Space.com article 'UFOs 101: Hype, uproar, disinformation and mystery'

Non smoking gun

Honorable
UFOs 101: Hype, uproar, disinformation and mystery: 'Here we go again.'
Greg Eghigian is a professor of history at Pennsylvania State University who developed a virtual classroom lecture series that probed the history, evolution, and impacts on society of the Unidentified Flying Object phenomenon.
Within the larger picture of UFOology is the omnipresent question: Are we on our own within the Universe at large? There are those backing the verdict that we're not a "home alone" civilization and knowing that fact means everything would change.

"I'm not sure I believe that," Eghigian said. Actual contact communication, while significant, wouldn't bring about world peace, he said, "as I don't have enough confidence in the human race. That's something history teaches you … to be very cynical about humanity."

Eghigian admitted that sometimes he shares a similar unease expressed by the late Stephen Hawking about alien encounter and how that might not necessarily serve us and serve our own interests as a species.

"I don't know what would come out of it in the end," Eghigian added.
One thing I thought about Hawkings warnings was he would probably have been consulted by government if they did have any evidence, and a public comment would be his only way to voice disquiet.
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
In our own history contact with more advanced cultures never really ended well for the lesser of the two. Even if ET is benign - a very big IF - our own competitive nature means we'll have a rough time of it.

I remember an episode of X-Files where Mulder encounters a djinn and is granted three wishes, the first of which is world peace. He got it when she made everyone disappear. That's probably the only way that'll ever happen.
 

Non smoking gun

Honorable
In our own history contact with more advanced cultures never really ended well for the lesser of the two.
Not sure of that analogy. They must be biologically immortal and old so not subject to the impulses we are. A very young race maybe ..
about alien encounter and how that might not necessarily serve our leaders and elite's interests
Perhaps I'm being naive but would it really threaten the existing power structures?
Not wanting to share pics or vids that would give China or Russia technical clues I would get
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
In our own history contact with more advanced cultures never really ended well for the lesser of the two.
Not sure of that analogy

When Europeans came to North America the end result was slavery and mass death due to disease. The former intentional and not something I'd worry too much about from a starfaring species. The latter - who the hell knows. Not specifically disease more a general concern over likely 'unintended consequences' of Contact with a more advanced civilization.
 
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Dejan Corovic

As above, so bellow
Lets not forget that our unacknowledged contact with aliens extends for many thousands of years back into our history.

That means that:
- any threat of transfer of deceases from aliens to us ( and other way around ) is moderate and controllable, even by ordinary natural means.
- aliens are not inclined to harm us on large scale through warfare, although they are probably doing some harm to us on a smaller scale. The latter is implied by witnesses who had been abducted and few rare horror stories about human mutilation. But it is important to put in perspective here that probability that you'll be harmed by humans is several million times higher then that you'll be seriously harmed by aliens.

I think above two points should keep our heads cool and be used as primary guidance for policy making.

Really, the best response to presence of aliens is heavy investment into development of science and technology, so that we can match alien capabilities as soon as possible. That is why suppressing full UFO disclosure does enormous harm to human society and to human economy.
 
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Non smoking gun

Honorable
Perhaps a numbers game. If there's say 30 intelligent civilizations in the galaxy, we will be cherished.
If many thousands, then we are just another bunch of hunter gathers, of interest just for any novel evolutionary developments, or had we massive intellects, perhaps a future threat.
 

Non smoking gun

Honorable
The wisdom of advertising our presence was discussed in a BBC world service radio program 'First Contact'

Farrah Jarral on preparing for first contact with extra-terrestrials.

Opinions ranged from 'Unwise, we just might be in a bad neighborhood' to 'Any star faring civilization will be old and wise' to 'What about the possible damage our war based civilization might do to a peaceful non aggressive culture'.
I liked the comment by one Ufologist that scientists, while dismissive of UFOs spend huge amounts of money and time trying to find alien life.
 

Dejan Corovic

As above, so bellow
The wisdom of advertising our presence was discussed in a BBC world service radio program 'First Contact'

Farrah Jarral on preparing for first contact with extra-terrestrials.

Opinions ranged from 'Unwise, we just might be in a bad neighborhood' to 'Any star faring civilization will be old and wise' to 'What about the possible damage our war based civilization might do to a peaceful non aggressive culture'.
I liked the comment by one Ufologist that scientists, while dismissive of UFOs spend huge amounts of money and time trying to find alien life.

