What would be the most terrifying,exhilarating, adrenaline inducing moment for mankind?
As a species that has forever feared the unknown and invented innumerable ingenious ways for self protection (destruction), it could be the moment we launched a nuclear war and annihilated all life on the planet. It could also be the moment when we first come face to face with life from a different planet.
How would we react in such situations?
How would we attempt to talk?
There have been several attempts to answer this question in the form of a genre of books centered around an inexplicable event followed by an attempt to reveal the reactions of the human race at various levels of administration and proximity.
The most fascinating thing though, is the fact that use of sight and sound as the primary medium of communication seem to be a common feature. We have 5 primary senses 4 of which directly or indirectly we use while communicating but we do have other senses which are passive and are only used for detection. A sense of temperature, a sense of balance and the like.
Analyzing the species that have evolved on earth, Man and other large animals have developed the use of vibration and sound as a means of communication since it enabled communication over distances that match the scale of these species, meaning communication over a few meters. Sight evolved for species on land since light could travel for larger distances uninterrupted by suspended particles unlike sound and had reasonable usage in all but the deepest oceans. For a planet in the so called 'Goldlilocks Zone' where liquid water exists, it can reasonably be expected that the intensity of light should be bright enough for this to always be a means of communication for life on the same scale since life needs to develop means of trapping this energy for sustenance.
For smaller species like insects, the energy required to produce sound becoming too large and light and sound captured too small for communication by the above methods, other methods are used predominantly. The sense of smell allows communication over reasonably small distances and for animals on that scale, the distance suffices which is the reason most microscopic organisms and insects communicate by chemical methods which are analogous to our sense of smell.
We also have other species like the electric eel which uses specially evolved cells that are used to produce electric shocks to escape from danger. It is not a quantum leap to think of evolution in which these shocks are modulated at much smaller magnitude to allow communication without hurting the receiver
Considering the variations available just on earth and the fact that we have yet to decipher communication between insects, it would be an interesting challenge for either species to communicate if we ever come face to face. While a few books do talk about the challenge of communication, they tend to assume communication by sound and adding the additional dimension of medium, the tale would be one more of silent fear and stand-off than peaceful co-operation or blazing guns.
So, to all those who ask where the aliens are and why they don't come out into the open. This is one reason besides a whole lot of others. Here's hoping that SETI doesn't find something to start off a mad rush for fame
at the cost of civilization itself.
