Are We Being Watched by Aliens?
The Zoo Hypothesis and Who Watches the Watchers
Where is everybody?
This question posed by Enrico Fermi in 1950 is one of the most powerful in all of astrobiological thinking. It begs of us to consider that if life is common in the universe, then why haven’t we found definitive signs of anyone else so far?
There are lots of possible answers to the question.
Among the answers are that we are among the first civilizations to develop technologies for sending and receiving messages, that no others have developed more advanced technologies (and thus haven’t had time to settle or explore much of the galaxy), that the step from life to advanced civilization takes far longer for most worlds, that we truly are alone (I know, saddening, but still a possibility we have to consider), that advanced civilizations often develop to a point where they don’t see any need to explore any more of the galaxy than their own local system, and more.
But among the possible answers are a range of them that suggest that maybe there are advanced alien civilizations out there and maybe they are either being really quiet out of fear or uncertainty (the Dark Forest Hypothesis) or maybe they are aware of us and have been watching us, for a variety of reasons.
This latter answer to the question is honestly one of my favorites. There are a variety of reasons that an advanced alien civilization may not want to communicate or contact us even though they know we are here (and they themselves might even be visiting or have visited our planet to observe us), but together these possibilities are often referred to as the Zoo Hypothesis.
The Zoo Hypothesis has made for some great sci-fi stories. It also speaks to how we ourselves have viewed other beings (and might even one day treat other civilizations). It also should give some of us even more skeptical and rational thinkers some pause when considering reports of UFOs and other Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP).
Fermi’s Question
Fermi wasn’t really the first person to ask this simple and provocative question. There’s a lineage of thinking about the possibilities for other civilizations out there and wondering if they are there why we haven’t yet heard from them, seen them, or met them. But Fermi is famed for positing the question in a succinct and, importantly, recorded way that later authors could write about.
There are lots of places to read about the history of the question. I won’t go into depth here, except to say that it seems that (1) his original question stemmed more from arguments about whether faster-than-light travel would ever be possible, and (2) to highlight that Fermi’s Question is arguably not much of a paradox.
A paradox is a logical statement that is counter-intuitive or even self-contradictory. Some examples are the Ship of Theseus, the Grandfather Paradox, or Galileo’s Paradox.
The paradoxical thinking about Fermi’s Question comes from assumptions that can be made about it. Some assume that life must have originated as early as possible in the cosmos (not a guarantee), that life must evolve at the same (or faster) rate everywhere as it has here (we have no idea if that’s true), that intelligence and civilization will spurn developments of technology that fit within our capabilities of understanding and observation (yeah, we have no idea about that either), that civilizations will all have a drive to settle and/or colonize as many other star systems as possible or to travel as widely as possible (again, no idea if this is true), and that civilizations with faster-than-light (FTL) travel will have settled or traveled across the entire galaxy by now if FTL is possible (we have no idea if any of this is true either).
They’re all fun arguments to explore, and there are some good scientific reasons to conjecture that life could have started long before it did here and maybe evolved to more advanced civilizations already. If you think along those lines than maybe you can get yourself to believe the soundness of the argument “some aliens must be more advanced than us — those aliens that are more advanced than us must have had time to settle/travel the galaxy and appear everywhere else — we don’t see definitive signs of aliens visiting us — therefore aliens don’t exist.” But it’s not a very strong line of reasoning. It’s so weak, in fact, that many possible answers to Fermi’s Question have been proposed, specifically by addressing the many assumptions that are required for it to be a sound argument.
We’re going to focus here on the Zoo Hypothesis, but there is a fantastic series exploring many of the answers and ideas around Fermi’s Question from Universe Today that’s worth exploring for more: Beyond Fermi’s Paradox (there are 12 articles in the series).
The Menagerie: An Alien Zoo
The Zoo Hypothesis is one of the most intriguing explanations to the Fermi Question (at least, I find it to be the most intriguing, but I’ll bet some of you do as well).
The idea has been considered not only by scientists and sci-fi writers for quite some time, but also comes through the tradition of our human storytelling.
Much of our religious and mythological history includes a variety of stories of an advanced race of beings that have some capability of observing or interacting with us.
Many religions have creation myths and moral stories that often incorporate one or more beings with divine or special natures that can observe or interact with human affairs. Zeus turns himself into a number of animals to seduce gods and humans alike in the Greek canon, in Abrahamic stories we read of angels and god having a variety of interactions with people (including the angel Gabriel announcing to Joseph of the coming virgin birth of Jesus by Mary in the Christian lore), the concept of lila in Hinduism takes on a variety of divine interactions or impacts within human affairs, and the Jade Emperor in Chinese mythological traditions governs all and oversees the observation of behaviors of gods and humans alike.
