Size Matters

What is it that the alien space ships in Independence Day with Will Smith, the ship in District 9 and an aircraft carrier have in common? The answer is size. We equate size with power. Aircraft carriers do not have to be so large today. Drones and smart missiles are superseding jets. But do not look to aircraft carriers getting any smaller. The size is a key component of projecting American power.

Size in relationship to power is a part of our psyche.  An alien civilization picking up our television transmissions over a century would be able to determine this fact without even understanding human culture. They would simply draw correlations based on attributes of cause and effect. 

Particularly now we are not likely know about aliens existing. America is still the big boy on the block. It postulates it has no peer. An alien presence, even if it is far away and never likely to get here, would upset the apple cart. It would cause a questioning of the way we do things as humans as never before. 

There is also a little clause in international agreements that suspected alien contacts are a “state secret”. You can “Google” the American government guidelines.

At the top of the list of questions would be religion and economics [allocation and distribution of resources]. The culture shock would be greatest in the industrialized West. The West, particularly America, claims a patent on the best culture.

The aliens could send an unequivocal message. They would park something so huge in low earth orbit that it would blot out a sizable portion of the sky. It would be something easily seen with the naked eye from most anywhere on earth. Secrecy would go out the window.

In scientific research the constant challenge is not to let prejudice negate the results. It is true of information. If several expert witnesses, Astronauts, claim there is something going on the far side of the moon, take it seriously. No matter how much spin and miss information is put out. Especially, when their photographs have mysteriously disappeared and the ones that are published are acknowledged to be altered. 

We gaze at our navel, with the political wars of the parties, the economy and the budget. Might there be something higher up the priority list? Size matters. There might be a much larger issue.