If Aliens Arrived, Would Your Life Change?

A few days ago, a friend noticed that among my small DVD collection is a copy of Contact. Contact, as you may recall, is a movie about aliens making contact with Earth, and how we respond.

It used to be one of my favorite movies, and I still recognize it for the highlights, but I haven’t watched it in a long time due to the gaping plot holes.

But it got me thinking: What if aliens–intelligent life from outside Earth’s hemisphere–showed up one day? Say, hypothetically, a massive alien spacecraft touched down over Prague, mechanical anchors the size of skyscrapers securing the vehicle in place. It’s an arrival, not an invasion. And it’s just one alien superstructure, only over Prague.

What would you do? How would this affect you?

Here’s the odd thing to me: I don’t think it would change a thing about my daily life. Sure, I’d check the news a lot more to get the latest reports about the aliens. I’d be morbidly curious to see photos of the technology (and, hopefully, the aliens themselves).

But I’d still wake up every day, work, eat, play with the cats, floss, and go to bed. Same routine.

Is that odd? I feel like for an event that monumental in the scope of history, some sort of action is needed, but what can you really do different? There’s no reason to drastically change your life unless it appears that the aliens are going to vastly change life as we know it (i.e., worldwide invasion). I guess you could go to Prague, but I’d almost rather visit Prague when the skyline isn’t blocked by a giant alien machine.

That’s just me. What would you do?

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7 thoughts on “If Aliens Arrived, Would Your Life Change?”

  1. My life would change most profoundly. The primary reason for which being that I would suddenly find myself a single woman because my husband would want to be first in line for the alien sighting/spaceship tour.

    Reply
  2. I think your assumption of how you would react is correct, but keep in mind that your response is probably atypical of the masses. I think the vast majority of the population will, at the very least, go into panic mode and stockpile survival supplies in this scenario. It may not seem like a huge deal to you in your every day life, but for a great many people it would be paralytically frightening.

    If people riot when their favorite team loses, I think it’s a strong possibility that they could riot if they feel like the world could potentially come to an end (and I believe a lot would be scared enough to jump to that conclusion no matter how benevolent the aliens seemed, at least in the first few days). That part may or may not have an impact on your routine, but it’s a possibility that it would. You’re lucky in the sense that you work from home and don’t have any children to protect and take care of….just a couple of adorable cats.

    Also, you made the Pope cry by suggesting that the Vatican City is in Prague. 20 Hail Marys for you! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Oops! Sorry Pope! I started off using Vatican City and then switched to Prague. I edited it. 🙂

    That’s a fair point that many people might go into hysteria. That might present some problems for my daily routine.

    Reply
  4. I don’t know if Jamey’s reaction is atypical of the masses. People have a tremendous ability to “ignore/forget” important large scale things that aren’t in their face everyday (war, global warming, economic collapse, etc.).
    Jamey would you have the same reaction if it was over your home? Or if the only thing they were after was cats… Queue scary music!
    Personally I really liked “District 9” for its alternate view on an alien invasion 🙂

    Reply
  5. Conor: Yeah, District 9 came to mind when I thought of this. It’s pretty similar in concept.

    Absolutely, if the alien superstructure were over St. Louis, I think my life would change. I actually think it might really bring people together. Or I’d freak out and head out of town with the cats. 🙂

    Reply

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