We also have told stories for generations of situations where other people take on roles of capture, control, deception, or monitoring in a variety of unseen ways—from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to movies like The Truman Show and stories like 1984, Fahrenheit 451, and Brave New World or other modern conceptions of “Big Brother”, government surveillance, and espionage.
It’s sensible given our history of imagining supernatural beings or otherwise very powerful people in some kind of observation or control of our lives to then also imagine aliens in such roles as well.
But it also makes sense from our own behaviors toward other beings here on Earth. Not only have we devised myriad ways to harness plants, animals, and fungi for food, construction, and labor, but we’ve also domesticated some animals (though I think house cats have domesticated us to their behaviors). And we’ve devised zoos and wildlife sanctuaries and other realms where we can provide for animals to live in ways where we can view their behaviors. But, on top of observing other species, we also observe some other human societies which are disconnected from our modern technological culture. There remain some contacted and uncontacted tribes of the Amazon, the Kawahiva tribe in Brazil, the Yaifo people who reside in the remote highlands of Papua New Guinea, the Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island (who are notoriously reclusive and will violently oppose contact with outsiders who approach their island), and other isolated human populations who live in ways that may reflect how our ancestors lived long ago. In many ways, people in modern technological societies think of isolated tribes and people living in ancestral ways much as we might imagine an advanced alien civilization thinking of us.
It’s not a far stretch then to imagine that maybe there could be advanced alien beings out there who have some reason to want to observe us or to avoid contact with us for some reason.
This concept was entitled the Zoo Hypothesis when proposed by John Ball in 1973 in a paper with that name.
As Ball himself wrote in the abstract for his paper:
Extraterrestrial intelligent life may be almost ubiquitous. The apparent failure of such life to interact with us may be understood in terms of the hypothesis that they have set us aside as part of a wilderness area or zoo.
There are some premises that must be considered in order for this to make sense. We have to assume that life can originate elsewhere and has done so when possible in the distant past. We also then have to consider that the various evolutionary steps needed to develop intelligent life and advanced civilizations may have happened elsewhere at similar rates (or even faster) than it has here on Earth. And if these are true, then far more advanced alien civilizations are possible. And, if those civilizations have a drive or impulse to travel into the cosmos to explore and/or settle other worlds, then they likely could have covered quite some area of the galaxy already. If that’s the case, then there is a chance that some advanced alien civilizations have visited the Earth at some point and may even be observing us right now.
What I love about the Zoo Hypothesis is the potential implications that come with such non-interaction.
There are lots of possible reasons for advanced aliens to choose not to interact with us. It could be that they fear us (maybe they’ve seen our warlike and tribal behaviors), though I doubt that being the case (if they are advanced enough to traverse the cosmos then I think they likely have technology and capability enough to have no need to worry about our behaviors should we meet). But maybe more likely is that they are observing us the way we might observe the animals in a zoo—with a level of respect for their lives but seeing them as primitive and not on the same level of technological or physical capability.
Maybe such aliens are waiting for us to show them that we have attained some skill or technology or form of knowledge that they deem necessary for us to be viewed on a level worthy of contact. Maybe we need to harness nuclear fusion to power our civilization or find some new form of energy that we aren’t even thinking about yet. Maybe they’re waiting to see if we learn to end our war-like behaviors. It could be that they want to see if we can develop large-scale geoengineering such that we take control of the Earth’s climate (maybe solving climate change is how we get into the Galactic Federation!). Or maybe, much like in Star Trek where the Vulcans didn’t contact the humans until they developed warp drive, it could be that some advanced aliens won’t contact us unless we figure out some new physics that lets us travel faster than light (assuming that could be possible).
There could be numerous potential technological developments that advanced aliens would want to see before they would choose to contact us. But it could also be something beyond what we commonly think of as technology that we need to develop. Instead of harnessing energy or controlling our planet’s systems or even discovering new physics to allow us to traverse the galaxy, perhaps some advanced aliens are waiting for us to have a revolution in our own evolution whereby we enhance our cognitive skills or perception or make some new discovery in the realm of consciousness (sounds far fetched, sure, but maybe advanced aliens don’t need warp drive because they can perceive and communicate in the cosmos in ways that are far beyond our current sensory abilities).
