An Open Letter To Aliens

Dear Aliens,

First off, I'll say that your anal probes, crop circles, and cattle mutilations are a little annoying. But I know it's what aliens do, so I'll roll with it.

The purpose of my letter is to let you guys know what it's like to live in a stage 4 industrial society. See, neither you nor I can escape the laws of evolution, and where we humans are at now is a pivotal point.

I don't know the outcome of my species yet, but whatever happens we all win. Despite all the people who deny climate change the fact is that we've been putting tons of carbon into the air since the Industrial Revolution began in 1760. All this carbon is taking its toll and in the next 100 years our world is going to change drastically. Maybe there are some in our species who can adapt to a hotter world, but most will die. And even if humanity is wiped out, other species will evolve to take our place.

It's quite possible that with all our air and water pollution, carbon releasing, and even nuclear war may make our planet uninhabitable, but that's okay too. The earth is going to die anyway when the sun supernovas, and it's quite likely that an asteroid or comet will smash into us, break our planet apart, and allow us to seed our area of the galaxy. What I mean by that is our planet is loaded with organic matter, and once in space it will be frozen, and once it hits a habitable planet you've got the building blocks for life.

If we do survive the current warming crises, or if another species takes over, there is nothing to stop us — we will keep evolving. Technology is integral with evolution because every species wants to meet its needs for food, comfort, and safety. Our greatest technology that completely changed us was fire, which we learned to control 1 million years ago. Fire gave us warmth, better food, protection, and light. It allowed us to separate from the other species and become more intelligent bipeds.

It is ironic that the same technology that allowed us to evolve into intelligent beings, and led the way to our consciousness, is now destroying us. And if we humans fail, I believe only bipeds with opposing thumbs can make use of fire, but sooner or later another species will come along and conquer it. Believe me, we have plenty of time for other species to evolve.

The problem with our technological evolution is that evolution requires challenges to allow for adaptations. We humans are genetically modifying our food to make it more efficient and we are continually conquering diseases. We have machines to do most of our work for us. Soon, we will have droids to clean our homes. When I walked into the grocery store tonight two things struck me: First, nearly every food item I saw was junk, but I know the sugary, processed foods taste good. Second, I noticed almost everyone in the store was overweight, if not obese.

We have made our lives so much easier and more comfortable, but the problem is we are trapped in our hunter-gatherer bodies, which don't know how to respond to the modern world. Our bodies simply do what they did a million years ago -- store the sugar as fat.

In our society it will soon become apparent that bodies are no longer needed. Brains can be hooked up to machines. We don't even have to go out — any experience we want can be sent by signals into our brain. We can have all the sex we want, eat all the food we want, and live in opulent mansions. Perhaps this is what Heaven is, and the streets of gold and mansions, that are referenced in the Bible.

For a while we will be a mixture of organic and machine, but hell, who needs a brain any more? Soon, our computers will capture our consciousness. The computers will keep getting smaller until they are little dots floating around in the Universe. But, heck, who needs hardware? We will be engineered to become fabric within the Universe, and we'll live forever. Civilizations before us could be the ghosts and spirit guides that we see now.

But, right now, as much as we'd like, we cannot escape death. The brain is a mixture of chemical and electrical impulses, and once oxygen is cut off everything in our being deteriorates rapidly. There is no technology that can conjure up who we are and put it on a flash drive — not even advanced civilizations can do that. But, maybe the spirit guides can, and then put us into another body, so that we will keep learning.

Unless an older civilization in an invisible form can help us, death is the end. But we can have peace knowing two things: First, our dust will be used for a few more iterations of stars until the Universe runs out of hydrogen. And, secondly, we are helping a future generation get to heaven. What I mean by that is that our mere existence in this society is indirectly helping the handful of scientists who are helping future humans reach immortality. 

I assume all of you aliens out there are from more advanced societies. And the point of my letter is to say that you may look down on us now, but even if we fail, we still live on in various ways. When our Universe goes dark, there may even be some way to move our life energy into a neighboring Universe. This is the immortality that we all want, right?

And, looking at the vertical spectrum, there is no limit to small because matter must always be something, and even when you get down to the molecule, atom, and quark, there could be entire civilizations existing at the subatomic level (by the way, watch the 1983 movie The Big Chill). What you see in us now may be a collection of billions of smaller civilizations.

The point, my alien friends, is that you can't stop us and we can't even stop ourselves. Even if we nuke our planet there is enough buried organic material to one day give life again.

