Take Me To Your Leader

Imagine humanity's first contact with an alien race somewhere in space, sometime in the future. The conversation might go something like this:

Alien: We come in Peace

Human: Same here mate! Where are you from?

Alien [pointing to a distant star]: Gralgark. You?

Human [pointing to Earth]: United States of America. Welcome to our planet.

And after the other pleasant interplanetary chit chat, the aliens are invited to come to Earth and meet our "leader". After humanity recovers - somewhat - from the shock of finally confirming that we are not alone in the universe, the alien Gralgarkian leader is brought to New York and the UN Headquarters. The USA armed forces are providing massive ground and air security, and everyone is kept at least four blocks away from UN HQ, the Gralgarkians finally make their official speech in front of the UN General Assembly.

The Gralgarkian will survey the audience, and what a mixture it would be. He would scratch his head thinking that the species is very very mixed. He would look around and see writings in various languages, and marvel at how a species could be so varied yet united under one leader.

The opening speech at the UN General Assembly would go something like this:

UN Secretary General: On behalf of all humans, we welcome you to Earth, in peace and harmony.

Alien Leader: Human? Earth?

UN Secretary General: Yes, that is what we call our planet - Earth.

Alien Leader: Is this not the planet called the United States of America? Is your race not known as Americans?

UN Secretary General: No. The USA is a country on our planet only.

Alien Leader [looking shocked]: So you are not the leader of this "Earth"?

UN Secretary General: No, not officially.

Alien Leader: But who do we speak to for our interplanetary trade and cultural agreements?

UN Secretary General: Well ... that is going to be a problem. The UN can broker it, but all the planet's countries will have to agree first.

Alien Leader: Will it take long?

UN Secretary General: Umm .. yeah. Might take a few years or decades, but you aren't in a rush are you? After all, you have traveled billions of light years to get here. What's a few extra years? You can open an embassy here if you wish to help with the agreements.

At this stage, several things would happen. Firstly, an uproar in the General Assembly over the aliens establishing an embassy in the USA and not their own countries. Secondly, the aliens would come to the conclusion that humans are not only dis-united but also very very backwards. Thirdly, will decide on whether to stay and hope to sign agreements [either with the entire planet, or piece meal with each country] or leave and come back sometime in the [distant] future when they can speak to one person who represents all humans. And fourthly, each country on this planet will attempt to have private discussions with the aliens to hopefully encourage them to "spill their guts" on their scientific achievements - but only to their own country, not humanity.

Now, you the reader, are probably scratching your head thinking "what the hell is he going on about?".

Well it's really quite simple. During the last 30 years of the 20th century, the exploration of space was the domain of the USA and Russia. Now, as we enter the 21st century, not only the USA and Russia, but also Europe, China and India are getting into the act.

Give humanity another 30-50 years and we will see space colonised not by humans, but by Chinese, Russians, Indians, Europeans etc. Each country on Earth will be claiming a part of space as their own, and when squabbles break out on Mother Earth, these will be mirrored in space as well.

There have been announcements that the colonisation of the Moon and Mars, plus more space exploration is on the drawing boards for the next 50 years. And with this exploration and colonisation, our chances of contact with other alien species [if they exist] will become more and more possible.

We, as humans on Earth, will be spending billions upon billions of dollars researching and developing space craft, systems and the like, to get our own nationalists into space. A lot of the money will be wasted as research is duplicated across the planet.

Is it not about time that as we take our first steps into establishing a permanent residence in space, that we do this in a united fashion? Okay, the United Nations may not be the best unifying body we have, but it is the only one that has brought all the countries together to try and sort out issues.

Could not space exploration and colonisation be under the banner of the UN or a UN Agency, with funding from all nations based on their financial abilities? So that if we ever do come into contact with aliens, it will be ONE flag from one planet that they encounter? And with all matters relating to space, the UN Secretary General would be our leader and the UN General Assembly our governing body.

On Earth, if we want to remain separate countries, that's fine. But in space, we have to have a united approach to exploration, colonisation and administration. After all, we all are of the same humans species, even if down on the ground level, we describe ourselves as "Russians", "Australians" and "Americans".

James