Neil deGrasse Tyson wants us to 'demand' an alien (and say this when you meet one)

When Neil deGrasse Tyson was 9 years old, he visited the Hayden Planetarium for the first time. Growing up gazing into light pollution in the Bronx, he had no idea there were that many stars. 

“I was starstruck,” Tyson says, of that first visit. “But maybe it was the universe that chose me rather than it being I who chose the universe, because I was never the same.”

For just as long, he’s dreamed of being abducted by aliens. He especially feels this when he’s alone in a park with a clear view of the sky, the astrophysicist and science communicator tells USA TODAY. He can picture the beams coming down to collect him.

This lifelong dream is the basis of his new book, “Take Me To Your Leader,” out now from Simon Six. There are tips for what to do if you meet an alien. There’s critique of Hollywood alien depictions. He calls it a “celebration of people’s enthusiasm” for extraterrestrials. In fact, Tyson says he wants us to “demand an alien.”

“We need better evidence than your testimony to go from ‘I believe in aliens’ to ‘I know that aliens exist.’ And that transition requires somebody bringing forth an alien,” Tyson says. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Question: This is part exploration of possible alien life, part etiquette guide for meeting aliens, part pop culture analysis. What made you want to write this?

Tyson: I've just seen so much unbridled speculation about aliens in the universe.

I just thought we were long overdue to anchor that conversation. I don't mean anchor it to stop it, but to give it a place to pivot so that when you do talk about aliens, it has some grounding in objective reality. 

I'm all in. I’m with you there. And I thought I would be able to give more examples than what are commonly cited for people's creativity when thinking about aliens, just to open up the conversation so that we're not limited to humanoids with actors in costumes that have two arms, two legs, nose, mouth, eyes, ears, et cetera. So if I blow open that conversation, maybe people's creativity will be stoked by other ways of thinking about how the universe might create life.

Question: Which onscreen aliens do you think are spot-on or at least pretty creative?

Tyson: Spot on – I wouldn't use that word because that implies I have some exact expectation and they met it. I do have an expectation but it's not that precise. It's: Give me an alien that looks less human than other animals on Earth look with whom we have DNA in common. Give me something that looks at least as different from humans as humans and worms look from each other. Humans and octopuses, humans and crabs and Andy Weir does well here.

Speaking of Andy Weir, what did you think of Rocky in “Project Hail Mary”?

He has a craboid alien. It's made of rock, but it's got crab-like motions. And he's been trying to break that (Hollywood) mold and it doesn't live in an oxygen atmosphere. And since it's rock, it can sustain very high temperatures without melting and certain gases don't affect it, but would kill us. So he's gone down that road and that's a good alien. Good meaning one where the writer is not shackled to Hollywood tropes.

Question: What kind of aliens are we missing in Hollywood? 

Tyson: I want to see aliens with powers that have some foundation in objective reality. I want to see aliens that come in from other dimensions. That would just be cool. And as they pass through our dimension, we only see the three-dimensional version of them. We never contemplate the entire alien because we can't see four dimensions. So just have fun with this. 

Look at the list of practically every Star Trek alien. It's a walking thing with two arms and two. It might have pointy ears or something in the bridge of the nose or the head is a little different shape. They're basically human. Come on now. Even baby Yoda is basically human. It's got eyes, a head and pointy ears. Okay. I have kittens that look just that cute. You're not really stretching my imagination. 

You go to Star Wars, we get to Chewbacca. Chewbacca looks like Bigfoot. It's just a big, hairy thing. And if he were actually one Earth, he would easily fit right in to large mammal categories. We wouldn't even pause passing him in the street, yet he's alien in the movie. I want to see more creativity than has been expressed. That's all.

Question: You argue the way we talk about aliens is largely egotistical. Tell me about that.

Tyson: The idea that there's 10 million species of life on Earth and the aliens will come and just want to investigate us, that's hubris. Because like I said, we don't have the biggest brains. The biggest brains are whales. Most of Earth's surface is not land. They would come to Earth and think whales were in charge. They got the big brains, bigger than ours. And so maybe they'll have more complex thoughts than we do. They can't build spaceships because they don't have hands, but that wouldn't stop them from contemplating philosophical questions of their existence. And if the aliens could read their mind, that could be a fascinating exchange. 

To think they just want to come to us? And the idea that they want to probe your orifices – do you think you're that interesting? 

These ancient illustrations of bubblehead life forms with ray beams coming out of them and they're levitating and people look at it, especially the History Channel, which I expressly mentioned (in the book), they're going into the third decade of the “Ancient Aliens” series and they say, "I don't know what these are. They must be aliens." All right. Well, how about another set of questions? Maybe it was their kindergarten class and their drawing time.

Question: What would you do if you came into contact with an alien?

Tyson: I would say, "What have you discovered about the universe? I just want to compare notes. What are we missing here? We're still trying to figure out dark matter. Do you have an answer to that?”

Question: What conversation do you hope “Take Me to Your Leader” ignites?

I would like them to demand an alien. Is that too much to ask? And then you can’t any longer say “Well, we don’t know what effect that’ll have on world politics.” We’ve already been told you have the alien. In fact, bringing out an alien might even be anticlimactic, given what we’ve already (been) told about people’s experiences being abducted and all of this. 

I’m happy to take all of it at face value. Fine. Now bring me the alien. Until then, we’re stuck asking each other “Do you believe in aliens?”

Clare Mulroy is USA TODAY’s Books Reporter, where she covers buzzy releases, chats with authors and dives into the culture of reading. Find her on Instagram, subscribe to our weekly Books newsletter or tell her what you’re reading at [email protected].