What We Learned from Alien Interviews

We’ve got a fun story today, one that’s reminiscent of the “EBO scientist” story we discussed a few months ago. Like that person, this Redditor claims to have been involved in a secret government research project. But where the EBO scientist was studying the biology of alien corpses, this person was helping to prepare a report summarizing what the government knows about alien society and motivations based on interviews with recovered UFO occupants!

The Scientist

“I have a professional background in anthropology. I also have some informal experience in philosophy, which unexpectedly ended up being the most useful of my skills on this project. Previously, I worked for a university in the western United States. For cultural reasons, students and faculty at this particular university are more likely to be selected for sensitive government work. I suspect that I was selected because of my low profile, my squeaky clean history, a lack of any drug or alcohol use, my broad range of skills and knowledge related to human civilization, and some connections that I have in academia.”
- Reddit: “90% this is BYU in Utah. Mormons are over-represented in the MIC and security clearances, because they generally don't drink/do drugs, have strong sensitivity to taboo, social stigma and can't be blackmailed easily.”
“In early 2017, I was contacted by one of my connections at the university, who urged me to apply for a position in a ‘special research project,’ claiming that the project needed someone with my experience, the pay would be good, and that they would help me get in. The hiring process involved an extensive background check, applying for a security clearance, several interviews, and training for security, communication, and working with sensitive information. Going through the ratmaze took several months, but I made it through much faster than anticipated and was finally ready to actually begin working in early 2018.”
“The workday began by entering a secure facility where my identity was verified with ID and biometrics. After passing through, I would go to my workplace and have to pass through another layer of security. I didn’t feel comfortable with all the security. (I’m on the spectrum, and while I’m good at masking, procedures and bureaucracy make me confused and nervous.)”
“In the workspace we were monitored constantly and subject to random security checks. The workspace was a medium-sized set of offices where I and six other researchers worked, one of which was assigned to train me. Each of these researchers had different backgrounds and were assigned to a different part of the project.”
“I was apprehensive on my first day of work. I had jumped through all the hoops, and I still didn’t know what the subject of the research was. My trainer gently explained that we were working with information about an ‘exotic intelligence,’ meaning a sapient non-human species of an unknown origin.”
“I had endless questions and became distraught, and I think they could tell because my trainer figured it would be best if I was given time to myself to read some of the material and digest the information. As I learned more, the shock faded and my fear was replaced with curiosity.”
“Our job was to take the information that had been provided for us from outside sources, sort it based on its content and usefulness, and in the end produce a comprehensive report that summarized what we know about this intelligence, with a special focus on its motivations and intentions. This report could then be used to brief elected officials in the future, and even the public.”
“We were allowed to make certain assumptions in the report, such as that these beings and their motivations could be understood by humans and that the information we have is accurate.”
“A lot of the work wouldn’t be very interesting to the members of this sub. The average workday consisted of going through security, getting permission to retrieve certain documents, then organizing and annotating the documents. Much of the documents were only related to the subject in tangential ways and didn’t convey very much of use. In a sense, we were separating the wheat from the chaff and getting the material ready to be used for the project. After finishing, we would secure the workplace and leave. Over the months that followed, we slowly built up a corpus of useful information.”

Origins

“We know more about every other aspect of these beings than we do about where they actually come from. We do have some tentative ideas and speculation, but multiple hypotheses are still on the table. Our job is to keep an open mind and let the evidence lead the way instead of falling for our own pet theories or cultural prejudice. There is good evidence that life on earth and these beings share a common ancestor. The extraterrestrial hypothesis makes some sense but it’s not the only option. During work, my colleagues often called them ‘aliens’ or ‘ETs.’”
“In the interviews with the beings I’ve read, the interview subjects are vague, absurd, contradictory, or evasive when asked about their origins. Perhaps this is because we aren’t in a position to understand where they come from, or perhaps there are problems with communication. Maybe they simply don’t want us to know.”
“They were retrieved from crashes but also from landings, where the craft seemed to have landed on purpose and the beings came voluntarily. Most of the interview subjects were from landings, not crashes.”
“The craft locations seem to be relevant to their duties. Some common places are nuclear testing sites, irradiated areas, areas with high biodiversity, areas with industrial contaminants, agricultural areas, feedlots, etc.”

