contact presented here involves the alien species extracting a number of members of the human species; ostensibly to learn from them and about them. Subsequently, the alien species initiates a series of events, all pointing toward a major interaction to occur at The Devils Tower geological formation in the northwest United States. When this interaction actually occurs, the two species go through a very basic establishment of an interaction language, culminating in the exchange of ambassadors between the two species to participate in a long-term cultural introduction exercise. The bottom line presented here is one of mutual interest in establishing an interaction environment through non-belligerent means. The procedure is long, laborious and requires significant involvement from both parties. More to the point, the procedure assumes a significant parallel between the two species, derived from their distinct approaches to dealing with common physical ecosystems. In essence, the derived interaction protocol assumes that the sensori-motor experiences of the two species would arrive at similar mechanisms (that is, a common metaphorical basis) under which the interaction could occur.

A second movie, the 1996 rendition of Independence Day takes a much more primal approach. The movie adopts a very similar theme to H.G. Well’s The War of the Worlds. Specifically, an alien species which has a modest, but significant technological advantage over the human species, approaches the earth with the most basic of purposes; the invasion of earth and eradication of the human species in order to obtain unfettered access to the natural resources necessary for their subsistence. This approach requires total control of the basic physical ecosystem. If the alien species can eliminate the human species then they will have that control. There is no thought given to benign contact or cooperative involvement; the initial contact is aimed simply at the identification and eradication of the human species.

This particular movie employs a rather interesting anthropogenic assumption at a critical juncture of the interaction. In a desperate attempt to thwart the invasion by the alien species, a computer virus is planted within the control systems of the aliens’ mother ship. By crippling the computational capabilities, and thus the command and control facilities of the alien craft, the humans are finally able to bring their air borne military capability to bear on the invasion craft. Simultaneously, a large thermonuclear device is detonated within the alien mother ship. It should be noted that this movie was created during the period when computer viruses aimed at Windows operating system platforms and at the central Internet switching system were gaining widespread notoriety within the public at large. This coincided with the very significant market penetration of personal computers and of routine Internet connectivity by these personal computing platforms. The concept of malicious computer viruses gaining popular awareness notwithstanding, if one considers the rather far flung development of computer systems for the past fifty years, the idea that a laptop computer (and an Apple Mac at that!) would be similar enough to a completely alien computer system so as to allow, first of all a direct communication link between different computers to be established, and then a set of instructions (the virus) to be transferred from one to the other, the result is one of those very low probability events that are indistinguishable from a miracle.

Of course, this points to the fact that because the blueprint of all known living organisms is similar, disease mechanisms can sometimes cross species boundaries; for example armadillos can carry human leprosy, a fact perhaps not well known outside of Texas. Computers at this point do not have a single blueprint, which make viruses quite dependent on specific architectures, and punctuates the parallels between biological and computer evolution.

Another 1996 movie, Star Trek: First Contact took a somewhat different approach in considering the interactions among alien species. It posed the rationale that a species essentially signals its

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