Why they (very) occasionally crash.

The error in the thinking of those who fancy themselves clever by ridiculing the notion that these interstellar craft traverse vast solar systems only to falter upon arrival at Earth lies in their misunderstanding. They appear to believe that we propose some advanced civilization from, say, Andromeda devoted an entire year’s worth of their economic output to fashion an exquisite saucer, dispatching their equivalent of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on a 50,000-year odyssey to Earth, just to snap a few pictures and jaunt back home. This, of course, is utter nonsense. These “spaceships” are, in fact, their “drones.”

An extraterrestrial society, hundreds of millennia our superior, yet not having unlocked the enigma of “wormholes” or any other conceivable method of faster-than-light travel, would conceivably initiate a massive-scale production of these selfsame “drones.” This is how they would explore (and monitor) the Universe. Think not in terms of hundreds or thousands, but in the order of millions, even billions of drones. We’ve likely been ‘visited’ by billions of these crafts over the years. Perhaps one in ten million fail every year. What do you expect from a civilization that cannot even travel faster than the speed of light?

Leveraging the prowess of artificial intelligence and the capabilities of three-dimensional printing, we, too, find ourselves on the brink of an era where colossal quantities of spacefaring drones could be generated – drones that might feasibly venture toward our neighboring star systems. This prospect is further fueled by the mastery of nuclear pulse propulsion.

When the task of manufacturing these vessels becomes an economical pursuit, the rationale for discontinuation fades into oblivion. The entire universe could, then, be subject to their tireless exploration. Should the occasional misfortune occur – a malfunction, a crash, or perhaps an unfortunate interception, they wouldn’t give a damn.

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