1002011c the crushing silence where are the aliens -- worm holes warp drives or nano-probes

(STARpod.org) -- The ultimate question remains: Is there an "extraterrestrial presence" here on the Earth, one known to the government, but hidden from the public by a smoke and mirrors counterintelligence operation?

The Crushing Silence: Where are the aliens?

An Eerie silence?

Is there a covert extraterrestrial presence?

To the moon and back, again?

Worm holes, warp drives, or nano-probes?

In an interesting twist of fate, this question, which once belonged exclusively to the realm of science fiction, is being debated seriously, and not just behind closed doors.

Ever since Miguel Alcubierre wrote his ground-breaking paper describing how to create a warp drive in the context of Einstein's General Relativity, the UFO crowd has embraced the idea that faster-than-light spacecraft are possible.

The latest news is less optimistic: there are numerous unsolved problems which suggest warp drive might not be feasible.

Does this mean we could never see, or even become, "the visitors from the stars?"

Although the distances involved are enormous -- it takes light more than four years to reach the closest star outside of our solar system -- we can imagine a starship capable of approaching the speed of light and traversing our galaxy in a relatively short amount of time.

This is possible because of a well-tested prediction of Albert Einstein's Special Relativity.

Time dilation shrinks the amount of time experienced by the travelers on the starship relative to the amount of time passing on their home world. Although this would literally mean you can "never go home again" -- Earth time would have advanced far beyond the time experienced by the "starship troopers" -- it would be possible for "nomadic space explorers" to traverse vast distances.

Even within the above sub-light-speed scenario, incredible engineering and physics problems would have to be overcome.

If we assume sub-light-speed alien spacecraft and a means of surviving the perils of long-term space travel, it becomes possible (within the context of existing science) to imagine "visitors" to our world, arriving from the depths of the galaxy.

Aliens may not care about returning to their home worlds. They might not even be concerned about the vast amount of time taken by their journey.

Vast numbers of virtually living "nano-pod" probes could be swarming through interstellar space. Spreading to countless planets, perhaps including the Earth, the nano-pod probes would begin reengineering any planet capable of sustaining their growth.

They might even make genetic alterations to the indigenous organisms they discover during their journey.

Biological hosts to the extraterrestrial pod-beings could act as "alien avatars," moving freely and covertly among an unsuspecting population.

Is it possible that something this insidious is actively engaged with the human race?

If so, we might find ourselves lost in a "cosmic counterintelligence" smoke and mirrors game designed to distract our attention away from the true nature of the extraterrestrial presence.

The fact that our galaxy is old enough for vastly superior intelligent life to have spread throughout the cosmic neighborhood -- at sub-light-speed -- supports the possible exploitation of our world.

Given that the motivation for the above scenario must be alien in nature, it would be risky to presuppose any understanding of the methods involved in human contact by an invading intelligence.

There is, therefore, little question of the possibility for an extraterrestrial alien presence: it simply cannot be ruled out altogether.

Worse still, the vast time scales allowing for galactic expansion provide plenty of time for the visitors to advance far beyond human concepts of technology.

In reality, any visitation to the Earth would be an encounter with technology that is "indistinguishable from magic," to quote science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke.

At the limit of current thinking about intergalactic space travel is the idea there might be worm holes: shortcuts connecting distant regions of space and time.

If worm holes exist, based upon the age of the universe, we would expect to see interstellar visitors arriving from and departing to vast cosmic distances, and even moving between different times and alternative universes.

Today, the physics behind the worm hole concept is an area of intense research and debate.

The idea has its roots in tales of paranormal alternative realms and fantasy worlds.

One recent tale was spun out of a privately funded investigation of a "haunted" ranch in Utah.

Persons involved with the NIDS investigation have privately confirmed the story of "telepathic contact" and subjective observations of a strange being climbing out of a tunnel, which appeared to open up in thin air. The report, taken at face value, resembles predictions of what it might be like to walk through a worm hole connecting two worlds.

The past two decades have been a time of accelerated understanding of the physics of strange phenomena once considered impossible.

Perhaps some time in the next decade, there will be a breakthrough in our understanding of how the aliens, if they are here, made their way to the Earth.