Sir/Madam/Whatever, Can you show me your papers please? (Illustration: www.discovery.com)
A week that saw the state of Arizona enact a fairly ruthless law against illegal aliens also ended with British astrophysicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking warning against contacting space aliens.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer sanctified the new law which requires all immigrants to carry their legal residency documentation or risk being detained by the police. The onus of proving one’s legal status is on the one being so questioned and detained. Because of the very nature of illegal immigration those who are most likely to be questioned and possibly detained are non-whites, thereby making the new law vulnerable to misuse and abuse along racial lines. Half a million or so illegal residents in Arizona are on notice.
That is the backdrop against which I want to contrast Hawking’s comments about space aliens. The comments were timed to coincide with the Discovery Channel’s “Stephen Hawking’s Universe” which speculates about the kind of alien lifeforms that may exist throughout the universe.
The scientist thinks it would "too risky” to communicate with such space aliens who may turn out like Christopher Columbus finding the Americas, "which didn't turn out very well for the Native Americans."
While in Hawking’s judgment most extraterrestrial life will be similar to microbes or small animals, there may be some advanced lifeforms like "nomads, looking to conquer and colonize."
It is in this context that Arizona’s newly acquired skill to police illegal aliens might come in handy. Something tells me that it will be much easier to spot extraterrestrial aliens than terrestrial aliens. As far as I can tell ET aliens are unlikely to carry their residency documentation on their person, mostly because they do not wear clothing with any pockets. For instance, look at the lumbering grazer in the illustration. They are equally unlikely to seek human permission before arriving. And if they are smart enough to travel millions of miles on super advanced spaceships why would they go to Arizona where Governor Brewer may be waiting to receive them? Such questions bother me in the morning.
If you think about it, Governor Brewer’s fears are not radically different than those of Professor Hawking’s. It is about protecting one’s domain. I must confess to having been mildly surprised by a scientist of Hawking’s intellect advocating that human race remain insular from contact with ET lifeforms because that may be “too risky” and could open doors to nomadic conquerors and colonizers from space.