Understanding the nature of alien intelligence

As I mentioned in my previous post on this blog, I admit to being surprised by the latest developments regarding UAPs and non-human intelligence. Nevertheless, I cannot lend a hand but take these events seriously and therefore felt compelled to delve further into the topic in two directions: first, to clearly understand how (im)probable it is that the allegations are fabricated, given the legal context matters; second, using reason and the information already revealed to make informed speculations about what we can expect from non-human intelligence.

Fortunately, the first part has already been written “for me” by Marik von Vennenkampff, writing for The Hill. I recommend his balanced and well-informed essay, which explains better than I can why I now take this whole matter quite seriously. Also, yesterday I decided to watch James Fox's wonderful up-to-date documentary “Moment of Contact” (about the Varginha UAP case in Brazil).

I have always respected Jamie's work, and this latest film does not disappoint me at all: it very well captures probably the most essential UAP/close encounter case of all time, due to the sheer volume, detail and consistency of witness accounts. As most of you know, I spent my childhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And although I haven't been there for almost thirty years, childhood is a formative time, so I like to believe – perhaps too optimistically – that I can still appreciate Brazilian behavior, body language and tone of voice in the culture… a connected way. Based on this, I believe that all witnesses interviewed in the film told the truth.

That is, in addition to being a decidedly psychological phenomenon in many respects – as I discuss in my book Meaning in absurdity a few years ago – UAPs also have a stable physical side: it appears that there are indeed biological extraterrestrials from another star system that visit us using technologically advanced ships. Again, I didn't expect this, but I'm too attached to the truth to ignore up-to-date data. Perhaps in fact the high strangeness aspect of this phenomenon is something separate and not directly related to metal spaceships from another planet. Perhaps we are dealing with two or more separate categories here, trying to artificially stuff them together in our conceptual boxes. Or maybe not; I don't know. (More on this in the next part of this series of posts.)

Whatever the case, however, the concept of very physical – understood here in the colloquial sense, rather than as a nod to physicalism – aliens coming to us in a very physical craft raises a number of up-to-date questions: what can we expect these beings to be like? What about their technology? And how can we understand their strange behavior, such as the typical “Brownian motion'of their craft?
Since we are far from being able to visit other star systems, if these beings visit us, they are obviously more technologically advanced than us. Therefore, one wise way to speculate about them is to extrapolate the technology development curve that we are following. This is admittedly fraught with potential errors, as there is no a priori reason to believe that their direction of development will in any way resemble ours; however, this is the best we can do, armed only with our own cultural and conceptual references.

With the advent of DNA manipulation technologies such as CRISPRit has become clear that in the perhaps not-too-distant future, humans will be able to edit their DNA to suppress undesirable traits and enhance desirable ones. Even without understanding how protein production relates to morphogenesis – i.e. how proteins produced by DNA are put together in the right way to form a working body – we can still learn to fine-tune our bodies through DNA manipulation in a purely empirical way, by trial and error.

Therefore, it is likely that a more technologically advanced alien civilization would have enormous control over its own genotypes and phenotypes, thus designing itself for any culturally valued functions. Space travel is one such function that could benefit greatly from DNA manipulation: just as ants are phenotypically specialized – some are “armed” soldiers, others are flexible engineers, others are tireless farmers, etc. – ET probably also specializes in spaceflight and other activities.

For example, because space is almost a vacuum, the senses of hearing, smell, touch, and taste become redundant, except for intraship communication and instrumental production; only the vision remains relevant in relation to the non-craft environment. Thus, it can be assumed that the “biological substances” found in the crashed alien ship are not typical aliens roaming Zeta Reticuli, but specialized phenotypes intended for space travel. What we see here is not necessarily what we saw there in their homes.

Another trend in human technology to consider is greater integration between the human body and the technology it controls. Today we still communicate with phones and computers using physical touch. However, there are promising advances in thought-driven technologies, whether through measuring brain waves or internal brain implants. Extrapolating from this arc of development, the ultimate goal is technology that responds to our intentions as quickly as our own eyes and limbs.

If this is where we are heading, it is likely that ET is already there. Then, combining this idea with the first trend discussed above, we arrive at a scenario where alien pilots are DNA engineered to integrate directly into their ship. We should therefore not expect their ships to have displays, keyboards, buttons and levers like ours, but that they will be extensions of the pilots' minds, responding directly to the pilot's intentions just as our eyes and limbs respond directly to ours. This is an important point for any reverse engineering team: they need to abandon our paradigm of what “controlling the ship” means and think about it in a more organic way. Unfortunately, this also means we probably won't be able to go on a ride on the alien ship.

Interestingly, these ideas help us understand one of the strangest but consistent aspects of the UAP phenomenon: their seemingly random, zigzag way of moving in “Brownian motion” that does not follow any reasonable trajectory. They move back and forth and sideways in ways we don't fully understand… unless we understand that these ships are not “controlled” by their pilots at their fingertips, but are instead extensions of the pilots' minds.

To see this, just look at our own eyes: we are constantly moving them, scanning the environment in a way similar to Brownian motion (most of us don't even realize that we do this all the time, even during sleep, in what is called “rapid motion” eyeballs” or “REM” state). Different parts of our visual field attract our attention at different times, which leads to immediate, instinctive, rapid eye movements to focus on that part of our visual field.

We do this because we can only see the very center of our visual field in piercing focus and high resolution – an area corresponding to only about 0.1% of the field (!) – and therefore we must constantly scan our surroundings, seemingly at random, so as to construct an precise visual model of our environment. We do it autonomously, instinctively – not intentionally – which is why the movement ultimately has a “Brownian” character. We bypass consideration because our eyes are directly controlled by our minds, without the intermediary of a control panel. If the minds of ET pilots are directly linked to the movement and operation of their ship, their movements are also impromptu, instinctive, unintentional, and therefore to some extent “random”. And indeed, this is what witnesses report repeatedly and consistently.

The fact that UAPs move in a way similar to the way we autonomously move our own eyes – that is, by scanning and constructing a model of our surroundings – seems to me to betray their direct, seamless connection to the minds of their pilots. This is the only logical, reasonable and satisfactory way I have found to explain this persistent peculiarity of the phenomenon. This, of course, suggests a more refined metaphysical perspective that eliminates illusions separation of mind from matter still common in our culture. But that's a topic for the next installment of this series of posts, so stay tuned.