Aliens

[Rallywagon]

It's perfectly acceptable to hold that there are beings that travel faster than light - here in this opinion forum, but certainly not in a science or physics forum.

Sooo this doesn't hold water to you? FTL travel and communication. Yes it is a wiki page, and yes it has actual links to actual resources. A lot of quantum theorists, including Hawkins, believe that you can indeed travel faster than light.

Now that said, and actually, regardless of this, whats to say we will even visually encounter them first? Just to take this out into the metaphysical for a minute. Lets take the notion of astral projection. Regardless of the means of reaching it, being meditation or under influences of mind expanding substances. Pretty much all that have experienced astral projection have also reported meeting other entities while projecting. If this is indeed a true case, than would it not be possible for one who has a better control and projection ability to "Track" the silver cord back to someone projecting and find their planet, if you will.
After all, isn't it one of the theories that we will eventually evolve out of material bodies into forms of pure energy?

Ok, out of the metaphysical,

My post wasn't directed at you. But yes, they could have vastly superior technology to us, but they would have to be so lucky to stumble across Earth. The only thing that would ever grab any extra-terrestrial attention would be radio signals that have been blasted out into space.

We are, and have been for a long time, pushing a HUGE light and a large amount of radio and other waves out of our planet, far into space in the hopes that something will hear it, and even before we were purposely beaming messages, we were also inadvertently doing the same since WWII at least. Scientists believe actually, that one of the first signals strong enough to leave our planet was actually a speech broadcasted by the Nazis of Hitler propagating his hate. Wouldn't that make a nice message for our interstellar neighbors...

 

[Dan]

A peacekeeping alien race hears Hitler and thinks we're all as hateful as him. They have big lasers and big bombs.

We're screwed.

 

[R5]

Some of you may have seen this "Solway Spaceman" before. I certainly have. I live close to where the photo was taken so we see this in newspapers whenever there are suspected UFO sightings. Kinda strange as this could be a real alien this close to humans, and alive. But... Why? Why Solway? It's hardly a perfect hiding place. And why didn't it appear to the human eye? And why didn't it make an attempt to contact us?

Maybe we're not ready for contact. Who knows?

 

[PeterJB]

It's thought it may have just been his wife, with an overexposed blue dress, but even so, it looks like it's wearing a helmet. I doubt it's a real alien though. At this point, if they ever had come to Earth and come into contact with humans, we'd know.

 

[Dotini]

Some of you may have seen this "Solway Spaceman" before. I certainly have. I live close to where the photo was taken so we see this in newspapers whenever there are suspected UFO sightings. Kinda strange as this could be a real alien this close to humans, and alive. But... Why? Why Solway? It's hardly a perfect hiding place. And why didn't it appear to the human eye? And why didn't it make an attempt to contact us?

Maybe we're not ready for contact. Who knows?

It's not a real space alien. It's a joke - a cosmic joke. It looks like a doll or cartoon alien. This absurd image formed on the sensitive photographic negative, but was not seen by human eyes. It is akin to "spirit photography". A hoax, but a hoax produced by an unknown agency. Emotional or psychological issues with the child or photographer could have played a role.

 

[R5]

It's thought it may have just been his wife, with an overexposed blue dress, but even so, it looks like it's wearing a helmet. I doubt it's a real alien though. At this point, if they ever had come to Earth and come into contact with humans, we'd know.

People do always say that, but do the governments of the world really want us to know this stuff? I'm sure they have good reasons why they don't.

 

[PeterJB]

People do always say that, but do the governments of the world really want us to know this stuff? I'm sure they have good reasons why they don't.

Unless they've formed an alliance with the aliens, then their is little they could do to stop the aliens going public if they wanted to.

 

[Dotini]

People do always say that, but do the governments of the world really want us to know this stuff? I'm sure they have good reasons why they don't.

Absolutely correct. The first duty of government is to perpetuate itself and the existence of the nation governed. Discoveries which might produce instability, confusion, doubt or fear are not desirable. Contact with technologically advanced colonizing civilizations like the Spanish reduced many a primitive tribal society to ruin. About 50 years ago, NASA commissioned the Brookings Institution to prepare a study on the consequences of discovery of technologically advanced aliens or their artifacts in the solar system. Brookings concluded such a discovery could prove destructive to our own civilization.

The whole meme of aliens has already influenced our culture in profound ways. In fact, our culture sometimes seems to act so self-destructively, it makes me suspect aliens have dropped a Stupidity-bomb upon us.

 

[Dennisch]

If anything alien shows itself there is no government in the world that has the power to hide it. Everyone has a camera nowadays and it will be online in minutes.

 

[Dan]

If anything alien shows itself there is no government in the world that has the power to hide it. Everyone has a camera nowadays and it will be online in minutes.

I just want there to be a UFO that appears over Washington DC and be like "Hi. We're from outer space, and everything you know is wrong" then fly away.

That would be nice. Just to freak some people out and prove there is extraterrestrial life.

