If we find them in this universe, even an alien would be made up of the same stuff as we are.
Look up a photo of an octopus. It looks pretty damn different. But it’s still made up of the same stuff as us. Carl Sagan once used the analogy of a starfish, a creature equally incredibly stellar and strange. What about whales, seahorses, or even pandas? Picture them, then humans. Now, dinosaurs and crocodiles. Back to us. There's a lot of weird and wild stuff right here on earth, smack dab on our little rock. But when it comes right down to it, we’re all the same stuff. Even the rocks. We’re atoms.
Out of the trillions of galaxies out there each with their own 100 billion stars, solar systems, and possible habitable planets. There is a great probability some form of life exists out there. Maybe they’re some oddly shaped creatures in a foreign planetary sea or a thriving civilization that’s spacefaring and brilliant beyond our human capability and imagination. We here are all a little crazy, but we’ve done some pretty impressive things — if I do say so my human self.
Either way, theoretical aliens and humans (and starfish) are all part of the same cosmic experience. This makes me wonder if one day when we finally meet or discover life from a distant galaxy, we’ll start to have issues about the word alien. When we say us, we usually mean humans. But everything is us. Life is us. We’re all us! Unified by life and the universe.
We have human rights, some animal rights, all sorts of rights.. but would aliens be worthy of rights?
What if they’re ugly and unintelligent? Would we only appreciate them if they were smart and bewilderingly beautiful? What kind of human love would they deserve?
To give rights is to give love. Rights organizations are our way of enforcing and governing love — a moral authority on our world. A guide and a push towards what ought to and should be loved. But it’s not distributed equally… and what gives us humans the right to decide what gets rights? (Simply because we can?) There’s certainly a long list of life forms on this planet that don’t have rights. There are things here that aren’t worthy of our human love care and protection. And might never have a fighting chance…
Ants. Flies. Rats. Most insects, aside from some butterflies. But only the beautiful and colorful ones. (Not the ugly moth types). Beautiful or things with favorable traits typically get rights and respect in general. Plants too. If it’s a pretty plant we like. The ugly plants are called weeds, and then we spray them with poison and yank them up by their life supply. Some bees. But not those junk bees — the ones by the garbage cans or bothering us at the picnic. Those are horrible. Squirrels are fine in the backyard, but not welcome in the house. Spiders are to be squashed and feared. If it’s really big, you call in for backup for another person to come smash it. Some fish. But most are fair game to catch, kill, and enjoy on a plate. Whales have rights, but we used to hunt them for a thrill. Some of the birds… fire a bullet at an American Bald Eagle and you could find yourself in prison for 2 years and 250,000 dollars in debt. Plus you’re an unamerican asshole for the rest of your natural life. Dogs and cats obviously have a heap of rights and love too.
Those are just a few. You get the picture?!
Not done. Let’s talk about rats… we are allowed to wage chemical warfare with rats, but homeless “unhoused” people who rummage through trash like gargantuan rodents and cause a mess on city streets are to be treated with respect (or at least sympathy), simply because they are human and rats are rats. It’s a testament to how much we prefer our humankind. I’m not saying I think we should call the Orkin Man on homeless folks, but perhaps in the future, there is a better way to respect the life forms of rats. Maybe find a way to love rats… but maybe I’ve just watched the Pixar film Ratatouille too many times.
To love can merely be to live and let be.
Giving rights is a power we possess on earth over the other forms of life. Rational fear and common sense play a role here too.
Frankly, a wild lion doesn’t care about human rights. He’d kill a human and couldn’t care less while he’s gnawing away on your raw meats in the Serengeti. To some species, you are a potential meal. You can’t bring a hippopotamus to court and have a debate and make a case to his fellow community of other hippopotamuses that ripping a man limb-from-limb in the pond was an injustice and wrong. We can’t have a meeting with the mosquitoes about malaria. Some things aren’t negotiable.
So we decide which forms of life have rights and how we want to love it.
Human survival is paramount, but it does come at the taxing expense of our environment and other species.
But our survival only matters to humans. Not the rest of the universe.
So what’s more important? Love or survival?
We are both inclined to love and inclined to survive. Two things that can become at odds. Or is it better to say that we are programmed to survive and learning to love?
Acting in love and out of survival requires a balance and an awareness of what is critical and necessary. Fighting and improving the quality of our own human life and living as a loving creature is complicated.
What’s the solution? Should we just stop eating and lay down in the dirt in the name of universal love and let the bugs eat us? Hell no. I won’t be starting that cult.
Maybe it’s all an absurd paradoxical thing to think about. What’s the point of love or life or anything if we’re not here to experience it? Why do we even want to be here and exist in the first place?
I don’t have the answers. But I do know that experiencing love in my life makes me want to keep surviving. The kindness, trust, and friendships on the road to love — are what make life joyous, wonderful and worthwhile.
At the very least, perhaps considering and contemplating all of this can put us on a path to loving each other a little better.
Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go kill a centipede. (He’s gross and I don’t care if he’s one of us.)