Each year, thousands of UFOs are sighted and reported, which is an impressive tally of unidentified aerial phenomena. Surveys show that roughly one-third of the populace believes that at least some of this sky show is due to extraterrestrial spacecraft, here to probe our airspace and, when that proves boring, our bodies.
In other words, alien presence on our planet is not a fringe idea. And every day, I get e-mails and phone calls from people eager to describe their experience with this unbidden invasion. Most correspondents tell me they have evidence that will cinch the case for extraterrestrials and silence the non-believers. The nature of their proof varies: most common is testimony by witnesses -- including such credible types as pilots and astronauts -- who see strange objects they deem to be spacecraft on the basis of their movement or appearance. A few individuals report being abducted by smooth-skinned beings, usually for excessively personal interactions. And then there are countless claims by people insisting that these creatures from afar are communicating with them one-on-one, usually to convey important messages to humankind.
There's a small group who tell me they are aliens.
It's hardly likely to amaze you, but I'm skeptical. I don't think the evidence laid on the table as proof of extraterrestrial visitation is compelling, and I certainly don't buy the argument that better evidence (in fact, all the really good evidence) has somehow been collected by the governments of the world and stacked up in secret storage lockers.
But I'm not here to argue with you. I'd like to make a different point -- one that somehow seems to have escaped notice in the seemingly endless debate about UFOs. Namely, if the aliens are here, you have to admit something remarkable: They're about as harmless as kittens on Xanax.
Consider: The premise is that Earth is being visited. But are these invaders a mortal threat? You can read occasional claims that aliens are mutilating our cattle (a decidedly unwelcome pastime, if true), but homicide seems to be off limits for ET. They don't kill people. Your chances of being snuffed by a moose are higher.
Well, what about all those creepy abductions? Some pundits have proposed that the aliens have come here to breed with us. Apparently, too much bike riding or something similar has rendered them incapable of reproducing within their own species. But do extraterrestrial infants toddle through your neighborhood? A dozen years ago, tens of thousands of people bought Lloyds of London's alien impregnation insurance. None ever collected.
OK, what about technology transfer? Hasn't the U.S. military reverse-engineered captured alien spacecraft, and occasionally farmed out sophisticated inventions (e.g., fiber optics) to favored defense contractors? Aside from being an insult to the science and engineering community (who clearly developed these things, usually with centuries of effort), this suggestion would imply that -- for example -- American military equipment should be orders of magnitude better than that of our Cold War adversaries. Indeed, it should be incredibly better than our own earlier hardware. But the curve of technological progress has no such startling discontinuities.
If the aliens haven't seen fit to bless us with better technology, have they at least provided some advanced knowledge, helping us to deal with such sticky problems as climate change or nuclear war? Negative, Captain.
All right. But surely their presence in our airspace must have consequences? All those sighted craft must be driving air traffic controllers crazy, right? Well, ask yourself how often your flight to Des Moines has been delayed because alien spacecraft are flying around without filing an FAA flight plan.
Commercial aviation doesn't seem to be greatly affected, but there's a recent suggestion that the extraterrestrials have greater interest in the military. The claim is that they're hovering around our nuclear missile silos. Whether you believe this or not, you have to admit that the idea is nuttier than a praline. Any beings advanced enough to traverse interstellar distances are at least a thousand years beyond our technical level. Spending gobs of time examining our missiles is equivalent to sending the Air Force back to the Middle Ages, and insisting they examine the chain mail factories.
It comes down to this: In the 16th century, the Americas were invaded by Europeans. If, at the time, you had asked the natives to list the consequences of this incursion, they would surely mention such noteworthy items as enslavement, decimation of the population by disease, being driven off their lands, and the appearance of novel technologies such as the horse, the gun, and the wheel.
As far as I can tell, the only unambiguous consequence of the claimed invasion of Earth by beings from another star system has been a nonstop torrent of TV specials.
So if you're one of the many who believe the aliens are here, you really do have to admit this: They're the best houseguests ever.
snippet.... "Every president of the United States who has taken office since Harry Truman, has been made aware of, or has personally met and has been in contact with aliens/advanced beings (AB’s)! All presidents since Harry Truman, have without exception, when asked by the uninformed about involvement with these beings… have denied any involvement, as they should! Why do I say that?"
snippet.... "One of the greatest accidents regarding our association with AB’s (advanced beings) resulted in the deaths of military personnel after being invited to an alien base to discuss no fly zones, nuclear testing and other areas of concern."