Well, its typical, isn't it.

Everybody is so self centred that they don't spare a thought on the most obvious option that if aliens are advanced they would had discovered us even without us trying to contact them.

If we have Hubble and James Web telescopes one can imagine what an average Milky Way's green zone civilisation that is 2.0 billion years ahead of us has. Aliens most likely had Earth in their sights since first life was developing here.
 

wwkirk

Divine
The wisdom of advertising our presence was discussed in a BBC world service radio program 'First Contact'

Farrah Jarral on preparing for first contact with extra-terrestrials.

Opinions ranged from 'Unwise, we just might be in a bad neighborhood' to 'Any star faring civilization will be old and wise' to 'What about the possible damage our war based civilization might do to a peaceful non aggressive culture'.
I liked the comment by one Ufologist that scientists, while dismissive of UFOs spend huge amounts of money and time trying to find alien life.
There was a Babylon 5 episode, "A Day In The Strife," where a probe arrives, and presents the station with a test. If they pass, it promises to share advanced technology. If they fail, the station will be destroyed in a few hours. Well, Babylon 5 succeeded in answering the questions. But before the answers were sent, John Sheridan had second thoughts. He surmised that the probe would likely not destroy a less advanced race, but one that may be able to challenge it. He withheld the answers past the deadline and the probe began to depart. To keep the probe from harming any other race it came across, the answers were transmitted from a securbot far away from the station. This caused the probe to detonate, with an explosive yield of roughly 500,000 megatons.

Moral: Contact from ET may not necessarily be benign.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNXqyteJiLo
 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
the possible damage our war based civilization might do
Or someone else's. Since we're just speculating maybe what we consider violent and aggressive ain't nothing compared to others. So let's just turn all the lights on and keep yelling off the front porch ...........
 

Dejan Corovic

As above, so bellow
Moral: Contact from ET may not necessarily be benign.

That's totally wrong.

Contact with aliens already started thousands of years ago and its still ongoing.

Same as the dark side of the Moon, alien contact exists completely independently of weather society as a whole is aware of it or not. If they haven't killed us all off so far then is safe to say that aliens are not belligerent.
 

wwkirk

Divine
That's totally wrong.

Contact with aliens already started thousands of years ago and its still ongoing.

Same as the dark side of the Moon, alien contact exists completely independently of weather society as a whole is aware of it or not. If they haven't killed us all off so far then is safe to say that aliens are not belligerent.
I don't know whether you're right about ongoing alien visitation, but supposing you are, is your contention that all ETs, everywhere, are neutral or friendly? Positively zero dangerous or hostile, technologically advanced alien species exist in this galaxy? The fictional scenario I described is one in which there are numerous alien races interacting with each other regularly, but still there were some "bad actors" out there.

Or are you also suggesting that the non-belligerent aliens that are familiar with Earth are literally protecting us from the dangerous ETS?
 

Dejan Corovic

As above, so bellow
I don't know whether you're right about ongoing alien visitation, but supposing you are, is your contention that all ETs, everywhere, are neutral or friendly? Positively zero dangerous or hostile, technologically advanced alien species exist in this galaxy? The fictional scenario I described is one in which there are numerous alien races interacting with each other regularly, but still there were some "bad actors" out there.

Or are you also suggesting that the non-belligerent aliens that are familiar with Earth are literally protecting us from the dangerous ETS?

I completely agree with your idea that there are multiple alien species and that they are all behaving differently. Some are belligerent some are benign.

All I am saying that cursory reality check confirms that total action of all the alien species combined had only caused microscopic physical harm to us. I'm sure that they harmed us in secret, but far bellow the threshold that we would notice.

Based on the above we don't have any reason to be paranoid, attack aliens, prepare space based weapons etc.

Simply put, there is an unimaginable potential for economic wealth growth if cooperate with these alien species. And we should do everything possible to welcome them and develop mutually beneficial relationship with them.
 

Non smoking gun

Honorable
The galaxy is so big will there really be disputes over territory? I could see them over rare beautiful worlds full of evolved life like Earth.

Given science knowledge accelerates exponentially I don't see tech levels differing much, perhaps what they do with it and the scale?

One thing that I had not heard was the statement by David Clark of Sheffield Hallam University, that the UFO phenomenon really began in the 60s and 70s in the cold war, and was a construct used by the US to caution the Russians they may have alien tech.
 
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