OT--UFO & UAP Fascination/Curiosity?

[ProfD]

People have been UFO/UAP fascinated and/or curious for a very long time.

 

No shortage of books, movies, magazines, sightings and investigations around UFOs and UAPs.

 

Humans have a hard enough time getting along with each other. Do they really want to encounter aliens?

 

What would aliens gain from interacting with humans? 

 

I do not believe beings intelligent enough to build aircraft capable of traveling throughout the universe would be interested in much of what's happening on earth.

 

Music is about the best thing we have to offer visitors from outer space if they ever decided to show up.😁😎

[Sundown]

I’ve often said that if aliens visited, we’d have to give them the best music ever created, which would arguably be The Who.

 

At which point the aliens would no doubt say: “Pete? Yeah, he’s one of us…”

[Konnector]

The universe is vast. It's quite possible there could be intelligent life far more advanced than us somewhere...or has been at some point. Are they coming here every other day based on all the reports? Highly doubtful.

 

If any actually have come here from the cosmos, do you really think there would be lifeforms of some sort piloting the craft? I'm sure they'd send small drones to explore our planet if they actually wanted to penetrate our atmosphere for a closer look....Or they may be able to gather all the info they need from a safe orbit away if they're that advanced.

 

There are a few intriguing, unexplained events that have taken place over the years, but that doesn't mean it's aliens. I find it all quite entertaining and part of me wishes some of it were true, but I have serious doubts....at least when it comes to "flying saucers" and "little grey aliens".  (And why are those little grey aliens always naked? Don't they worry about contacting some weird virus on a strange planet that might kill them?)  

[stoken6]

Two possibilities:

1. There's life out there

2. There's no life out there

Both blow my mind...

 

Cheers, Mike.

[niacin]

 

[JamPro]

No, No, No, and maybe Yes.

 

There are no aliens out there.  That is because "we" are "living" in a simulation - a simulation of a "living being", on a simulated planet, in a simulated universe - that might be the long-ago creation of an alien species of vast intelligence.

[16251]

I've posted this before.  I've watched this movie a few times and think it is great.  Never did it make me sleepy like 80% of every movie I watch on Netflix.

 

 

[ProfD]

7 hours ago, Konnector said:

(And why are those little grey aliens always naked? Don't they worry about contacting some weird virus on a strange planet that might kill them?)  

Right.  That is the funniest part. 🤣

 

We get these silly azz pictures of a naked creature with big eyes who supposedly travels around in outer space checking out planets.

 

It's right up there with folks who claim to have been abducted and probed.😁

 

Then, there is Roswell, New Mexico and Area 51 and congressional hearings. 

 

We sell Santa Claus is sold to little children.  Aliens, bigfoot and sea creatures are sold to the bigger children.🤣😎

 

[lightbg]

There’s a big sign just beyond Pluto that reads…..

 

”Welcome to the trailer park of the Milky Way”

 

 

We’re safe.

[Old No7]

I'm thinking the answer to all these questions could be hidden somewhere in Uranus...

 

( pun fully intended )

 

Old No7

[JamPro]

"I'm thinking the answer to all these questions could be hidden somewhere in Uranus..."

 

Wow - you're a star!!!  Someone gave me a book on alien anti-gravity technology, and I can't put it down!  Apparently, alien travelers avoid earth because in the alien guide books, our system is only given one star.  I've been trying out Neptunes, the alien music streaming service.  Who says there are no aliens?  Right now, a bunch of flextraterrestrials have taken over Planet Fitness.  And extracholesterols are taking over Weight Watchers - gonna have to put a new notch in the asteroid belt.  Downtown, alien space craft are tying up all the parking meteors.  I would tell you a joke about alien spacecraft, but they're over your head.  Santa is ditching the sleigh with reindeer in favor of a spaceship; it's a UF-Ho-Ho-Ho. 

[lightbg]

52 minutes ago, Old No7 said:

I'm thinking the answer to all these questions could be hidden somewhere in Uranus...

( pun fully intended )

Old No7

What does the Starship Enterprise and a roll of toilet paper have in common?

They both orbit Uranus trying to catch Klingons.....

