The UFO sightings in New Jersey have been all over X, generating a lot of buzz here and around the world. The question is, if these are aliens, are they getting set for a full scale invasion?
If you’ve ever wondered about the odds for this, and how likely other world-ending scenarios such as a zombie apocalypse are, read on and find out.
Disclaimer: All odds in this article are just for fun and you can’t wager on them at PlayStar. You can bet on our great games instead!
UFO Fever in New Jersey Sparking Alien Speculation
It’s hard to avoid the news about all the weird flying objects over NJ and speculations about what they could be. One of the craziest pieces of news was when a state senator came out and accused the government of hiding the truth about the drones. Usually, you can rely on the powers-that-be to have a reasonable explanation, but this time things have led to all sorts of conspiracy theories, and even suggestions that they could be controlled by extraterrestrial beings.
If it is to be believed that the government doesn’t know what these objects are, what are the odds that they could be the start of an alien invasion? After all, look at what happened in Independence Day. The aliens casually scouted out the planet and chilled in the atmosphere for a while before launching their devastating, full-scale attack on humanity. Someone should get Will Smith on the blower, just in case.
Luckily, the current odds of an alien invasion are extremely low, but there are no official estimates. That’s why we’ve decided to analyze a few alien theories to come up with a likelihood of aliens invading and trying to take over earth. Suffice to say, though, that you have a much greater chance of winning any of the casino games at PlayStar than this happening.
Highly Likely That Alien Life Exists
While there aren’t any official odds on whether an alien invasion will happen, there are theories about the chances of there being intelligent life somewhere out there in the universe. Current estimates suggest there are around 10^25 plants in the observable universe – and many more presumably in the unobservable universe. That means that the statistical likelihood of there being life on other planets is extremely high.
The Drake equation, for instance, suggests that there could be between a few and a thousand civilizations in the Milky Way alone. There’s also the Fermi Paradox, which suggests that it’s strange that we haven’t encountered aliens based on the sheer scale of the universe and the likelihood that other advanced civilizations would evolve to explore other planets as well.
There’s a low probability that we humans, who have only been developing spacefaring technology for less than a century, would be the first civilization in the entire universe to come up with this idea. Think about it – the universe is billions of years old, and we’ve only had this kind of technology for a few decades. Surely some other beings elsewhere are ahead of us!
The Zoo Hypothesis Suggests Aliens Don’t Want to Invade
We don’t have to only consider the various theories about the mere existence of alien life. There’s also the fact that, if other intelligent civilizations do exist, they may not want to invade Earth. They might simply be interested in us and want to observe what’s happening on our planet. In the same way that we watch fish in a bowl or animals in a zoo, extraterrestrials with the technology to go undetected could be doing the same to us.
This is known as the Zoo hypothesis, and it was initially proposed by John Allen Ball in 1973. It’s a good way to explain the Fermi Paradox, suggesting that there are aliens out there who are aware of us, but they don’t want to make their presence known. Instead, they’re simply watching from afar, perhaps waiting to intervene if mankind becomes a threat.
With the latest updates in space technology and numerous spaceships setting off from earth, aliens observing our progress may be beginning to get worried. If this is the case, they could step up their surveillance of the planet and this may lead to a rise in sightings. That could explain why there have been so many unexplained flying objects around the USA recently.
With all these factors considered, we’d have to put the odds of an alien invasion at around 1 in 50,000. You’d never play a casino game with those odds, would you? That means we’re probably safe, and there isn’t going to be a Quiet Place-like situation happening anytime soon.
Odds on Other Potential World Ending Scenarios
Unfortunately, an alien invasion isn’t the only potential world-ending scenario out there. In fact, there are a few other ways that humanity could face its downfall, some of which are more likely than others.
A zombie apocalypse has been explored in countless films and television series before, but the chances of one happening in the real world are slim. If we were to devise odds for this scenario, we’d put it as a massive longshot at around 1 in 100,000.
The dinosaurs’ reign was cut short by an asteroid, and the same thing could happen to us at some point. The chance of one hitting soon is slim, but it could easily happen sometime in the distant future. Therefore, we’ll give you odds of an asteroid wiping out civilization at 1 in 100.
Another potential world-ending scenario that is no longer just an idea from science fiction is a robot uprising. With artificial intelligence evolving rapidly, there could soon be robots with greater capabilities than humans. The chance of these displacing us at the top of the food chain is high, but they may not decide to end the world. Our odds for a robot uprising, then, stand at 1 in 50.
Although it can be scary thinking about the possibility of aliens invading Earth, it’s unlikely to happen. In fact, there’s no need to worry about anything. Instead, join PlayStar and enjoy the alien-theme from the safety of your home with games like Space Invaders and Slingo’s Cosmic Clusters.
