I'd always thought that aliens have visited us from quite a few planets.
Each time, they took one look, snorted: "Primitive creatures. Sad!" and left us to our own pitiful devices.
Former moonwalker Alan Bean, though, is of a different view.
Speaking to Australia's news.com, Bean -- an Apollo 12 astronaut and one of only 12 humans to have ever walked on the moon -- mused: "I do not believe that anyone from outer space has ever visited the Earth."
That's quite a belief. Hasn't he ever looked around the world -- goodness, he lives in Texas -- and wondered about a few of his fellow beings and where they might have originated?
Bean, though, insisted: "Civilizations that are more advanced are more altruistic and friendly -- like Earth, which is better than it used to be -- so they would have landed and said, 'We come in peace and we know from our studies you have cancer that kills people, we solved that problem 50 years ago, here's the gadget we put on a person's chest that will cure it, we will show you how to make it.'"
How odd that he thinks Earthlings are altruistic and friendly. I suppose everything is relative. And how depressing is the idea implied here that we might be the most advanced, altruistic and friendly beings in the Universe.
But isn't the idea that advanced civilizations always come in peace a touch far-fetched? World history suggests that at least some advanced civilizations were rather fond of conquering lesser nations and butchering their people.
Indeed, Stephen Hawking has already warned that aliens might hate us and seek to immediately destroy us, even if it's just for fun.
Bean says he does believe aliens exist.
"There's so many billions of stars and these stars have planets around them so there must be statistically many planets around many stars that have formed life," he said.
Relying on statistics has its perils. But there could surely be fewer better times for aliens to show themselves to us than now.
It might give us a little perspective. It might even teach us what a small, uneducated blip in the galaxy we truly are.
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