 

[Konnector]

4 hours ago, ProfD said:

Right.  That is the funniest part. 🤣

 

We get these silly azz pictures of a naked creature with big eyes who supposedly travels around in outer space checking out planets.

 

It's right up there with folks who claim to have been abducted and probed.😁

 

Then, there is Roswell, New Mexico and Area 51 and congressional hearings. 

 

We sell Santa Claus is sold to little children.  Aliens, bigfoot and sea creatures are sold to the bigger children.🤣😎

 

 

Ya...But, but....Area 51 has 9 salvaged alien crafts hidden in underground hangers that they're reverse engineering. Bob Lazar saw them so it must be true!!!  😆

 

I'm still waiting for the world's first CLEAR photo/video of a supposed alien UFO. Seems everyone can take a crisp clear picture these days except when it comes to strange objects in the sky.  

[Old No7]

If they're out there searching for "intelligent life"...

 

Just pass us by -- look elsewhere!!!

 

Old No7

[niacin]

“So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space
'Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.” - Monty Python

[Konnector]

If they wanted to do the planet a big favour, they'd show up with a galactic sized can of Raid and wipe out the seven billion pests that are destroying it.

[MathOfInsects]

"Captain! We have conquered intergalactic travel, subverting all previously known laws of time and space. We have become advanced enough that we have finally been able to expand our search for other civilizations to virtually anywhere in the known and unknown universes. Now it appears we have found a planet with life on it, the holy grail of space exploration. What are the first three things we will do once we land?"

"Land?? Why would we do that??? We are here to carve a bunch of circles into their crops and do some flyovers of those funny boxy houses on the edge of their towns. Then of course we will leave. They'll wonder forever what happened to them! It will be so funny! Here, hold my glurganspieger and watch this!!" 

[ProfD]

1 hour ago, Konnector said:

If they wanted to do the planet a big favour, they'd show up with a galactic sized can of Raid and wipe out the seven billion pests that are destroying it.

That would leave 1 billion pests to restart the infestation process.😁😎

[Jon G]

Show us what you got!

[Stokely]

I used to be.

Honestly I agree with the idea that humanity in its current state should keep its head down.  Any galactic civilization is likely to think we are a future problem and pre-emptively wipe us out.

As far as UFOs, that makes little sense to me, especially if you are talking about a species capable of interstellar travel (which we are not, and won't be for a very long time).  They'd have tech that would go far beyond piddling around in our atmosphere with stuff that we can detect.  

Certainly they aren't going to travel great distances at great expense to eat us or take our resources.  they'd be able to mine stuff from asteroids, grow protein or whatever they eat, and probably use nanotech or something to transmute/generate raw materials.

Then again as modern humanity seems more and more to embrace conspiracy madness maybe any curious aliens will start saying "eh, they'll say we are here anyway, why bother hiding.)   Just today (as I cower from tornadoes and a hurricane) I've learned that tons of morons apparently believe "they" are controlling the weather.   WTF....

[ProfD]

12 minutes ago, Stokely said:

Just today (as I cower from tornadoes and a hurricane) I've learned that tons of morons apparently believe "they" are controlling the weather.   WTF....

Do whatever it takes to remain safe and sound through hurricane season there.  It's been a nasty year so far. 

 

First, Helene ravaged 5 states and now Milton is supposed to be worse.

 

Hurricane season comes around the same time every year.  I don't believe aliens are controlling the weather.

 

Conspiracy theorists and morons are going to conspire and moron anyway.😎

[CEB]

Our generation of musicians have a natural proclivity to be interested in space aliens and time travel.  Often the last thing we wanted to listen to after a gig was music …. There was always ‘Coast to Coast with Art Bell’. 
 

PS - I often wonder what ever became of ‘Madman’ Mike Marcum. 

[David Emm]

8 hours ago, lightbg said:

There’s a big sign just beyond Pluto that reads…..

”Welcome to the trailer park of the Milky Way”

We’re safe.

 

Kathleen Madigan said "Earth is the Alabama of the universe. 🤓

[Mighty Motif Max]

I was resisting commenting in this thread...but I keep seeing it lol. I spent my first two and a half years of college studying astrophysics before switching to another career path, and worked for two years on exoplanet (planets located outside our own solar system) research projects with one of the developers of the software used in the James Webb Space Telescope. I'm no expert, but exoplanets are an area of lifelong interest and study for me. Forgive me while I nerd out for a minute.

