[extropy-chat] The NSA's disclosures on UFOs

[The Avantguardian]

--- Martin Striz <mstriz at gmail.com> wrote:
> Yes.  If they could find a way to get here, they
> could find a way not
> to be detected.  Our knowledge of their existence is
> pure fantasy.

Well the evidence in support of these "fantasies" is
staggering:

1. There are 375 photographs of UFOs quite a few
dating from BEFORE the invention of technology to
alter photographs. There are also a handful of videos
of UFOs. http://www.ufoevidence.org/

2. There are newspaper articles about them.

3. There are 4000 eyewitness accounts of people both
reputable and not including two US presidents who
claim to have seen them as well as people who claim
"abduction".

4. There are government reports on them and sworn
affidavits attesting to them.

5. There are alleged landing sites that are
radioactive according to geiger-counter wielding
"experts".

6. There are numerous non-profit organizations devoted
to their study.  

7. There was a historic military confrontation with
one or more UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS during World
War II:
http://www.militarymuseum.org/BattleofLA.html

8. At least 2 extropes on this list have personally
seen a UFO.

If even 99% of these are hoaxes, this still amounts to
on the order of 100 solid data points in FAVOR of the
existense of UFOs.


On the other hand there is one piece of evidence that
seems to indicate that extra-terrestrial intelligence
doesn't exist:

Fermi's Paradox. There has been no radio
communications of extra terrestrial intelligence
detected. Of course if this is sufficient NEGATIVE
EVIDENCE to rule out the existense of
extra-terrestrial intelligence then I suppose every
girl that I have left messages for that did not call
me back ought to be construed to be either
non-existent or non-intelligent.

In the world of scientific inquiry (and legal
proceedings for that matter) hear-say does not cut the
mustard. So with all due respect to Eliezer and the
other fanatically skeptical people on this list, your
OPINION and clever quotes are irrelevant when weighed
against mountains of EVIDENCE.

> For centuries people were visited by incubi and
> succubi, or talking
> animals.  Since the "space age" starting in the
> 1920s, people have
> been visited by aliens.  It's the same archetypical
> psychological
> phenomenon with culturally-specified manifestations.

The ancient Greeks believed the sun to to be a chariot
driven across the sky by Apollo. The ancient Egyptians
believed the sun was rolled across the sky by a giant
dung beetle. Just because these people believed in
culturally specific manifestations of the sun does not
mean that the sun is merely a psychological
phenomenon.    
 
> I haven't seen the data on this (perhaps you know?),
> but it seems that
> the height of UFO sightings was the period 1950 -
> 1980.  Some
> psychologists have suggested that this hysteria was
> a result of Cold
> War anxiety mixed with Sci Fi culture.

Here are websites that shows the frequency of
sightings by year. 

http://www.larryhatch.net/50YEARS.html
http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/amazur/hatchufodata.html

But the earliest known photo dates back to the 1890s
and strange flying objects have been reported since
ancient times. For example Elijah being carried away
to heaven in a "chariot of fire" according to
Judeo-Christian myth.
    
> 
> Or maybe the aliens just lost interest?

I am not going to speculate on the motives of beings I
do not understand. But if the frequency distribution
of sightings is accurate it seems that their interest
in us seems to wax and wane in cycles. This may be
indicative of travel times or study cycles (maybe they
have to apply for grants to study us like Earth
scientists.) Sightings do seem to peak during war time
for whatever reason. Maybe the increased radio chatter
or all the explosions are to blame. Who knows.

In any case my gut tells me this. Things that happen
only once are anomalies. The skeptics would have one
believe that intelligent life only happened ONCE in a
universe of literally BILLIONS AND BILLIONS of
opportunities. Thus according to the Drake Equation,
the reason the Great Silence is a paradox is not
because it is unlikely that extra-terrestrial
intelligence exists but that it is almost certain to.
So why haven't they contacted us? Is it because we are
the only intelligent beings in the vast universe? Or
is it because they have chosen to snub us? Do the
babes I have left messages for exist? Or have they
chosen to snub me? These are difficult mysteries to
solve. 

 

Stuart LaForge
alt email: stuart"AT"ucla.edu

"A human being is part of the whole called by us 'the universe,' a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening the circle of understanding and compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

-St. Einstein

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