…The short answer is “no!”
Recent news that water may have been discovered on Mars (again) has stirred interest in the age-old debate about whether life may exist on our great-big red neighbor next door. “At a press conference yesterday, scientists announced that they may be one step closer to determining whether water–an essential ingredient for life–exists on Mars,” a wire press release read yesterday. The Washington Post’s Marc Kaufman additionally noted that this was essentially a game-changing discovery (if water is indeed what has been discovered), and that it may be “our best target yet for finding possible life beyond Earth.”
Well, if you’re looking for life that’s anything reminiscent of how living organisms here on Earth evolved, these might be logical ways to go about finding them. Meanwhile, a plethora of other organisms–some so strange we might only be able to call them “life-like” by our standards–could exist elsewhere. Too bad, then, that mainstream science doesn’t seem too concerned with thinking far enough outside the box to come to new understandings of where such conscious–and even sentient or intelligent–organisms might exist.
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Since late last week, there has been a ton of news surrounding Mazlan Othman, a Malaysian astrophysicist who, according to some sources, had been appointed by the United Nations as Earth’s “go-to-gal” should a UFO ever land with occupants asking where our “leader” could be found. Othman, whose curious last name, paired along with her first initial, rather serendipitously spells “Mothman” (looks like John Keel was right after all), denies that any such title was awarded her in an official capacity, telling Matthew Weaver at The Guardian via email that, “It sounds really cool but I have to deny it.”
I first received word about all this last week from my partner in crime, Red Pill Junkie, with the astute journal of weekly Forteana The Daily Grail. Though I was, at the time, holed-up on one of the remotest of under-developed southern escapes imaginable–the notoriously-haunted Daufuski Island–I enjoyed the ensuing email exchanges as I received them on my Blackberry. “No way… That’s too weird,” my fellow Center for Fortean Zoology correspondent and renowned Texas cryptozoologist/ufologist Nick Redfern said. Loren Coleman, arguably the most well-versed of Mothman researchers around today since Keel’s passing, pointed out early on that the claims were bunk… but what cannot be refuted is Othman’s position on the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs (in addition to her very weird name). If the UN should happen to have anything to do with exopolitical negotiations once E.T. does eventually touch down, Othman might arguably be involved in the ensuing affair. But are there others who might have a say in who would get to speak with aliens under such circumstances? If so, who might these “contact” individuals end up being?
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It has been one of the most prevalent themes in science fiction literature and film for decades: alien beings intent on destruction and takeover of the Earth and its inhabitants arrive and wage total war on the planet, blasting us with laser beams, and flying advanced aircraft capable of out-maneuvering the fastest jets. Obviously, the looming threat of a hostile alien takeover is something that remains in the forefront of the collective paranoia of those willing to ask “what if?”
Fortunately, in most instances when this occurs, mankind somehow manages to outsmart the evil alien menace… in films, at least. Take for example Independence Day, where our curiously under-equipped military here on Terra Firma finds the Achilles Heel of ginormous saucer craft that traveled all this way just to leave their backdoor open, vulnerable for a shoot-down. The Day The Earth Stood Still, originally having dealt with an alien which traveled to Earth on a “goodwill mission” was revised in 2008 to have its alien visitor Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) decide animal life on our planet is to be collected Noah’s Ark-style, before humans are destroyed for their warlike tendencies. This is prevented with moments to spare, after Klaatu arrives at the decision that there are hopeful virtues that still exist among our species. Elsewhere, War of the Worlds sees the alien menace gaining an upper hand against Earth, only to end with H.G Wells’ aliens falling victim to terrestrial bacterial ailments and dying.
What is often overlooked about Wells’ story, however, is that there had been an alternative ending he had toyed with, in which humanity was driven underground in an effort to escape the alien assailants, waiting for an opportunity to launch an uprising against the unwelcome guests squatting on the surface. Indeed, we must wonder whether, if there were ever to be an actual alien invasion, how likely Earthlings would be able to defend against it, and whether we’d even be as lucky as those in the other plot line Wells had considered. On the other hand, would we know it if an alien “invasion” of sorts were even occurring?
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Some today, in spite of the vast amount of information technology is capable of providing, still find dissatisfaction with what appears to be a general lack of decent photographic evidence of UFOs. Along these lines, at AOL’s Politics Daily, writer and blogger David Corn recently did an interesting piece that dealt with the politics, so to speak, surrounding UFO photography. One might initially ask what is political (or even exopolitical) about photographs of strange objects in the skies–or as the scope of Corn’s column seeks to address, the lack thereof. However, Corn’s argument, along with other analysis of the debate, brings forth some interesting details nonetheless, spurring questions over whether the kinds of things that occur in the study of ufology are really always what they seem.
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