How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously

[ShreddieMercury]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but it's by far the most comprehensive and interesting analysis of where we stand in regard to U.A.P.s.  It's long but fascinating, and if anybody enjoyed the Times' big UFO cover story a few years ago, it's essential reading.

 

How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously | The New Yorker

WWW.NEWYORKER.COM

---

For decades, flying saucers were a punch line. Then the U.S. government got over the taboo.

 

[Zaku3]

Gonna read now. However I wanted to make my obligatory "Suffer not the alien to live" comment.

[Uaarkson]

Let’s see em.

[Jason]

55 minutes ago, Uaarkson said:

Let’s see em.

 

TED CRUZ FOR HUMAN PRESIDENT

WWW.TEDCRUZFORHUMANPRESIDENT.COM

---

100% Human Candidate

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

I can neither confirm or deny that I'm aware of anything related to this matter.

[Brick]

3 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I can neither confirm or deny that I'm aware of anything related to this matter.

 

Wade has been present for an extra terrestrial autopsy confirmed. 

[Zaku3]

51 minutes ago, Brick said:

 

Wade has been present for an extra terrestrial autopsy confirmed. 

 

I need an invite for the next one. 

[Uaarkson]

1 hour ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

I can neither confirm or deny that I'm aware of anything related to this matter.

Can you neither confirm or deny that we’re gonna get some real info on this over the summer?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

1 minute ago, Uaarkson said:

Can you neither confirm or deny that we’re gonna get some real info on this over the summer?

 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I can neither confirm nor deny that.

[skillzdadirecta]

13 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I can neither confirm nor deny that.

[Zaku3]

19 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

 

I can neither confirm nor deny that I can neither confirm nor deny that.

 

[silentbob]

I’ve fucking seen one so I know they’re real. My mom was in the car with me and saw it too, along with the 5-7 other cars in front (with no lights to worry about) going like 20km in a 60km zone for the +30secs it hovered sideways in the bright blue noonish time sky. Then it was gone and out of site in like a blink of an eye, and we still talk about it every now and then.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

The fact of the matter is that the types of maneuvers that some of these objects are pulling really are far beyond the physical capabilities of what we currently know is possible with aeronautical science and  aerodynamics so I'm at a real loss to come up with a plausible explanation.

[mclumber1]

I reject the argument that UFOs/Aliens cannot or have not visited the Earth, because the distances between solar systems is light years, making travel all but impossible.  It's a bad argument because it's very likely the technology at play is eons ahead of what man has thought up, and we simply don't know everything about physics.  We "know" the laws of physics, until we discover some new quirk or alternative explanation.  That isn't to say that faster than light travel is possible, but surely Aliens have the knowledge and technology to cover vast distances in very little time. 

[LazyPiranha]

13 minutes ago, mclumber1 said:

I reject the argument that UFOs/Aliens cannot or have not visited the Earth, because the distances between solar systems is light years, making travel all but impossible.  It's a bad argument because it's very likely the technology at play is eons ahead of what man has thought up, and we simply don't know everything about physics.  We "know" the laws of physics, until we discover some new quirk or alternative explanation.  That isn't to say that faster than light travel is possible, but surely Aliens have the knowledge and technology to cover vast distances in very little time. 

 

I know I've said it before, but you're simply knocking one domino of dozens out of the line of progression.  FTL travel doesn't account for the fact that space is unbelievably massive.  It also doesn't account for why any intelligent species with FTL travel would just fart around in our lower atmosphere for a minute or two and then just leave.  Any species with that kind of technology would have certainly invented the telescope and could just observe us from much further away.  

[marioandsonic]

Fermi paradox - Wikipedia

EN.M.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

 

[ShreddieMercury]

The most difficult, and interesting, part of considering UFO's/exraterrestrials etc. is that we approach everything from an anthropocentric viewpoint because we have no other choice.  Not only do we not understand how some of this is physically possible, we have to use human logic and reasoning to come up with an explanation for why it's happening.  Not only is it beyond our scientific comprehension, it may just be beyond our comprehension period.

