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posted by martyb on Monday July 02 2018, @01:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the Close-Encounters-of-Whatever-Kind dept.

Are we alone? The question is worthy of serious scientific study

Are we alone? Unfortunately, neither of the answers feel satisfactory. To be alone in this vast universe is a lonely prospect. On the other hand, if we are not alone and there is someone or something more powerful out there, that too is terrifying.

As a NASA research scientist and now a professor of physics, I attended the 2002 NASA Contact Conference, which focused on serious speculation about extraterrestrials. During the meeting a concerned participant said loudly in a sinister tone, "You have absolutely no idea what is out there!" The silence was palpable as the truth of this statement sunk in. Humans are fearful of extraterrestrials visiting Earth. Perhaps fortunately, the distances between the stars are prohibitively vast. At least this is what we novices, who are just learning to travel into space, tell ourselves.

I have always been interested in UFOs. Of course, there was the excitement that there could be aliens and other living worlds. But more exciting to me was the possibility that interstellar travel was technologically achievable. In 1988, during my second week of graduate school at Montana State University, several students and I were discussing a recent cattle mutilation that was associated with UFOs. A physics professor joined the conversation and told us that he had colleagues working at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, where they were having problems with UFOs shutting down nuclear missiles. At the time I thought this professor was talking nonsense. But 20 years later, I was stunned to see a recording of a press conference featuring several former US Air Force personnel, with a couple from Malmstrom AFB, describing similar occurrences in the 1960s. Clearly there must be something to this.

With July 2 being World UFO Day, it is a good time for society to address the unsettling and refreshing fact we may not be alone. I believe we need to face the possibility that some of the strange flying objects that outperform the best aircraft in our inventory and defy explanation may indeed be visitors from afar – and there's plenty of evidence to support UFO sightings.

See also: Released FAA recording reveals pilot report of a UFO over Long Island
I-Team Exclusive: Nevada senator fought to save secret UFO program

Related: Pentagon's UFO Investigation Program Revealed
UFO Existence 'Proven Beyond Reasonable Doubt': Former Head Of Pentagon Program
Newly-Released Video Shows 2015 U.S. Navy Sighting of UFO


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by FatPhil on Monday July 02 2018, @12:01PM (6 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday July 02 2018, @12:01PM (#701290) Homepage
    The figures have dropped in pretty much all so-called "modern" societies but one, but the outlier is a country where two thirds of the population still believes that angels are real tangible things.

    One thing that is true to say is that the credibility of the sightings has not increased alongside the phenomenal improvements in the technology available to record and document the claimed sightings.
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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @12:56PM (5 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday July 02 2018, @12:56PM (#701313) Journal

    An amateur taking video of a distant light in the sky is going to look like crap even after decades of improvements. Maybe drones will make an impact by putting cameras closer to where alien spacecraft would be flying, but they could also cause UFO reports as well.

    How is the data being collected? North of God's Burgerland, sightings appear to be increasing [ctvnews.ca]:

    These are among 1,267 reported UFO sightings across Canada in 2015, the second-biggest year for unexplained alien activity in the last 30 years.

    The detailed Canadian UFO Survey released Monday by the Winnipeg-based group Ufology Research includes accounts of where, when and precisely what Canadians claim they saw in the sky last year.

    [...] The data [canadianuforeport.com] was collected from 17 sources across the country including Transport Canada, Canada National Defense, the National UFO Reporting Center and YouTube.

    If you are counting orgs like MUFON but not getting estimates that take into account YouTube, maybe you aren't counting very well at all. Ask a teenager if they have even heard of MUFON.

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    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 02 2018, @01:19PM (4 children)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday July 02 2018, @01:19PM (#701326) Homepage
      That "data" has not improved in reliability alonside the advances of technology that is now in everyone's pocket, you're proving my point. If anything, the quality of the evidence in that "data" is worse, because hokey things look hokey, and it's better to just phone in a word-of-mouth report.
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      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @01:40PM (3 children)

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday July 02 2018, @01:40PM (#701334) Journal

        Perhaps the "data" is not being studied properly. Hence TFA.

        Is the smartphone camera so great at recording things in the sky? No. Are people reporting their sightings using "traditional" avenues? Maybe, maybe not. Would an excellent-looking UFO video gain traction in the age of deepfakes? Maybe, maybe not. There's a dilemma for you: any improvement in the camera situation will be overshadowed by the massive tide of online video and the ability to fake more things with machine learning. A "good" UFO video is no different than a funny cat video or meme; its viral popularity depends on factors that are not so easily reproduced and have little to do with whether an actual alien craft is recorded on camera. And the deepfakes trend will make it easier for people to produce partially or completely [wired.com] faked videos of UFOs, politicians, etc.

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        • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 02 2018, @02:04PM (2 children)

          by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday July 02 2018, @02:04PM (#701348) Homepage
          I've had a camphone for 10 years, deepfakes has only been around for 1. Where's the evidence from those 9 years that couldn't be deepfaked? It's not just now in 2018 that the reports have not improved in quality despite availability of commodity recording devices, it's for ever.

          Things that violate the laws of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy are reported constantly, but never recorded. DC and Marvel probably have to take some of the blame.
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          • (Score: 2) by takyon on Monday July 02 2018, @02:20PM (1 child)

            by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday July 02 2018, @02:20PM (#701358) Journal

            There have been fakes before deepfakes, like the 2013 Wired article I linked where literally everything in the video was CGI, or the many crappier looking fakes. What deepfakes will do is help muddy the waters even further by putting powerful tools in the hands of the public, and will be used for more than just UFO sightings. Fake news for your eyes. Although maybe people will be too busy making deepfakes celeb porn to bother with faking UFO sightings.

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            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:20AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 03 2018, @12:20AM (#701651)

              https://sites.google.com/site/ourenthusiasmsasham/blah/mayanenergybeamexplained [google.com]

              The above is a scientific explanation of why taking photos of strange phenomena with a smart phone does not immediately lead you to the truth.

              People will jump to all kinds of weird Erich von Däniken explanations of things that have perfectly rational explanations. Don't be fooled.