Societal Implications of Alien Contact (part 1)

Lately, there have been more apparent sightings of UFO activity than ever before, and it seems that almost every week there is a new claim on some website that a rock on Mars is something significant: a skull, a statue, or even a rat! What if there really is intelligent life out there--are we prepared for the changes contact with aliens would bring? If contact was made, it is likely (considering all the UFO sightings) that aliens have technology superior to our own. If this technology was shared, imagine how our society would change! Consider the change that the internet brought about in society, or the development of the smart phone—we can communicate anywhere in the world instantly, we have access to a wealth of information on any topic, people can share videos in moments with millions of people, the list goes on. There have been staggering changes in our society in the last twenty years alone with these technologies, but what impact would even more advanced alien technology have upon our lives? We may be teleporting instantly to any place on the globe, communicating with our thoughts, or possibly uploading our consciousnesses to an advanced form of the internet. And that's just what we can currently conceive within our own paradigm of reality! History has shown—when an advanced culture meets with a simpler culture, the advanced culture eventually overrides the other.