I write high-speed, strategy-driven Military Sci-Fi & Space Opera, where cunning commanders, elite soldiers, and alien warlords fight for survival on the fringes of space. Subscribe to my newsletter for my latest updates!
Are Aliens Already Contacting Us?
Why Their Messages Might Be Invisible(3-4 minute read) Hollywood has conditioned us to expect aliens to walk on two legs and wear boots. Think of Chewbacca in Star Wars, the Cybermen in Doctor Who, the Klingons in Star Trek, or any rubber-suited extra stomping across a soundstage. It isn’t because that’s what evolution produces. It’s because that’s the shape human actors come in. But if real aliens exist, their bodies may be shaped less by arms and legs and more by the senses they use to understand their world. Humans rely mostly on sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell, but even on Earth, those aren’t the limits of what’s possible. If we struggle to grasp the sensory worlds of bats, beetles, dolphins, or termites, how far beyond us might alien perception go? Below are some real Earth senses that could shape alien biology, appearance, and communication in ways we’re poorly equipped to recognise. Magnetoreception: Navigating by Planetary CompassBirds, sea turtles, and even some bacteria can detect Earth’s magnetic field. On a world with low light or heavy cloud cover, magnetoreception could become the dominant sense. Likely appearance: Communication barrier: Echolocation: Seeing with Sound Bats and dolphins map space using sound and echo. Aliens from dark oceans, ice caverns, or dust-choked planets might treat sound as their version of vision. Appearance clues: How we’d talk: Ultraviolet and Infrared Vision: Colours We Cannot See Some birds and insects see ultraviolet. Snakes detect heat signatures through infrared. Body differences: Misunderstandings: Electroreception: Reading the World Through Fields Sharks and electric fish detect the faint electrical signals produced by living bodies. On a conductive world, this could replace vision entirely. What they’d look like: Communication gap: Vibration and Seismic Sensing Elephants pick up distant rumbles through their feet. Many insects hear via ground tremors. Possible forms: Human issue: Chemical and Hormonal Signalling Ants, bees, and octopuses communicate with pheromones, colour shifts, and texture changes. Likely biology: Lost in translation: The Real Challenge: RecognitionIf an alien’s primary sense is one we don’t use or barely notice, they could be broadcasting messages right now and we’d miss every word. We assume aliens will speak in radio waves or English subtitles, but why would they? They might communicate through
A message sent in any of these forms would look like background noise to our instruments or go entirely undetected. Final ThoughtWhen we ask, “Where is everyone?” the heart of the Fermi Paradox, we may be making a dangerous assumption. We assume that aliens perceive and communicate like we do. They may already be trying to contact us. And part of the reason the Universe feels silent is because we’re deaf to the language they’re using. If their bodies evolved around senses we don’t share, their signals may already surround us, unseen, unfelt, and unanswered. Until Next Time, BA Gillies ***If you've been meaning to dive into the Return to the Galaxy Universe, now’s your chance!Whether you're a new reader or just haven’t grabbed your copies yet, now’s the time to catch up on the award-winning series readers are calling “better than Scalzi” and “the best book since Heinlein died.” There is still time to catch up with the first book. You can also read the series free anytime in Kindle Unlimited:
***Discover More Sci-Fi Adventures Each month, I’ll team up with a group of talented sci-fi authors to bring you an incredible selection of books. Whether you’re looking for thrilling space battles, deep space mysteries, or first-contact encounters, these books are packed with stories to fuel your imagination. Author Spotlight: |
BA Gillies
I write high-speed, strategy-driven Military Sci-Fi & Space Opera, where cunning commanders, elite soldiers, and alien warlords fight for survival on the fringes of space. Subscribe to my newsletter for my latest updates!
Till Life Us Do Part (3-4 minute read) Readers of Wild Prince at the Starfighter Academy may remember the moment when Tovas explains Saret relationships to Beryn. Saret live for centuries, and because of that, no one expects a single bond to last a lifetime. Partnerships form, change, and sometimes end without shame or scandal. What unsettles Beryn is not betrayal, but the idea that permanence itself becomes unrealistic when time stretches too long. That conversation feels increasingly...
The Next Century: Technologies That May Reshape What It Means to Be Human (4-5 minute read) Rather than talking about science fiction this week, I want to look at something slightly different: likely and potential scientific developments that may change the human condition over the next century. Not miracles. Not magic. Just technologies that serious researchers are already working on, with varying degrees of confidence, controversy, and momentum. I’ve broken this into three time horizons....
The Long Game (4-5 minute read) Over the last couple of weeks, a lot of commentators have been focusing on what we might expect to see happening in 2026. I decided to go long instead and look at what we might see by the end of this century. Not in a science-fiction sense. No flying cars or immortality treatments. But in terms of real, observable trends that are already locked in. The kind that unfold slowly, attract little attention, and massively reshape the world. If you fast-forward...