynek devised an invaluable scale of “close encounters” with extra-terrestrials… prompting the phrase “close encounter” to enter pop culture in a big way. But just how close have these encounters been?

Are aliens already breeding with humans?

Hynek’s original scale as published in 1972 extends to “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. It begins with the First kind, which covers simple phenomena like the seeing of strange lights or objects in the night sky. Close Encounters of the Second Kind would be, according to the scale, if a UFO event were to have a physical or physiological effect, from the leaving of scorch marks on the ground to the triggering of nausea or paralysis in a witness. The Third Kind, Hynek’s original upper limit, refers to a UFO incident where some form of animated and/or intelligent alien is present. Since it was first conceived, however, the Hynek Scale has been further extended by other ufologists, and now goes all the way up to the Seventh Kind, which involves the creation of a human/alien hybrid. This hybrid could be produced by any means; by sexual reproduction, artificial insemination, cloning, or anything else… the argument being that if aliens were capable of crossing galaxies to reach us, then they’d probably have all kinds of advanced methods and technologies to accomplish this. 

Since the early days of alien abduction stories, invasive medical procedures have been a common theme. One of the most famous abductions in history, that of Barney and Betty Hill in the US in 1961, allegedly involved some strange medical tests. From the time of the abduction until her death in 2004, Betty Hill maintained her story, claiming that she and Barney had encountered intelligent aliens from the Zeta Reticuli star system, roughly 40 lightyears away from Earth. According to Betty, who recalled the night’s events through a series of vivid dreams afterwards, the aliens had taken hair and skin samples from her, and had also tested her nervous system by thrusting a needle into her stomach. Meanwhile, the famous Jesse Long case goes one step further when, after a series of alleged alien abductions throughout his life, Long claims that in 1990 he was introduced by the aliens to his children. The idea being that he had been selected to father a hybrid species.

Today, it’s impossible to count the number of alleged alien abductees because that number is always increasing, all across the world. And, unfortunately, the more well-known any particular strand of the UFO mythos is, the more likely people reportedly are to falsely reconcile it with an experience that they may have once had. For decades now, the suggestion that aliens could be breeding with humans has been out there, and this has led to plenty of confirmed hoax claims and made-up stories. For the majority of scientists and researchers, then, it’s still considered unlikely that any alien abduction - even the more inexplicable and high-profile cases - are actually alien in nature. This isn’t to say that everyone ever claiming to have been abducted is completely lying about it… but, for skeptics, there should be other explanations for any genuine trauma suffered. 

Still, let’s for one moment imagine that the highest level on the Hynek Scale has already been reached; that Close Encounters of the Seventh Kind are real, and that they’re really happening on Earth. According to believers, what would be the reason for aliens visiting our planet to make human hybrid offspring? 

Well, there haven’t been many reasons put forward… but, one notable figure in the debate is Dr. Young-hae Chi, a Korean lecturer at Oxford University. Though Chi is primarily a languages expert, this hasn’t stopped him from speculating about alien abductions… nor from making some bold, headline-grabbing claims. He says that aliens are arriving here, but with good intentions. For Chi, our extraterrestrial visitors are trying to help us withstand global warming, and any hybrids being developed are simply sturdier versions of homo sapiens more likely to survive in the higher temperatures of a warming planet. His main evidence for this is the apparent correlation between the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and the number of reported alien abductions in history - both of which have risen in recent years. Although most of the rest of the scientific community isn’t on board with the claims, Chi also says that these human/alien hybrids are unidentifiable alongside regular humans – that even they themselves might not know that they’re a hybrid. It’s a frightening thought, but it’s one that’s widely repeated by people who believe in a hybrid program - as a way of explaining why we don’t see obviously half-alien/half-humans just walking around the place.

Not that that’s stopped people from publicly claiming that they are one such hybrid. An Australian woman, Judy Carroll, has said on record that she is part alien and has had numerous rides on flying saucers out into space. Meanwhile a man from New York, David Huggins, says he was once seduced in the woods by a female alien – and he’s got paintings to prove it. Huggins, in particular, was the subject of a documentary in 2017 for his unorthodox beliefs. Since the advent of the internet, more and more similar stories have surfaced, including from people claiming to be pregnant with an alien hybrid! What’s more, thanks to the very common claim among abductees that aliens are capable of wiping our memories, it’s often suggested that there could be countless others out there who have also had close encounters like these but simply can’t recall them. On that logic, you might even know someone - you might even be someone - who has been visited by extraterrestrials before!

Aside from the lack of conclusive evidence, though, another big problem with the alien-human hybrid theory is determining whether these hybrids would actually be viable. Any alien involved would, of course, be not of this world, from a completely different planet - potentially with a completely different ecosystem and boasting completely different biological makeup. How likely is it, then, that they’d reproduce in even close to the same way as us? How likely that this strange genetic cocktail would be able to create a living thing? 

Hybrids do occur quite frequently in the animal kingdom here on Earth and can happen completely naturally in the wild. Arguably the most famous of all is the liger - the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger - but there are also hybrids of sheep and goats, whales and dolphins, and zebras and donkeys, to name just a few. Though these hybrids can have specific genetic issues – including infertility – many grow to be perfectly healthy. In all known hybrid species, however, the two species that breed are incredibly similar to one another to start with. In the grand scheme of the tree of life, the jump from lion to tiger (or zebra to donkey) isn’t all that big. By contrast, there’s just no telling how similar humans are to any hypothetically visiting aliens. So, there’s no telling the problems that could unfold. Homo sapiens’ closest living relative is the chimpanzee, and although it would clearly be incredibly unethical to carry out an experiment to create a “humanzee”, attempts have been (unsuccessfully) made to do so in the past. Today, the “humanzee” obviously does not exist. But, if we can’t make a hybrid even from a creature as similar to us as a chimp, which shares up to 99% of our DNA, could we ever expect to see a hybrid of anything - including aliens?

Well, ancient history provides a little insight as to what’s possible. Homo sapiens is not the only human species to have walked the Earth, we’re just the only ones alive today. Tens of thousands of years ago, other human species, like the Neanderthals and the Denisovans, were alive and well and interbreeding with each other. We know this because we’ve found evidence in bones and fossils, including in the partial remains of a prehistoric girl, found in Siberia in the twenty first century, but dating back to around 90,000 years ago. She was found to have had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father. Homo sapiens also bred with Neanderthals back before they went extinct. In fact, without this inbreeding and hybridization, it’s thought the evolution of modern humans may have stalled or played out differently. Clearly though, once again, what we know to have happened in early human history is a very different prospect to the idea that aliens and humans could be (or could ever be) linked. All the various species of human over time have at least shared common ancestors… genetically, they’ve never been that far away from each other. That wouldn’t be the same for a creature from another planet entirely.

Despite the lofty claims people make, then, the unknowable reasons why aliens would want to come and breed with us, as well as whether their doing so would even be biologically possible, plus the still large majority, scientific consensus that it’s just not something that’s happening… makes it highly unlikely that alien-human hybrids currently exist. It’s one of modern science’s strangest what if-s, but that’s why aliens probably aren’t already breeding with humans.

But what do you think? Despite the evidence, could alien hybrids be possible? And, if not for offspring, then why else might an extraterrestrial ever visit Earth? What do you think they’d want to do with us?

Clearly, when it comes to debating first contact, there are endless possibilities as to what could actually happen. For better or worse, though, if there is other life out there… then it figures that one day we might finally make that connection.