If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them?
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The first thing I’d want to ask aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow is, “What, if anything, did Star Trek get right?”
But realistically, the first thing I’d actually ask is, “Why now?” I’d want to know why they chose this specific moment in 2026 to visit us.
I want to believe in extraterrestrial life and UFOs. In fact, I’ve only had one experience in my life that I could genuinely consider a potential UFO encounter—and I don’t mean little green men, but rather something in the sky that moved like nothing I’d ever seen before.
Many years ago, back when X1 and I were still dating, we were driving back to college late at night on a dark, mostly deserted country road surrounded by farmland. Off to my right, I noticed a row of six or eight lights in a straight line, swaying back and forth like a pendulum as they gradually dropped closer to the ground. I couldn’t make out a physical craft, just the lights.
Thinking it was weird, I slowed down to get a better look. As I decelerated, the lights drifted closer to the ground—and that’s when I completely freaked out. Suddenly, the lights shot off into the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, moving with a speed and trajectory I have never seen anything match before or since. If that wasn’t an unidentified flying object, I don’t know what was.
I’d be utterly fascinated by an actual visitation. It would easily be the biggest event in human history, forever altering our perception of the universe and our place in it. Everything we think we know would have to be reconsidered.
Of course, then you watch a movie like Fire in the Sky where people get abducted and experimented on, and that stuff straight-up terrifies me.
On the other hand, you have to figure that any species capable of crossing interstellar space wouldn’t just be hundreds or thousands of years ahead of us technologically—they’d be hundreds of thousands of years ahead. To a civilization like that, we’d probably look the way cavemen look to 21st-century humans: a mild curiosity, mostly harmless, or perhaps just a specimen to be poked, prodded, and scientifically cataloged.
If they looked at us at all, they’d probably just think, “Ah, so this is what we were like thousands of years ago.” They’d likely be far more interested in our ecosystem, utterly perplexed by the way we’re actively contaminating our own planet and looking right past us.
Still, looking at the world today in 2026 and the absolute shit-show of our political landscape, I have to wonder why they’d drop in now. Maybe they’d feel like they have to intervene. Or, in the worst-case scenario, they’d just take one look at our mess, feel deeply sorry for us, and quietly turn right back around.
Note: Today’s rhythm looks a little different. Episode 8 of Rebuilding Rob: The Podcast—a raw look at a recent wreck and an unexpected legacy—is live right now on Spotify and YouTube. Later this morning at 10:00 AM, the accompanying post goes up on the blog. Take a listen whenever you’re ready.
Rebuilding a life takes grit, consistency, and a lot of ‘Option C’ thinking. Having crossed the 1,000-day milestone, I’m now charting the territory beyond. The mission remains the same: No glitz. Just the work. New to the blog? Start your journey here to see the blueprint and the ‘Tricorder’ perspective behind the rebuild.
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- Episode 3.8 Too Dumb To Quit is LIVE!
- Why Now? (And What Star Trek Got Wrong About First Contact)
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- Fortune favors the bold
- Act Like You’ve Been There 
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Thr article “Why Now? (And What Star Trek Got Wrong About First Contact) first appeared on Rebuilding Rob
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