If interested, read article in its entirety: http://www.divineadvancedhumanbeings.com/is-the-president-of-the-united-states-aware-of-alienufo-activity/
He has a point about the nuclear installation events and military/commercial aircraft encounters, which have been documented numerous times around the world. If we're dealing with an advanced ET than why are they so ignorant about our technology and why does it take them forever to gather their intelligence? The answer, as least from one human perspective, is these events are meant for show. The sightings are meant to teach, to prod, to infuriate and confuse, I have no idea. I know one thing, if they are ETs they could end this all in an instant, but that's clearly not in their interests, at least not for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxX292RR2Ss&feature=related
The fact is the writer is trying to tell us there is nothing to be afraid of, if, in fact “they” do exist. That’s a pretty small frame for such advance telescopic technology, don’t you think?
I appreciate him trying to convince us they would be purring kittens. I guess he’s trying to protect us. There is so much information that implies the truth is uglier than most people can handle, and I respect his effort to keep people from looking further “up there” for that evidence…or underneath their feet for that matter.
Perhaps Mr. Shostak and James Oberg can get together for a beer, watch some of those TV specials, discuss, hopefully learn something new, and spread it around.
I would contend if he’s willing to admit “fiber optics” were possibly “farmed out”, he need not look further than his iPad-iPhone, 70 years later. Maybe not centuries. I’d also contend its more of an insult to our scientist and engineers not to breed better ones rather than continue to let our educational system die.
The comparison to Ets “Spending gobs of time examining our missiles is equivalent to sending the Air Force back to the Middle Ages, and insisting they examine the chain mail factories.” The irony here, is that our Air Force and Army is doing just that in a place called Afghanistan. Does anyone have a clue what on earth we are still doing there 10 years later? Rubble, and… may as well be chain mail?
Off planet races have “spent gobs of time” trying to wake us up by examining and disarming our missiles (this is on record) because a major Earth nuclear confrontation would impact our known universe on a multi-dimensional level.
You'd be better served by serving yourself and referring that issue directly to the human earth intermediaries who play act like they are "alien" and "God" alike as they sell you the next versions each year, not caring if a phone antenna works. Ask them why they are compromising their quality? is it maybe because they are going to stretch this phase of technology out as long as they can? The technology has already been demonstrated for full 3d movies and television with smells, texture and everything...I wonder when that will actually be "developed" for the public? Would be nice if my antenna would work.
I'm sure the Zetans have been puzzled as to why this issue hasn't been worked out by us down here, especially considering they are not even made in the US under what would be considered "free and fair" conditions.
Some of them I'm sure are wondering and waiting...
If the aliens are only a couple hundred years in front of us technologically, they would leave their family forever to visit a bunch of apes (relativity suggests they would be dead when the aliens go back home). OR they would be advanced enough to warp the very fabric of space- in which case you would clearly see warping in the sky.
Its been repeated through countless stories of abductions, contacts and channelings that a nuclear confrontation on this planet would impact our whole universe on a multi-dimensional level. There is plenty of information out there to support the fact that there are several off planet races who are actively trying to prevent this from happening.
But you have to do your own research, if you choose, (there is WAY more info on all of this than 10 yrs ago, and you have the net too) and in time, you'll be amazed at how much truth is out there that you truly deserve.
I don't know if that correlates with the whole UFO mess though..
He has fallen into the non-scientific pit so many of his fellow astronomers have discovered: The basic rules of UFO debunkers. Never apply the scientific method to UFO research, rather, use ridicule. Also, Don’t bother me with the facts, my mind is made up. And, do research by proclamation rather than investigation.
Dr. Shestak would flunk any astronomy student who failed so utterly to apply the scientific method. So, in this case, perhaps he should flunk himself.
http://www.newdualism.org/papers/N.Grossman/OnMaterialismasScienceDogma.html
"To my knowledge, no one who has had a NDE feels any need for an explanation in the reductionist sense that researchers are seeking. "
That might be true, but the same could be said of the ancient Greeks, most of whom felt no need for a naturalistic explanation for lightning. Zeus throwing thunderbolts was good enough for them. But it's not, for a scientist at least.
Cheers,
Seth
When we use the scientific method we don't call someone names and thing we've accomplished anything. You don't have one specific example in your comment of a false clame or fallacious reasoning in the original article.
