Day 37 - First Contact

Happy First Contact Day, dear listeners! Minus forty years ago today, on the fifth of April 2063, Zefram Cochrane made successful use of a warp engine on his ship the phoenix, thus drawing the attention of the Vulcans, who made first contact with humanity. Up until then, aliens refrained from contacting Earth — General Order One keeps them from making contact and interfering with underdeveloped civilizations. But once we had warp technology, contact became inevitable, as we’d find them if they didn’t contact us first. Dear listener, happy First Contact Day!

There is much one can learn from Star Trek - though I deliberately avoided it for the first twenty or so years of my life. I felt my devotion to Doctor Who made Stars Trek and Wars rivals. When I finally reached them I discovered the three have nothing in common, barely even genre, and each could be appreciated on its own merits. Star Wars is mythology and magicians". Doctor Who is adventure and time and monsters. Star Trek is people doing their day jobs, in a rigid hierarchy, but uses that to play out debates and tell very human morality plays. Star Trek is less like Doctor Who, more like The Good Place or Scrubs: entertainment where every episode has a clear moral to consider, and usually a voiceover to spell it out in case you weren’t paying attention.

If I was making a cringeworthy Christmas sermon I would say, ‘well, the first star trek was the wise men, following a star that arose in the east, to make first contact with God on earth.

I’m pretty curious about our first contact with aliens, if they do exist. Ava and I had a substantial disagreement during Lent about alien life. We both think it’s extremely likely, given the size of the universe, that alien life exists and continually evolves. Our disagreement was whether evolution would inevitably create civilizations. Defining our terms was tricky, because ‘human-like’ is vague, ‘sentient’ and ‘sapient’ feel too sci-fi to be helpful, but ultimately I thought evolution would keep bringing alien life up to the power of animals, or dinosaurs, of crabs and plants and bees, but she thought it was inevitable, in a system like that, that intelligence would prevail, use of tools, communication and community would emerge. In short, that a civilization would happen.

I think part of our disagreement was probably down to definitions and cross-purposes. I was maintaining that evolution doesn’t always trend upwards. It doesn’t have lofty goals. It only raises any species to ‘we can survive’, and it does that by accident. Other than God, there is no ‘invisible hand of the evolutionary market’. Her point was - I think - that given sufficient time, mental and physical developments made humanity’s emergence - or something comparable - an inevitability. My knowledge of infinity, anthropology and probability are too small for me to speak with any authority at all on the subject. I think the core of my objection may not be wholly scientific. I believe in the soul, something spiritual, everlasting, God-given, and yet another subject I can barely begin to comprehend. That humans are more than the clever animal, as much as I respect any clever dog. No dog can yet fly a plane, but I’m also sure no dog ever committed a sin. I can believe in alien dogs with excitement and hope! But alien people? I’d be surprised. Pleasantly surprised! But ultimately, it doesn’t matter if there’s other intelligent life in our galaxy. Or, not yet. It will matter when and if first contact comes, and then I expect some interesting theological declarations!

C.S. Lewis wrote a trilogy of sci-fi novels - which I really liked, but which proper sci-fi folks don’t - posturing that life without sin exists on the other planets of the solar system. He said this early enough in the 20th century that the planets having atmospheres and people was still borderline plausible. In these, it is humanity that brings temptation and sin.

Sydney Carter wrote an excellent Christmas song, ‘Every Star Shall Sing a Carol’, positing different worlds, each of which had its own virgin birth, its own manger, its own crucifixion - that every world fell as ours did to some prince of the power of the air, and had to be redeemed by a great sacrifice. Jesus only needed to die once, a single, perfect sacrifice, to forgive all humankind - but Alpha Centurions might have their own arrangement. I cannot say. One day we’ll know.

If Star Trek is right, we’re 40 years away - to the day - from our first contact with alien life. May Star Trek, like Saul, be numbered among the prophets? That remains to be determined! We’ll find out soon, if we do or don’t get the Irish Reunification of 2024. An audacious guess, but something to look forward to.

Let’s end with some good advice from Exodus 23: “for now with You shall not oppress an alien, for you know the heart of an alien, seeing you were aliens in the land of Egypt”.

* I'm aware this is the worst possible explanation of Star Wars. 'Wizards with swords' might work, but 'D&D' is probably yet closer.