Spacing Out

"It wasn't a man or an animal - it was something different," recalled Katia Andrade, one of three women who claimed to have encountered an extraterrestrial creature in a small town in Brazil.

The creature was oily, rubbery, had brown skin and three protrusionsSomething that sticks out. from its head. It stank horrendously. And, according to the women, it appeared to be in terrible pain.

The incident took place more than two decades ago now, but has come back into public consciousness due to a new documentary released this year. It is among a series of sightings which scientists are using to spark debates about alien ethics.

The Brazil "alien" is a key piece of proof. If such an alien existed and it had been suffering, this would prove its sentienceThe ability to experience feelings and sensations. - that it could feel pain and pleasure just as humans can.

According to animal ethicist Peter Singer, this means that we would be morally obliged to think about its feelings - "in other words, the pain of an extraterrestrial counts as much as the pain of an Earthling".

But discussions about legal and ethical rights for aliens are hard to hold. International authorities rarely have open conversations about the possibility of extraterrestrial life, let alone how we can protect it.¹

Some think there is no such point in such conversations anyway. Whilst some high-profile scientists believe that the earth is not the only part of the universe to sustain life, many experts say there is no evidence that there is any alien life out there.

Aliens have long captivated people. In films like 1982's E.T and 2016's Arrival, for example, the main characters relate to alien intruders who reflect their own feelings of being an outsider and ultimately turn out to be well-meaning. Today, some think we can look to aliens to learn more about ourselves.

Yes: There is no way of telling if or when aliens will arrive, but it is fair to assume that it will happen one day. We need to be prepared for the eventuality, so that we do not let fear overcome our strong ethical values.

No: We want aliens to exist because it helps us to feel less alone in this universe. But the idea that another intelligent lifeform could help us understanding the meaning of our lives is nothing but fanciful thinking.

Or... Even if we never make contact with any other lifeforms in the universe, developing a unified consensus on how to deal with alien ethics could help us to understand our own sense of ethics.