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all your online accounts secure! The date is September 21st, 2019, and it's
been twenty four hours since the Facebook raid on Area 51. What started off as a joke turned into a real-life
movement, and the day prior tens of thousands of facebookers flooded the remote restricted
area in the Nevada desert known as Area 51. The government put up a brave defense of the
secret facility, defeating many of the invader's Nartuo-running-Monster-energy-drink fueled
Kyles by putting up plaster walls to punch and pictures of their missing dads. In the end though, the base fell to the hordes
of facebookers all wanting to “see them aliens”. Now, the government is forced to admit the
truth: it has for decades hidden the fact that aliens have visited our world, and that
it has run a campaign to try and acclimate people to the idea of aliens by generating
tons of alien-themed fiction in comics, video games, and movies. Though they don't believe the world is ready
to hear the truth, the US government has no choice but to finally spill the beans. Sixty years ago an alien spacecraft crash
landed in Roswell, New Mexico. Alien bodies and their craft were recovered. The internet, fiber optics, and PUBG are all
based on advanced alien tech. Aliens have been probing the anuses of unsuspecting
hillbillies for years, expanding the limits of their rectal scientific knowledge. It's all true. What if the government admitted tomorrow that
aliens were real? The public would no doubt have an initial
sense of awe and wonder, followed by a slew of questions- who are these aliens? Where do they come from? Why do they probe our behinds? More scientific leaning people would have
separate, and very serious questions though, and the answers to these questions would frame
the public response to the alien announcement- are we in formal contact with these aliens? How do they view humanity, and our plundering
of their technology? Is there the threat of retaliation? An announcement that aliens were real would
force billions of people to come to grips with the fact that we are not the only intelligent
life in the universe. Immediately our standing in the universe's
hierarchy would get dropped to second place, and the gap between first place and us would
be staggering. We would after all finally have confirmation
that life much more intelligent and advanced than us has been visiting the planet, and
if they have the ability to cross the vast distances between the stars, then they have
the power to completely annihilate us with a whim- or to uplift us technologically and
socially. Life would suddenly seem a lot more precarious
than it did yesterday, and perhaps we would be encouraged to start thinking less about
our differences here on earth, and more about our similarities. After all, what difference does it make anymore
if someone is black or white, muslim or christian, when suddenly we're a part of a universe with
a completely different intelligent species. If we couldn't pull together by a sense of
common identity, well, maybe we could do it by making our racism be truly racist- and
hating another intelligent race together, rather than ourselves. But while people are soul-searching to figure
out what the presence of another intelligent species means to them, other groups of people
would have entirely different and much more pressing questions. Questions such as, what are these alien's
objectives, and what is their attitude towards us? We would do well to remember the way that
contact between technologically backwards residents of North and South America and the
Europeans went hundreds of years ago. It's likely then that entire groups of people
would see the aliens as a threat, no matter what their stated intentions were. We could expect to see armed militias grow
in size and firearm sales skyrocket, which might actually only serve to worsen the social
situation here on earth. Political partisanship would likely only deepen,
as it has always historically done during times of great fear. Unless the announcement that aliens are real
was done in a way that convinced people the aliens were completely benevolent entities,
it's extremely likely that after the initial awe had passed, people would begin growing
very afraid. Popular science fiction is full of literature
and films where technologically superior aliens invade the earth, and news channels would
have an endless string of guests all speaking about the dangers of a highly advanced society
making contact with our own. Unlike in the movies, real hostile alien contact
scenarios would all end very, very badly for us. As fear rises, it would be reflected in our
governments all around the world. People would be afraid, and they would want
a leader that reassures them that humanity is strong, and capable of defending itself. Historically speaking we see this playing
out in Italy and Germany before World War II, and in countless other examples- fear
of being weak always leads to extremely nationalistic leaders, autocrats who promise to keep us
safe at the expense of curbing our freedoms or setting us on a war footing. As more nationalistic leaders rise to power
in response to the public's need to feel safe, we could expect to see some governments which
today are democracies collapse into authoritarianism- specially fledgling or vulnerable democracies
such as those in Eastern Europe, Africa, and South America. Even the democracies that remain intact though
would see a sharp increase in military spending, as governments all around the world dramatically
boost their military budgets. Even if the aliens were not outwardly hostile,
nor seemed to be so, militaries would do what militaries are designed to do: work on ways
to defend their nations. Backed up by public fear, most nation's military
budgets would expand sizably. In 2018 the amount of money the entire world
spent on military costs was $1.8 trillion- seeing an increase of 15% or even more would
not be out of the question. Between 1938 and just before the US was forced
into World War II in December of 1941, America went from spending $17 billion- adjusted for
inflation- to almost $338 billion on its military. That's an increase of a whopping 1,888% from
the fear of war alone! Try and imagine then how people would respond
to a threat from outer space that could wipe out all human civilization. All that money though wouldn't go into buying
new equipment or training new troops, because military leaders around the world would need
to find ways to properly defend the earth in case it is threatened by advanced aliens. New priorities for warfighting would be laid
out, and one critical need would rise above all the rest- the necessity to secure space
around the earth against aliens. Without this one critical capability, earth
would be doomed no matter how many tanks it produced. While today space is the new high ground in
war, much in the way that the skies was the literal high ground during World War 2, a
need to control and defend space around the earth would be far more critical for our safety
than having air superiority during World War 2 ever was. That's because aliens could simply park in
orbit and periodically bombard our planet with impunity, wiping out all our military
