The popular film District 9 that appeared in theaters last year, in addition to being a brilliant sci-fi story, also became well known for its social commentary on living conditions in the very real District Six during apartheid-era South Africa. In the film, a gang of alien “refugees” (called “prawns” by humans) appear in a gigantic spacecraft hovering over Johannesburg, stranded without a leader or a command module able to pilot the massive craft. In spite of their advanced technological weaponry and spacecraft, the aliens are rather subordinate to  humans; almost allowing themselves to be “herded” into the cluttered ghettos that comprise “District Nine.”

In reality, if aliens with advanced anti-gravitational aircraft and plasma blasters ended up stranded on Earth and didn’t attempt to attack us, would it seem strange to you? According to one expert, it’s not only strange… it’s highly unlikely.

Extra-terrestrials, according to Cambridge University Professor Simon Conway Morris, would have all-to-human “foibles,” which he doesn’t doubt would include greed, violence and similar tendencies to gathering up and exploiting resources that humans have shown for centuries. Morris says that, although they could in fact show up more-or-less peacefully searching for a place to live like the Prawns in District 9, they would inevitably become squatters, and in acting out colonialism similar to our past expansive conquests, they would “help themselves to water, minerals and fuel.”

“In short,” Morris says, “if there is any life out there, then it is likely to be very similar to us.” That being the case, should we be worried?

Perhaps not, since Morris also advocates the notion that there may not be any alien life out there after all. Since the Universe around us is far older than we are, he estimates that it is likely we would have heard from aliens by now, if they existed. However, one must wonder in what capacity we might expect to “hear” from an extraterrestrial intelligence; as acclaimed “physicist of the impossible” Michio Kaku points out in his well-known “allegory of the ants,” he compares humans to ants on the side of a road, oblivious to more intelligent life mere meters away. If indeed flying saucers and strange things seen in the skies were not alien craft, but were instead some kind of strange “drones” used to attempt to contact us, we would have to be failing pretty miserably at holding up our end of the communication.

Nonetheless, Morris, citing his personal skepticism, complains that “It is very, very quiet out there. Suspiciously quiet. Where on Earth are they?” Maybe that, in itself, is a better question to be asking: Where on EARTH are they?

It has been asserted many times already that Russian Naval documents, released in 2009, indicate that a tremendous number of encounters with strange UFO craft occur below the ocean’s surface. What if there turned out to be far more “extraterrestrial” activity here on Earth than we realize? Furthermore, are we prepared to engage in a thought game where we might combine Morris’ skepticism with such outlandish ideas, and guess that there could be a sentient race coexisting right here on Earth, having done so unnoticed (well, seldom noticed, at least) for eons? What if our “aliens” were no more alien to this planet than we are?

Legends famously shared by native tribes such as the Dogon in Mali have included controversial claims that incorporate knowledge of stars, particularly those invisible to the  naked eye, that existed orbiting visible stars like Sirius. Additionally, many ancient cultures have shared legends pertaining to strange “men” would emerge from the oceans by morning, and came to teach early man the proper agricultural, mathematical, architectural and other technological studies necessary for civilization to thrive. While on land, these beings would “take no food in that season,” and by the evening, the strange “amphibians” would return again to the sea.

Perhaps it is the vastness of the unexplored depths that fascinates–and frightens–humanity almost unconditionally; and thus, it seems likely that we would weave fanciful stories such as these that deal with mermen who seldom emerge from the waters, only to impart us with knowledge or buzz around in hi-tech flying craft. Indeed, it does sound more like science fiction than science fact, but if all else fails, it makes good “fish food” for thought! If this hypothesis, as strange as it sounds, were correct, the evidence we’ve been looking for out there in deep space–and missing almost entirely–would not conflict with reports of flying saucers and alien abduction; instead, the aliens would merely be hiding among us.

Until our own technology allows us to navigate the deeper ocean waters, and perhaps even the inner Earth, we’ll only be able to maintain wild speculation. Though it is likely that the “aliens” we’ll find in these remote locales will comprise as-yet discovered animalia, rather than sentient humanoids like us, for the time being our imaginations are the limit.

Dogon tribesmen photo (above) by Devriese.