The Question Isn't Why Do I Believe in Aliens, It's Why Don't You.

To the delight of space nerds and alien conspiracy theorists everywhere, Nasa recently discovered that there is water on Mars. Whilst some took this to mean that Mars could some day be habitable to humans, it seemed the thoughts of most went immediately to the possibility of alien life.

There is a very stereotypical view of what aliens should look like: brightly coloured skin, huge pupil-less eyes, sucker pad fingertips. And of course if they ever did arrive, they would speak perfect English whilst clutching onto futuristic laser guns. Whoever came up with the original concept of what aliens would look like didn't exactly use their imagination to it's full ability. What are the odds of aliens having two arms, legs, and eyes? Then there is the other end of the spectrum, the people who believe in the concept of extra-terrestrial life but insist that they'd only be bacteria or microbial. Perhaps such an explanation is more scientifically sound, but why dream of bacteria when you could imagine lilac slime, a hundred polka dot tusks, or an iridescent floating eye the size and shape of a pineapple?

All this talk about aliens got me thinking about how different places would react to the arrival of extra-terrestrial intelligent life. The human race seems to find it hard enough accepting different skin colours, and we managed to oppress an entire half of the population for thousands of years, so who knows what could happen if we encountered something as 'other' as aliens.

Presumably, America would take control and try to establish contact. There would be invitations to the White House to meet the President and the UN, although of course the entire US army would be on hand in case anything went wrong. Russia would probably try and use nuclear weapons. There would be a reality tv show, a book, and a world tour. China would immediately begin manufacturing innovative alien merchandise and set up group tours of the landed spacecraft. David Cameron would probably use the chaos as an opportunity to sneakily cut benefits and healthcare in the hopes no-one would notice. I wouldn't be surprised if the internet exploded from the sheer amount of articles, memes, and fanfiction that would inevitably be unleashed. Every post on the aliens' Facebook page would be filled with an onslaught of desperate requests for them to 'Come to Brazil!!', and they would receive both adoring compliments and death threats on Twitter. Someone would create the 'Alien challenge' to cover our social media feeds and there would be Kickstarter campaign to provide homes for the aliens. And all the while, Putin would be planning, and waiting. And on the final night of the Alien world tour, he would tell Obama an hour before of his plan and proceed to blow up the entire stadium. Our short fascination with alien life would be over and we would mourn the tragedy, but we would survive, and we would know that we were not alone.

Whether aliens would ever come to Earth or not, and whether they're bacteria or intelligent beings, the universe is infinite and it would take a certain kind of egoism to believe Earth is the only planet where there is life. The real question isn't: 'Why do I believe in aliens?', it's: 'Why don't you?'.