Aliens of the Gaps?

The ubiquity of science fiction has kindled an unparalleled enthusiasm in the general public with regards to the topic of aliens. Add to that various UFO sightings, mysterious abduction testimonies or strange occurrences in general and we find ourselves with some interesting philosophical questions that need answering. In this paper, I test the alien hypothesis for theoretical virtues. Simply put, I highlight the merits and demerits of appealing to aliens, i.e. technologically advanced intelligent extraterrestrials, to explain certain phenomena or observations. I shall compare the alien hypothesis to rival hypotheses and also argue that the jinn hypothesis is more preferable.