Given that the universe is estimated to be approximately
13.8 billion years old, and the Earth a mere 4.54 billion years old (with the
appearance of modern humans occurring far more recently than that), it isn’t
unreasonable to assume that of the intelligent alien species that may exist, a
number of them came before us. If they
came before us, that means they’ve had longer to evolve and to develop their
technological capabilities.
Babylon 5 shows this with the First Ones. For the most part, the First Ones are unconcerned
with the affairs of less advances species.
To them, we are like the insects you pass by on your way to run
important errands. Unless we grab their
attention by being exceptionally irritating, they go about their business as if
we aren’t there.
Anyone who has spent enough time immersed in the Star Trek universe knows about the
Q. At least, we know as much as they
want us to know. To humans, the Q seem
to be omnipotent, immortal, god-like beings.
They can manipulate events with the snap of a finger. They can transport your ship to another time,
or a distant region of space. They can
make people disappear and reappear with little effort. Some consider them to be a threat, while
others view them as a nuisance. Either
way, when the Q show up, it can be difficult to convince them to leave.
Take this quote from Arthur C. Clarke: “Any sufficiently
advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The Q may appear to us to be all-powerful,
but that’s because they’ve got a huge head start on us. If we stood in their shoes, the ability to
manipulate matter with the snap of a finger would not be considered
magical. Imagine a person from the
modern day traveling back in time a thousand years with a supply of modern
medicines. You give a sick person
antibiotics, and they get better. Would
that seem magical to them? It probably would,
simply because they don’t have the knowledge to understand how medicine works.
Why do we inject these kinds of beings into our science
fiction narratives? Is a part of us
naturally drawn to the idea of beings that are infinitely more powerful than ourselves? Do we hope that we too could achieve the kind
of evolutionary pinnacle we see with the Q?
Are we acknowledging the idea that even the most bizarre of things we
encounter probably has a rational explanation, even when we may not have any
idea as to what it might be? Is this a
symptom of our scientific minds and our drive to unlock the secrets of our
universe? Or do we force the heroes of
our stories to encounter such creatures because, in facing them and coming out
on top in some way, those heroes reaffirm the idea that with determination and
ingenuity, human beings are capable of accomplishing anything?
A great point about antibiotics. We would look like supermen to someone from the 1800s.
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