Someday, hopefully soon, irrefutable evidence of life beyond earth will be discovered. That will be a cultural and social event with huge repercussions. How will nations relate to one another with this new knowledge? Religions will face tremendous upheavals. There could be mass hysteria and fear of the unknown. The scope of the possible unrest is one reason, I think, that stories about UFO's and government secrecy have bred so many conspiracy theories.
Interestingly, those impacts are a part of the plot to "2001: A Space Odyssey." In the film, lunar scientists discover evidence that an intelligent life-form had buried a monolith on the Moon 3 million years earlier. The scientists keep this a secret even from their own astronauts on their way to Jupiter. The HAL 9000 computer on their spacecraft knew the secret and was programmed to not tell the astronauts about it. This caused a programming flaw that made HAL a killer in order to cover the secret. It's one of the best science fiction movies and not only are the special effects amazing- the film was released in 1968- but the story is deeply philosophical.
Thanks for posting this story, Judi Lynn.
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