Reports of extra-terrestrial visits to Earth have been documented as far back as 1088, when Chinese official Shen Kuo recorded eyewitness accounts of a "a flying object with opening doors [that] would shine a blinding light from its interior". Such reports became more frequent and detailed from the mid-1940’s although these have typically been classified by authorities, their authors discredited and cover-stories issued in order to prevent public panic.

In fact, many of these reports are true.

Experts have speculated on the cause of an apparent increase in extra-terrestrial activity since World War II. Some suggest that there is no real increase, just an improvement in our ability to detect the visitors. Others have speculated that additional activity may have been triggered by extra-terrestrial interest in the first atomic tests of the period.

Roswell

A pivotal event in Earth’s contact with the visitors occurred in 1947 when an alien craft crashed near New Mexico in the United States. Given the proximity of the crash to a nearby atomic weapon test, some experts believe the EM pulse from the test blast was responsible. The US Air Force quickly took over the recovery operation from local officials, ultimately spawning a research program intended replicate the advanced technology contained in the wreckage.

Other vessels have been recovered around the world, usually after being brought down by military aircraft. The craft have various configurations and sizes, which were initially thought to represent different mission roles such as scouts and larger transport craft. However, when compared it became obvious that they were of different origins, based on significant differences in materials and technology configuration. While it has been extremely rare to recover identifiable remains of occupants, the ISDC believes that the extra-terrestrial visitors represent at least two distinct races or species.

Response Options

Extra-terrestrial visits continue to be reported, although the behaviour of the visiting craft has begun to change and is characterised by tactical experts as more “aggressive”. Visiting craft appear to be adopting more confrontational posture in flight and have become much better at avoiding weapons fire. Most recently, forms of electro-magnetic discharges from craft have been detected, with opinion divided as to whether they are a form of weaponry (due to their effect on avionics systems) or an attempt at communication.

What constitutes an appropriate response to these visits has been fiercely debated. Defence hawks and many in the military see the visits as clear threats to Earth’s security, to which the only valid response is to demonstrate an ability to defend ourselves with force. Others see the visits as peaceful attempts at communication, complicated by the vast differences in technology and language between our species. They insist we should be focussing on improving our ability to reach out to the visitors.

US Airforce Program

The US Air Force program that arose from the New Mexico incident eventually developed sufficient technology to make interstellar travel a real possibility. Initially that program favoured the latter approach of exploration and communication. Senior military leaders and political hawks eventually took control of the program and the vessel’s design and construction is now focussed on the creation of a weapons platform capable of interstellar force projection.

Creation of the ISDC

It was this shift in policy that led to the creation of the ISDC. Many of the leading scientists on the US program became so concerned at the new emphasis on aggression that they defected and sought to form an alternative program to counter the military. Their principal fear is that adopting an aggressive stance with an otherwise peaceful but highly advanced civilisation risks provoking a confrontation Earth cannot survive.

The aim of the new program is the construction of an interstellar platform capable of presenting an alternative point of contact with the visitors, in the hope that establishing communication will lead to peaceful relations and overcome previous misunderstandings.