When we deal with the topic of alien technology, so often we are struck by the sheer power of the machines they would have developed to get to our planet. The reasons for making any such journey to a planet so infinitesimally small both in size and technological prowess is generally just as much of a mystery as anything else. But what if there was one technology that could change everything and immediately elevate us to their level technologically? And what if they wanted to be in on the ceremony and the history of our planet when we finally broke ground on this incredible achievement? What technology would it be, and how close are we to it?
Artificial intelligence is one of the most overlooked technological achievements in history thus far. If a planet were to reach a singularity where a machine could process information faster and more efficiently than all the minds in the world as has been suggested by theorists such as Ray Kurzweil, we may soon be looking at the greatest change our planet has seen since life first developed on its surface. Irving John Good suggested in an often cited paper on an intelligence explosion in the foreseeable future entitled “Speculations Regarding the First Intelligent Machine” that an ultraintelligent machine would be able to design better machines than itself if it were able to surpass the maximum human achievement. From there the machine it developed would be even more intelligent than any previously developed machine – and so on until the end of time or a plateau was reached where no improvements could be made. Good suggested this would be the last invention humanity would ever need to develop.
As this singularity appears to be approaching on Earth (projected to be achieved within our own lifetimes) an alien species whose own machine had been developed and solved all of their own native problems may likewise be developed and allow them not only travel at speeds faster than the speed of light but also near immortality. Of course there is also another flipside of the coin suggesting that after a certain level of technological achievement any species living within their society would no longer be what they started as. Metahumans (or in this case meta-aliens) would eventually fuse technology into their own corporeal form making it possible for them to exist and communicate as a hive mind more than just as individuals requiring the presence of verbal communication to convey ideas. Indeed this appears to be what many abductees and contactees have described over the years. And how would we know if they were even in the same form their species originally had by the time they reached our planet? They could have, in fact, originally looked precisely like us; or -as some have suggested- have actually been us at one time or another.
While it’s certainly a thrilling thought that one day soon we may independently be able to develop technology familiar to any potential alien visitor, it’s also a strange thought. Whatever machines they may develop would in fact be not only perfect, but almost universally copied if the same machine were devising perfect versions of advanced tools on planets very far apart from one another. In the end, the last technology an alien race would have ever developed would have been an incredible “inventing machine” and it’s likely our own “inventing machine” would make exact replicas of whatever technology they have. And so it’s suddenly understandable why this would be of interest to any visiting creature – and why they would keep their presence secret.