Year Two After Disclosure – The Problems
In fiction when we hear about aliens being integrated into society, often we assume that there would be a massive change in our system of government either brought on by the introduction of superior technology or some political revelation that allows us to live in either a Utopia or a nightmarish world of uncertainty. But what if extraterrestrials were to wish to integrate themselves into our own society? What would year two of disclosure look like?
We would as a human race would face several challenges almost immediately. A new species would mean more than just a cultural shock and possibly a technological one. There would be vast changes that would have to take place in our infrastructure as well. It may not be typical science fiction, but think about the typical alien Grey depicted in alien abduction literature. Such a being would immediately face challenges in a society designed for humans. In order for it to function in a way that allowed it to freely be around humans, it may be temporarily forbidden to use its technology so humans would be able to associate with it on a more equal level. In the name of cooperation it may decide to agree to such a request. But if it had to use more traditional (and slow) means of transportation such as elevators, it might not actually be able to reach the upper numbers on the panel. Driving would be impossible for a creature reaching only three feet tall. It may find keyboards with the QWERTY set up easy or it might find them difficult as they are designed for humans with five fingers. And while these problems may seem comical, massive changes would have to be made to our infrastructure to accommodate the extraterrestrials vastly different physiology.
Then there is the social aspect. At first the creature may be met with fear and reverence, but what happens when it has been around for a couple of years? If the creatures were intelligent, and attempted to enter the work force, there may be a social backlash of workers not wishing to compete with beings from another world. Community leaders may find it difficult to find jobs for beings whose previous work experience involved abducting humans and performing feats of scientific prowess the likes of which humanity had never seen before. Of course they would be under constant threat and find our equally alien society difficult to live within.
And of course there would be a great danger to these beings from those who wished to use them politically or who hoped to gain their technology through force or coercion. The beings may find it difficult to work within our society in any capacity but official ones as ambassadors or engineers working with the military. As the military would likely wish to use their technology for war and defense purposes, a benevolent entity would realize it would be difficult to both accept human society and live within it.
Most disclosure speculation centers around the first year of the event. But if an alien being were to want to actually come into closer contact with out society, it may just be waiting until we are in a position that would accept it a year after it stepped off the craft.
