If a human was selected by Aliens to represent them...

[Omits]

Nicest? Cardinal Ximinez, nailer-to-perch of dead parrots for selling, Luigi Vercotti, Ken Shabby, the man who sent Bwian to be Cwucified, homicidal barber, withholder of cheeses - nice?

I wonder what AI would think of the Life Of Brain.

 

[Omits]

The original poster merely specified "choose".
Choice of person to abduct may be just a side effect of choosing time and place to land!

Oh, no landing. Bad idea for an alien visitor. Stay aloft/aloof out of reach!

 

[chornedsnorkack]

Oh, no landing. Bad idea for an alien visitor. Stay aloft/aloof out of reach!

Yes, but then how do they get anyone to represent them?
A logical idea would be to land at a lonely spot, grab one or a few humans available and get out before anyone else comes to help - and after some time, second surprise landing to drop off the returning abductees.
But in that case, the choice of the abductees is constrained by the planning of first raid - get out before help is scrambled but get somebody. It is liable to be someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, not the best representative of the humanity.

 

[Omits]

Yes, but then how do they get anyone to represent them?
A logical idea would be to land at a lonely spot, grab one or a few humans available and get out before anyone else comes to help - and after some time, second surprise landing to drop off the returning abductees.
But in that case, the choice of the abductees is constrained by the planning of first raid - get out before help is scrambled but get somebody. It is liable to be someone who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, not the best representative of the humanity.

Dead on! My aliens have the tech to follow their chosen abductee to a remote place where he happens to be on an exploring trip. It's in a time where digital trails are far more evident than today. Maybe there's a hole in my plans somewhere. The aliens have the idea of selecting just one w/o human interference and scheming. From there the guy has the option of refusing and being returned w/o detection.

 

[chornedsnorkack]

Dead on! My aliens have the tech to follow their chosen abductee to a remote place where he happens to be on an exploring trip. It's in a time where digital trails are far more evident than today. Maybe there's a hole in my plans somewhere.

How do the aliens track and decipher these "trails"?
One obvious part is cellphones. People who go hiking in wilderness and carry cellphones carry radio transmitters, which tell them apart from other big mammals. And the cellphone bands pass through ionosphere, so satellites could listen to cellphone signals. But how good, really, are spy satellites at wiretapping cellphones?

The aliens have the idea of selecting just one w/o human interference and scheming. From there the guy has the option of refusing and being returned w/o detection.

One part: can they? When they detect someone hiking away from settlements, they can launch UFO raid, so that if air traffic control spots the incoming UFO and scrambles fighter jets and helicopters, the UFO is out before the jets approach the vicinity. But this is a high profile, detected event, and the missing person is soon identified. Or a hiker who calls an emergency number to report an UFO and the call is cut off when the aliens catch the hiker... the police verify abduction, and air traffic control radars verify UFO. Then the aliens can make a second raid to return the abductee and again get out before fighter jets arrive - but not undetected. And if they figure the abductee is not useful, would they bother returning him?

 

[Omits]

How do the aliens track and decipher these "trails"?
One obvious part is cellphones. People who go hiking in wilderness and carry cellphones carry radio transmitters, which tell them apart from other big mammals. And the cellphone bands pass through ionosphere, so satellites could listen to cellphone signals. But how good, really, are spy satellites at wiretapping cellphones?


One part: can they? When they detect someone hiking away from settlements, they can launch UFO raid, so that if air traffic control spots the incoming UFO and scrambles fighter jets and helicopters, the UFO is out before the jets approach the vicinity. But this is a high profile, detected event, and the missing person is soon identified. Or a hiker who calls an emergency number to report an UFO and the call is cut off when the aliens catch the hiker... the police verify abduction, and air traffic control radars verify UFO. Then the aliens can make a second raid to return the abductee and again get out before fighter jets arrive - but not undetected. And if they figure the abductee is not useful, would they bother returning him?

Thanks, good points. You might consider me stretching human tech but the Alien tech is far advanced and not extrapolated from there. The aliens can play with data however it is stored and they certainly have hacked into their chosen candidates' digital lives before making a choice. The person does go missing in the story and it's their decision to accept the abduction. No UFOs. IMO aliens which deliberately approach our Space can cloak themselves and interfere with our crude detection systems. To them the speed of fighter jets is like comparing jets with pigeons.