tl;dr: the US govt. lets UFOs zoom around, do whatever, as long as they don't interfere too much. So, aliens "have skin in the game," so they help protect humanity from other disruptive alien interference. Our alien allies defend us against hostile aliens. For better or worse, we also forgo any benefits we might get from widespread human-alien interaction. In exchange, we let them pretty much do whatever they want on earth.
Just something fun to think about, and the general concept is compatible with various theories for where aliens come from and why they visit earth.
The theory only needs about three, fairly-general assumptions:
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World powers compete with each other, but all would prefer that things more or less stay the same. Widespread human-alien interaction would be disruptive, and if you're "winning" now, you can't be sure you'll still be "winning" in the new "game." So, powerful people/governments have an incentive to keep aliens, for the most part, out of human affairs.
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If aliens are visiting earth, they must have a reason. To the extent that it is costly to visit, their reasons for visiting would be proportionally important to them. Why go through all the work if it doesn't pay off in a big way? Their exact reasons for visiting aren't too important, as long as it's compatible with the next point.
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Humans have some ability to interfere with aliens getting what they want from visiting earth. If they're here because of earth's biodiversity, then it's easy to imagine how a nuclear holocaust might deny aliens access to what they want. It would be terrible for humanity, too, but it would give governments with access to nuclear weapons some bargaining power, like how MAAD works. Point being: humans have some kind of bargaining power.
Now the stage is set for aliens and world superpowers (I'll just say the US for short) to come to an agreement. They (the US and aliens) can give each other something the other wants, and in exchange get something they want. A treaty would be something like this (I'll use informal language):
For the most part, aliens will stay out of human business. Allowances will be made for some interaction: only so many abductions per year, UFOs must take reasonable steps to avoid detection, etc. But no "landing in Times Square." In exchange, humans will not interfere with alien activities, research, collection of organic samples, etc. As long as alien activities don't interfere with how we run human society, aliens don't have to worry about humans disrupting their activities. We won't get in your way if you don't get in ours.
(Maybe such an agreement isn't perfect, and maybe that could help explain small movements towards disclosure. It's a minor point)
Something like that would explain why, despite alien visitation for 100s or 1000s of years, and despite reasons to expect it to be easier to find credible evidence of UFOs currently (e.g., tech. advances in the last few decades), there still isn't much to go on. Unlike giant squid (which where at one time though to be just a myth), the scientific consensus doesn't believe intelligent non-human life has visited (or does visit) earth.
From the perspective of the US government, it would also have the added benefit of, to some degree, incentivizing the aliens into defending their human partners from hostile visitors, other hostile aliens. Argument goes something like this:
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A non-interference treaty gives aliens something they want. It's an arrangement that works for them.
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To that extent, aliens prefer the current arrangement to continue. That a UFO hasn't landed in Times Square (and such) is proof that the aliens intend to continue the treaty (to the extent interference with military training, US land-based ICBM facilities, etc. is not permitted, that could indicate a problem).
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An action hostile to human interests, taken by a visitor (other alien species, faction of otherwise friendly aliens, interdimensional daemons, adversaries in a temporal cold war, etc.: take your pick), would jeopardize the current arrangement. Were a hostile alien species launch a massive invasion/colonization of earth, the US government - out-numbered and out-gunned - might, at some point, resort to destroying life-as-we-know-it-on-earth with its arsenal of nuclear weapons. The "nuclear deterrent," is primarily to deter aliens, not Russia or China (the advantages of nuclear weapons, in terms of competing with other human-based organizations, are "free side benefits"). Humans may have less extreme responses; I just wanted to illustrate how there could be at least one kind of deterrent.
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Generally, the aliens have an incentive to self-police, and to police any other visitors (keeping it general for the more "woo" theories). The aliens the US has a "treaty" with have an incentive to make sure any "new alien visitors" "follow the rules." So, hypothetically, it wouldn't be limited to hostile aliens: maybe a "benevolent" alien group - maybe one that wanted to share technology that would help solve many human problems - maybe the aliens would prevent them from doing that, considering it "unauthorize interference in human affairs." It might seem counterintuitive, but maybe the US government would prefer for humans to develop technology "naturally," if they believe the economic/social/political shocks, that would result from the rapid introduction of significantly advanced technology, would be too disruptive.
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The threat posed by a powerful, hostile visitor is pretty serious. It's really "up there" in terms of importance. I could see how it could be important enough to justify something as extreme as covering up the existence of powerful aliens visiting earth, tolerating their operation in our airspace, forgoing the technological advancements derived from alien technology. You wouldn't even have to know of a hostile alien race: the fact that you know it's possible for highly advanced aliens to visit earth opens the door to other possibilities, unknown unknowns. "We aren't at the top of the food chain," is a serious problem.
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It would be fairly obvious to the US that, if it came to a war with aliens, we would lose. Maybe the known aliens might turn on us, or maybe a new alien civilization visits. If no one would help us, if defending ourselves means we can only rely on what we have, if we had to go it alone: we would lose, and in a decisive manner. It would not be close. On our own, we would have no chance. We can try our best to develop our own advanced technology, but since we're no where close to being able to travel to another planet in our solar system, it stands to reason that it will be a long time before we'd have a realistic chance of successfully defending ourselves from hostile aliens.
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Therefore, it is of strategic importance that we find advanced alien civilizations that we can become allies with. We need powerful friends; friends who will come to our defense if we are attacked. Knowing that a peer, high-tech. alien civilization would come to our defense might deter hostile aliens from attacking us in the first place.
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Coming to some kind of mutually beneficial agreement with current alien visitors is the only course of action that makes sense. We can't really stop them from visiting anyway, at least not in a realistically viable way. So, we might as well make the best of the situation we're in. If there's some kind of agreement we can come to with the aliens, terms that we can live with, and it would mean that the aliens would have reasons to protect us from hostile aliens, then we'd be better off.
So, that's the broad framework, flexible enough to fill in details as needed. Treaty with which aliens? Which human governments/organizations? Exact terms of the treaty? Might the agreement break down? Might the balance of power change over time?
It need not be perfect. Maybe the treaty was so compartmentalized that humanity has effectively "forgotten" we have this agreement with aliens (e.g., shortly after WWII, only a handful of high-ranking US officials were involved, and they're all dead now). It's also possible to imagine that an even "bigger fish" than our alien allies "comes on the scene." "Sorry humans, the deal is off, we're going home now, good luck!"
Anyway, it's a good premise for a sci-fi TV show.
Submitted February 07, 2022 at 02:14PM by Better_Attention_675 https://ift.tt/i6XkCUp
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