Chapter Text
February 17th, 1998
It is no surprise that interest in aliens and UFOs have become paradoxically a less popular topic and a significantly more studied one, when our every-day world has been upset by parahumans performing feats previously unparalleled excepting science fiction penny-dreadfuls.
Where parahumans come from is a topic of study and parahumans are fairly well understood to not be extra-terrestrials, perhaps, but the source of their powers is still widely debated. Many theories range from virus to intelligent intervention, but nothing has yet supported such claims. Leading academics such as Dr. Manton have yet to comment, only focused on empirical evidence - general trends like that of the Manton effect being the bulk of published literature.
The organ that gives parahumans their powers also is biological in organ, though its sudden presence in the population is curious. The development of parahuman powers is also evidently not the result of alien abductions, since several high-profile crisis events have resulted in recordings of the acquisition of powers.
So why think about aliens?
If the theories of intelligent intervention are true, the how and the why are both equally fascinating. Who wants to grant powers to people? For what purpose? Are they simply testing how people will respond when presented with powers above their peers? Perhaps the plot is to prevaricate, but that presupposes a perfidious nature.
Sorry for all the una-P-ling consonance, I’m just having fun.
But it’s tempting to think that there really could be something out there! Even with all the new and incredible scientific leaps proposed by the technology made by so-known ‘Tinkers’, there’s plenty of things that still don’t make sense. Many parahumans with sensory powers report being watched, though by whom is unknown. Strange signals from outside our Earth are recorded and are blips larger than statistical noise, as reported in regular reports from NASA. Plus, the Kilimanjaro etchings - currently assumed to be a prank or a hoax - still have no source or credible actor, and they’re far from the only strange things going on these days.
When we’re already living in a science-fiction novel, what’s a little belief in something else out there?
Jacob Hoffstater,
Columnist for The eXtraordinary Times