What an Alien Visiting Modern Earth Might Think

What would an alien visiting earth today think when they arrived and viewed humanity in its current state? The question is quite interesting and has been explored by many filmmakers and story writers. There are two main paths one could choose to follow to answer this question which is why I will first address both and then give my two cents on what an alien would think.

On one hand there could be the overall benevolent alien who may see the human species as a primitive and violent race but would still attempt a peaceful encounter although violence may eventualy occur (usually due to human fears). Examples of films that have followed in this direction are The Day the Earth Stood Still (original of course), E.T, First Encounters of The Third Kind and the list goes on. This view is also explored in Star Trek installments in which many times the alien visiting the foreign planets are the humans. Overall these examples demonstrate a generally friendly alien who only wishes to protect, teach and many times learn from the human race (race being visited). In this category aliens would probably think of humans as a wasteful, violent, creature lacking physically/mentally/ spiritually that require aid in many areas.

On the other hand there exists in the minds of writers the overall hostile alien who views humans as a primordial race that only stands in their way to conquest and/or resources, almost sounds like interstellar capitalism. Most movies that follow this path have similar plot lines in which humans encounter the aliens and many times attempt a peaceful encounter with horrible results. The peaceful demonstrations end up in human casualties and a war breaks out. Humans are initially crushed and finally find some weakness that the aliens have neglected. Eventually the alien hordes collapse to their knees from the exploited weakness and humans have a party. Examples of this path include War of the Worlds, Titan A.E, Independence Day, Signs and so on. In this category aliens would probably think of humans as a primitive species (many times to the level where aliens represent humans and humans ants), that simply must be removed to gain control of the planet.

This is of course not to say that these are the only paths explored in alien encounter movies. Within the initial Aliens Trilogy and later installments aliens are simply evolved dinosaurs much like alien raptors who exists only to kick ass and humans basically have to run for their lives throughout the entire film. In this encounter I doubt the alien is thinking much except for "...dinner" and/or "...breeding hosts". Serving Man was a humorous look at advanced aliens who visit earth and while humans believe them to be benevolent and take adventures to their planet, the aliens are actually gathering them as TV dinners.

Within these two primary paths I would personally have to follow both paths. I believe that there is no way in determining whether an alien would be benevolent or not. As much as we represent an extremely advanced civilization to most of our ancestors in medieval times and past dates, we are no less violent or more benevolent in our nature. I am sure advanced civilizations with interstellar travel may still represent beings with the capacity for benevolent or hostile engagements. Personally I think aliens would laugh at humans for their current power structure which benefits a miniscule fraction of 1% of the population (global elite). Or maybe they wouldn't laugh maybe they would realize that the crooked system is the answer to the environment along with many other problems and that having individuals with so much power only makes them that much more reluctant to give up their thrones. If you don't want to come down you will kill to stay afloat. Who would want that kind of paranoia in power if an advanced species visited, especially if they are benevolent? At least if they are hostile shooting at them wouldn't make a difference in the reaction.