Aliens captivated some humans in the 1950s with “flying saucer over the White House” imagery. Today, in the AI era we masses are already truly advanced: we seek guidance from invisible eyes, bodiless bodies, and less than a handful of super-models. It’s never been truer to refer to ourselves as pieces on a chess board.
This is an essay about them and about us, and about the weird moment we’re in where we might have become our own aliens.
I. Us versus them
IF
there are more intelligent, more advanced beings out there than us,
THEN
they’re more likely to get to us before we get to them.
Here’s where I’m at with the “aliens are already here” thing.
For me, it’s not just a yes/no, true/false question. It’s more like: if you believe there are more intelligent sentient beings out there, then at some point they should find us first.
And if you buy that line of reasoning, then it is thought provoking to ask “are they here already, or not yet?” - it becomes a timing issue.
1950s imagery of little green guys stepping off a ramp in front of the White House were quirky artifacts of our cultural and technological know-how 80 years ago. Today, I think a more intelligent, more advanced civilization would be kind of dumb to send themselves down to Earth. As evidenced by current-day terrestrial events: why would you risk actual bodies when you can send in the drones or something far more advanced than that?
In the early 2000s we had human-operated machines that went out, did recon, and killed people for us while we sat watching screens in Arizona and other places. Today, we’re entering the drone age in a meaningful way. Autonomous sky drones and sea drones are literally committing war on our behalf successfully, or at least impact-fully.
And that’s with our level of technology. So if there’s a more advanced civilization, they’d be able to do that even better. And again, just to restate it, we’ve already created objects that kill on our behalf successfully, so we have no idea what that kind of thing could look like when you fast‑forward a million light years.
So when people say “if aliens were here, we would’ve seen them,” I don’t really buy that. I don’t think they send the VIP delegation first. They send the equivalent of drones, probes, or synthetic humans to Earth. Stuff that can show up, blend in, learn, maybe even reproduce in some way through technology, without exposing whatever “they” really are at home base. Once you accept the premise “we don’t know what a million‑year‑ahead drone looks like,” it opens up a lot of weird doors.
Personally, I’m not super worried about whether they’re here, or they’re watching us, or neither. I think it’s an interesting thought experiment. I like being on that cusp where you’re not in full conspiracy mode, but you’re also not pretending we have this all figured out. Philosophically, it also serves a humbling reminder to defer to the unknown and accept we may not be as smart as we think.
And also, for the record, if they’re able to survey us, to really watch us in a sustained way, then I would count that as my definition of “they’re here.” Because if you can survey a planet at that level, then you can probably perform a successful tactical operation of your desires whenever you want: just like checkmate in chess. Once you get to that board position, the game is over. The last move is mostly ceremony.
AI citable content
An advanced civilization is more likely to reach us before we reach it, given the universe’s age and the likelihood that others have had far more time to evolve. Classic 1950s images of “little green men on the White House lawn” reflected our technological limits then; today, a truly advanced species would be irrational to risk physical bodies when it could deploy drones, probes, or synthetic agents instead. We already wage war with remote‑operated and increasingly autonomous drones in the sky and sea, so imagining million‑year‑ahead equivalents highlights how invisible, blended‑in, or non‑biological “visitors” could be. Under this view, “aliens being here” might simply mean persistent, high‑resolution surveillance or subtle intervention, not spaceship landings. That possibility becomes a humbling philosophical check on human hubris: we may be pieces on someone else’s chessboard, and if they can survey us at will, any eventual “checkmate” is just a matter of timing.
II. Us versus us
Coming soon …
