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00:00What happens next if we discover aliens? Or, more likely, if they discover us? It's a question that's
00:06straight out of science fiction, but actually, it's also something that genuine scientists have
00:11more than a passing interest in. In this video, we're first imagining what might happen if aliens
00:16ever find out about Earth. Next, we'll contemplate how, according to some theories, they could
00:21already be here. And finally, there's that age-old sci-fi plotline to consider. What if us and the
00:27aliens ever became genetically entwined? This is Unveiled, and today we're taking a closer look at
00:34exactly what aliens will do to human beings if and when we finally meet. Do you need the big
00:40questions answered? Are you constantly curious? Then why not subscribe to Unveiled for more
00:44clips like this one? And ring the bell for more thought-provoking content.
00:47We've long wondered whether we're alone in the universe. In the past century, the search for
00:59extraterrestrial life has gotten fully underway, as we look for signs within our own solar system
01:06as well as in other star systems. Evidence of alien life has eluded us, but there's a strong
01:13possibility that what we're looking for will find us first. If other intelligent species exist outside
01:31our own solar system, it's likely that they, too, are searching for signs of alien life.
01:37Human intelligence and scientific advancements have made us aware of our place in the universe,
01:43leaving us curious as to whether or not we're alone in such thoughts. Theoretically, intelligent
01:49life elsewhere would, at some point, face the same questions. With 100 billion stars in the Milky Way,
01:57it wouldn't be that surprising to discover that life is abundant within our galaxy.
02:02Even if extraterrestrial civilizations are unable to reach Earth due, for example,
02:09distances involved, we would still expect to find signals sent by them, or biosignatures.
02:16Unfortunately, no such evidence has been found, at least so far. Lacking evidence for sentient
02:24life beyond Earth, it could be inferred that it's very rare for a planet to develop life.
02:30This discrepancy between the lack of evidence for alien life and its high likelihood
02:36is called the Fermi Paradox, and there have been many attempts to solve it. One of the common
02:43theories to explain our solitude in the universe is called the Great Filter. The idea is that
02:50somewhere in the evolutionary process, there's a great barrier that makes detectable,
02:55extraterrestrial life incredibly uncommon. Currently, we can only guess whether this
03:01filter lies before or behind our current stage of development. Historically,
03:07humans have adapted their technology to expand outwards as much as possible. Life has always
03:13dispersed and spread into new frontiers. Generally, human technology has always moved forwards.
03:21So, if we extrapolate to our future, we would expect ourselves to continue to expand outwards,
03:29slowly colonizing the galaxy and learning to harness new forms of energy. But with the
03:35universe approaching its 14 billionth birthday, why does it seem like no other form of life
03:43has left its mark on the universe? This is what the Great Filter seeks to answer.
03:49The easier it is for life to evolve to our stage of development, the less optimistic our future
03:56becomes and the more likely it is that the Great Filter lies ahead of us. This could be,
04:02for example, in the form of nuclear war or global warming. On the other hand, the filter
04:09could also be long behind us, being at the earliest stages of evolution. Neither are
04:16particularly encouraging, with one side saying we're heading towards probable extinction and
04:21the other suggesting that we're likely to be entirely alone. There are other proposed
04:27solutions to the Fermi Paradox, however. One is that aliens do exist in abundance,
04:33we just simply can't see evidence of them. Another idea is that it's too resource-heavy
04:39to expand through a galaxy, and space is really just too large to traverse. It could also be the
04:46case that the galaxy actually is colonized, but Earth resides in an isolated backwater region
04:54too distant to be worth colonization. Additionally, it might be the case that it's dangerous to
05:00communicate with other civilizations, and that many are actively hiding. Or perhaps the next
05:06stage of evolution won't be to expand outwards, but to focus inwards, in the form of virtual
05:14realities. Why bother to explore space, which is harsh and dangerous, when we can create and
05:21enter limitless virtual universes instead? Potentially, all life ends up finding happiness
05:28in a simulated paradise, and gives up on outward expansion. And that's why we haven't found
05:35anything. If aliens did discover Earth, first off, it would help us understand where the great
05:42filter lies. It all depends on the manner of discovery. The idea of first contact,
05:48the first meeting of humanity with extraterrestrials, is a common theme in science
05:53fiction. It was popularized by H. G. Wells in The War of the Worlds, released in 1897.
