Ten Questions to Ask an Alien

Carl Sagan in The Demon-Haunted World:

It's a stimulating exercise to think of questions to which no human today knows the answers, but where a correct answer would immediately be recognized as such. It's even more challenging to formulate such questions in fields other than mathematics. Perhaps we should hold a contest and collect the best responses in "Ten Questions to Ask an Alien."

The connection to aliens stems from how one might test claims from individuals who say they have contact with extra-terrestrial visitors, who are presumably far more scientifically and technologically advanced than we are. The examples given are proof of Fermat's Last Theorem or Goldbach's conjecture, both mathematics problems (the former no longer being eligible, as it has since been solved).

I have no prize to offer for such a contest, but what are some other (preferably non-mathematics) questions we could include on such a list?

Circus or Zoo?

There's been some buzz lately about Stephen Hawking's comments that alien life almost certainly exists, but we should be doing everything we can to avoid it.

[A] few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity. [...] He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

This of course raises the age old question, for when our alien overlords arrive:



It seems slightly ironic that Hawking's warnings come at the same time that we celebrate the Hubble Telescope's 20th anniversary - a tool whose breath-taking pictures have undoubtedly inspired many people to wonder what, and who, else is out there.

I've been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately, catching up on the new series, and re-enjoying the old. It's impossible not to revel in his awe and joy and wonder as he travels space and time unravelling mysteries and encountering new species - in a universe he knows to be full of monsters and bad guys. In that spirit, I have to side with optimism and Ethan Siegel:

But what irks me most of all is the cowardice behind a viewpoint that we shouldn't rush to meet a peer in this Universe. It would be like forgetting the best part of being human: our bravery, our sense of adventure, our will to explore, our thirst for learning and discovery, our curiosity, and our desire to experience all that existence has to offer.

And if we're swept up and forced into an intergalactic zoo, circus or worse, at least I'll get to ride in a spaceship.

Alien Autopsy

If you haven't yet heard, a Colorado man has held a press conference to reveal footage of an alien caught on tape in 2003.

From the looks of it, the video is a typical grainy, inconclusive Bigfoot-style shot that will convince believers and fail to impress skeptics. (And haven't the little green men heard of the Prime Directive?)

But what if it was convincing? It would probably alter NASA's space program. Groups would try to figure out a way to kill it, or weaponize it. Biologists would have a field day.

If suddenly presented with solid, convincing evidence of extra-terrestrial life, how do you think life on Earth would change (if at all)? What about your personal worldview?