First Contact: the Story of our Obsession with Alien by Becky Ferreira doesn’t address the questions about aliens from outer space existing or visiting the earth. It’s about us caring so much about the answers and what we’ve done to get them. For about as long as humans have existed, we’ve yearned for aliens.
People have always looked at the sky to figure stuff out. (How’s the weather? What time is it? Which way is north?) We also have lived with similar but different species like Neanderthals and Denisovans. That sets a pretty good baseline for humanity to look at space and look for more sentient life. The author pointed out we also spend a lot of time communicating with other species already on this planet.
Officially, we are alone in space and that’s the perspective the author works with, even though topics like abductions and Roswell are covered. With that truth, it’s striking to think about all the resources and energy that have gone into the search for extraterrestrial life (sentient or not). But not in a bad way.
We’ve sent out the Voyager gold records (probably the most famous example) for aliens to listen to, and also Doritos ads, a bunch of Craigslist, theremin music, and many messages. Just in case someone finds it.
In pop culture, we use aliens to study ourselves. And also to tell fun stories. Aliens are enemies, saviors, lovers, pets, and strangers. (I remember once hearing that all science fiction can be categorized between ‘thinly veiled social commentary’ and ‘cowboys in space.’ It’s an overgeneralization, but it’s something I generally agree with.)
Religions that didn’t accommodate belief in aliens are adjusting their own statements and religions that were already compliant with such beliefs are elaborating.
We have theories and classifications for civilizations and technologies for peoples that we’re far behind on. There are first contact plans and scenarios and ethics discussions about aliens. All for a maybe.
The book left me more pessimistic about the existence of these aliens since it convinced me the concept is a human-centric idea and has nothing to do with how real ETs are or aren’t.
In addition to some pessimism, the book taught me about astronomy and I looked at a lot of pictures. And the idea that right now people are planning probes and landers to go out into the solar system left me feeling kind of hopeful. So overall, it left me feeling better than I did when I went in.