Aliens Among Us

I remember when Alien Nation was on TV. There were a lot of alien shows on around that time, and I also remember most people thinking that Hollywood was softening us up for the actual introduction of real aliens onto our world (rather than Hollywood being bankrupt of ideas and therefore everyone jumping on the tailcoats of that hit movie Alien Nation).

Well, I have something to say: They weren't doing that. The aliens in the TV shows and movies are not aliens, nor could they be alien influenced. The government wasn't working with real aliens to come up with these story lines in order to get us used to the ideas, and the aliens in the shows weren't just like the real ones. Maybe I have or had a weird set of friends and family back then, and maybe you never heard this theory of alien controlled media, but I used to hear it all of the time. It is an intriguing thought, but not what is really going on.

First off, any aliens we meet will be at least a million years ahead of us in technology. 1,000,000 years. Where were humans that long ago? Chimp cousins? And since the advancement of technology and knowledge is not linear but rather exponential, aliens at least a millions year ahead of us wouldn't ever regard us as highly as we regard ants. Have you ever stooped down to an anthill and tried to bring your wonders of Modern Technology to the ants? Have you seen them toiling away and try to tell them that they could use machines to do the work in a small fraction of the time? Or have you just toyed with them using your magnifying glass, or sprayed them with poison if they dared intrude unwantedly into your life? Do you see how we could never communicate with any alien race now?

Secondly, the aliens on any show or any movie that I have seen are not aliens, but disfigured Earthers. Giant worms. Wolves. Humans. All the aliens or alien monsters are based on models of creatures from Earth. They have the same drives as some Earth-based creature. They eat the same food, want the same things, want to have sex with human women, etc. I have not yet seen a movie or a TV show with an alien in it that afterwards I said to myself "Wow, I didn't understand the motivation of that creature at all. It was like totally alien to me. It did things for reasons I couldn't understand. And it didn't try to eat anyone because it came from an alien world with an alien chemistry and therefore could digest a human let alone mate with one." Never.

All of my life, people have jokingly said I was an alien or non-human. If only they knew the truth!

The Edward