[thewhyteboar]

The existence of aliens surely explains why anyone would prefer their steak well done. 

[silentbob]

12 minutes ago, thewhyteboar said:

The existence of aliens surely explains why anyone would prefer their steak well done. 

[mclumber1]

32 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

 

I know I've said it before, but you're simply knocking one domino of dozens out of the line of progression.  FTL travel doesn't account for the fact that space is unbelievably massive.  It also doesn't account for why any intelligent species with FTL travel would just fart around in our lower atmosphere for a minute or two and then just leave.  Any species with that kind of technology would have certainly invented the telescope and could just observe us from much further away.  

 

Exploration for exploration's sake?  I know it's a TV show, but that's sort of the point of Star Trek.  Captain Kirk wasn't going around trying to conquer planets or do harm, his mission was to explore and increase humanity's shared knowledge.  

 

As to why they just wouldn't set up a telescope...I suppose we could conduct quite a bit of research on Antarctica with satellites, but we still chose to send researches there to study the continent, and the Earth as a whole.  

[SuperSpreader]

1 hour ago, LazyPiranha said:

 

I know I've said it before, but you're simply knocking one domino of dozens out of the line of progression.  FTL travel doesn't account for the fact that space is unbelievably massive.  It also doesn't account for why any intelligent species with FTL travel would just fart around in our lower atmosphere for a minute or two and then just leave.  Any species with that kind of technology would have certainly invented the telescope and could just observe us from much further away.  

[Keyser_Soze]

6 hours ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

The most difficult, and interesting, part of considering UFO's/exraterrestrials etc. is that we approach everything from an anthropocentric viewpoint because we have no other choice.  Not only do we not understand how some of this is physically possible, we have to use human logic and reasoning to come up with an explanation for why it's happening.  Not only is it beyond our scientific comprehension, it may just be beyond our comprehension period.

 

Every time I see representation of some alien in a video game or movie I generally am not surprised with the overall design. They always design an alien to have a head on top and arms and legs. But what if there was an alien that was not built that way? What about sentient blobs or maybe the head is the abdomen and all sorts of wacky stuff. I always thought, "What if there was an extraterrestrial creature as a hero, and his skills were just what we could comprehend as a human (Something like black goo) and a description of what it does but we don't know what the actual stubstance does just how it would affect a human body."

 

Every so often a game goes against the mold, like the Hanar from Mass Effect or the aliens in Returnal (which kind of just look like the aliens from the matrix) but mostly they are all humanoid looking.

[LazyPiranha]

To be fair, they look that way most of the time because they have to put some poor bastard in a rubber suit.

[SimpleG]

9 hours ago, LazyPiranha said:

It also doesn't account for why any intelligent species with FTL travel would just fart around in our lower atmosphere for a minute or two and then just leave.  Any species with that kind of technology would have certainly invented the telescope and could just observe us from much further away

Human history says differently.

We flew planes blindly across the world and sailed into the unknown. In the opposite direction we have had the ability to peer at planets far away yet we struggle our species getting any farther away then our moon. The advancement of one discipline doesn’t guarantee the advancement of others.

 

With that said if there is something out there I would guess they are unmanned drones. 

[CitizenVectron]

3 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Every time I see representation of some alien in a video game or movie I generally am not surprised with the overall design. They always design an alien to have a head on top and arms and legs. But what if there was an alien that was not built that way? What about sentient blobs or maybe the head is the abdomen and all sorts of wacky stuff. I always thought, "What if there was an extraterrestrial creature as a hero, and his skills were just what we could comprehend as a human (Something like black goo) and a description of what it does but we don't know what the actual stubstance does just how it would affect a human body."

 

Every so often a game goes against the mold, like the Hanar from Mass Effect or the aliens in Returnal (which kind of just look like the aliens from the matrix) but mostly they are all humanoid looking.

 

Google MorningLightMountain from Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Duology (Pandora's Star, and Judas Unchained):

 

Quote

MorningLightMountain's consciousness inhabits billions of distinct Prime bodies. There are two types of bodies, those being the motiles, which can see and move but are fairly stupid on their own, and the immotiles, which are blind and immobile but highly intelligent. Immotiles can breed motiles, four of which can form a new immotile, and so on. Immotiles can also link to each other for greater processing power.

