"Disclosure Day" and What our Species Might Learn from an Arrival of Extra-Terrestrials*
"Either this nation shall kill racism, or racism shall kill this nation." (S. Jonas, August 2018)
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"How do you spell ICE in German? GESTAPO." (S. Jonas, July 2025)
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"First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
"Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
"Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me." Pastor Martin Niemoller (c. 1946)
UFO's (Unidentified Flying Objects), now also referred to as UAP's (Unidentified aerial phenomenae), have once again become all the rage, after some decades of high level (if I may use that term) on and off interest on them. In fact, there is a comprehensive U.S. Federal government report on the various unexplained sightings that have occurred over many years. There of course have been fictional treatments of such possible happenings going back at least as far as H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" (1898).
One such visit (fictional or other) occurred in 1966. It was made to the creator of the original Star Trek series, Gene Roddenberry. The visitors in that instance shared much information with Mr. Roddenberry. Another known visit was to George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, in 1977. We also know few of the details of that one, other than that it was a much shorter one. Then there was Steven Spielberg's "E.T.", 1982. But let's start back in 1966. The far-ranging visitors, which from here on shall be referred to as The Visitors, seeking a highly creative mind among the Earthlings, had somehow been able to get in touch with Mr. Roddenberry. He arranged to meet them on the highly secretive, but much discussed, "Area 51" in Nevada. The Visitors shared with Mr. Roddenberry (who left us in 1991) many of the important details of their space travels. In fact, what they shared with him provided the basis for the whole of the original Star Trek series.
As for the visit with Mr. Lucas, who is still very much alive, as of yet very little is known about what transpired in it, and how much of the inspiration for the "Star Wars" series came from it. But for sure, we do know that a C-3PO translator/interpreter-type robot (who spoke/understood about 6,000,000 interstellar languages) was on the Visitors' ship, and did indeed enable them to converse with Mr. Lucas, just as it did enable the Visitors to converse with Mr. Roddenberry when they met with him back in 1966. And it is certainly from that being that Mr. Lucas got the inspiration for the C-3PO of the Star Wars movies. (It should be noted that, unfortunately for all concerned, it seems that no interpreters of any sort accompanied the visitors-from-[our]-outer space in Steven Spielberg's new "visitors-from-outer-space" movie "Disclosure Day.")
There indeed lots and lots of planets in the universe. (And when I say "lots," see those links for lots of zeros after a "1.") It should be no surprise then that there are numerous planets that have the ability to support intelligent species, indeed on some having an intelligence that is way beyond the intelligence (or lack thereof) that our species has. (See, e.g., the review of such possibilities in the second end note** below.) It thus it should come as no surprise that sometime ago one of those super-intelligent species ("super-intelligent" compared to ourselves, that is) on one of those many planets which could support such life, set out to find out if there were other planets out there which also had intelligent species, and what they were like. That is that their task was/is, as it was for the (mainly) humans in the Star Trek series: "to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before!"
But, in Mr. Spielberg's new movie they come here (as E.T. did in his earlier visitor-from-outer-space movie). There is no explanation in the movie for why they chose, or possibly randomly-alighted-upon, our planet. As noted, a major part of the story of the movie concerns a plot by the leading human characters in it, centered in the U.S. Department of Defense and a "consulting company" it uses, to prevent a "Reveal" of the visitors from out space. The reason for that prevention is in my mind rather weak --- it seems that the USDOD and the private company thought that any "reveal" would provide "too much of a shock" for our species. If any reasons were given for that assumption (and there might have been one or more provided in the script), I missed it.
At least in the story-so-far, the mission of the space-vessel of one sort or another (we do not see it) which brought the from-outer-space visitors to us in "Disclosure Day," is not to revealed to the humans who encounter it on Earth (although perhaps that revelation will be made in a sequel). Nor is just what the mission of the visitors is, revealed. They had been imprisoned, in what would appear to be very uncomfortable quarters/restraints, by the private company that had been tasked for doing the detention. (As an aside, one criticism that I have of the film is that the visitors are portrayed as cartoon-character aliens. If real visitors-from-outer-space were at some time to make an appearance from the vast depths of Space, it is hard to imagine that they would look like cartoons. [Although who knows? They might.]) But that is hardly the biggest weakness of this film. Which is the question why, given all the planets in the Universe, the Visitors would want to come here. For, if they got to Earth, they presumably could, or did, get to lots of other places.
On all the planets they visited it is likely that there was evidence of life beginning much as it had on Earth, progressing from one-celled animals to one or more intelligent species. And then, it is likely that as the intelligent species began to spread over the surface of the planet on which it had developed, it turned out that there was one characteristic, just one, of those that distinguished between those intelligent species that survived indefinitely and those that did not. It was really very simple, but it is the discoveries made on Star Trek voyages of the Visitors that confirmed it.
The intelligent species that survived indefinitely were those whose members developed ways and means of working together over time, with their environment and with the other species on their planet, to ensure indefinite survival. The intelligent species that did not survive were those which, for one reason or another, became self-destructive, as species. That is, they engaged in intra-species, aggressive, violent behaviors which, combined with the effects of those behaviors on the other species on the planet, and on the natural resources of the planet themselves, eventually led to their own disappearance. That is, in this projection at least, visitors-from-other-planets would find that on those planets where the intelligent species became self-destructive, that species would also, directly or indirectly, for one reason or another, eventually destroy a significant number of the other species on the planet, as well as gradually using up certain natural resources found on their planet without which survival was impossible.
As it happens, coincidentally, in the past I have described the self-destructiveness of the human species and have speculated on why that series of events has occurred here, on our planet. In sum, that process begins with the development of the private ownership of the means of conversion of natural resources to human-useful substances and products, then to private ownership of the means of production, and then the development of the means by which the private owners make sure that their ownership remains theirs.
As well, I have described what I called the "suicidal process" by which our species will eventually destroy certain natural resources that are essential to our survival. But that is not my primary point here. It is rather about what we ca/might learn from such visitors as make their appearance in "Disclosure Day," if we choose to do so. That is, to repeat, we can assume that in research by such visitors so far, at least, on no planet on which an intelligent species, leading to the development of what we call "civilization," has evolved, which then becomes self-destructive, has "civilization" or its equivalent, lasted for more than a few Earth-millennia.
It is likely then, that such visitors (including those who appear in "Disclosure Day") would tell us that rarely have they found on a random planet a species that became self-destructive, that then managed to recover, in order to survive indefinitely. They have not yet shared with us the secrets of how that survival might be achieved (if such secrets are available). Hopefully, as some point in the not-too-distant future such visitors will appear. Or, given that there are numerous earthly authorities who have already figured that out, maybe we will indeed be able to save the planet, and ourselves, and as many of the myriad other species on it, as well.
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Post-notes:
1. This column is based in part on a previous column of mine concerning "extra-terrestrials:" Click Here
2. ** For a scientific commentary on the possibility of: a) "extra-terrestrials" existing, and b) a mission of/to it/them happening to make an excursion to the planet we call "Earth," see: Click Here