Is there life beyond planet earth?
In all likelihood, yes, somewhere in some distant galaxy.
This of course leads many to assume the worst, that our future will be something out of Independence Day.
Unlikely as we all likely hope that scenario is, it's hard not to wonder if it may happen in the distant future.
Or, scarier still, aliens have made life on planet earth, and we've been living among them this whole time without even realizing it.
The possibilities are truly endless.
Redditor TisteTargaryen was curious to hear the most terrifying possibilities of extraterrestrial life which has kept people awake at night, leading them to ask:
"What are some horrifying things to consider when thinking about aliens?"
We'll Be Their Pets...
"Aliens could do to us what we did to wolves, selectively breeding a once noble species in grotesque ways, transforming us into the equivalent of bulldogs, poodles, dacshunds, etc."- flipester
No Matter How, It'll End Badly...
There is absolutely nothing on planet Earth that the aliens can't find in more abundance elsewhere."
"Precious metals, gasses for fuel, assuming they don't have zero point energy or some sh*t that lets them get power from vacuum, and even water are all available in space and you can get this resources with zero resistance."
"So I don't think they would come here for any resources, unless they want our biosphere."
"Which, for all we know, could be abundant in the galaxy."
"If aliens do show up one day but turn out to be hostile, there is absolutely nothing we can do to stop them."
"If they have been coming here, if you believe in that sort of thing, they have been doing so for a VERY long time."
"They know everything about us, including our weaknesses and how to exploit them."
"Meanwhile, they are a species capable of FTL travel."
"Wiping us out would be as simple for them as flipping on a light switch."
"No jet-to-ship dog fights, no magical weak point to hit, no third-act secret weapon to save us."
"Just one press of that button and everything turns white--and then black."
'So if they do come to Earth, they would need a damn good reason to."
"If our luck is truly awful and they actually want something from us, we'd better pray that it's something that we don't have to fight over because we wouldn't stand a chance."- Armascribe
Commuting Area 51 GIF by Joseph HarmonGiphyNothing To worry About... I Hope...
"It’s possible that they are fat single-cell organisms just loafing around."- Literally_The_Best
It Might Not Be As Bad As We Think... It Will Probably Be Much MUCH Worse...
"For all we know, aliens might not be the 'little green men' that fly around in flying saucers and destroy us with laser beams."
"They could be an interstellar pathogen that shows up one day and silently and effortlessly kills us all without warning."
"Our immune systems would have no idea what hit them."- CaptainWisconsin
Emotional Disconnect
"Our human concepts of morality and empathy are heavily influenced by our mammalian biology."
"Imagine that aliens land, and instead of having nice little family units their species lays clutches of thousands of eggs at a time."
"They don't form strong bonds."
"Life is essentially expendable for them."
"They see us weeping over a dead child and they have literally no frame of reference for understanding why this would be upsetting."
"I'm not saying all aliens will be like this; but some definitely could be."- ToBePacific
alien GIFGiphyDon't Knock It Till You've Tried It?
"What if there really is valuable information to be gained from butt probes?"- HarlanCedeno·
Best To Have An Open Mind...
"The assumption that they come in groups in some flying saucer."
"For all we know they might just 'appear' in hordes of thousands of not millions all across the planet."
"Also, we like to think that aliens will share the same way of thinking as humans, i.e. reasoning, emotions, etc."
"But the only reason we think that is because that's the only thing we are familiar with."
"Aliens might have completely different emotions or thought processes than us but we won't know because we never encountered them before."
"It's like the 4th dimension."
"At this point it's pretty well established what it is but most of us, if not all, have no clue how to visualize or properly explain it."- JingleberryJohnson
alien GIFDidn't Occur To You Either, Did It?
"Extremely unlikely, I know, but if aliens ever come to Earth it likely means they are a space-faring and interstellar capable species with tech at least centuries, if not millennia, ahead of ours."
"In other words: if aliens are even remotely capable of traveling to our planet, we're pretty much outgunned hilariously."- WhereIsOldZealand
The Journey Wouldn't Be Worth It...
"The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second."
"I think that any aliens that are capable of traveling light years to reach us have no interest in our resources."- avatarlevel
They Could Be Trying To Help US?
"The scariest thing to me is thinking that aliens want nothing to do with us."
"I don't get why everyone thinks that aliens would attack us immediately."
"It's one thing if we come into their territory, but if they stumble upon us we're most likely safe."
"Them finding us would mean they are incredibly advanced."
Angry Alien Face GIF by wenjrGiphy"Anything they could get by attacking earth they could get far easier by harvesting it from a different planet in our solar system."
"Unless they feed specifically on brainwaves, it isn't worth the hassle to attack a planet teeming with life they may have some weapons, however primitive, that might be used against you."
"It's far more frightening to believe that aliens have/will one day discover us and won't be interested, They won't want us on their intergalactic counsels, they won't want to give us medicine, they won't want to form any bond."
"If they decide to just leave humanity alone, that means either they have decided we are not worth saving, or that we are too close to destruction to be worth the resources."- BombsNBeer
I'll Believe It When I See It...
"My main thing is that they'll bring a virus or something that'll just wipe us out coz we've never seen anything like it."
"Or we'll be immune coz it's too alien, who knows."
"But until there is actual proof that there are advanced aliens out there, I'll stick to the idea that they are bacterial cells on titan or something."- Libbymiss
We won't even know they came...
"That one day they will just wipe out our planet without us ever knowing why and that it will be so fast we don’t even realize it."
Marine Life Goodbye GIF by pikaoleGiphyThanks to the likes of H.G. Wells, Ridley Scott and others, it's easy to assume the worst about the possible existence of aliens.
Something to consider, which might help us sleep a bit easier at night, is that on some far-off galaxy, there is an extraterrestrial species, just as terrified of us, as we are of them.
@GavinNewsom/X