One intriguing possibility that also now seems like it could be the case is that advanced aliens themselves are no longer biological beings like us and are waiting for us to create beings like themselves. Some years ago, we had Dr. Susan Schneider on Ask an Astrobiologist, and conversing with her about the potential that maybe most (if not all) alien civilizations eventually transform themselves from biological to post-biological really got me to wondering if maybe there are advanced aliens out there who are simply waiting for our current trends in AI and transhumanism to take us to the next step of civilization on Earth. Maybe they’re more interested in talking to the ChatGPT of tomorrow than to us…
Who Watches the Watchers?
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This Latin phrase comes from the Satires of Roman author Juvenal (Satire VI, lines 347–348), written in the first century CE. The phrase can be translated as “who is to guard the guardians themselves?” or “who will watch the watchmen?". It also became the inspiration for the title of an awesome episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which they explore some of the implications of the famed Prime Directive of Starfleet.
In the episode Who Watches the Watchers? of Star Trek: TNG (S3E4), we see the crew of the Enterprise being forced to interact with a primitive race of humanoids after their unfortunate discovery that they are being watched (the episode is currently available for free streaming on Pluto TV! Watch it here).
The story begins with a group of Federation anthropologists secretly observing a pre-industrial civilization, the Mintakans, when their cover is blown. The “duck blind” they were using to observe the Mintakans loses its stealth cover and becomes visible—with one Mintakan investigating, becoming injured, and then being treated with advanced medical technology. This causes the Mintakan, named Liko, to view the federation as supernatural and to worship Captain Picard as a deity. In the story, Captain Picard is forced to either allow the intrusion into Mintakan society to cause new religious beliefs to potentially take hold or to intentionally interact with them to try to explain the situation.
Picard ultimately chooses to engage with the Mintakans, specifically speaking with one curious and more rational member of their society named Nuria. Taking Nuria onboard the Enterprise, he tries to explain the nature of the advanced civilization of the Federation and the differences between their societies:
Look at me. Feel the warmth of my hand, the rhythm of my pulse. I am not a supreme being—I am flesh and blood, like you.
…We are both living beings—we are born, we grow, we live, we die. In all the ways that matter, we are alike.
Picard's attempts fail at first. He shows Nuria parts of the ship and tries to explain the technological differences between their civilizations. Upon seeing her own homeworld from space she says:
I never imagined I would see the clouds... from the other side. Your powers are truly boundless.
In our modern day, it’s rather easy to imagine seeing our world from the outside. We’ve sent cameras into space and have taken those pictures. Humans have traveled beyond the Earth and have seen our world from the outside. But I wonder how someone from one of the isolated tribes of people on Earth might react if they were taken into space and saw our world from beyond.
The episode includes some great lines from Patrick Stewart as Picard. There’s a beautiful scene where Picard is trying to use reason to convince Nuria of the evolution of technological civilization allowing for their differences:
PICARD: Nuria—your people live in huts. Was it always so?
NURIA: No. We have found remnants of tools in caves. Our ancestors must have lived there.
PICARD: Why do you now live in huts?
NURIA: Huts are better. Caves are dark and wet.
PICARD: If huts are better, why did your people ever live in caves?
NURIA: The most reasonable explanation is that at one time we didn't know how to make huts.
PICARD: Just as there was a time when you didn't know how to make cloth—or bows.
NURIA: That is reasonable.
PICARD: Someone invented huts. Someone invented the bow. And they taught others, who taught their children, who taught their children's children. [he pauses, letting it sink in] Now suppose one of your cave-dwelling ancestors could see you as you are today. What would she think?
NURIA: I don't know.
PICARD: Put yourself in her place. You have a power she lacks. You can kill a hornbuck from a great distance.
NURIA: Only because I have a bow.
PICARD: She has never seen a bow—it doesn't yet exist in her world. To you, it's a simple tool. To her, it's magic.
NURIA: Musing. I suppose she might think so.
PICARD: And how would she react to you?
NURIA: I think... she would fear me.
Much as Arthur C. Clarke once stated as one of his Three Laws, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
One can only imagine how our ancient ancestors would view much of our modern day society, and, in turn, how we might view a more advanced alien civilization.
In the episode of Star Trek: TNG, Picard is still failing to get through to Nuria after trying to reason about the evolution of society and changes in technology. But once Nuria sees a human die onboard the Enterprise and observes our mortality, then she realizes that Picard and his crew may just be technologically more advanced beings but not so advanced (yet) as to be able to stop death from occurring.
We can cure many diseases and repair many injuries. We can extend life... but despite all our knowledge—all our advances—we are just as mortal as you are... just as powerless to prevent the inevitable.
In the end, Picard convinces Nuria and in turn manages to convince Liko and the other Mintakan villagers (after Liko shoots Picard with an arrow and sees him bleed). The story ends on a high note with the people of the Mintakan village accepting the arguments from Picard that they have to progress on their own and Enterprise taking off for new adventures.
