UFO's: Are Aliens Among Us?

[Koz]

2020 is getting weirder by the minute. Today the NYT runs a story about UFO's and in it states that the government is going to release some documents regarding UFO's. There's a quote from an astrophysicist in the article regarding recovered materials, "We couldn't make it ourselves." He also gave a classified briefing earlier this year on "off-world vehicles not made on this earth."

 

There was another article out there today regarding an interview with an OSU Professor Wendt who among other things had written a paper on UFO's and the possibility of aliens. In it he mentions that ancient civilizations depicted what could be UFO's and aliens and perhaps they have been observing us for quite some time.

 

I'm not a conspiracy theory type of person but I will say that with billions and billions of galaxies with an exponential amount of solar systems and planets I think it's naive to believe that we are the only intelligent or self aware life in existence. I know that some will say that traveling hundreds our thousands of light years is impossible, but I counter with that it is impossible for us. We still have only a rudimentary understanding of the universe. We only know what we can observe in our midst. The laws of physics as we know them may only exist in our corner of the universe. Then there's relativity, space-time. string theory, and the fact that time as we know it is a man made construct.

 

My 14 year old and I talked about this today and he's a little freaked out. Imagine if we are being observed and governments divulge what they know (with proof). With the cat out of the bag will aliens make themselves known? Will they be peaceful or will it be something out of Independence Day or the Twilight Zone Episode "To Serve Man"? What happens to governments? To religion? Heck, to everything? Are we an alien experiment about to be canceled? Were we deliberately seeded here by an alien race? Or was it luck or fate that we evolved and were stumbled upon by aliens? Or is it all BS and we are in fact all alone or have not been noticed by an alien species yet?

 

Anyway, I find this all fascinating. I'm eager to see if the government has any real proof they are willing to divulge and if other governments have information as well.

 

 

 

[Oregon Native]

With my brain on overload everyday anyway I'll have to just keep up on "BR"...and hope for the best!!  Oh...and hope the doc's keep it pumping for awhile ...And as an old commentator used to say...STAND BY FOR NEWS.

 

[N Florida Mike]

No, I dont believe in UFos as it is presented.

I do definitely believe there is a spiritual world of bad and good at work. 

I’ll leave it at that...?

[MN Fisher]

Are there other races out there? Probably - given all the extra-solar planets discovered, evolution HAS to have happened elsewhere...and there's probably some who are more advanced than us,

 

Are they visiting us? Probably not. Time of travel between systems is measured in decades if not centuries given what our physicists know and we're nothing special. No reason for other races to come here.

 

Remembering that test flights of SR-71, B-2 and F-117 were reported as UFOs...well...

[Koz]

6 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Are they visiting us? Probably not. Time of travel between systems is measured in decades if not centuries given what our physicists know and we're nothing special. No reason for other races to come here.

 

 

But this where it gets tricky - time is a man made construct. Here's a quick article and vide9s that talk about that: https://www.space.com/29859-the-illusion-of-time.html

 

Then we get into relativity. Imagine a 15-year-old traveling at 99.5 percent the speed of light for five years (from the astronaut's perspective). When the 15-year-old gets back to Earth, according to NASA, he would be only 20 years old. His classmates, however, would be 65 years old.

 

We can even see the effects of relative time on our own world. Did you know that the clocks on GPS satellites don't run at the same speed as clocks on earth? Here's a primer on "time travel" that covers this and more: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/time-travel/en/

 

Personally, in the long run I don't think time is an issue in reaching far galactic places. I think that the energy required is a bigger issue.

 

I have a cousin who is one of the top aerospace engineers in the world he he can go on about this stuff for days. I certainly don't understand all of what he talks about, but I still find it exciting and fascinating. As far as he is concerned it's not "if" we can solve the physics of deep space travel but "when". That could be thousands (or more) of generations from now. The question is can mankind avoid destroying itself before that happens. That's also why many scientists think the number of deep space faring aliens is probably low - they destroy themselves before figuring it out.

 

 

 

[TnRiver46]

No worries, we still have Tommy lee Jones and will smith to protect us 

[MN Fisher]

10 minutes ago, Koz said:

Then we get into relativity.

Of course - but that doesn't affect the source. The travelers may only experience months or even days during the journey, but when they get back 'home' - decades or centuries have passed there...that's the time I'm talking about.