Aircraft manufactured using nanotechnology will have remarkable abilities. When we can build computers on the nano scale, we'll be able to create auto-piloted aircraft which have artificial intelligence that takes the place of human pilots.
Such aircraft would not need to be on the size scale that we currently associate with flying machines. And aircraft the size of a parakeet or a bumble-bee could have all the necessary sensors on board to perform any surveillance operations that our current drones perform.
When we have mastery over atoms and molecules, we'll redesign our bodies. We also will not need to exist on our current size scale simply to have the ability to move around and experience consciousness. We may choose to build sentient computing networks that cover the whole earth, sort of like an invisible World Wide Web, where all future beings are constantly connected. We'll probably choose to clean up our environment and recycle our old cities and structures of civilization that exist on the macro scale, removing all evidence of our human history.
Who's to say that in Earth's 4 billion years of history, that other creatures that existed prior to humanity haven't evolved this ability already, and that they are not already all around us?
What does nano technology have to do with being able to have an auto-pilot? I don't see the connection. As you said Nano technology works at the molecular level, making millions of microscopic small changes to a material or living organism. An auto-pilot is a very standard AI problem and its actually been pretty well solved already. The auto-pilots currently on a commercial airliner can pretty much fly the plane all the way there except for the take-offs and landings -- and that's been true for a long time.
On the other hand, a nanotechnology based AI could have all the ability of a human pilot, plus orders of magnitude greater reaction times, and the ability to be self-contained in an aircraft much smaller than a conventional aircraft that is capable of achieving much greater G-Forces and making intelligent decisions with regard to obtaining intelligence and interacting with human aircraft.
I guess my primary point is that an alien intelligence with just an additional hundred years of advancement beyond humanity would have no need to create aircraft that fly in our airspace that are of a size that can be detected and recognized as a flying machine by our current radar.
So my inclination is to believe that if there are more advanced beings flying in our airspace, either terrestrial or extra terrestrial, it is highly likely that we would not be able to detect them.
"In mainstream science, Vallée is notable for co-developing the first computerized mapping of Mars for NASA and for his work at SRI International in creating ARPANET, a precursor to the modern Internet. Vallée is also an important figure in the study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), first noted for a defense of the scientific legitimacy of the extraterrestrial hypothesis and later for promoting the Interdimensional hypothesis."
Let me repeat part of that: "and for his work at SRI International in creating ARPANET, a precursor to the modern internet."
Vallee is as advertised. Perhaps, if you want to defend the premise under discussion, and you don't want to do exactly what one of the users above accused the article's author of doing -- you should cease personal attacks against people you don't like (Vallee - perhaps?) and instead focus on what they say. I am quite used to posting things like that on mixed political boards to conservatives - I do not expect to have to remind those here of them.
Regards,
Reyn
Perhaps that will lead to an invasion in force, although I doubt it. I think it unlikely that any species with technology capable of interstellar travel would derive any benefit from conquering Earth.
An alternative may be that they are just studying us, the way we do chimps, dolphins, etc.
Or maybe they are considering contacting us to "help" us. Aso not probable. That would require benign motives which we humans do not seem capable of extending to even our fellow humans, let alone the other lifeforms we share this planet with.
Still another explanation is that they are watching to see if we develop the technology for interstellar travel, at which point they might quarantine the planet, or blow us back to the Stone Age, or maybe even exterminate us rather than let a species of killer apes (i.e. humans) spread death and destruction around this galaxy as we have on Earth.
Why send an astronaut when you can simply fax a copy of a astronaut across space and time so that it self-assembles at the destination?
If some extra-terrestrial intelligence has evolved that degree of mastery over physics and the subatomic world, they wouldn't even bother attempting to communicate with little ant-beings like us. They would simply control us. Why send a beam of light or a wave of electromagnetic symbols when you can just send electrical impulses directly into the neurons of the creatures at the destination location? Maybe you could insert gene sequences from across space. Maybe creating a few mutations here and there, so that language evolves, or thumbs oppose.
The sky really is the limit when we consider physics on the ultra tiny and ultra gigantic scales that are currently beyond the reach of humans.
The little window of time in our evolution where we're concerned with things like lasers and radio waves might be statistically insignificant.
As vast and diverse as the biology is on this planet, the same is true regarding life and agendas in this universe.
But you don't always have to look up to find company.