 

[Dennisch]

No. It should not show itself to the US, because then it would become a hoax created by Obama to turn attention away from his presidential mishaps.

I prefer some more down to earth country like the Netherlands. Or Canada.

 

[Dotini]

I just want there to be a UFO that appears over Washington DC and be like "Hi. We're from outer space, and everything you know is wrong" then fly away.

That would be nice. Just to freak some people out and prove there is extraterrestrial life.

That has already happened! True story. Over 2 weekends in the summer of 1952, a fleet of 7 UFO's buzzed the Capital and White House. President Truman was there, and became alarmed. Jet fighters were scrambled several times but failed to intercept. The UFO's were seen visually and on several radars. "SAUCERS SWARM OVER CAPITAL", screamed the headlines in large black type - although the objects themselves actually appeared to be fiery red-orange spheres. The Air Force held a remarkable press conference afterward, the largest Pentagon press conference since WWII.

FYI, the US had exploded 8 atomic bombs in Nevada in the 4 months preceding the sightings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1952_Washington,_D.C._UFO_incident

 

[Exorcet]

Absolutely correct. The first duty of government is to perpetuate itself and the existence of the nation governed. Discoveries which might produce instability, confusion, doubt or fear are not desirable. Contact with technologically advanced colonizing civilizations like the Spanish reduced many a primitive tribal society to ruin. About 50 years ago, NASA commissioned the Brookings Institution to prepare a study on the consequences of discovery of technologically advanced aliens or their artifacts in the solar system. Brookings concluded such a discovery could prove destructive to our own civilization.

The whole meme of aliens has already influenced our culture in profound ways. In fact, our culture sometimes seems to act so self-destructively, it makes me suspect aliens have dropped a Stupidity-bomb upon us.

I think people would get over it. My biggest concern would be those infatuated with aliens/UFO's to the point where they convince themselves of ridiculous things. There is no telling how they would act if alien life was actually present on Earth.

Just to freak some people out and prove there is extraterrestrial life.

You don't actually need aliens for that though. Just become friends with Northrop.

 

[Dean]

Just to freak some people out and prove there is extraterrestrial life.

People won't believe in it before they've actually seen it. People who've not, usually call me crazy if I tell about my sighting.

I prefer some more down to earth country like the Netherlands. Or Canada.

Or Denmark?

 

[kikie]

Where does the word "extra" from extraterrestrial come from?

I think people would get over it. My biggest concern would be those infatuated with aliens/UFO's to the point where they convince themselves of ridiculous things. There is no telling how they would act if alien life was actually present on Earth.

Those nutjobs already exist.

Think about e.g. "aliens are lizards believers".

 

[Touring Mars]

Where does the word "extra" from extraterrestrial come from?

From Latin, usually meaning beyond, or 'outside of'...

 

[axletramp]

I thought it meant 'sugar free' and 'minty fresh'.

Aliens, pfft.

 

[kikie]

I do know one thing about Aliens; they like the Porsche 997 so much, they would do anything to get there 4-fingered -hands on one. Preferably one with a broken steering wheel.

 

[axletramp]

Hasn't everyone got four fingers... and a thumb? Ha! Only a true alien would make such a mistake!

 

[Callum B]

For some time I think there'll lie the problem if a person does in fact come into genuine contact with an alien, with the world being so sceptical it would never be accepted. Maybe some of those crazy whack jobs have come into contact, or maybe (what we default to) they've indeed been at the meth a little too long.
It's a difficult thing to say, because saying they might not all be deranged and high makes me seem like a moron at least to society.
The universe is something which we'll never fully understand, which is why it's important to keep a reasonably open mind to this stuff. I'm waffling, I apologise.

 

[Touring Mars]

If an alien species is intelligent enough to make it here on purpose, then meeting mankind would probably be as much of an accomplishment for them as it would be if we were to reach a distant, alien civilisation - and between us, we'd probably not have much difficulty in a) making people aware that the meeting had genuinely occured and b) making sure that the news was broken in such a way as to not cause a major panic. That is presuming, of course, that they are not hostile... if they were hostile, we'd know all about it pretty quickly anyway!

But given the near-infinite natural resources and possible habitats out there that could be accessed without facing the dangers of another intelligent species like ourselves (with the capacity and the necessary hostility to fight back), I think it would be pretty unlikely that an alien species would bother trying to displace us and make our planet theirs... instead, I think it is pretty likely that any visiting intelligence would at least seek to make contact first and assess the possibility of what benefits they might derive from us before blasting us with their death rays, and as such, it would probably be necessary for them to make their presence known to the whole world in such a way as to allow everyone the chance to represent mankind.

 

[Dotini]

to make their presence known to the whole world in such a way as to allow everyone the chance to represent mankind.

An interesting choice of words!
Implying to me that governments would adopt a policy of denial or neutrality while people gradually became aware through personal experience or contact. Disclosure from the bottom up.

