What's the drill when intelligent extraterrestrial aliens suddenly land on Earth one day in the future? There apparently isn't any and now seems the time for world governments to figure this out.
What we do have is a set of protocols developed by astronomers as to how we'd respond if we detected verified non-natural signals trying to talk to us. But the unlikely event of an advanced alien race landing their spacecraft on the Earth before contacting us hasn't apparently been thought through.
No plans have been crafted in the event intelligent aliens make an unexpected house call and land here, said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute in Mountain View, California.
"I don't know of any protocol if they land," said Shostak.
"I've never heard of any such thing, and I'd be surprised if there was one. But who knows what's in the bowels of the Pentagon?"
Shostak was referring to the U.S. military's penchant for preparing for the unexpected, from an invasion by China to an invasion by zombies. In 2014, the Pentagon took a lot of heat for a detailed plan in the event a "Zombie Apocalypse" inundated the United States.
An unclassified document called "CONOP 8888" that posited a global attack by the "Walking Dead" was used by the Pentagon as a training template for how to plan for real-life, large-scale operations, emergencies and catastrophes.
"The document is identified as a training tool used in an in-house training exercise where students learn about the basic concepts of military plans and order development through a fictional training scenario. This document is not a U.S. Strategic Command plan," explained U.S. Strategic Command that drew-up the plan.
A lot of people were impressed by the Pentagon's taking the time and resources to plan how it would respond to an impossible Zombie Apocalypse. It stands to reason the Pentagon has its own protocol for an alien landing, especially if this were to occur in the United States.
Some scientists believe there's a good chance a space faring species will be predatory and bent on ravishing the Earth of its resources and probably using humans for food. And there's nothing we can do about it.
The famous theoretical physicist Michio Kaku once said a war between humans and intelligent extraterrestrial aliens invading the Earth would be the equivalent of Bambi battling Godzilla. There is no way Bambi can win.