While the initial use of such technology will almost certainly be for military purposes, it will ultimately benefit our species as a whole. We could be on the verge of a surge in development of advanced and super-efficient energy generation and space propulsion. If alien technology is secretly being studied then it couldn't be more timely. Understanding and utilising it could literally rescue the human race and our planet from the devastating effects of climate change. It may even prevent our extinction.
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| Small and incredibly efficient nuclear fusion technology could soon provide all of us with clean and almost unlimited power, thanks to the reverse engineering of extra-terrestrial technology that's centuries ahead of our own |
The 21st century will be a make or break period for us. We'll either start on our path to interstellar colonisation, or condemn ourselves to oblivion. Those are the two very clear paths that our species can take. Even without the advantage of advanced alien technology those paths are open to us (such technology would simply help us to take either path much sooner). We can either resolve our destructive differences and work together to heal and protect our planet, and take our human civilisation to the stars, or we can remain conflicted, arrogant and selfish, and continue on our ever accelerating plunge to extinction.
Unfortunately, any government that has access to advanced alien technology will keep it a secret for as long as possible, and any benefits gained from its use will be closely guarded. The reasons are understandable when you consider human nature. If the technology were made public its use for criminal or military action would be swift. No nation possessing it would want to put itself at risk of such action. Because of this the reasons for any government keeping the technology secret would be justified. And so would its reasons for developing military uses for the technology first.
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| The governments that have access to alien technology will almost certainly use it to gain a military advantage. That's understandable, when the world's political and economic problems are considered, but it could actually accelerate our civilisation's fall. |
The depressing conclusion we can draw from that fact is that, even with such technology, we would still go down the route of self destruction. Innate selfishness, fear and even paranoia would ensure that. Human nature and our primary survival instinct may well be too powerful to suppress. Such an instinct becomes ironically suicidal when weapons of mass destruction are available (I also cover this point briefly in my 'Machines Meeting Machines' article earlier this year). This supports one of the popular theories as to why there are no detectable technological civilisations in our galaxy (the Fermi Paradox). Any such civilisations have destroyed themselves: all of them. Their once useful survival instincts sealed their doom.
There is the possibility that a more socially conscious government will obtain the technology. If so then it may well use it to develop the means to save our species. That chance is still available.
But, the countries that are most likely to have alien technology are the ones perhaps least likely to use it for the good of us all. Those countries are, of course, the USA and Russia. Those countries, especially Russia, have large amounts of underpopulated land and are best equipped to carry out such research. They have the resources to be able to do the work, and the means to keep the work secret.
The USA's most famous 'secret' area for supposed reverse engineering is Area 51 in the Nevada desert, and it's been the focus of attention for many decades. It is almost certainly involved in secret military development, but any research involving alien technology will have ceased there decades ago. The scrutiny is just too intense. The US government is no doubt happy to keep feeding those interested in the area just enough to keep them distracted from wherever the real research is going on, perhaps in the mountains of Alaska.
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| A remote and inhospitable valley in Alaska. Such locations would be ideal for a government to hide underground facilities for the reverse-engineering of alien technology. |
Russia, too, is likely to doing its development in deep mountain areas, and in the wilderness of Siberia. Those inhospitable areas, with very insignificant local populations are ideal, if harsh, locations that are not easily accessible. And in the much more authoritarian states of Russia it would be easier keep things under wraps, and to keep those with knowledge of what's going on silent.
Whoever possesses alien technology, human nature combined with the current political and economic situation of the world will ensure that it is kept secret and used only for clandestine purposes. It is quite possible that there are even secret human colonies working away from Earth, on the far side of the Moon, and even on other bodies in the Solar-System. In a way that would be quite comforting: it would demonstrate that we have the ability to survive for long periods away from the Earth. But the secret nature of such activities means that it is all in the aid of military and intelligence operations: the result of paranoia and the fear of other humans, rather than the enlightened reason of the continuation of our species.
Humans really need to start working with each other, instead of against each other. We need to sort ourselves out, and fast. We are on the highway to oblivion, but there is still an exit we can take just up ahead. It leads to a road that may well be endless.
