I share this only because when I read it I had to double-check and make sure I wasn’t at The Onion when I was found it. Did you know NASA was spending all its post-shuttle down time coming up with hypothetical scenarios for what would happen should the People of Earth come in contact with alien invaders? Now you do…
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.
This highly speculative scenario is one of several described by scientists at Nasa and Pennsylvania State University that, while considered unlikely, they say could play out were humans and alien life to make contact at some point in the future.
Gotta love the first line – “It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases.”
Who are these folks kidding? That’s the best friggin reason I’ve heard to date. Aliens may invade our asses over greenhouse gases? For that, I would carpool.
Al Gore’s got to be loving this…
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Truth be told, that’s probably not even the most ridiculous part of this story. It’s just the only aspect of the report that I thought would get your attention. You have to read the rest of the story and the report.
Another beneficial outcome the authors entertain sees humanity triumph over a more powerful alien aggressor, or even being saved by a second group of ETs. “In these scenarios, humanity benefits not only from the major moral victory of having defeated a daunting rival, but also from the opportunity to reverse-engineer ETI technology,” the authors write.
“Or even being saved by a second group of ETs…” Where have I heard that idea before?
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[...] So what’s a large deal? Well, one of a authors of a paper, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, happens to be a postdoctoral tyro operative during NASA Headquarters — and that rarely gossamer tie to a world’s many successful space group sparked a outrageous call of shock headlines. It started with The Guardian’s story, and rolled onto The Drudge Report’s webpage with a title reading “NASA REPORT: Aliens competence destroy amiability to strengthen other civlizations…” Another various was this one: “NASA: Aliens May Destroy Humanity Over Greenhouse Gases.” [...]
[...] So what’s the big deal? Well, one of the authors of the paper, Shawn Domagal-Goldman, happens to be a postdoctoral student working at NASA Headquarters — and that highly tenuous connection to the world’s most influential space agency sparked a huge wave of scare headlines. It started with The Guardian’s story, and rolled onto The Drudge Report’s webpage with a headline reading “NASA REPORT: Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civlizations…” Another variant was this one: “NASA: Aliens May Destroy Humanity Over Greenhouse Gases.” [...]
I for one would think that any contact with extraterrestrials would be beneficial to mankind. For them to be able to contact us would mean they had the ability to travel through interstellar space, and we could learn this technology
from them. Hopefully they would not see us as a threat but
rather as a primitive species. If anyone believes “The Disclosure
Project” then perhaps we are already being observed by Aliens.
Hopefully this is true! Drummerk77@comcast.net
I find it interesting that our search for what lies ‘out there’ always begins with a look within ourselves. Given the eccentric and egocentric nature of the human psyche, I’m not sure if this always a good idea. Moreover, a fundamental flaw of the above mentioned study is that it makes no mention of Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica … but that’s another issue.
This article has spun out of control, the original error that it was a NASA document has travelled well in the US.
First of all, in case you haven’t seen this already from the author:
http://paleblueblog.org/post/9110304050/some-important-points-of-clarification/ (website down when last checked)
alternatively:
http://mediamatters.org/blog/201108190008
How’s it’s been spun:
http://www.infowars.com/pay-your-carbon-taxes-to-al-gore-or-space-aliens-will-attack/
Fox: http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/08/19/300061/fox-poll-climate-change-aliens/
The damage has been done and the original misinformation will far outlive the reality of the story.