 

My thoughts are that it's statistically quite likely that there is some form of life on another planet somewhere in the universe, if not in our own galaxy itself. At the present time, astronomers have confirmed around 5,600 exoplanets, with over 10,000 additional candidates, and more are being confirmed every year. Out of those confirmed planets, somewhere around 800-1,000 are believed to be terrestrial (compact, rocky surface).

 

One of the big questions, of course, is whether life elsewhere in the universe would necessarily exist in conditions like we have on Earth, or if there could be life forms (other than microbial forms) that exist in environments we could never withstand (i.e. a hot, dense gas giant environment - there are a large number of these "hot Jupiters" beyond our solar system). Frankly, we don't necessarily know the answer to that. But let's say that Nasa's estimate of 10 billion exoplanets in the Milky Way is accurate. If we extrapolate out the current percentage of terrestrial planets discovered (let's take the low end, 800), we're looking at 14.29% of exoplanets fitting that category.

 

On the scale of the galaxy at large, that's 1,429,000,000 planets. Let's say that 0.25%, 1/4 of a percent, of those harbor some type of "life". That's 3,572,500 planets with some form of "life". Let's say that only 1/100th of a percent of those might have some type of intelligent life. That's a touch over 357 planets within our galaxy, only 0.0000035725% of the estimated total # of planets here. These are conservative numbers. This is what I find fascinating...in my mind, the question shouldn't necessarily be whether something exists, but whether we'd ever interact with it. That's not a question anyone can truly answer. But is there other life somewhere in the universe? It's not out of the question at all.

 

Nasa has some good summaries of the current status of exoplanet research starting here:

https://science.nasa.gov/exoplanets/

[David Emm]

Max has the winning hand of the thread, so I'll bit-crunch my reaction. I think two facts define "aliens" as being highly unlikely.

 

1) The Gaian Bottleneck, where the complex balance of mass, chemistry and distance from primary star required for Life As We Know It comes together with extreme rarity, such that we've seen no evidence of a technologically-developed Earth-like counterpart so far.

 

2) There's an excellent chance that if another version of Us did appear somewhere many ages back, their arseholes got the upper hand and they nuked themselves into strontium dust before 'Star Trek' could become more than TV reruns.

 

Besides, if you had FTL capability, why would you use it to visit a place where "Feces Catapult" was an international game show?

[Konnector]

  3 hours ago, Konnector said:

If they wanted to do the planet a big favour, they'd show up with a galactic sized can of Raid and wipe out the seven billion pests that are destroying it.

 

1 hour ago, ProfD said:

That would leave 1 billion pests to restart the infestation process.😁😎

 

Captain!!  We need more Raid!

[Stokely]

I'd say those "let's says" above are quite limiting, there could be a ton more habitable worlds capable of supporting intelligent life if you pick different numbers (or of course, even less if you tweak the other way).

Great subject about "can we ever interact with them".  I can't recall the story or novel right now, but one I read not all that long ago dealt with that.   A species so alien to humans (and vice versa) that it went way, way beyond the communication challenges in say Arrival.   It was down to "can we even know the other is alive, and is there any way to show that we are so that they don't think we are simply waste products" iirc!

A really enjoyable "pretty darn alien" novel (and sequel) is Dragon's Egg, an older novella by Robert Forward about a race of tiny (to us) beings that live and evolve on a neutron star.   Generations of them live and die while the giant ultra-slow aliens that visit their star (humans) move their hand a few inches!   Great stuff.

If you want another more ominous idea that explains (to the people in the novels) why the universe seems empty, read the Revelation space series by Alastair Reynolds.  A bit of a spoiler......

A machine race left over from a big war has a directive to never let it happen again.  The best way to make sure of this is of course to kill off any race that develops before they turn into homicidal maniacs.  What can I say, machines or not they are fanatics.  Anyway, the galaxy is a huge place and it might take a while for races to evolve, so what they did is seed artifacts all over that act as beacons...anyone smart and curious enough to get off-world to the artifacts and break in sets off the alarm...and the machines come to get rid of this new pest.   How about that spirit of exploration!   