 

The size of a Prime's network of bodies is limited only by communication range. MorningLightMountain, alone among the Primes, possesses wormhole technology, allowing its bodies to communicate over arbitrarily large distances. With billions of motiles and immotiles spread across multiple solar systems, MorningLightMountain is essentially an entire civilization with a single united mind.

 

A terrifying antagonistic alien that was imprisoned inside a dyson sphere until humanity unwittingly (in our stupid quest of exploration) unlocked it.

 

Great book series!

[Kal-El814]

27 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

Human history says differently.

 

If we’re looking at human history as a blueprint for long distance travel and what happens at the tail end of it, why weren’t we colonized?

 

I don’t doubt that people have seen and observed UFOs, I very much doubt that they’re alien or extraterrestrial in origin. There’s an extent to which the fact that Donald Trump was president and “Disclosure” didn’t happen that makes me skeptical that the government knows anything really juicy, but what the hell do I know

[Kal-El814]

I just finished reading the article.

 

LOL

[LazyPiranha]

13 hours ago, SimpleG said:

Human history says differently.

We flew planes blindly across the world and sailed into the unknown. In the opposite direction we have had the ability to peer at planets far away yet we struggle our species getting any farther away then our moon. The advancement of one discipline doesn’t guarantee the advancement of others.

 

With that said if there is something out there I would guess they are unmanned drones. 

 

Yes, we flew and sailed blindly because we didn't know what the hell was there.  We didn't have satellite imagery to see what there was, outside of hot air balloons we didn't have good aerial views of things.  No one blindly flies a plane in a random direction to discover some unknown land anymore because there are far better ways of getting that information.  If there were intelligent alien life buzzing around in our lower atmosphere, they would have access to technology we can't possibly imagine and there's basically nothing that they could learn from that they couldn't learn other ways.  If they're capable of getting here and flying in our atmosphere, they're certainly not stupid enough to think they wouldn't be noticed, so what do they possibly have to gain?  Besides, even if we ignore the part of interstellar travel that gets you to FTL, it doesn't change the fact that the speed and movement of these objects often defies material physics, so they would also somehow have to figure out how to not interfere with pesky things like friction.  

[Brick]

I just really want us to discover alien life within my lifetime. Even if it's just alien animals. Imagine what a fish or bird looks like on another planet. Even Europa, in our own solar system is covered in ice, but beneath that ice is water, and if it's warm enough to sustain life it could be possible that primitive life has evolved underneath that ice and is swimming around.

[Fizzzzle]

28 minutes ago, Brick said:

I just really want us to discover alien life within my lifetime. Even if it's just alien animals. Imagine what a fish or bird looks like on another planet. Even Europa, in our own solar system is covered in ice, but beneath that ice is water, and if it's warm enough to sustain life it could be possible that primitive life has evolved underneath that ice and is swimming around.

It could happen, depending on how far we get with Mars exploration. Methane has been detected in Mars' atmosphere on multiple occasions, which means something is producing it. It either means Mars is still at least somewhat geologically active, or there is life producing it somewhere, or both (you probably can't have the latter without the former). Life needs heat and energy, so it's likely the life is underground somewhere, if there is any.

 

Europa's ice is anywhere from 10 to 20 miles thick, so any chance of exploring the oceans of Europa in our lifetime is probably not very great. The deepest hole we've ever drilled on earth didn't even get to 8 miles. Granted, they had to stop due to things like superheating and friction, which you would think wouldn't be as big of a problem when drilling through ice rather than rock. But it would still be a mammoth undertaking.

 

Titan is the most exciting to me, as it's the only other body in the solar system with an active precipitation system on the surface. If there is some form of primitive life on Titan, it would have to be completely different than life on Earth, down to the cellular level. If we found life on Titan, that would mean that life can develop basically anywhere with reactive liquid. It would mean life does not need water.

[Anathema-]

19 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

If we’re looking at human history as a blueprint for long distance travel and what happens at the tail end of it, why weren’t we colonized?