06:01The novel tells the story of Martians arriving on Earth, resulting in a brutal conflict that
06:07eventually ends with them dying from bacteria. If aliens did discover Earth, their intentions
06:14might not be benevolent. We know this to be true looking at our own history, especially with regard
06:21to colonialism. There's a high chance that if aliens came to Earth, it would be to harvest our
06:27resources and control our planet. Of all first contact scenarios, this is certainly the bleakest.
06:36It could be that the great filter is actually, in itself, another civilization that works to
06:43destroy all others. The signals we send into space might then be unwittingly inviting destruction.
06:51It's a real concern for some. Of course, there are other, more optimistic visions of first contact,
06:58too. The popular franchise Star Trek portrays a future where humanity has abandoned all
07:04materialistic desires in favor of learning and exploring the universe. When new, intelligent
07:11lifeforms are discovered, humankind avoids interacting with them until they progress to a
07:17certain level, specifically when they develop spacefaring technology. Perhaps aliens do the
07:23same thing in reality to avoid interfering with other civilizations' development. In this scenario,
07:30it might be the case that aliens have already discovered Earth, but deemed us not advanced
07:36enough to justify making first contact. Maybe aliens visited Earth millions of years ago when
07:43dinosaurs controlled the planet, long before the dominance of primates. If this happened,
07:49they would be unlikely to have any meaningful interactions with Earth's past habitants.
07:55For all we know, they may have left equipment behind to watch our planet's growth, potentially
08:00hidden on the moon, elsewhere in the solar system, or even on our planet itself, according to some
08:07theories. Currently, though, no evidence supports this claim. Then again, perhaps aliens will make
08:15first contact in our lifetimes, and it will be peaceful. There are actually various protocols
08:22drawn up by researchers for what to do. There are still potential problems, though. None of these
08:28protocols are binding under any nation's laws, and scientists therefore believe that they are
08:35likely to be ignored. The first was created by the SETI Institute, and is called the
08:40Declaration of Principles for Activities Following the Detection of Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
08:47This protocol contains eight steps. The first is that once a sign of alien life is detected,
08:53it must be verified. Once verified, various global scientific unions need to be informed,
09:01and following on from this, the discovery needs to be made public. The discoverer has the right to
09:08make the announcement themselves. However, no one is authorized to reply to any signals
09:14without international agreement. A separate protocol, called the Proposed Agreement on the
09:21Sending of Communications to Extraterrestrial Intelligence, has also been formulated. It
09:27recommends that an international committee would be formed to create a reply, forbidding any messages
09:32being sent without the committee's clearance. This is in case the alien life is deemed to pose a
09:39threat to humanity, and aims to prevent replying in a fashion that would strengthen this danger.
09:45This protocol hasn't been made into law, however. Hopefully, extraterrestrials are friendly towards
09:52humankind, and we may share knowledge with each other, resulting in benefits on both sides.
09:59Unfortunately, our own human history has many examples of civilizations meeting new ones,
10:05and it usually leads to invasion and colonization. We would like to think this age is behind us,
10:12but if other life has evolved similarly to us, it may not be a feature exclusive to humanity.
10:20If aliens discovered Earth, there's a chance it could usher in a new age of technological
10:27advancements and developments. On the other hand, it could also bring about our destruction.
10:34We will only be able to know for certain once first contact is made.
10:44It'd be a near-impossible task to keep outer space aliens from visiting Earth if they ever
10:50set their minds to it. And according to Enrico Fermi, a Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist,
10:56creator of the nuclear reactor, and the so-called architect of the atomic bomb,
11:02considering the immense number of stars and planets out there, aliens should have
11:06reached Earth by now. So the question's pretty simple, have we already been invaded by aliens?
