Good morning,
We haven’t been visited by extraterrestrials. Sorry; I know this is disappointing to some. As much as some of you may think it was inevitable that we’ve been visited, or that the air force and the U.S. government are hiding evidence of visitation somewhere in New Mexico, there simply isn’t meaningful evidence to suggest we’ve been visited. Oh, sure, there are phenomena that go unexplained and there are wild tales related by some (often after closing hours at the bar and often involving physical abduction and/or disturbing “probes”). And yes, there are blurry photographs (for some reason, nothing well-defined, despite iphones in nearly everyone’s pocket) that might even seem unexplainable. But hard evidence? Nada.
This is not to say that there aren’t other life forms in this vast universe or that life can’t evolve in other conditions than on Earth. Certainly, it would seem unlikely that organic matter doesn’t exist elsewhere. After all, there are billions of planets, many of which exist in the temperate zone near a star that is neither too hot nor too cold to support life. And many of these have a solid surface and the presence of oxygen. And, while a good bit of science must be matched with a good bit of serendipity to create organic matter (we still don’t know how), it is not unreasonable to assume that these random accidents haven’t occurred elsewhere. But even if single-celled animals have been created elsewhere, there is a far lower probability that life has evolved to sentient beings capable of reasoning. Lower still is the likelihood that they have developed spacecraft.
But even if they have developed spacecraft, absent some sort of unknown new means of propulsion to bridge the likely millions of light years to get here, their bodies and the materials of their vessel would need to be capable of attaining and surviving such velocity. Plus, they would have to survive such a long journey.
The other day, Bruce Goren, a fellow skeptic, cited the recent loss of signal from the Voyager spacecraft and its reacquisition here on Earth. He noted that the spacecraft is almost 12 billion 400 million miles from us, which is only eighteen light hours away. It took Voyager 47 years to get that far. The nearest star is about four light years away. The odds that a spacecraft would have been fashioned by a race that close to us and that it could make it here is unlikely.
Add to this the fact that, if the aliens came all this way, could they remain undetected? And wouldn’t they attempt to make contact with our leaders, or scientists, or someone of importance—even Oprah? Are they just observing? And if they were just observing and did such a good job of evading all of the satellites, air forces, and other detection systems, would they really foot-fault to be seen by random civilians?
People will say that it’s likely that there are other life forms that have visited. But that would require life elsewhere, evolved sufficiently, and who have conquered the ability to travel vast distances and evade detection along the way. I don’t think so. Star Trek and Star Wars are wonderful examples of speculative fiction but that’s all they are—speculative fictions with little scientific support.
And, much as it would be wonderful, I don’t think anybody is “beaming” from one place to another, reconstituting their physical manifestation. And I sure as heck don’t think one can reconstitute that matter along with all of the memories and talents of the individual. It defies credulity to believe any of this is possible; although it won’t stop me from tuning in the next episode of Star Trek of the next great science fiction movie.
Have a great day,
Glenn
A short story about extraterrestrials. During the 1970s my friend was in the air force stationed in Texas. His job was to investigate extraterrestrials sightings. This was a top secret assignment which drove the base commander crazy as my friend did not answer to him. HIs regular work consisted of someone at the Pentagon, he never knew who, ordering him go out to talk to a person who reported an extraterrestrial sighting. These folks had a variety of backgrouinds, from farmers in rural New Mexico to pilots on commercial airlines. He would then prepare a written report that was sent to the Pentagon. In the 3+ years that he had this assignment he never heard back from anyone at the Pentagon about his reports. In fact, he never knew who he reported to and never had a job performance review. But it was all top secret.
But ah yes, beyond the bunker is infinity. While the concept of infinity bends the mind, it also blows up our earthly frameworks that shape our skepticism. I'm no quantum mathematician (my 8th grade math teacher ended that career path for me), but when we couple the phrase "lower probability" with an infinite universe, I would argue that the word "lower" cannot be part of that equation. In an infinite universe, probability is, by nature, infinite. Something to ponder. Much of what you refer to is summed up in the Fermi Paradox - the apparent contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial civilizations existing in the universe and the lack of evidence or contact with such civilizations. As physicist Enrico Fermi profoundly stated, "Where is everybody?" Given the vast distances between the stars, we can "seem" very alone (unless you stumble into a wormhole). Given the "slow disclosure" by the government of documented sightings (see 2004 USS Nimitz and the tango with UAPs), I'm more of the camp that "ETs" are closer to home -- either 1) Deep within the earth or, 2) "Interdimensional beings from a parallel multiverse (and why I've watched Interstellar at least five times to grasp the concept). So when ET says, "phone home" he's really calling an ET that's already in the house. Beam me up Major Glenn!