It almost seems the perfect job – being appointed UN Ambassador of Alien Affairs must involve a lot of feet kicked up on the desk and relaying “Nothing Significant to Report” to your supervisors. That’s the position being proposed for Malaysian astrophysicist Mazlan Othman within the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Essentially, the position will exist due to the discovery of so many extra-solar planetary systems and the growing acceptance that other forms of life may be out there. It will be Mazlan’s role to create appropriate policies for representing Earth in the presence of alien overlords. Oddly, the article references the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 and states a standing policy to sterilize aliens on arrival so they cannot harm us (because they came to Earth for rape?).¹ Stephen Hawking has cautioned in the past on taking caution with our approach to alien contact, advice that may need heeding by Mazlan in preparing Earth for that fateful day of pre-alien enslavement. “I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. The outcome for us would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

¹ NASA’s on-line version of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 makes no mention of sterilizing aliens or of alien contact at all.