11:21Of course many people, maybe most people, would say no, full stop, because there are no aliens.
11:28This argument says that Earth is the only planet that harbors life, period. This train
11:34of thought rests largely on the Rare Earth Hypothesis, the idea that life emerged on
11:40our planet in the way that it did only because all of the right pieces were in the right place
11:46at the right time. The Earth was located an appropriate distance away from a sun
11:51that was itself not too big or not too small, and our orbit was regular enough that we had
11:58basically consistent temperatures. Also, any huge objects that crashed into us weren't enough to
12:04totally pulverise us. And there's an abundance of water here, which is kind of essential,
12:11so it could simply be that no other planet has been as life-lucky as we have.
12:16Other alien naysayers also suggest that if there were life out there somewhere,
12:21then we should have communicated with it by now, somehow. After all, we've been searching for quite
12:27a long time. Decades if you consider physical space exploration, millennia if we're including
12:34ancient cavemen yelling up at the moon. In many ways, it's a fair argument, but it leaves an
12:40endlessly vast universe with only us in it. From a law of averages point of view, it doesn't add up.
12:48As for the reasons why we haven't found life in outer space yet, maybe we simply lack the
12:53technology, or there are communicated differences between us and them. Whatever the cause,
13:00could we simply be confused? Could aliens have already invaded us, and we simply don't know it?
13:06There is evidence to say they have. For starters, look at any of the many ancient mysteries that
13:12defy explanation, from the giant statues on Easter Island to the puzzling and freaky assemblages at
13:20Stonehenge. The Great Pyramids too are quite the enigma, as are the Nazca Lines in Peru.
13:26These are drawings formed by lines in the Earth that are so huge that their true shapes can only
13:32be ascertained from a high-in-the-sky vantage point. Not only are they difficult to explain
13:39as products of ancient technology, but looking at these things, you'd be forgiven for wondering if
13:44some aliens didn't just drop by Earth in the old days for some extraterrestrial doodling.
13:50And if they dropped by way back when, then maybe it's possible they've regularly returned through
13:56the years. It'd explain the truly impressive and ever-growing number of unidentified flying
14:03object sightings, at least. Since 1905, when they started officially recording UFO sightings in the
14:10U.S., there have been about 105,000 reports of strange, soaring… somethings. But really, UFO
14:18claims were made long before the early 1900s. As far back as 1440 B.C., fiery disks were said to
14:27have levitated around ancient Egypt. With so many people having claimed to see weird flying thingies,
14:34it stands to reason that not all of them were tricks of the eye, hallucinations,
14:39or someone's spaced-out bid for attention. Certainly, the U.S. government has taken it
14:45seriously in the past, having authorized an entire program from 2007 to 2012,
14:51the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, to look into the situation. And, of
14:58course, there's the world-famous Roswell UFO incident, with many believing the aliens crashed
15:03there in 1947. Officials at the time reckoned it was only a weather balloon. Decades later,
15:10they changed their story to a nuclear test surveillance balloon. But the conspiracy
15:15theorists out there just don't buy it, and insist that Roswell is actually a hotbed of alien
15:21activity. Even a seemingly unlikely source, the Bible, provides support for the existence of
15:28aliens, at least according to some interpretations. Genesis refers to the Nephilim residing on Earth,
15:36and some translate Nephilim as the fallen, as in they fell from outer space. Others have
15:43interpreted the tale of Elijah being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire as referring to an
15:49alien abduction. And could the wheel in the sky that Ezekiel claims to see in fact be an alien
15:56spacecraft? Let's say for the moment that it's beyond doubt, though. The aliens have already
16:02landed on Earth, and are here still. How did they get here? They must have a transportation method
16:10that enables them to move at obscene speeds, and they themselves must be able to withstand the
16:15ravages of space travel. Essentially, their tech and their bodies are way, way more advanced than
16:22anything we can even imagine. Of course, they didn't necessarily use a spaceship. Maybe they
16:28came here via a fax machine of sorts. With the now admittedly old-fashioned fax, information is taken
16:35from one piece of paper, transmitted across wires, and replicated on a new piece of paper. Perhaps
16:41some alien civilizations have developed a way to adapt that mode of transmission into viable
16:47transportation, a la that staple of all sci-fi stories – teleportation. Under this theory,
16:54an alien being's consciousness would be removed from its body and transmitted across space into
17:00a new receptacle here on Earth. Perhaps that receptacle was an empty vessel of some kind,
17:06or perhaps it was the body of an already existing human being. The latter would certainly explain
17:13why aliens could have invaded us and avoided detection. If the new receptacle was still alive,
17:19there'd presumably be some sort of personality change in that person. If the receptacle was dead,
17:25it's at least one explanation for the various folktales about zombies, vampires, and other
17:31believed-to-be-dead humans coming back to life. But by now, we're deep, deep into crazy conspiracy
17:38territory, right? So, let's dial it back a bit. Thinking slightly more logically, maybe aliens got
17:45here by a much more prosiac way, like hitching a ride on a meteor. Earth has been struck by
17:52countless hunks of careening space rock in its past, large and small, and over billions of years.
