8 Things That Would Happen If We Made Alien Contact

4. Unity, Peace And Love

Speaking of the philosophical impacts, there are those who think that the discovery of alien life might actually lead to an age of unprecedented peace amongst men. Before you get too excited, this is mainly because we'd all have a new enemy to hate. As a species, we love a bit of tribalism. We're programmed to fear difference and band together in the face of the "other". This has led to bloodier and bloodier wars ever since we figured out how to throw rocks at one another. However, the discovery of an entirely new and different species of intelligent being might force us to begin shining a light on our similarities rather than our differences. Depending on the nature of our relations with the aliens, we might not even have the choice. In the face of a hostile invasion force, it rather behooves the human race to forget about who has slightly more melanin in their skin and work together to fend off the many-headed super-race invading our planet to mine the calcium from our bones (for example). Even if the incoming aliens are friendlier and/or less interested in harvesting our bodies for materials, the existence of a species that we would consider to be "on our level" and yet different, would still force us to ponder what it means to be a human, what do we all share that defines us as a species?