Aliens are already here. They have been here before homo sapiens walked out of Africa (either time).
They look just like regular folks.
Despite killing most of them off, the survivors have remained quiet, peaceful and nice. That was their problem.
An analogy: chimpanzees have very close cousins called bonobos. Living peacefully in loose matriarchies, bonobos happily forage for their vegetarian meals; they use the tools as needed; and they pass on cultural knowledge with a complex language. When occasional disputes arise in the extended family, they cuddle and make up.
Except for the regular cuddling, chimps are similar. However, in each chimp tribe, the prime male and his buddies can have an attitude. Every once in a while they get a red glare in their eyes. The boss and his pack start yelling and throwing branches around then go off on a testosterone-fueled hunting trip. They corall a hapless monkey, tear him limb from limb and gorge themselves with bloody meat.
While neandertals were larger than homo sapiens and had bigger brains, my ancestors assure me they were more like bonobos. They did catch and eat large prey but where they could, they preferred their veggies.
The downfall of neandertals came about because, among themselves, they were nice. Like gorillas, the only time their eyes showed a red glare was when they were wronged by an outsider. As happened too often by those new groups of homo sapiens that wandered into their area.
Over thousands of years of interaction and interbreeding, neandertals succumbed to the trait exhibited by homo sapiens male packs to get their testosterone-fueled rocks off.
Since neandertals lost the human race, the only thing left of them now is in the 1-4% of mostly European’s genetic code.
However, every once in a while, across the gene pool, a neandertal pops up. Most are reflexively killed or ostracized by punk packs of homo sapiens. Neither side knows why they do it. The response comes from deep genetic memory – like fear of wolves or snakes. Without knowledge of why he or she is bullied to death, the neandertal bows down to the punk pack and either expires or retreats from the world in other ways.
As the winners in the human race, homo sapiens demonized the losers. Neandertals were branded knuckle-dragging cave-dwellers who could barely grunt enough words to alert another one about an approaching Mastodon. The victors write the histories.
What were neandertals really like? May I suggest, from experience, that they preferred a peaceful family tribe whose eldest and wisest grandmother would be listened to with respect. And she, too, would listen to the young folks, respectfully. If a disagreement arose, it was talked out; at the end, the debaters hugged; the family went on with battling the outside forces of the environment. Creativity was cherished. Myths and magic of the world were interwoven with the news brought by travellers, and all was retold at the fireside so everyone could enjoy the talks and learn from them.
There was very little room for error, with all the other creatures battling for life, and the environment throwing up extreme weather changes, and random eruptions of volcanoes messing up everything. When the matriarch suggested a way to move forward, all the wise folks added their thoughts. The resulting decision was thoroughly considered, but all agreed that it was the matriarch who would finally state the direction of the path.
And so it was for over 500,000 years. Neandertals lived on by following the principles of respect, creativity and wise decision-making.
Then along came the homo sapiens. It only took 50,000 years for the testosterone-fuelled punk packs to eliminate their rivals in the human race. They not only eliminated the families, they soiled the memory of the “nice humans”. Eradicated to such an extent that even the rare neandertal who pops up through the gene pool is made to feel ashamed of being somehow “different” and inferior.
Perhaps, as the homo sapiens punk packs spin ever tighter into their gated communities of one-percenters – leaving the rest of their own kind on the outside – those few of us neandertals who have survived by pretending to be human can join with the 99-percenters barred outside the gates.
Perhaps we can teach the value of respect, creativity and wise decision-making.
Perhaps we should all just leave the one-percenters alone within their little gated worlds. If we all walked away from them, they can rattle their self-imposed bars as much as they want.
Just don’t force us into a red-eyed glare.
-a neoandertal

– upcoming book: The Antichrist of Stanley Park