Saguaro Wanderings: Seeing 2011 (#50)

For your consideration: scenes from an alien future.

Having grown up in the high desert of southern Arizona, I've soaked in countless hours of plumbing the unfathomably deep, glitter-filled night skies rotating across the black ocean overhead. Long before the Official Results were in -- that indeed a bounty of exoplanets gracefully trace arcs around myriads of suns strewn across existence -- my friends and I felt it an inescapable fact that truly advanced, intelligent life teems Out There, Somewhere.

The consequence of such a conclusion is akin to the nature of earthquakes: the question of a significant encounter is not if but rather when. Parallel to that: would you want to be around for the introduction? Friend, or foe? It's best not to assume that any extraterrestrial species more technologically adept than ours would necessarily be benign -- ask the native Americans how that worked out for them in the face of European immigration . . .

Orson Wells quite effectively shook things up in this regard, long ago. Lucky for us that was only a dress rehearsal. Who knows what the real interactions will be like?

Beyond the simple probably of Others, the major question is "well, how did they get here?" The galactic distances are vastly beyond any current technology we can practically dream up . . . which brings up the option of wormholes. A convenient shortcut to the problem. Or not.

Thus this presentation: allusions of potentialities, perhaps best not realized.