If E.T. Comes Calling

So what happens if the aliens land? Here, on Earth.

I'm not talking about detecting a radio signal or a laser flash from hundreds of light-years away. I'm speaking of visitors who actually set their boots on the ground. What do we do?

It may surprise you to learn that there's precious little preparation for such an eventuality.

Now, if you're among the many tens of millions of Americans who think aliens are already afoot in the land, you're confident you know humanity's reaction. Scoffing denial.

But face it: Few scientists are convinced by the evidence offered for visitation. So let's consider the question assuming that the extraterrestrials aren't here.

First, there's the popular take. Thanks to a half-century of movies featuring aliens who've steered themselves to our watery world, the public reckons that a landing will play out in only one of two ways: (1) The whole incident, which is usually high on weirdness and low on damage to humans, will be covered up by a paranoid government (think UFOs), or (2) the aliens haven't come in peace and will proceed to either ravage the planet or remodel it to suit themselves (think Independence Day).

But limiting ourselves to this pair of scenarios is cramping our style. So here's another idea: In a movie being screened at this year's Sundance Film Festival, Danish director Michael Madsen lays out a more cerebral storyline, and one that might be more realistic. In The Visit, a fictional piece presented as documentary, r...

Source: Science - The Huffington Post - January 30, 2015 Category: Science Source Type: news