 

Why don't humans colonize an elephant herd?

[DPCyric]

On 5/4/2021 at 5:40 AM, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Every time I see representation of some alien in a video game or movie I generally am not surprised with the overall design. They always design an alien to have a head on top and arms and legs. But what if there was an alien that was not built that way? What about sentient blobs or maybe the head is the abdomen and all sorts of wacky stuff. I always thought, "What if there was an extraterrestrial creature as a hero, and his skills were just what we could comprehend as a human (Something like black goo) and a description of what it does but we don't know what the actual stubstance does just how it would affect a human body."

 

Every so often a game goes against the mold, like the Hanar from Mass Effect or the aliens in Returnal (which kind of just look like the aliens from the matrix) but mostly they are all humanoid looking.

 

Maybe the UFO's are the aliens 🤔 when they detect a group of them it's just a class field trip 

[Brick]

10 hours ago, Fizzzzle said:

It could happen, depending on how far we get with Mars exploration. Methane has been detected in Mars' atmosphere on multiple occasions, which means something is producing it. It either means Mars is still at least somewhat geologically active, or there is life producing it somewhere, or both (you probably can't have the latter without the former). Life needs heat and energy, so it's likely the life is underground somewhere, if there is any.

 

Europa's ice is anywhere from 10 to 20 miles thick, so any chance of exploring the oceans of Europa in our lifetime is probably not very great. The deepest hole we've ever drilled on earth didn't even get to 8 miles. Granted, they had to stop due to things like superheating and friction, which you would think wouldn't be as big of a problem when drilling through ice rather than rock. But it would still be a mammoth undertaking.

 

Titan is the most exciting to me, as it's the only other body in the solar system with an active precipitation system on the surface. If there is some form of primitive life on Titan, it would have to be completely different than life on Earth, down to the cellular level. If we found life on Titan, that would mean that life can develop basically anywhere with reactive liquid. It would mean life does not need water.

 

Well I'm not so interested in microscopic life which we know is on Mars. I want to see more complex like. Imagine an animal about the size of a wolf, or hell the size of an elephant, or even a giant like our dinosaurs, but it's on another planet. 

 

I think it was either Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking who said that many scientists are too narrow in their search for planets that can sustain life because they're looking for planets that can sustain human life; life can evolve to adapt to many kinds of environments, so it's possible that a planet that has an environment that is inhospitable to humans because it's atmosphere is, I don't know, made up of nitrogen, helium, and krypton, but no oxygen is still home to life because the plants and animals there evolved and adapted to breathe those gases. 

 

Scientists also talk about how all life on Earth is carbon based, but there could exist silicon based life, so imagine what a silicon based lifeform would look like. 

[Uaarkson]

On 5/3/2021 at 10:49 PM, LazyPiranha said:

 

I know I've said it before, but you're simply knocking one domino of dozens out of the line of progression.  FTL travel doesn't account for the fact that space is unbelievably massive.  It also doesn't account for why any intelligent species with FTL travel would just fart around in our lower atmosphere for a minute or two and then just leave.  Any species with that kind of technology would have certainly invented the telescope and could just observe us from much further away.  

There are some wild theories out there. Some have even speculated on the possibility of life forms inside stars, consisting entirely of gravitational acoustic oscillations.

[CitizenVectron]

1 hour ago, Brick said:

 

Well I'm not so interested in microscopic life which we know is on Mars. I want to see more complex like. Imagine an animal about the size of a wolf, or hell the size of an elephant, or even a giant like our dinosaurs, but it's on another planet. 

 

I think it was either Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking who said that many scientists are too narrow in their search for planets that can sustain life because they're looking for planets that can sustain human life; life can evolve to adapt to many kinds of environments, so it's possible that a planet that has an environment that is inhospitable to humans because it's atmosphere is, I don't know, made up of nitrogen, helium, and krypton, but no oxygen is still home to life because the plants and animals there evolved and adapted to breathe those gases. 

 

Scientists also talk about how all life on Earth is carbon based, but there could exist silicon based life, so imagine what a silicon based lifeform would look like.