Originally posted by spacevisitor
For years I hoped for the same, but after many years [37] of studying that phenomenon I have a very bad feeling about the impact and consequences of
such a disclosure.
I'm right there with you. Having had an interest in the subject for maybe a little bit longer, I used to think it would be the most wonderful thing
ever to happen. But now, if anything of the like ever happens, all I can see is how disruptive and potentially destructive it would be.
It's not even a question as to whether or not we are ready for such a thing, mentally, spiritually, or whatever. I don't think anybody could ever
be ready for coming face to face with some other kind of assumedly superior creature or entity over whom we have no chance of control. We would be
entirely at their mercy, if they even had such a concept. We would instantly drop at least one very big rung on the evolutionary ladder, if not the
food chain.
I just can't see where that would please many people other than the coldest scientists.
Our only possible hope would be to discover these creatures are very, very far away. So far away that they would likely never be able to get to us.
So they can be studied as a curiosity for a few hundred years, without immediate risk. But even then... our paranoia wouldn't let us sleep with
somebody out there who
might be able to get to us, or who could be hiding undetected from us. Waiting to eat us or enslave us or whatever.
Maybe it wouldn't make any difference how far away they were.
Anyway, every time I try to imagine the reaction, I always envision the same thing. Brief jubilation, followed quickly by us tearing ourselves apart.