We give a lot of lip service about the gods we created and reincarnation, but unless you aliens are the spirit guides there is no technology in the Universe to give us life after death. The Universe is mechanical and no being can beat the laws of physics, and the laws, mixed with matter, are what keeps everything moving along its inevitable path, whatever that may be.

Another irony is that in a couple of weeks we celebrate a holiday, where a lot of our children will dress up like you. They will go door-to-door, collect sugary candy, and get fat. I know, it's a little crazy — don't let this freak you out too much.

Respectfully,

Todd Daniel

Human 3,002,433,659

Photo: Donald Giannatti

Sustainability Summit: My Green Epiphanies

Last Thursday I had the honor of serving as moderator for the Cobb County Sierra Club's Sustainability Summit. Being around the hard-working and visionary panelists gave me a much-needed lift.

First of all, the following famous quote ran through my head: 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Two of the themes for the evening where mass transit and clean energy. I am in awe how local activists and groups are working with the City of Atlanta to create green initiatives. Atlanta is the largest city in the Southeast and their sustainability efforts are setting an example for the entire region. This is an example of how the Sierra Club and likeminded organizations can make a difference with far-reaching results.

Jump Into Politics

Modifying corporate behavior was another theme for the evening. The speakers discussed plans for getting our local electrical utility to commit to more solar energy. Of equal importance is the need to campaign for good political candidates and lobby government bodies to push for positive public policies. Regulatory boards like the Public Service Commission hold tremendous power and it's important that their boards have green representation. Wind, solar, and other clean energy sources need to be continually promoted.

After the meeting I was talking to a woman who had been apolitical most of her life, but the election of Trump motivated her to get involved. She recently went door-to-door campaigning for a green candidate, which greatly touched me.

NAACP

We had the president of the local NAACP on the panel and I learned a lot of interesting and exciting things about this organization. I did not know that the organization was founded by white people, that it is nonpartisan, and welcomes all races. Right now the organization is focused on voter registration and has a wonderful campaign going on called the Power of Five: Register 5 new voters. Ensure that 5 people get to the polls. Volunteer – 5 minutes, 5 hours or 5 days — between now and Election Day.

I love this initiative. Already, our local Sierra Club group has been building connections with the NAACP through our participation in the annual Juneteenth festival, which celebrates the freeing of the last slaves in 1865.

Gerrymandering

My greatest takeaway for the night was the importance of getting the right governor in place in the upcoming election. The reason is that after the federal census is conducted each decade states are required to create new congressional districts. Gerrymandering is where the dominant political party draws the boundaries in a way that gives them a political advantage. The most common technique is to "pack" voters of a certain type into a single congressional district, thus they can't influence other races. You can look at a map of nationwide congressional districts and quickly tell which states gerrymander and which states do not. Although in a gray area, right now gerrymandering is legal. I see it as a disgusting attack on our democracy. And, I will be blunt by saying it's mostly an effort by Republicans to pack minorities into single districts, where they can only elect one representative instead of maybe two. 

While the courts may take some action on gerrymandering cases by far the most effective way to stop this practice is to elect a governor that would veto an unfairly developed plan. So, in red state Georgia, campaigning for a Democratic governor is probably the most effective use of my volunteer time.

Conclusion

The overall linking theme for the evening is the importance of getting the right people into political office. I am deeply inspired by Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon Johnson who were able to push massive civil rights initiatives through Congress. Lincoln did it by one-one-meetings and Johnson did it by spending full days on the phone talking to Congressional members. What was their secret? They used their personal connections, they pleaded, they bargained, and they did everything they could to get the votes needed to pass their initiatives. We need more leaders like this who will not only continue the drive for social justice but also for green initiatives. I find that conservatives ALWAY focus on immediate gratification even when that means everything else is slowly sinking. What we need are progressive politicians who emphasize the long-term, even if it means the short-term will be a little less comfortable. Yeah, this means sacrificing for the betterment of our grandchildren and planet. To me, that's the way it should be.

The Iroquois native Americans followed the principle that when a decision is made its impact seven generations into the future should be considered. To survive as a nation and as a global community we need politicians who will do the same.

I strongly applaud all the outstanding panelists, organizers, and the audience at last Thursday's event. Thank you for deeply inspiring and motivating me. 

Panelists and organizers at my local Sierra Club's annual Sustainability Summit.

Photo credit (at top): Noah Silliman