A Plan to Hide Humanity from Hostile Aliens

The new PARLA laser in operation at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. The yellow-orange beam of the brilliant seven watt laser is seen emerging from the dome of Unit Telescope 4 of the Very Large Telescope. In the background the Large Magellanic Cloud can also be seen. The laser creates an artificial star high in the atmosphere that can be used to correct images for the turbulence of the air and form much sharper pictures. (Credit: atacamaphoto.com/ESO) Earth is a bountiful planet rich in resources. And, if you believe Stephen Hawking, that might cause our demise. Such alien alarmists compare first contact to the devastation Europeans brought to North America. “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet," Hawking said back in 2010. "I imagine they might exist in massive ships ... having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.” And, in a scientific paper that sounds like it came into the world scribbled on a barroom napkin, Columbia University’s David Kipping and Alex Teachey now propose that humanity could hide its presence from these hostile aliens — with lasers. Their paper, “A cloaking device for transiting planets,” was published online March 30 in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.