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civilization must be frantically trying to save itself. It was a gripping saga and not one that can easily be forgotten. Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom saga (Barsoom being Burrough’s Martian name for Mars) began in 1912 with A Princess of Mars , and we will learn more of this iconic series of stories in chapter 3 .
    Wrap Up
    The idea that we are fellow travelers in this universe is not a new one. As we have seen here and can be followed up in the suggested reading, there have been centuries of arguments over the question of extraterrestrial life; they were theological, philosophical, and quasi-scientific. However it wasn’t until the last years of the nineteenth century that the thought of life of non-earthly origins became a common topic of conversation outside the circles of the highly educated.
    The reasons for the broader dissemination are various. First, the scientific instrumentation became better, allowing for more definitive arguments among academics. After all, questions like the existence of extraterrestrial life or intelligence is an empirical one, and there is no chance that a theological or philosophical discussion will definitively resolve the debate. Improvements in telescopes and the new technique of spectroscopy allowed for solid discussions, well informed by hard data. However the improved science doesn’t explain the change in the level to which the public was informed. For this, you need a communication method. In the 1800s, improvements were made in printing technology and the way in which the printed material was broughtto the public. Technology made it much easier for people to learn about the sorts of things that interested them, as evidenced in the tremendous response to the moon hoax.
    As we will see in chapter 3 , the first half of the twentieth century showed an increase of what we now call science fiction. While stories of extraterrestrials are not the only tales written in that genre, the Alien ones became somehow respectable, given the vast number of newspaper articles people had read about Mars. This is not to say that our version of Aliens hasn’t evolved since the first decade of the twentieth century. Indeed, our current view of Aliens differs dramatically from the speculations of Lowell, Wells, and their contemporaries. To understand how that came to be, we must turn to a world convulsed in war.

TWO
ENCOUNTERS
Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, why are those like yourself who believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life on this Earth not dissuaded by all the evidence to the contrary?
Mulder: Because all the evidence to the contrary is not entirely dissuasive.
Deep Throat: Precisely.
Mulder: They’re here, aren’t they?
Deep Throat: Mr. Mulder, they’ve been here for a long time.
X-Files , Season 1, Episode 2
    The X-Files was a highly successful science fiction television show that ran from 1993 to 2002. In it, two FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, are tasked with investigating odd reports that are stored in the classified “X-Files.” While something like two-thirds of the episodes were devoted to the “monster of the week” (e.g., investigating whether a vampire or werewolf was involved in a string of murders), the remaining episodes were used to develop a storyline about Aliens on earth and the government’s cover-up of what they know.
    This television show is an excellent example of how the media, entertainment industry, UFO devotees, and people who claim to have been abducted by extraterrestrials have interacted with one another and shaped one another’s views. Fact (meaning honestly believed reports of UFO sightings and abductions) and fiction are inextricably interwoven, leading to a narrative that is well known to society. A 2008 poll showed that 36% of Americans believe the Earth has been visited by Aliens and that 80% think the government knows more than it’s telling. Ask a random stranger (which I’ve been doing lately, generating some peculiar looks) what