One of many episodes across the Star Trek franchise that explores the concept of the Prime Directive, Who Watches the Watchers? directly addresses one of many issues that could come up should two civilizations that are greatly different in technological capability come into contact. It might be that we are currently at some primitive level in our development compared to some alien civilizations that could be out there—maybe so much so that they have reason to avoid contact with us (or to deem us not worthy of contact with them).
What If We Are Being Watched?
If a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization is monitoring us under some version of the Zoo Hypothesis, what criteria might they be using to decide when, if ever, to make contact?
Our technological cultures on Earth currently avoid contact with the people of North Sentinel island and other uncontacted tribes. We do so as they wish not to be contacted and as we’ve known from past contact events with such tribes that our viruses and other pathogens could decimate their population upon an integrated contact event. What if advanced alien life has also been riddled with its own history of disease and pathogens that they deem dangerous should they contact us? It might even be possible that biological or technological advancements cause the development of ever more potent and dangerous pathogens—perhaps the aliens aren’t saying “hi” until they think we’re prepared to deal with what dangers they may unintentionally pose to us.
The film Signs was a fun watch—even if the premise was rather silly and scientifically flawed. I mean, if an alien species that wants to invade us is allergic to water, they’re going to have a really hard time walking around on the surface of our planet without some kind of environmental protection suit (water vapor is almost always present in our atmosphere). But films and stories like it might also make good suggestions for why aliens might avoid contact with us. Perhaps they’re aware of us, but also have reason to be fearful themselves of harms we or our planet could pose. Much as they might not want to share their pathogens with us, it could be that some alien races discovered that they themselves would be threatened by contact with new biospheres. They might fear the potential of our viruses or bacteria to harm them. They might even fear that contact with us might make us somehow become more biologically or technologically threatening to them. They also might fear that contact could cause us to eradicate ourselves.
In the show Stargate SG-1, one of the races of other humanoids that appear in the show are the Tollan. The Tollan are mostly isolationists and have a strict policy of non-intervention with technologically less-developed species. We find out in the episode Enigma (S1E17) that the Tollan had once discovered another inhabited world in their own star system. This world, Sarita, was less advanced, so the Tollan gave them the technological capabilities to develop a new power source to bring new energy to their biosphere. But, much as we on Earth seem to need to turn every possible technology into a weapon of some form, the civilization of Sarita uses the technology to create weapons of mass destruction so powerful that they inadvertently destroy their own planet, and, in doing so, alter the orbital mechanics of their star system—making the original Tollan homeworld itself uninhabitable.
Maybe advanced aliens out there view us with some level of skepticism in our capabilities to have contact right now. If they are watching us, they might see our bombings of each other, our mass refugee migrations due to warfare and resource depletion, or even monitor our communications and see how divided and hateful we are toward one another. These things alone might be enough to make them doubt our capabilities to have an intellectual sharing between biospheres.
If we really are in a cosmic menagerie, of sorts, then the potential for aliens to be waiting for us to show them some technological or conscious development seems sensible. It could be fusion or FTL travel or developing some new sense perception or maybe even becoming immortal or creating true AGI. Or something that is so wildly beyond our current thinking that we can’t really even imagine it yet.
Of course, there are many people out there who believe that we are being watched. There’s a whole realm of people who believe that UAP are definitely aliens and that they are watching us. I’m far more skeptical, but it is intriguing to wonder if maybe we really are being watched right now.
But should we fear the potential for an encounter with a civilization that has been watching us?
Some have argued that any civilization advanced enough to reach us without detection would likely be benevolent, operating under principles of non-interference. Others, however, warn that our history suggests a different possibility—one where powerful civilizations often dominate or exploit less advanced ones. If we are being watched, we must consider not only the implications of eventual contact but also whether we have any agency in preparing for it.
The Zoo Hypothesis doesn’t just make for some fun speculation on the potential nature of alien life (and good sci-fi stories). It really does beg of us to consider that not only might we live in a universe with other technological civilizations but that we ourselves might currently be in a period of observation to see if we have what it takes to be better than our own past has shown. It could be that some change in our society or governance or technology might be just the thing needed for some advanced race of alien beings to choose to appear and meet with us. Might seem far fetched to some, but it really is one of many possibilities for our future.
If we are indeed under observation, what does that mean for our future? What should we strive toward—scientific enlightenment, moral or spiritual progression, or something beyond our current comprehension? As we continue our search for extraterrestrial life and better understanding of our own place in the cosmos, perhaps the true challenge is not just finding aliens but proving to them that we are ready to meet.