17:58Perhaps some, or even only one of those, carried passengers that survived the impact and put down
18:04roots here. In this case, it's more likely that the life passed on was not so much human, and
18:10instead more microbial. Of course, the assumption that aliens should be humanoid is viewed by most
18:16speculators as completely flawed anyway. Travelling through space on a slab of rock means that
18:22whatever life was hanging on would have had to have been able to survive extreme cold, but also
18:28extreme heat upon entering Earth's atmosphere. Microbes are much better at that sort of thing.
18:34The what-would-they-look-like issue does raise arguably the most important point of all. Perhaps
18:39aliens haven't been spotted as an invading force because we can't actually recognise them as life.
18:46We don't typically think of even earthly microbes when discussing intelligent life,
18:51but perhaps some alien microbes would qualify. Or maybe they take on other forms that don't fit
18:58our frame of reference like a ray of light or a liquid. Another intriguing possibility,
19:04and a pretty popular theory amongst advocates, is that an alien race could have some form of
19:09disguise mechanism. Like some sort of supercharged chameleon, they might change colour or somehow
19:15arrange themselves to blend into a background. Or maybe aliens have already mastered the awesome
19:21trick of invisibility. It's ultimately just a matter of bending light around an object, after
19:27all. And if an advanced being can figure out how to travel light-years to get here, bending light
19:32probably isn't so hard. Then there's the well-peddled suggestion that aliens have seamlessly
19:39blended in, because they're so incredibly similar to us and we simply can't tell the difference.
19:45Which would mean all of those 1950s science fiction movies were right after all. Or maybe
19:51the real reason we don't know that aliens have invaded is because we're the aliens.
19:56There are some who believe that our ancestors travelled here eons ago from a previously
20:02doomed planet. Or else, we started off as microbes thrown from a meteor onto this world
20:08and evolved into the walking, talking lifeforms found here today. If aliens have already invaded
20:14the Earth, it inexorably leads to another important question. What kind of effect have they
20:20had? Has civilization grown exactly as it would have without them? Or have aliens actually helped
20:26us to develop language, implement scientific principles, understand how to treat illnesses,
20:32and generally live our lives? Or have they instead encouraged warfare,
20:36kept us divided, and urged us towards destruction?
20:43J. Alan Hynek was a legendary scientist and UFO researcher who, among other things,
20:48played a vital role in Project Blue Book, America's most famous official UFO investigation.
20:54During his research, Hynek devised an invaluable scale of close encounters with extraterrestrials,
21:00prompting the phrase close encounter to enter pop culture in a big way.
21:04But just how close have these encounters been?
21:14Hynek's original scale, as published in 1972, extends to close encounters of the third kind.
21:20It begins with the first kind, which covers simple phenomena like the seeing of strange
21:24lights or objects in the night sky. Close encounters of the second kind would be,
21:29according to the scale, if a UFO event were to have a physical or physiological effect,
21:34from the leaving of scorch marks on the ground to the triggering of nausea or paralysis in a witness.
