Mini-Post: Caterpillars and Space Aliens

I found a caterpillar crawling around in the office hallway. No idea where he came from.  I expect he hitchhiked into the office on a package or something, because we're on the sixth floor and that's a lot of climbing.  Anyway, I got a piece of paper, scooped him up, took him downstairs in the elevator and shooed him into the garden. 

I realize that normal people don't do stuff like this.

But it got me to thinking: From the caterpillar's perspective, he was tooling around minding his own business when some alien force picked him up, stepped into an elevator (an advanced technology he would have no knowledge of) and took him out into a garden. Suddenly he was on the ground with dirt and plants, and there was plenty of food and all was well.

But what just happened? What was my purpose in picking him up? He had no idea. He only knew that it was happening and was probably very scared, even though it ended happily.  (I assume.  Discounting the possibility of a hungry robin or other garden predators.) 

So there are these stories about aliens abducting humans. People miss time, they have vague memories of being on a spaceship, and wake up somewhere safe. 

Stay with me here.  Maybe the alien noticed that Johnny Human had a brain tumor or some other medical problem that would kill him in short order, of which he was not aware. Not that the alien (or more likely, the alien AI; traveling from other planets is awfully hard on biological organisms) was out looking for good deeds to do, but then one presented itself.  Maybe the alien scooped him up, fixed the problem and then put him back down. Kind of like I did with the caterpillar.

I mean, the caterpillar probably didn't know yet that there was no food up there or that he was going to die if he stayed there, but I knew and I fixed it.

In short, maybe we should give these abducting aliens the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they have good intentions. If not, maybe they're at least checking us out as a species to see what makes us tick, in hopes that if we keep destroying our planet, they can relocate us somewhere safe. 

Probably not on a piece of paper.