[Mighty Motif Max]

41 minutes ago, Stokely said:

I'd say those "let's says" above are quite limiting, there could be a ton more habitable worlds capable of supporting intelligent life if you pick different numbers (or of course, even less if you tweak the other way).

...

Yes, that is true. I was more trying to illustrate why even an extremely small percentage that the average person wouldn't consider outrageous would not exclude the possibility of life. A lot of the older arguments against any possibility of life revolved around the seeming impossibility that there would be enough places where life could exist in the first place. We at least now have figures for terrestrial planets within the currently confirmed exoplanet category, and NASA's estimates of the bigger picture. Of course, everything from Mercury to Pluto in our system is terrestrial, so that's why that number would need to be thinned down a ton (presuming we're looking for Earth-like environments). Could it be zero in terms of planets that actually have life? Sure. We don't really know. Various factors might influence personal opinions as to whether aliens as we think of them do exist or not, but I guess the point I was trying to make is that modern science has shown us that it's not an impossibility anymore. (Even on the religious side, it's usually hard to say that it's impossible that a creative God that exists outside of space time as we know it wouldn't have had other projects over the eons.)

 

As far as where UFOs come into the picture and all that, I don't spend a lot of time with that area because it gets messy. I used to be very interested in that as a kid, but a lot of it failed the test of time. I do enjoy the congressional hearings and such, if only because it has sparked a bit more interest in the possibility. Anything that makes people think more about the big picture is a win, IMO. In the meantime, I'll read the astronomical observation journals, and when I want some fiction in my life, I'll throw on Star Trek, Andromeda, Farscape, Stargate, or maybe the really entertaining and bizarre one, Ancient Aliens. Which is decidedly not a trustworthy source.

[Mills Dude]

I love going down the rabbit hole of UFOs, Area 51, Roswell etc.  I remember in the 70s there'd be all sorts of TV shows on the topic and it always had me rapt. 

 

I grew up in the Hudson Valley region.  There was a famous period of sightings in the early 80's, especially around the Indian Point nuclear plant and areas all around it in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Dutchess counties.  We called it the flying V and many of us in that area had seen it many times.  There was later reporting that it may have been done by a group of ultra-light pilots flying in formation but many of the witness accounts describe it flying directly overhead and completely silent.   

 

The reporting in the NYT in 2018 on the UAP program and the accompanying videos from the fighter pilots is spooky to say the least.  Although for some reason, Luis Elizondo never seemed credible to me.  Though the actual pilot witnesses do seem credible to me.

 

However, with all that said, I'm a bit of an armchair astrophysicist and the other side of the arguments are compelling. We're still looking for the credible evidence that will make everyone go -- "Yep, they're extraterrestrial".   Sagan famously said "Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence"

 

Enrico Femi nailed issue in the '50s with what is now known as the Fermi Paradox.  Essentially, the likelihood of extraterrestrial intelligence is so high that we should readily see evidence but where are they?  Check out that wikipedia article since it also touches on the Drake equation.  Good stuff for the armchair astrophysicists. 

 

Whatever the truth is, its a great mystery and I find it fun to go down those rabbit holes -- Bob Lazar, Ancient Aliens, In Search Of as well as any sci-fi alien invasion movie.

[ProfD]

Brotha @Mighty Motif Max laid out the numbers and science from an astrophysics perspective.

 

Even if I accepted microbial lifeforms on another planet, I cannot reconcile it building spacecraft and dressing up in the gray naked suit with the big eyes.🤣

 

Then, the US military wants us to believe UAPs are too sophisticated to be detected on radar or shot down.

 

I have noticed that since we have a ton of  satellites orbiting Earth, high-powered telescopes and cell phones, there are fewer alien and Bigfoot sightings. Maybe it's a coincidence. 

 

Of course, there's another belief that aliens are already here living among us.  Apparently, they aren't interested in helping humans cure diseases.

 

Guess the resident aliens idea of fun is dressing up at night in their naked suits with the big eyes and taking their UAPs for a spin.😎