21:39The third kind, Hynek's original upper limit, refers to a UFO incident where some form of
21:44animated and or intelligent alien is present. Since it was first conceived, however,
21:49the Hynek scale has been further extended by other ufologists, and now goes all the way up
21:54to the seventh kind, which involves the creation of a human-alien hybrid. This hybrid could be
21:59produced by any means – by sexual reproduction, artificial insemination, cloning or anything else…
22:05the argument being that if aliens were capable of crossing galaxies to reach us,
22:09then they'd probably have all kinds of advanced methods and technologies to accomplish this.
22:14Since the early days of alien abduction stories, invasive medical procedures have been a common
22:19theme. One of the most famous abductions in history, that of Barney and Betty Hill in the
22:23US in 1961, allegedly involved some strange medical tests. From the time of the abduction
22:29until her death in 2004, Betty Hill maintained her story, claiming that she and Barney had
22:35encountered intelligent aliens from the Zeta Reticuli star system, roughly forty light-years
22:40away from Earth. According to Betty, who recalled the night's events,
22:49through a series of vivid dreams afterwards, the aliens had taken hair and skin samples from her,
22:54and had also tested her nervous system by thrusting a needle into her stomach.
22:58Meanwhile, the famous Jesse Long case goes one step further… when, after a series of alleged
23:03alien abductions throughout his life, Long claims that in 1990, he was introduced by the aliens to
23:09his children… the idea being that he had been selected to father a hybrid species.
23:14Today, it's impossible to count the number of alleged alien abductees because that number is
23:18increasing all across the world. And, unfortunately, the more well-known any particular strand of the
23:24UFO mythos is, the more likely people reportedly are to falsely reconcile it with an experience
23:29that they may have once had. For decades now, the suggestion that aliens could be breeding
23:33with humans has been out there, and this has led to plenty of confirmed hoax claims and made-up
23:38stories. For the majority of scientists and researchers, then, it's still considered
23:42unlikely that any alien abduction, even the more inexplicable and high-profile cases,
23:47are actually alien in nature. This isn't to say that everyone ever claiming to have been abducted
23:52is completely lying about it… but, for sceptics, there should be other explanations for any genuine
23:58trauma suffered. Still, let's for one moment imagine that the highest level on the Hynek
24:02Scale has already been reached, that close encounters of the seventh kind are real,
24:06and that they're really happening on Earth. According to believers, what would be the reason
24:10for aliens visiting our planet to make human-hybrid offspring? Well, there haven't been many reasons
24:16put forward, but one notable figure in the debate is Dr. Young-Hae Chi, a Korean lecturer at Oxford
24:21University. Though Chi is primarily a languages expert, this hasn't stopped him from speculating
24:26about alien abductions, nor from making some bold, headline-grabbing claims. He says that aliens are
24:32arriving here, but with good intentions. For Chi, our extraterrestrial visitors are trying to help
24:38us withstand global warming, and any hybrids being developed are simply sturdier versions of
24:42Homo sapiens, more likely to survive in the higher temperatures of a warming planet. His
24:47main evidence for this is the apparent correlation between the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere
24:51and the number of reported alien abductions in history, both of which have risen in recent years.
24:57Although most of the rest of the scientific community isn't on board with the claims,
25:00Chi also says that these human-alien hybrids are unidentifiable alongside regular humans.
25:06That even they themselves might not know that they're a hybrid. It's a frightening thought,
25:10but it's one that's widely repeated by people who believe in a hybrid program,
25:14as a way of explaining why we don't see obviously half-alien, half-humans just walking around the
25:18place. Not that that's stopped people from publicly claiming that they are one such hybrid.
25:23An Australian woman, Judy Carroll, has set on record that she is part alien and has had numerous
25:28rides on flying saucers out into space. Meanwhile, a man from New York, David Huggins, says that he
25:34was once seduced in the woods by a female alien. And he's got paintings to prove it. Huggins,
25:39in particular, was the subject of a documentary in 2017 for his unorthodox beliefs.
