I don't think any government agency has a right to hide the existence of aliens from the public for the public's good, whether the aliens consent or not.
Proof of the existence of aliens would impact our understanding of the universe and ourselves so fundamentally that hiding their existence is cruel.
It would be like teaching your kids not to kiss or they'll get pregnant. It's a misguided attempt at protecting people in ways that prevents them from dealing with real life.
Sorry about this late reply, but also consider that their temporal existence could be different than ours. They could potentially live and die 100 lifespans in a day or visa versa. UFOs could potentially look like they are doing erratic flying maneuvers because they are in a different temporal environment than us.
The fact that the Slate article saying that a Martian underground base is impossible uses humans as a reference, and it shouldn't. I have a sinking feeling that people are assuming that these aliens breath oxygen like us. Or that they live on land like us. All of our physical, temporal, and other properties can be dissimilar to aliens, as they are often times to other plants and animals that live here on earth with us.
https://slate.com/culture/2020/12/mars-base-haim-eshed-galac...
I hate to say this, but he doesn't even detail their level of intelligence. There very well could be life around Venus in the atmosphere for instance: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03258-5
How intelligent are they? What is their physiology?
If they are in fact tiny insects or microscopic, then a subterranean base on Mars would be trivial. Our participation could simply be logistic in nature. Nothing was said in detail. If we can make 7nm bitcoin miner ASICs we could certainly do that. He's being very intentionally non-specific for a reason here. Like it's a less-than spectacular life-form? With less than spectacular space travel?
Consider for a second if some highly intelligent tardigrades or resilient small insects from another civilization hitched a ride on a comet in suspended animation, then took a small fragment to earth. It could be as abstract as that, and it would fit a similar description. The fact that most of the readers here expect a human-like creature at our scale with x neurons and physiology like us is pretty naïve. It's sort of like Hollywood OS to actual operating systems.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-he-...
I don't think any government agency has a right to hide the existence of aliens from the public for the public's good, whether the aliens consent or not.
Proof of the existence of aliens would impact our understanding of the universe and ourselves so fundamentally that hiding their existence is cruel.
It would be like teaching your kids not to kiss or they'll get pregnant. It's a misguided attempt at protecting people in ways that prevents them from dealing with real life.