 

Do you think we could put an exploration trip together that we wouldn't even see the results of for centuries?

[Koz]

19 minutes ago, MN Fisher said:

Of course - but that doesn't affect the source.

But there is no "source". That would imply that time is a constant. The whole point of relativity is based upon the reference point of the observer.

[MN Fisher]

Just now, Koz said:

But there is no "source". That would imply that time is a constant. The whole point of relativity is based upon the reference point of the observer.

Exactly - the reference point used is the home planet. While the crew might only experience days or months, the home planet - who wants the results of the exploration - won't see it for centuries in their time-frame. That's the issue - I don't know of any government or private concern that would spend the money needed to launch such an expedition when they won't see the results of their 'investment' - nor their children, grand-children, great-grand-children...etc-etc-etc.

[jbmaine]

As big as the universe is, I'm sure we are not the only intelligent race. I would think that any race advanced enough to travel across the galaxy would have better things to do than bother with us, if anything, we would be just a small foot note in their travels.

  As a side note, many WW2 pilots reported UFO's. They called them " foo fighters" 

[jimmyjoe]

25 minutes ago, jbmaine said:

I'm sure we are not the only intelligent race.

 

   Some days I look around, and I wonder whether we're really intelligent or not.       

[OCdockskipper]

Considering that carbon is the universal building block for life & it is the 4th most abundant element in the universe (behind Hydrogen, Helium & Oxygen), it would be statistically unusual if there isn't other intelligent life besides ourselves.

[RoLo]

 

Are there other forms of intelligent life in the universe?

It would take a megadose of egomania, to visualize homosapiens as the nucleus of the cosmos.

Are there other celestial beings interested in human life on planet Earth? 

Let's all hope, they have more ambitious aspirations on their plate 

 

Roger 

[Oregon Native]

17 hours ago, jimmyjoe said:

 

   Some days I look around, and I wonder whether we're really intelligent or not.       

A planet that fights against itself.....hhhmmmm...intelligence......hmmmm questionable.!!!

[Sam]

Yes, they are among us.

 

You can find them in Washington, DC.

[Heartland]

I choose to believe in nothing supernatural or extraterrestrial, there is simply no empirical evidence to support either.

  

[CrankFate]

IMO, it would take several generations of offspring born in the UFO space ship to travel to earth from some far away planet in a far away galaxy light years away. Then if there’s any truth in the claims on Ancient Aliens that ancient kings like Akhenaten were aliens or humans that came from another planet, the idea that they were all inbred to keep a “pure royal bloodline” is probably just made up by the same primitive archeologists that made up the story that you could build the pyramids with wooden hand tools. 

[Hewhospeaksmuchbull]

3 hours ago, Heartland said:

I choose to believe in nothing supernatural or extraterrestrial, there is simply no empirical evidence to support either.

  

shazbut!

[Oregon Native]

And again....other worlds, planets, species,...I've got enough troubles now trying to figure out how to catch a fish let alone wondering if someone, thing or power is going to beam down and who know's.....steal my fish!!!

[Koz]

On 7/26/2020 at 4:40 PM, CrankFate said:

IMO, it would take several generations of offspring born in the UFO space ship to travel to earth from some far away planet in a far away galaxy light years away.

 

That is based upon our current understanding of time and space which is extremely limited.

[roadwarrior]

Well... You can find them here after midnight.

http://www.bealestreet.com/

 

[Tennessee Boy]

I personally don't believe aliens have visited earth from far way worlds.  What's interesting to me is how mankind keeps coming up with these legends and conspiracy theories.  Check out this video full of competent intelligent people telling fantastic stories of wild conspiracies involving thousands of people over many decades.  Crazy stuff and easy to believe if you want to.  Impossible for me to believe.  Just too many inconsistencies.

 

 

[GReb]

Aliens? Who knows. But you better believe the government has way more tech than the average person will ever be privy to. I know an aerospace engineer that works on top secret government contracts. He of course is bound by silence but will tell you with a straight face that you really don’t want to know. 

[NYWayfarer]

Are aliens among us? I ask myself that everytime I visit Walmart...

[MN Fisher]

6 minutes ago, NYWayfarer said:

Are aliens among us? I ask myself that everytime I visit Walmart...

One reason I avoid Wally-World - I don't want to catch what ever they have.