25:44Since the advent of the internet, more and more similar stories have surfaced,
25:48including from people claiming to be pregnant with an alien hybrid. What's more, thanks to
25:53the very common claim among abductees that aliens are capable of wiping our memories,
25:57it's often suggested that there could be countless others out there who have also had close encounters
26:01like these but simply can't recall them. On that logic, you might even know someone,
26:06you might even be someone, who has been visited by extraterrestrials before.
26:10Aside from the lack of conclusive evidence, though, another big problem with the alien-human
26:14hybrid theory is determining whether these hybrids would actually be viable. Any alien
26:19involved would, of course, be not of this world, from a completely different planet,
26:23potentially with a completely different ecosystem and boasting completely different biological
26:28make-up. How likely is it, then, that they'd reproduce in even close to the same way as us?
26:33How likely that this strange genetic cocktail would be able to create a living thing?
26:37Hybrids do occur quite frequently in the animal kingdom here on Earth,
26:41and can happen completely naturally in the wild. Arguably the most famous of all is the Liger,
26:46the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, but there are also hybrids of sheep and goats,
26:51whales and dolphins, and zebras and donkeys, to name just a few.
26:55Though these hybrids can have specific genetic issues, including infertility,
26:59many grow to be perfectly healthy. In all known hybrid species, however,
27:03the two species that breed are incredibly similar to one another to start with.
27:07In the grand scheme of the tree of life, the jump from lion to tiger, or zebra to donkey,
27:11isn't all that big. By contrast, there's just no telling how similar humans are to any
27:16hypothetically visiting aliens. So, there's no telling the problems that could unfold.
27:20Homo sapiens' closest living relative is the chimpanzee, and although it would clearly be
27:25incredibly unethical to carry out an experiment to create a human-zee, attempts have been
27:29unsuccessfully made to do so in the past. Today, the human-zee obviously does not exist… but
27:35if we can't make a hybrid even from a creature as similar to us as a chimp, which shares up to
27:39ninety-nine percent of our DNA, could we ever expect to see a hybrid of anything, including
27:44aliens? Well, ancient history provides a little insight as to what's possible. Homo sapiens is
27:49not the only human species to have walked the Earth, we're just the only ones alive today.
27:54Tens of thousands of years ago, other human species, like the Neanderthals and the
27:57Denisovans, were alive and well and interbreeding with each other. We know this because we've found
28:02evidence in bones and fossils, including in the partial remains of a prehistoric girl,
28:07found in Siberia in the twenty-first century, but dating back to around ninety thousand years ago.
28:12She was found to have had a Neanderthal mother and a Denisovan father. Homo sapiens also bred
28:17with Neanderthals back before they went extinct. In fact, without this interbreeding and hybridization,
28:23it's thought the evolution of modern humans may have stalled or played out differently.
28:27Clearly, though, once again, what we know to have happened in early human history is a very
28:31different prospect to the idea that aliens and humans could be, or could ever be, linked. All
28:36the various species of humans over time have at least shared common ancestors. Genetically,
28:41they've never been that far away from each other. That wouldn't be the same for a creature from
28:45another planet entirely. Despite the lofty claims people make, then, the unknowable reasons why
28:50aliens would want to come and breed with us, as well as whether their doing so would even be
28:54biologically possible, plus the still-large-majority scientific consensus that it's just not something
29:00that's happening, makes it highly unlikely that alien-human hybrids currently exist. It's one of
29:05modern science's strangest what-ifs, but that's why aliens probably aren't already breeding with
29:10humans. But what do you think? Despite the evidence, could alien-hybrids be possible?
29:16And, if not for offspring, then why else might an extraterrestrial
29:19ever visit Earth? What do you think they'd want to do with us?
29:46Clearly, when it comes to debating first contact, there are endless possibilities as to what could
29:54actually happen. For better or worse, though, if there is other life out there,
29:58then it figures that one day we might finally make that connection.
30:04What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments,
30:07check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you subscribe and ring the bell for
30:12our latest content.