People of Earth, I come in peace. You need not fear me, I mean you no harm. However, it is important to note that most of you will not survive the next twenty-four hours. Those that do survive will be enslaved and experimented on. You should in no way take any of this personally; it's just business. So, just to recap: I come in peace, I mean you harm, and you all will die. Gallaxhar out.
Gallaxhar, Monsters vs. Aliens

Yesterday we were in a universe that included us and lots of cool stuff: stars, galaxies, plasmas, cometary bodies, planets, and cows and giraffes and AIs and blue-green algae and lichen and microorganisms.


Today we are in a universe that contains us and lots of cool stuff and Alien Space Bats.


That's a different universe.


A universe with a different history, different potentialities, different future from the universe we thought we lived in. We are not living in the universe we thought we lived in yesterday.


We have to start learning the world all over again.
Learning the World, Ken MacLeod