Congratulations! You have been abducted by aliens, and you remember everything. What is your argument to convince the world that it really happened?

Pretty much the same things I say about anything, I suppose. I seldom feel a need any more to attempt to “convince anyone” against their will about anything I know to be true. I say my piece and sometimes – depending on the topic or the person or other circumstances – I add detail or answer questions that may be raised.

There’s a good bit about this in my new favorite book Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) that discusses the exact topic of “alien abduction” and how people attempt to self-justify beliefs (and this was just one example) that have no basis in reality. It got me to thinking that someday there may really be an alien abduction, love affair or offspring, so it’s not going to be useful to simply deny all such stories with zero investigation or consideration, but that’s probably going to be the safe bet for a long time to come, anyway.

I wouldn’t even try. At least, I don’t think I would. It would make more sense to me to believe that I’d been hallucinating.

In other words, I have a strong bias against believing in anything of the kind, and I have my doubts that anyone could convince me that it had happened to me. I’d more readily believe that it had been entirely staged for some unknown purpose.

I would write down everything I remember in full detail and keep the account safe. I might send a copy to the Royal Air Force in case they had observed anything on radar. Otherwise I would keep quiet about it. Trying to convince others what had happened would be futile and would lead to my sanity being questioned. Without any corroboration I would question my own sanity and wonder if it might have been a hallucination.

If I want people to believe it, and I can’t bring back anything physical, then I imagine I’d need to bring back some information that would convince humans it’s of extraterrestrial origin. Something that I could repeat somehow, “such-and-such-and-such,” and have people test.

So I guess I’d try to find a way, while abducted, to communicate with the aliens and ask them a question about something we don’t know yet on earth…. probably something science/mathematics related, since those are fields that lend themselves to solid answers and rigorous testing. And maybe, since the aliens have apparently figured out timely interstellar travel (they got to earth to abduct me, after all), I could convince them to help me memorize some key piece of information that would allow humans to develop interstellar transit, too. I mean, it’s probably more complicated than what I could remember, but I could try. And I don’t have to understand it, I just have to repeat it to someone else who could.

When I get back, I share this information with someone who has the ability to study it, and explain to them the story—saying they don’t have to believe me until the information works. And then if I somehow manage to do all of that, I wait and see what happens from there.

An out-there answer that has very little chance of success, but I figure it’s an out-there question.:)

Of course, if we’re not picky on the percentage of people believing me, all I’d need to do is sell my story to the right tabloid, and there would be some number of people in the world who believe me (despite there being no reason for them to do so).

Just as poor as my attempts to convince people that I am time traveling in a loop and am immortal.

What is my motivation to tell anyone?

Some things are better left unsaid. Would you want everyone you told to think you were some kind of a nut??

Plato’s cave. Would be a good comparison to philosophy.

I don’t want most other humans to know. The aliens and I are plotting the replacement of all the nasty powermonger-type humans, and the replacement of our dirty industry with clean sustainable technologies. It’ll be slightly easier (especially on those humans) if not too many people find out.

Well. Many are convinced that there are Gods. With absolutely no proof. So it must be possible. I suppose I would only tell the easily manipulated.

I feel like if Trump declared that he was abducted, his supporters would believe him…