As such, they would send in their robotic cyborgs first -- on early scouting trips, since those inorganic creatures wouldn't be susceptible to the germs and viruses that plague us mortals.
Those super-intelligent aliens would have done lots of homework relative to exactly what kind of biosphere exists here on Earth. As such, they would know precisely how they must structure their own "system" of living here -- so as not to interfere with, but rather enhance, what nature is doing to keep everything in balance.
Let's try to learn from this scenario. A hypothetical invasion that takes place 300,000 years ago -- just as we Homo sapiens are emerging as a species.
To be sure, that invasion was carefully planned because -- like ourselves today -- the human-like population on their fictitious home planet Krypton (as in Superman) has been exploding for the past few hundred years. As such, their reckless, wasteful and selfish way of living has rendered their own biosphere incapable of sustaining them for vey much longer.
Sound familiar? Now, at least half of their eight billion human-like, Kryptonians must pursue a sustainable life somewhere else -- or all eight billion of them will die.
So they launch a spacecraft in search of another home and this is what they saw as they approached planet Earth -- long before we had begun trashing it. They saw a place that was truly a joy to behold -- with millions of species of flora and fauna co-existing in perfect harmony with the biosphere that gave all of them birth and continues to sustain them.
What about their homework? The
Kryptonians learned a great deal about what it takes to survive indefinitely on a planet during the past few hundred years when they were destroying Krypton's biosphere that was keeping them alive. They learned what
James Lovelock concluded when defining what it takes to survive longterm on a goldilocks planet like Earth. To paraphrase his famous quote:
If the planet's ecosystem "improves" because of a species's presence, then that species will flourish. If it does not, then that species will die off.
That is the homework to which I am referring. These AI-enabled aliens knew exactly how Earth's biosphere functioned and they know precisely how they must structure their future civilization on Earth -- so that they can survive indefinitely as a species.
So, to play it safe, they decide to only bring half of their population of eight billion Kryptonians on the first wave. With the aid of super-advanced AI capabilities, they know that they must create a super-green habitat for billions of organic, human-like creatures that will only occupy and disrupt a tiny fraction of Earth's total surface.
Of course, I am thinking that their future, super-sustainable way of life might look something like the image below -- a highly efficient "system" of living that could sustain them for millions of years while requiring a mere fraction of the area that we humans are occupying in 2020.
A magical place with a "system" of living
where only green lifestyle options exist
For the sake of this example, let's assume that the human-like invaders from Krypton, like us modern humans, had developed a terribly harmful and wasteful way of living -- so much so that their own ecosystem on Krypton was no longer capable of keeping them alive.
And guess what, there are now eight billion of them and they are all looking for a new home. Unlike us, they have learned from their mistakes and now realize that they must figure out a way to introduce their eight billion citizens to planet Earth without destroying their new host -- Earth's magnificent biosphere pictured earlier.
Acknowledgement. The vision of these Earth invaders was inspired by the story James Cameron told in the movie Avatar, in which the invaders of Pandora were on a mission from our own planet Earth to selfishly exploit the natural resources of a planet where all of the species were still living in harmony with nature.
Unlike the reckless Earthlings in the movie, Avatar, the Kryptonians appear to have leveraged their special AI powers to respect the natural world of their new home above all else -- realizing from the beginning that nature reigns supreme on this planet and always will.
The Bottom Line. The sad reality is that hardly any of the eight billion humans who share our planet today -- have any idea how we're rapidly destroying the biosphere that sustains us -- and even fewer are thinking about what we can do about the dire conundrum that has resulted from our reckless behavior.
Earlier this year, documentaries such as Planet of the Humans by Michael Moore (The Hill clip)
& David Attenborough's new movie on Netflix (six minute clip) have tried to shine a huge light on the gravity of our situation, yet those efforts are drowned out by the non-stop barrage of news about all of the idiotic things that humans are doing at any given moment.
Maybe it's time for another movie -- perhaps a masterfully done drama based on the grim reality of what we humans are actually facing today -- wrapped around a feel-good story of survival and what is possible simply by leveraging today's greenest technology to the fullest. With the right combination of technology and leadership, we can get this done.
Here are a few guys with the requisite combination of wealth, knowledge, fame and talent needed to broadcast that remarkable story to the entire world.
This SOS Memo is the third in a series over the past two weeks aimed at shining a light on the most important topic in human history -- the unprecedented sustainability crisis we face -- along with what we can do about it. Here are links to the first two:
Whatever medium we use, it is high time that the billions of people in the developed world learn a great deal more about what's at stake with regards to our future.
When will we ever learn that some things are far more important than the constant politics, crime, entertainment, commerce and suffering that are broadcast from our global media 24-7?
Maybe it's just a simple matter of telling a story of truth and hope that most people can easily understand. We tried to tell that story in Outcry, but the book is not reaching nearly enough people. Perhaps you can help get this SOS Memo in the hands of the movers and shakers in your world.
Also, maybe Outcry will help to inspire some of the world's greatest story-tellers to focus more on telling a realistic and joyful journey of survival on the only planet in the known universe capable of keeping us alive.
