#110 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday August 6)
Greetings!
THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS HAVE RETURNED!
Back when I was practicing law, I had a fun time dropping silly inconsequential phrases in the “boilerplate” of documents, to see if they came back in other firms’ forms when lifted without reading (they came back more than one would think). The best place for these little “cousins of mountweazels” was in the “force majeure” clause. Force majeure, for those who may not recall, are a large number of unlikely, uncontrollable events that, through no fault of a party, might delay that party’s performance. Storms, fires, and other acts of g-d are some of the more obvious. Adding “or other deity” is a nice addition. My favorite, though, was “extra-terrestrial event.” When a serious lawyer on the other side actually read all the boilerplate he observed, “I assume what you have in mind are meteor showers or asteroids.” I responded, “No, I’m talking about visitation.” I could practically hear across the phone line his pen taking notes on my clarification. No laughter. No disagreement. Just silence...
I’m happy to report that UFOs are back and I’m so excited! It’s been a while since the hysteria of the post-war era and notions that the government was keeping these visitations secret. I have a few views on this idiocy but first let me dispose of theological and philosophical views that stand in the way of discussing this subject:
First, I acknowledge that to many religious people the idea that there is a creation that extends beyond this Earth is anathema. G-d created this Earth in his image and there is no other. I have no quarrel with this principled point of view. If anything, this view places on humans even greater responsibility for their destiny and not less.
Second, I acknowledge the view that it is highly likely that, of the billions of galaxies and the billions of solar systems in these galaxies, some other planets capable of supporting life as we understand it exist (and that life, in fact exists). This is not about whether there is other intelligent life in the universe; just whether we’ve been visited.
There was a recent report released by the government. The report went through 144 reported sightings and could only explain one, leaving 143 unaccounted for. Some people see this report as proof that we have been visited. They couldn’t be more wrong. Sure, many of the observers (an unusually high percentage of whom are navy pilots at night) see phenomena they can’t explain. But let’s remember that eyewitness testimony is remarkably undependable. Photographic evidence is also subject to doubt (remember the pictures of the Loch Ness Monster). Cameras, both video and still, have their limitations, increased by poor weather, poor visibility, the camera being in motion, etc.
But there are other reasons to doubt that this is meaningful data.
Let’s remember that these are 143 sightings. Assume these occurred in the last ten years. That’s 3,652 days. That means sightings were reported on less than four percent of the days and an average of only 1.4 sightings per year. Not so often…
Most sightings are at night, when visibility is at its worst. The Economist had a study a few years ago showing a spike in sightings after the bars closed.
Most sightings are in the southwest United States (not many reported in other countries)
Sightings spike during certain periods of anxiety. Sightings were more reported more frequently in the 50s. Sightings quieted down until a few years ago, when they increased along with the heightened societal anxiety of the Trump years. When UFOs are in the news, there are more sightings: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/50-years-ago-ufo-sightings-united-states-went-bust
Why are the images purporting to show UFOs so grainy? With all the modern technology and the ubiquity of high-definition cell phones being carried in virtually everyone’s pocket, isn’t it coincidental that no one has taken a high resolution color image of one of these phenomena actually occurring? The only images are black and white, blurry and grainy.
In order to get here, these advanced species would have had to master either life span (or procreation in space) or physics, as the nearest star is over four light years away.
These advanced civilizations came all this way but never saw fit to contact any of the world’s governments.
These advanced civilizations came here and were very, very quiet, yet exposed themselves most often to crackpots and people of dubious memory (well, and navy pilots, as well).
It is “impossible to prove the negative.” Simply because there isn’t a clear explanation for some phenomena that were observed does not mean that there isn’t a reasonable explanation for such phenomena and it certainly doesn’t mean that the default position is that they, therefore, evidence of extra-terrestrial visitation.
Here is Neil DeGrasse Tyson debunking UFOs:
. And here’s an article from The San Diego Union-Tribune on reasonable explanations for sightings: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/military/story/2021-05-29/navy-ufo-videos-skeptics.
Again, it seems many in our society are prone to being duped and willing to accept non-science, rather than to consider the marvels in science right in front of us.
I am not suggesting that we are alone in the cosmos. I suspect (indeed, hope) that we are not the only planet supporting life. What I am suggesting is that the likelihood that another civilization out there would master life expectancy and the laws of physics as we know them (such that they can travel faster than the speed of light), and that they would find us here in this far corner of the galaxy, and yet decide not to formally contact anyone, being instead “found out” through photos and videos of terrible quality, generally at night, is such a far-fetched explanation as to be unreasonable and laughable.
A few weeks ago, Ben Reznik was pointing out objects in the clear skies of Colorado—Venus, Mars and constellations (and remarking how some satellites could be seen streaking across the sky the prior night). When he did so, he commented that there are two types of reactions of people when confronted the realization of how small we are in the universe and how vast is the universe around us. One group is depressed and feeling insignificant. The other is amazed and stand with wonder, optimism, and energy. They see wonders that put us in perspective amidst a vast universe and see that we have limited time to feel joy, create joy for others, and make our insignificance count.
Have a great day,
Glenn
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