1677. Stopping to recharge

When a fleet of alien spacecraft appeared over a hill outside Marco’s window, he was lucky enough to have his camera handy. Strangely, his camera jammed after the first shot was taken. It had never jammed before. However, all who saw the photograph agreed; it was the clearest snapshot to date of alien space craft.

These craft were more like flying bubbles than flying saucers. Extraordinary! One by one, in turn, each space craft settled on the electricity cables that swept down from the hilltop. Each craft would nestle on the wires for no longer than ten to fifteen seconds, and then would move to the side to allow the next bubble to, presumably, recharge.

When all was done, the fleet of craft came closer to Marco’s window, and while each bubble seemed to spin on its axis, the whole bunch twirled around like planets encircling a sun, and then… disappeared. It was as if they were saying goodbye to Marco. He was both excited, and more than a little bit moved, to have been chosen to be the witness to such an event. And, he added, they made a gentle whooshing sound.

Marco showed the photograph to his local member of Parliament who assured Marco it would be passed on to the appropriate experts. In the meantime, the photo on social media had gone through the roof.

About a week later the experts made an announcement: the photograph was fake. It had been tampered with by some graphics program. The bubbles were the result of manipulation. It was not a photograph of alien craft at all, but a humdrum picture fiddled with by a mindless idiot. Case settled.

Such an outcome was exactly what the aliens had intended.

965. Fermi paradox

Joseph had spent seven years pondering little other than the Fermi paradox. It was his job as a scientist. Every morning he would go to work and for eight hours would ponder the Fermi paradox. Then he would come home and prepare dinner and still think of nothing other than the Fermi paradox.

The Fermi paradox deals with the contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life and the high probability of the existence of alien intelligent life. If the universe is so big, then it’s sensible to say there is intelligent life way in advance of ourselves. But where are they?

Joseph pondered this question day after day, year after year. Like most things there could be a simple solution. And then Joseph became overwhelmingly obsessed by it. He went to see a psychiatrist.

“Do something else in the evenings,” said the psychiatrist. “Take up a hobby. Get your mind to think on other things.”

So Joseph took up knitting in the evenings. It was while following a knitting pattern that Joseph saw the answer. It had been staring him in the face all along.

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