 

[Badger-X-]

An interesting choice of words!
Implying to me that governments would adopt a policy of denial or neutrality while people gradually became aware through personal experience or contact. Disclosure from the bottom up.

It seems, to me anyway, that Disclosure from the bottom up is the only way it would happen these days. And I must admit, even though I try to retain a level of skepticism for posterity, I believe more and more that that bottom up Disclosure is happening right now, albeit slowly. There are a hell of a lot of extremely credible witnesses out there.

 

[Touring Mars]

That isn't really what I meant - if anything, I meant the complete opposite... I seriously doubt that a visiting alien intelligence would be purposefully mysterious to the point of revealing themselves only to a tiny fraction of random people in such a way as to allow them little to no opportunity to record any incontrovertible evidence. If concealment were the issue, I doubt they would have the technology and intelligence to make it all the way to Earth and then do a half-arsed job of hiding and not bother to make formal contact.

When I said 'everyone', I was really talking about different nations, and different groups of people within those nations, from the man in the street to the leaders of government. The idea that the US, UK or Russian governments are hiding the evidence of previous visits doesn't make a great deal of sense when viewed from a global perspective - why would a visiting intelligence only go to one or two countries, and not every country on Earth? The idea that alien visitors have made it to Earth but the US (or other) governments have successfully managed to keep the whole thing a secret doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Either way, even if that is/was the case in the past, the kind of technology that used to be the exclusive preserve of advanced military powers that might have been uniquely capable of detecting an alien visitation is now so common place that it is extremely unlikely to happen again. So why hasn't it happened recently? The short answer is the most boring answer possible - it simply hasn't (and doesn't) happen. But I am pretty confident that if and when it does, we will know all about it in no uncertain terms.

 

[Tesla]

That isn't really what I meant - if anything, I meant the complete opposite... I seriously doubt that a visiting alien intelligence would be purposefully mysterious to the point of revealing themselves only to a tiny fraction of random people in such a way as to allow them little to no opportunity to record any incontrovertible evidence.

If I were them, I'd do it just to screw with us.

 

[Touring Mars]

If I were them, I'd do it just to screw with us.

Well, that is what a rectal probe is for, after all.

 

[Tesla]

Well, that is what a rectal probe is for, after all.

In all seriousness though, there's nothing to discount the possibility that despite having these sorts of technologies, their senses of humour would be consistent with our own. I suppose there's nothing to discount the possibility of them having 2ft long fingers and 2 inch legs or any other strange combinations, but where's the harm in a little speculation.

 

[zzz_pt]

I think it's very probable that life exists or have existed in other places in our universe. And I would be very surprised if it were similar to ours. The possibilities are so many that it's almost naive to think that we are alone or we will be forever the only kind of life in the whole universe.

 

[Badger-X-]

That isn't really what I meant - if anything, I meant the complete opposite... I seriously doubt that a visiting alien intelligence would be purposefully mysterious to the point of revealing themselves only to a tiny fraction of random people in such a way as to allow them little to no opportunity to record any incontrovertible evidence. If concealment were the issue, I doubt they would have the technology and intelligence to make it all the way to Earth and then do a half-arsed job of hiding and not bother to make formal contact.

When I said 'everyone', I was really talking about different nations, and different groups of people within those nations, from the man in the street to the leaders of government. The idea that the US, UK or Russian governments are hiding the evidence of previous visits doesn't make a great deal of sense when viewed from a global perspective - why would a visiting intelligence only go to one or two countries, and not every country on Earth? The idea that alien visitors have made it to Earth but the US (or other) governments have successfully managed to keep the whole thing a secret doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Either way, even if that is/was the case in the past, the kind of technology that used to be the exclusive preserve of advanced military powers that might have been uniquely capable of detecting an alien visitation is now so common place that it is extremely unlikely to happen again. So why hasn't it happened recently? The short answer is the most boring answer possible - it simply hasn't (and doesn't) happen. But I am pretty confident that if and when it does, we will know all about it in no uncertain terms.

All good points and I'm not discounting any of them (since it's all just conjecture anyway) but I think it's still relevant to consider the possibility that it would be way easier for "visitors" to conduct exploration, experiments, resource gathering, or even invasion in secret rather than making themselves known outright. We are still very much a war strewn planet and have not transcended our aggressive traits as a species. If they had the technology to remain (mostly) undetected that would probably be a lot easier and preferable than making themselves known to the angry apes of Earth. Why waste innumerable resources on a messy confrontation/invasion when you can do it all with subterfuge and secrecy?

 

[Dotini]

Is Fernando faster than you? Is Michio Kaku smarter than you? Listen to the prominent physicist interview Leslie Kean, author of the best-seller, UFOs: Pilots, Generals and Government Officials go on the Record.


Michio Kaku, UFOs are unequivocally real:

Both Kean and Kaku think, like most, the extraterrestrial hypothesis is the most likely explanation. I respectfully disagree.