The Aliens and Human Art Hypothesis

What do the aliens do when they come to Earth?

Say we allow them to stay for a long time? For a civilization to travel the stars and reach us, they must have advanced science. If we were to say organic matter, evolved by biological means, meets inorganic matter at some point, aliens must already exist. But what do these inorganic beings, powered by artificial intelligence, do when they get here?

Look to our own times. Throughout history, there wasn't much going on for long stretches of time. Our ancestors turned to some profound anchors that gave them meaning: Religion, Community, Philosophy, Power, and of course, Art. We loved Art. We’ve lived for it and used up our time in the creation and distribution of art. In the recent past, an increasing share of art is generated by inorganic artificial intelligence. "Generate a realistic drawing of tides on the moon, as visible from Earth" stirs up our imagination! But for the inorganic beings, it simply is ones and zeros. One possibility is we may lose our artistic creativity or greatly diminish it. In such a scenario, it is safe to assume the aliens would mostly be ones and zeros too. What then would they do when they are here on Earth?

Behold, the aliens sit down (or go into their titanium shells) and pull up a movie of ours. The vibrant cinematography, stirring locations, and beautiful role play by humans are bound to mesmerize them. They move to the sounds of the characters and the music behind them. They break into kinesthetic movements when they hear music. They have discovered Art. Or better put, they have discovered long-lost Art. They must've decided to put the traversing of the stars and civilization's efficiency before their Art. So here they are, hooked onto Art again. For those moments, they aren’t thinking about time efficiency or the reality of it. They watch on as the Titanic sinks, knowing fully well the musicians weren’t really all that clear with all the screaming. Yet, a drop of tear falls from their eyes.

If this were to happen, we must know that we’re rediscovering our own love for Art. We are learning to move to the beats as we do to the ocean. We learn to feel the wind, as we do the sound of warm cellos. We are human, and we make art. For the aliens, we are art itself. They are bound to spend lifetimes watching our pictures, listening to our music, soaking in our young Sun and feeling the mud beneath their feet. How wondrous; they have discovered Earth, and with it, art. Art between ET, Earth (Dad joke warning). So humor me this scenario, for we have trapped our conquerors and survived, because we are artists.

For the sake of sanity, you can find my human made music, composed before the AI era here. Rahul Raghavan