It kind of kills the whole "alien invasion for resources" trope that every movie and book uses. Not only is there much more out there before they even get to us, it's pure and not full of plastic.
"Hmm... we really only wanted to rule over you to harvest your species' brain power through an interface with our computational networks. This... just won't do. Later losers!"
You mean a network where everyone is connected and contributing to a shared goal? Where we are all one with everything around us and all the differences in our personalities gets recognized in a post scarcity environment?
"I for one welcome our new overlords. What's our purpose?"
"Destroy."
This has been the response to everything that's come out since the Nimitz Incident. Bigger revelations have come out in the last seven years than in the last seventy. We're tired, and we're scared, I think. Aliens are going to need to really shake their cans if they want us to care.
Worse, we're used to being tired and scared. We're apathetic to our own anxieties and exhaustion. The only thing to fear is not fear itself. It's complacency toward fear.
When I trawl the net for UFO stuff, what I see more than anything is people hoping for a savior. People hoping that aliens will save us from our economy, from climate change, from religion, from fascism, from war, from nuclear weapons, from disease, from Republicans, from Democrats, from progressives, from regressives, and mostly from ourselves.
I've been speculating that that fear is a driving force for a lot of the current UFO craze. We're in a dangerous time, things are only getting worse, and people are becoming desperate for a superhero to come and save the day.
I think we're more scared that there aren't aliens, sometimes.
That'd suck because I know he doesn't have enough to share with the whole class. The radiation is gonna be cold by the time it gets around to us, so we'll have to live through the aftermath.
I guess I should consider myself lucky to live in a decently sized population center? I just hope I have time to flip Nelnet the bird before I'm flash-incinerated.