An alien invasion might sound like science fiction, but a scientist has now revealed what the terrifying consequences of an encounter might be.
Professor Avi Loeb, head of Harvard University’s Galileo Project, claims our first encounter with an alien invader won’t resemble sci–fi movies like E.T or War of the Worlds.
Rather than a biological, flesh and blood alien, Professor Loeb explains that we are more likely to be met by a ‘technological device guided by AI’.
The arrival of such a device would pose a ‘potential threat to all earthlings’, he claims – sparking political, economic, and spiritual chaos around the world.
Professor Loeb told the Daily Mail that ‘the stock market may crash due to the uncertainty about the impact of the encounter on the future of humanity.’
Likewise, the fact that the aliens’ technology would likely outclass our own would not only be humbling for human intelligence – but would also make their technology a grave threat to humanity.
Professor Loeb said in a blog post: ‘It would be foolish of me to forecast what this blind date of interstellar proportions might look like.
‘One thing is clear: we must observe our dating partner to learn more about their qualities and intent and make sure that it is not a serial killer.’
A scientist says that the arrival of an alien craft in our solar system would trigger global chaos, with the stock markets collapsing due to instability. Pictured: The 1996 sci–fi film Independence Day
Professor Loeb suggests that aliens won’t invade Earth in biological form, partly due to the vast distances between our planet and the nearest habitable worlds.
Even the very closest habitable world, Proxima Centauri b, is located a staggering 4.2 light–years from Earth.
The preference for technology over living organisms also reflects trends in our own space exploration efforts, which tend to use robotic probes instead of human crews.
If one of these artificial emissaries arrived on Earth, Professor Loeb suggests that its very presence would send shockwaves through human society.
Just as astronomers rattled the world by showing that Earth wasn’t at the centre of the cosmos, an encounter with aliens would shift humanity’s sense of importance.
‘I would not regard it as a crisis but rather as a realization that we are not at the top of the food chain, cosmologically speaking,’ Professor Loeb told the Daily Mail.
It wouldn’t just be religious believers who would be psychologically shaken by this revelation.
Secular individuals will also be shaken by the realisation that alien technology is far more advanced than our own.
Experts say that our first encounter with aliens won’t be with biological creatures, but with an AI–controlled technological artefact like a probe or robot (stock image)
Professor Loeb says this will come from an understanding that ‘there is a more accomplished sibling in our family in intelligent civilizations.’
Similarly, meeting our technologically advanced cosmic siblings would have a ‘profound effect’ on international geopolitics.
‘It would pose a potential threat to all earthlings because we are all in the same boat,’ says Professor Loeb.
However, this common threat could actually help bring Earth’s divided nations together in collective self defence.
Professor Loeb says: ‘An encounter with alien technology could bring together all humans on Earth in the same way that a knock on the door by a stranger quiets down arguments among family members within the room.
‘It will definitely bring us to a better place by delivering a much needed sense of humility and a change of priorities towards space exploration and cooperation among humans, since we are all in the boat.’
However, exactly what aliens would want with us or how they would treat our civilisation depends on the nature of the aliens involved.
Professor Loeb has previously suggested that alien civilisations might send technological probes to our solar system as a ‘reconnaissance mission’.
Professor Avi Loeb, an expert on the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence from Harvard University, says that an alien invasion would pose a ‘potential threat to all earthlings’
Professor Loeb previously suggested that the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, photographed as it passed 190 million miles (305 million km) from Earth, was a technological probe sent by aliens to investigate Earth
Since Earth has a stable atmosphere, liquid water, and sits in its star’s habitable zone, it is natural that civilisations would want to investigate.
In exactly the same way that human astronomers study exoplanets from Earth, alien scientists might simply examine Earth out of curiosity or in the search for a new home.
But it is also possible that an alien civilisation might have more malicious plans for our planet.
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For example, Professor Loeb has put forward the idea that ancient visitors might have polluted the atmosphere enough to trigger the Permian Extinction, the largest extinction event in Earth’s history.
About 252 million years ago, 96 per cent of marine species were killed by a global warming event that left ocean creatures unable to breathe.
While the majority of scientists agree that this was caused by the greenhouse gases from volcanic eruptions, Professor Loeb suggests there could be a technological explanation instead.
While these ideas might seem far–fetched, Professor Loeb insists that these theories should be treated like any other scientific hypothesis and put to the test with rigorous investigation.
WHAT IS THE FERMI PARADOX?
The Fermi Paradox questions why, given the estimated 200-400 billion stars and at least 100 billion planets in our galaxy, there have been no signs of alien life.
The contradiction is named after its creator, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi.
He first posed the question back in 1950.
Fermi believed it was too extraordinary that a single extra-terrestrial signal or engineering project has yet to be detected in the universe — despite its immense vastness.
Fermi concluded there must a barrier that limits the rise of intelligent, self-aware, technologically advanced space-colonising civilisations.
This barrier is sometimes referred to as the ‘Great Filter’.
Italian physicist Enrico Fermi devised the so-called Fermi Paradox in the 1950s, which explores why there is no sign of alien life, despite the 100 billion planets in our galaxy
If the main obstacle preventing the colonisation of other planets is not in our past, then the barrier that will stop humanity’s prospects of reaching other worlds must lie in our future, scientists have theorised.
Professor Brian Cox believes the advances in science and engineering required by a civilisation to start conquering the stars will ultimately lead to its destruction.
He said: ‘One solution to the Fermi Paradox is that it is not possible to run a world that has the power to destroy itself.
‘It may be that the growth of science and engineering inevitably outstrips the development of political expertise, leading to disaster.’
Other possible explanations for the Fermi Paradox include that intelligent alien species are out there, but lack the necessary technology to communicate with Earth.
Some believe that the distances between intelligent civilisations are too great to allow any kind of two-way communication.
If two worlds are separated by several thousand light years, it’s possible that one or both civilisations would become extinct before a dialogue can be established.
The so-called Zoo hypothesis claims intelligent alien life is out there, but deliberately avoids any contact with life on Earth to allow its natural evolution.