Anatomy

“Generally, they look like diminutive humanoids with large heads, reduced facial features, and very large eyes, which are sometimes covered in a transparent black film. Their average height is ~5 feet tall. They have two long arms and two legs. They have three long fingers and an opposable thumb. They have feet with four toes. They may have fingernails and toenails, but not always. When they do, they are mottled and dark. They have no reproductive organs or anus, and they secrete waste through their skin, similar to how we sweat. They ingest liquid food just like we do. They wear clothing, usually in the form of a very thin blue or gray high-collared garment, as well as boots.”
“No two individuals look exactly alike. Head shape, eye shape and size, the patterns and protrusion of the ridges, and skin color vary between individuals. In some individuals there are pronounced ridges on the head and upper back, which seem to relate to different kinds of implants in a way that is not understood. As far as we can tell, every individual has an artificial lattice woven through their brain and nervous system”
“The ETs have a very close relationship with their technology. They cannot survive very long while separated from their craft and from each other. They can’t eat anything other than a special kind of liquid food, and human-made substitutes were not sufficient replacements.”
“The way that they were treated was inhumane and very unethical. Throughout their stay on Earth, they would suffer from malnutrition and a kind of toxic buildup in the body. Because of how valuable they were, every effort was taken to keep them alive and conscious, even against their wishes. The situation reminded me of the case of Hisashi Ouchi.”
“Life on earth and the ETs share the same kind of biochemistry. They are made of cells, use DNA, proteins, etc. They can be studied and understood with the same principles that we use to study life on earth. This has fed into speculation about their origins. The most conservative hypothesis is that they share our biochemistry because they also originate from earth, but there are other theories. Life on Earth and wherever they come from could both be descended from a common ancestor. Perhaps life everywhere in the universe shares the same biochemistry.”
“The striking similarities between their anatomy and human anatomy leads me to wild speculation about whether the individuals we see are specifically designed to resemble humans in order to facilitate interaction. There is a small collection of biological material that has been retrieved from craft that shares no resemblance to humans and defies description. This material is like a web of nervous tissue which is interlaced into the structure of the craft itself.”

Technology

“Before, I mentioned an artificial lattice which is integrated into the nervous system. This lattice is at the heart of their technology. In interviews with subjects, they demonstrated the ability to communicate with and detect the presence of others of their kind in the same facility, in different rooms.”
“Tools retrieved from craft would be responsive to the touch and intentions of the ETs but would be totally inert in the hands of human operators. This lattice is probably what makes these abilities possible. It is made of ordinary elements like copper and aluminum, and there is no discernable reason why it should be able to do what it seems to do.”
“We were allowed access to documents that described the capabilities of their craft as well as eyewitness encounters, but we were not allowed any data that would explain how their propulsion systems work or about anything regarding the reverse-engineering of craft. The reasoning behind this is obvious. The special interests involved have begrudgingly begun to accept that disclosing the existence of the intelligence is necessary over the long term, but the one thing they refuse to do is relinquish their monopoly over exotic technology.”
“I don't have much insight to give about the craft because the project focused more on the extraterrestrials themselves, their society, and implications for our society. The craft have a wide range of appearance, size, and behavior. It seems like each craft is designed for a specific purpose. Every craft is different, but they can be grouped based on shape and purpose. There are some edge cases that won’t fit into this neat categorization.”

