Aliens Landed in Palo Alto in October of 2027

On the 8th of October in 2027, an alien craft was seen entering the
atmosphere over the Atlantic around 600 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.

It stayed very high while covering the United States and then descended
quickly before landing in an open field near a water reservoir, in Palo
Alto, California.

The craft was extremely spherical, somehow more than a sphere, and had a
silverish shine to it that seemed to reflect and somehow improve the colors
around it.   

At first, the military surrounded it and sent all sorts of drones and probes
to go and inspect the craft, but within 18 hours the craft began sending
messages on multiple frequencies.

It started by explaining that it was a representative of a distant
civilization called The Aleta. That they started as biological life forms
but transitioned into a unified (part bio part technology) form eventually,
and that they were here to share information with Earth at a crucial time of
its development.

Upon figuring out that the craft could not be approached, destroyed, or
moved in any way—and after the craft sufficiently explained its
technological superiority and benign intentions—humans started listening to
what it had to say.

Aleta (that’s what everyone was calling it) sent all sorts of information.
It evidently figured out how to read all of our media and look for problems
and trivialities. It started sending helpful information about how to solve
them.

Some days, it would send extra extraordinary recipes for how to make better
muffins, using an extracted type of butter and a new type of salt. It also
released the most breathtaking and spellbinding 48 peace fantasy series that
quickly became the most talked about and brilliant piece of art ever
created. It was called Altered Dominion. Think Game of Thrones,
Shakespeare, Harry Potter, the Notebook, and The Sopranos all rolled into
one—except 1000 times more compelling.

On other days, it would release explanations of fundamental science,
including an actual unified theory of physics. Forumulas for new materials.
And explanations of dark matter that we’ve never seen before. The Unified
Theory was released on a Thursday, after it rained in Palo Alto for nearly 3
days straight, and after the season 35 finale of Altered Dominion.

But by the summer of 2029, and 2 1/2 years of constant talk and speculation
worldwide, the mainstream conversation about Aleta began to change from
wonder to disillusionment.

A small number of people—around 140,000 or so—were still stitched to every
transmission that came from the craft, and they had actually learned how to
speak with it in real-time. They oriented their lives around all of its
messages and started working on how to incorporate the new science and art
streaming from the craft.

This group, who called themselves ATLiens for some strange reason, literally
organized sleeping shifts, transcribing shifts, and studying shifts, and
then a whole discipline around the incorporation of the new knowledge into
how humans currently do things. To them, the knowledge that had been sent
just in the last two years would take several decades, if not a couple of
centuries, to properly integrate into human society. It was just that much
data, and it was just that transformational.

But to most people, once they had finished watching Altered Dominion and
eating all the new recipes and trying on all the new outfits, they went back
to TikTok.

By 2030, most people had forgotten about the strange sphere in Palo Alto.
And more than forget about it, they took on a disappointed attitude towards
it.

The difference between this group, which was most of humanity, and the
cult-like ATliens could not be more extreme. Most of them moved to Palo Alto
and surrounding areas in the Bay Area, just so they could be closer to
others who understood the significance. They structured their lives around
the regular broadcasts from Aleta and they could think of nothing else.

They studied every single piece of new information from Aleta, and figured
out how to build new things using it. Many of them had trouble sleeping
because they feared missing a transmission and all the wisdom contained
within.

The difference in attitudes between the ATliens and normal people was
captured well by an interaction between Sarah Meyer, a devoted ATLien from
Rochester now living in Fremont, who was getting her morning coffee at a
Starbucks in Palo Alto.

The barista asked her what all her books and computers were for, and why she
always seems so excited when she came in. Sarah explained—a bit
embarrassed—that she was one of “those people”, and that she comes in and
gets her coffee, and then heads out to the reservoirs to receive new
transmissions.

The barista wiped his hands, looked at her blankly, and said,

Oh yeah, is that thing is still out there? (laughing)

Yeah, I’ve seen Dominion four times, but I just kind of tuned out after
that.

(checking a name on a cup and frowning slightly)

All this time we were waiting for aliens, and all they end up giving us is a
new TV show.