forces before ever stepping foot on the planet. They could even wipe out all humanity from
orbit and then simply wait for the dust to settle before colonizing our world if they
were so inclined. This might sound far-fetched, and truthfully
there is little need for aliens to invade us, as the universe is literally bursting
with free real estate. But having the ability to simply threaten
our extinction from orbit would give aliens incredible leverage, and it would be critical
for us to be able to secure earth's neighborhood against another species. This would mean that much of the new money
being poured into national defense budgets would go into space programs. Nations with active commercial space industries
such as the US and some European countries would flourish, while others with only national
space programs such as China and Russia would be hard-pressed to catch up economically. Either way though, a need to put some military
capability into orbit would quickly spur the development of space industries even in nations
that lack them today. In our day-to-day world many criticize our
government's funding of NASA, with people believing that the money would be better spent
on down-to-earth problems and seeing NASA as a purely intellectual pursuit. This sentiment could not possibly be more
wrong though, for every dollar spent on NASA funding, the US treasury gets a direct return
of an estimated $7 to $14. That's because the billions spent designing,
building, and launching space missions are largely spent domestically, fueling American
industry and providing tens of thousands of people with jobs. This is why President Obama provided financial
incentives to American commercial space companies and ordered NASA to work more closely with
commercial partners, ensuring not only that the US would remain the world leader in space
industries, but that government spending on NASA would be returned back into our own economy. Then of course there is the propagation of
advanced technologies all developed by government scientists, which makes its way to the American
market thanks to the fact that the US government by its own laws, is not allowed to patent
any new technology. Everything from MRI machines to advanced fire
retardant construction materials all have their roots with NASA. An investment in space would mean a huge investment
in R&D, resulting in unprecedented technological breakthroughs for humanity. Much like the Cold War spurred technological
development between the US and the Soviet Union, the fear of real-life aliens would
lead to a new age of technological achievements, which would naturally work their way into
our everyday lives with time. We've covered individual and government responses
to the announcement of real-life aliens, but what about religion? For better or worse, religion is a cornerstone
of human civilization, and how would it take the news that aliens exist? Despite common thinking, in the last two decades
two of the earth's major religions- Islam and Christianity- have proven to be rather
flexible on the idea of alien life. While some people expect religions to implode
at the revelation of alien life, the truth is that major religions have for quite a while
been completely at peace with the idea that other intelligent beings exist in the Universe. Take for example Christianity- in 2012 the
Vatican's chief astronomer was asked about alien life, and he stated that not only was
he open to the possibility, but that the Vatican's own observatory was part of an effort to locate
biomarkers on distant planets- those are the tell-tale signs of life in a planet's atmosphere,
such as the presence of oxygen which breaks down too quickly to last without life creating
it. Asked on the biblical account of creation,
Father Jose Funes stated that the bible was fundamentally not a work of science, but a
love letter from God to his people in a language used thousands of years ago. This is why the Vatican has no problem with
the concept of evolution, or a Big Bang- even if a minority of fundamentalists still believe
the earth is only several thousands of years old. These individuals may have a hard time dealing
with the discovery of aliens, but overall, Christianity would be rather unfazed and business
would continue on as usual. What about Islam then, the world's second
major religion? Well, where the Bible does not speak on the
possibility of alien life, it turns out that the Quran was ahead of the curve on this topic. Not only was the Quran promoting the idea
that the earth was only one planet out of many, and not unique- in contrast with the
prevalent geocentric view of the universe in Western culture- but the Quran specifically
spoke of Allah- the same God from Christian and Jewish faith- filling other worlds with
life. In fact in one section of the Quran, it speaks
of the living creatures that Allah filled the heavens and earth with, referring to them
as 'da'bbah', a term which only applies to animals which move along the surface of the
earth, and does not apply to any spiritual form of life such as ghosts or angels. Not only does the Quran directly speak to
the fact that terrestrial alien life exists above us in 'the heavens', but that one day
Allah will gather them together to the same heaven that earthly life will one day ascend
to. Today the Christian faith debates whether
aliens will need evangelizing or not, fully accepting the possibility of their existence,
while Islam boldly declares that aliens already exist and have their own means of evangelization,
within their own relationship with God. Clearly the popular misconception that religion
would implode upon the discovery of aliens is exactly that, a myth, and it turns out
that of all the institutions of human society, religion may just be the most unfazed by the
discovery of alien life. Certainly though, fear of what that advanced
life may do to us would affect all of our social systems, and even threaten our liberal
democracies as a scared population seeks the same comfort and safety in authoritarian leaders
that it has always historically sought- but perhaps having a common threat might for once
and for all unite humanity together, especially because the challenge of defending our tiny
blue planet from a far more technologically advanced species would simply be far too great
for one nation. Whether you’ve got secret advanced government
technology derived from aliens, or you’re just an average Joe with a laptop and a cell
phone, hackers are a very real threat to you and your data. That’s why you need Dashlane to keep you
and your online accounts safe and secure, with password storage, a VPN, and breach alerts
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to keep you safe in a dangerous cyberworld! We’ve been targeted before, our parents
have been targeted before, you will be targeted sooner or later as well. Head on over to www.dashlane.com/infographics
for a free 30 day trial, and if you use the coupon code ‘infographics’ you can get
10% off a premium subscription today! How do you think society would react to the
discovery of aliens? Are you planning on raiding Area 51 this September? Let us know in the comments! And if you enjoyed this video, check out Why
Storming Area 51 Is a Bad Idea! And don't forget to Like, Share, and Subscribe
before aliens destroy the earth!