Interviews

“Because of my past work experience, most of my work on the report was related to actual interviews that had taken place with ETs. Reading these was very surreal, and I suspect the context of these interviews is part of the reason for so much secrecy.”
“Communication took place through telepathy. They can read our thoughts and ‘send’ thoughts and impressions into our minds. However, this takes a lot of concentration on the part of the interviewer and communication would break down as the health and consciousness of the subject declined. The interviewer and the ET would communicate telepathically, then the interviewer would say the exchange out loud for it to be recorded.”
“Something that deeply frustrated me was that they seemed to want to show us so much more, but because of the irresponsible behavior of the program, they could not. They were separated from their craft permanently so the craft could be hauled off elsewhere and auctioned off, and so that the program would have total control over the interview process. Because of this separation, the ETs would slowly die.”
- “When I said 'auctioned off' I was being a little hyperbolic. I don't know that much about the process of how craft are handled and studied but I'm sure it's a political process. The main point is that the extraterrestrials are separated from the craft, which causes their condition to deteriorate.”

Society

“From reading interviews with detained subjects, I and other researchers were able to put together a rough picture of how this species works and why they are here. Instead of having any kind of formal social structure, these beings form a dynamic superintelligence that is a composite of all of their minds. Reproduction doesn’t take place biologically, instead they are artificially created, with each one designed for a specific purpose as their society has need. The intimate interlinking of their minds causes them to behave as one superorganism rather than individuals.”
- “I don't call them a hive mind because in fiction, the hive mind usually has a top-down association. There's a leader of the hive that imposes its will on its minions. This is different, and I think it would be insulting to refer to them as a hive mind. They still have individual minds, they are just deeply connected to each other and to their technology.”
“Their philosophy is naturalistic but has some elements that could be misconstrued as religious. They reduce time, space, and everything to the behavior of a single unitary consciousness. (Not to be confused with the superintelligence that I mentioned earlier.) This consciousness behaves entirely spontaneously, without deliberation or forethought. According to them, the minds of living organisms are parts of this consciousness that has ‘looped in’ on itself, creating separation and individuality.”
“They believe that as life continues to grow and complexify, it will have an effect on the unitary consciousness that constitutes the universe. As life proliferates and complexifies, it will cause it to attain higher cognitive functions and eventually reach self-awareness. They believe that the universe is already blindly striving toward self-awareness and complexity, and they seek ‘move it along,’ so to speak.”
“This is their goal, and it’s presumably why they are here on earth. They are guiding the development of life on this planet to help serve this end. I have no clue why they are so motivated to move toward this goal or what the actual implications would be if they succeeded.”
“They are not afraid of dying because they believe that death is just a process where individuality breaks down and the mind ‘unloops’ and becomes reintegrated into the unitary consciousness. They believe that memories and life experiences are reabsorbed into the consciousness during this process, perhaps this is the mechanism that allows it to develop. Whether or not this is true, it seemed to bring them a lot of peace during their tormented final moments. Even in death, they served their purpose.”
“Their philosophy shapes the way their society is organized in profound ways. They have intentionally designed their technology in a way that integrates the mind and obscures individuality. They do not fear death, and even embrace it when they have fulfilled their purpose. They have a positive attitude toward living organisms and ecosystems, because the flourishing of life is integral to them achieving their goals. However, they do not respect individuality and they see individuals (including themselves) and species as expendable in the service of their goals.”
“In the interviews, they voiced concern with the impact that humanity is having on life on this planet but also see us as a step in a process of complexification. They are definitely monitoring how life is developing on this planet, and it is very probable that they are subtly manipulating it to serve their goals.”
In response to someone asking “what if our race doesn’t want to be part of their cosmic religion,” they said: “I don't think they care to convert us to their philosophy. All that they care about is for life on this planet to keep proliferating and moving forward. If we become a barrier to this goal, they will intervene. They prefer to take the subtle approach, but if we become a bigger problem for them they might have to take a more direct approach.”
“They are definitely concerned with nuclear weapons. As I mentioned before, they are concerned with the impact that humanity is having on life on this planet. If we had a nuclear war, a lot of damage would be done that would set their project back.”

References

Reddit user alesneolith: “I have secondhand knowledge.”

Episode 37, posted on February 4, 2024