Are we immersed in an alien civilization?

This interesting bit appeared, recently, on NIDSCI's 'what's new' page...

er, well, I meant to link to it, here, but My home computer has decided not to do what my selfless work machine will do. So... let me give you a starting point:
www.nidsci.org...

Go to the above page and click onto the paper about 'Brane Worlds...' (don't worry, that's not a mispelling, but a phrase). The author, a woman from spain, is dealing with perhaps the greatest argument against Ets.. that, namely, if they did exist we would have evidence of their civilization all around us, due to the amount of time the universe has existed...... To deal with this challenge, she theorizes that aliens, in fact, DO have a civilization that enwraps us... however, we cannot perceive it yet, in the same manner that gorillas cannot perceive the totality of human civilization, because we cannot RECOGNIZE the alien influences around us.

This is a variant of the old 'The aliens are watching us like Goodall does the Chimps' theory on ET life (and why we haven't been directly contacted), but, with the inclusion of issues such as the nature of civilization and citizenship, the paper steps beyond that and nearly asks questions about what archeaologists refer to as 'diffusionism'. Essentially, though the paper says that we ARE apart of a galactic civilization... though not citizens within it... It's made me think about how ideas from 'on high' may have filtered into our religions and philosophies... perhaps on accident... and, so, we MAY be participants in a galactic cultural tradition without even realizing it (just as pre-classical Greeks drew the psychologically alien and un-greek god Dionysus from barbarians from the Scythian steppes... without realizing that they had adopted a truly 'alien' deity).

Yes, this post is a little confusing... but, put simply, might we be a functional part of what may be considered 'galactic culture' without even knowing it? Read the paper... It will make this post make more sense....

[Edited on 26-8-2003 by onlyinmydreams]

To clarify...

This isn't a nancy lieder type sermon on alien life... it's a doctioral dissertation that was submitted to, and approved, by academics.

I read the paper... it was an intriguing thought experiment. Adds to the many maybes out there.... just maybe there is an advanced, or very advanced, civilization out there treating the earth, and thereby humans, as a "protected natural reserve." And yes it is quite possible that there are aliens far more advanced than we can even imagine..

One questions: When do we get to know for sure?!

JAH

I thought that the most intriguing concept of the paper was that we are actually interacting and partaking of a galactic civilization without really knowing it... Beyond the whole 'apes under study', there is an inference that we may have encountered extraterrestrial (cultural) elements (and introduced them to our society) without even seeing them as 'alien' in origin... or being able to become conscious of their nature in the first place.