NASA report worries that greenhouse gases will lead to aliens destroying humanity
By Ken Falkenstein | Thursday, August 18th, 2011 | Policy
Yes, really.
Here is the actual language from an April 22, 2011, report prepared jointly by NASA and Pennsylvania State University:
The thought of humanity being a threat to other civilizations may seem implausible given the likelihood of our technological inferiority relative to other civilizations. However, this inferiority may be a temporary phenomenon. Perhaps ETI observe our rapid and destructive expansion on Earth and become concerned of our civilizational trajectory. In light of the Sustainability Solution to the Fermi paradox, perhaps ETI believe that rapid expansion is threatening on a galactic scale. Rapidly (maximally) expansive civilizations may have a tendency to destroy other civilizations in the process, just as humanity has already destroyed many species on Earth. ETI that place intrinsic value on civilizations may ideally wish that our civilization changes its ways, so we can survive along with all the other civilizations. But if ETI doubt that our course can be changed, then they may seek to preemptively destroy our civilization in order to protect other civilizations from us. A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand. Humanity may just now be entering the period in which its rapid civilizational expansion could be detected by an ETI because our expansion is changing the composition of Earth’s atmosphere (e.g. via greenhouse gas emissions), which therefore changes the spectral signature of Earth. While it is difficult to estimate the likelihood of this scenario, it should at a minimum give us pause as we evaluate our expansive tendencies.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised given that this is the same NASA whose “foremost” mission under President Obama’s direction has been to reach out to the Muslim world.
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About the author
Ken Falkenstein has been a staffer in the United States Senate and the Virginia House of Delegates. He has managed political campaigns. He was a military intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army in West Germany during the Cold War. He is currently the Vice President of the Down Syndrome Association of Hampton Roads and practices as a civil litigation attorney with the law firm of Poole Mahoney PC in Virginia Beach. His concern for his kids' future is what most informs his writing.
Comments
9 Responses to "NASA report worries that greenhouse gases will lead to aliens destroying humanity"
So um… when CO2 was something on the order of 2000ppm when the dinosaurs were around, did the aliens come and wipe out the dinosaurs?
We’re through the looking glass here, people…….
When my 17-year-old stepdaughter read the last sentence, she said, “Really? Are Muslims now considered to be a whole other planet? Are we really in that episode of South Park now?”
Oh noes.
Normally if I see a movie with a ridiculous premise I attribute it the snorting of illegal substances while writing the script. I hope that is not going on at Penn State. There are so many ludicrous aspects of this report that I would bore people more than usual to go through all of them. I will note that the galaxy is probably over 10 billion years old. The Sun has been around almost 5 billion years. Humanity’s little blips dots and emissions have been going on for about 50 years. So 50/10 billion = 0.000000005 and 50 / 5 billion = 0.00000001. These ETI are either very patient or extremely attentive because if they nod for even an instant they’ll miss every exciting development on good old Earth.
Didn’t we already see this plot in that b-grade Michael Rennie movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still?” (The original one from 1951, children, not the remake.) But you have to wonder, if we are busy extinguishing ourselves with carbon discharge into the atmosphere, then why would aliens bother to come wipe us out? Wouldn’t they just let nature take its course?
Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!
Where did you find this, and did you really read all 28 pages of that?
I have a short attention span for ET, but I couldn’t really make it past the first page, I just skimmed over the rest. It has some interesting thoughts, even though I can’t believe someone actually funded it and someone else did the “work.” And it has 4.5 pages of references.
Once again … our tax dollars hard at work.
Truth is stranger than fiction, because it’s real. We actually pay people to write this stuff, and government agencies actually are willing to publish it as co-author.
Does NASA have a Twitter account?
Bizarre. And possibly wrong, even if you accept its premises. Our ability to rapidly change technologically would probably be our best defense against hostile extraterrestials. I just finished reading a series by Harry Turtledove postulating an invasion of technologically superior aliens during WWII. The aliens are at first surprised that the culture they thought they’d be fighting when they left their planet 800 years ago has given up mounted knight in armor for tanks and airplanes. They still have superior tech, but within two or three years earth’s major powers, the US, Nazi Germany and the USSR have begun to adapt the alien tech for our use and ultimately battle them to a standstill.
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