Was the answer to why aliens have yet to make open contact with humanity found in Alvin Toffler’s 45-year-old book? Is it revealed in the revelation “Future Shock” why the extraterrestrial flirts with humanity but does not engage us? Do they realize that humans can’t handle too much reality too soon? Would encountering the alien bring about the Future’s Premature Arrival?
In 1970, author Alvin Toffler developed an idea so profound that its ramifications are still felt as we progress through time. “Future Shock” is a physical and mental confusion caused by an inability to cope with rapid or sudden change. As Toffler puts it so plainly, it is “a negative individual and society psychological state.” It occurs when too much change is presented in too short a period of time.”
Our ability to “take in” such complicated information and insight may be limited by biological, cultural, and other factors. Too much “different” information received too rapidly places an undue strain on our abilities to notice and reason. We would be terrified, and our decision-making abilities would degrade. We may even become unreasonable as a result. As humans, we do not always welcome radical change, and we prefer the familiar. We lack the necessary mechanisms for dealing with the cosmic.
EXPERIENCEING THE ALIEN IS EXPERIENCING THE FUTURE
To encounter the extraterrestrial is, by definition, to encounter the future. They have an immediate advantage if they come here rather than us visiting them. This suggests they are both an ancient and a future race. Their evolution and history are far older in comparison to ours, but they are also of the “future.” It’s a paradigm that would damage even the wisest of minds.
An open contact act would “collide” past, the present, and the future in ways that “aren’t yet meant to be.” Meeting the extraterrestrial and witnessing its technology and culture would be like living in Distant Time and the Far Future. Meeting folks who are older and more advanced than us in the present is the ultimate disturbance of the flow of time itself. Things are not supposed to unfold in this manner.
It would not be fascinating or adventurous to be thrown forward 100,000 years and experience the world to come in a world older than our own. It would be a terrifying experience. Because our wiring is tight and our minds are not pliable, our ability to handle this would be doubtful. People who are overwhelmed by change struggle and disintegrate. They may feel excluded and left behind, as well as frustrated, jealous, and ineffective. They may grow suspicious and fearful.
GETTING TO KNOW “FUTURE BEINGS”
Many people like speculating, studying, and examining UFOs. However, for many people, the “object” itself would be too disruptive. That is, while most people can think about UFOs, most people would not want their families to be carried up in one. We feel at ease contemplating the extraterrestrial, but few would have the audacity to sit one at the dinner table.
We have a quaint notion of UFOs as simple nuts and bolts – but we are not yet prepared to fathom their actual nature as things yet to be.
These aliens, or future beings, are most likely aware of this. They are aware of the negative consequences:
Recognizing the alien would imply that there are folks who are older than humanity and smarter than us on every level. They’ve been there and done it before. In comparison, our past is brief and unimportant. We’d learn in an instant that we’re not the center of everything. Would we, as individuals and as a group, question or belittle our worth and importance in the Universe? To constantly feel “lesser”? What would it be like to be a student forever and never a teacher?
DESIRE FOR THY NEIGHBOR’S GOODS
Maybe we wouldn’t be their students. Perhaps they would refuse to share. And this can generate more problems than if they introduced us to the things of “future life” quickly.
Unshared technology causes worry and suspicion. Every War Department is aware of this. The alien is well aware that mankind would seek and compete for his future commodities. In recent years, a new field of study known as “Disruptive Technologies” has emerged. A “disruptive technology” is one that is fundamentally and monumentally superior to past or existing technologies, causing mass obsolescence and necessitating mass change. The alien does not want technology transfer since they know it would “transfer” humanity in ways that would be disruptive and unpleasant for the time being.
As much as technology has liberated us, it is also gradually killing us. We have yet to learn how to use technology properly. We wrap ourselves and our children in it. And when we connect with it, we lose touch with the pulse of life. We are hastening the weaponization of technology. And in order to obtain technology, we pollute our air, soil, water, and food with lethal toxins. We plunder the Earth, which sustains us. The visiting alien must be long-term – and they know we aren’t.
ALVIN’S EXPECTATIONS
Alvin Toffler accurately predicted ‘future things’ that have both helped and injured humanity over four decades ago, such as:
The rise of internet communities (i.e. Twitter, FaceBook, online forums)
Through hyper-connections, the ability to learn about events as they occur anywhere in the world (i.e. CNN, online news)
An increase in the frequency of large-scale environmental disasters (i.e. oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon BP spill)
Isolation of children engulfed by personal technology (i.e. video games, smartphones)
An increase in public meltdowns (i.e. school shootings, road rage)
Toffler’s analysis demonstrates foresight. And this understanding may be applied to all things Alien.
ALIENATION
Alvin Toffler, who is still active at the age of 85, is a Futurist. He describes himself as having experienced “cultural shock.” He has “had the same abrupt dislocation that some tourists feel when unexpectedly thrust into an alien culture – such as being flying to an exotic foreign place.”
True “alienation” would occur if that culture was introduced to our territory without our permission — and not on our timeline. Perhaps it would be too much, too soon…
