UFO's

[bunnyboy]

Truthfully I do believe in UFOs.... but not in the whole, ET life forms would have an interest in about 2 billion "hairless" primates of the hominid species, I think it's just me but I absolutely hate anything that is anthropocentric, religion is one matter (can be seen as metaphorical) but damn just how much hubris do we have to have to think that everything is concerned about our damned blue ball, if anything they'd probably love the fact we'd be willing to trade, but then why go after our least intelligent and pretty much least trade union worthy members.

If they are abducting us, I think it's more along the lines of college frat boys out on a drunken bender.... you'd think the least they could do is teach us how to make a pan-galactic gargleblaster with what we have own here.

So do i believe there's life out there, YES! Do I believe that they're visiting us right now, NO!

Oh and yeah UFO doesn't mean spaceship, it literally means unidentified flying object, hell if someone would have picked up that mythbusters balloon chair thing, they would have been called that... now even though Adam is the Egg Man and Jamie is the Walrus it does not mean alien craft goo goo gajoo.

[protege]

As long as there aren't any Vogons wanting to install a bypass... Oh wait, we already have those big yellow things--they're all owned by PennDOT

Here's something else to think about. Why is it, that most reported "UFO sightings" are always out in the middle of nowhere, usually by some three-toothed redneck named "Bubba?" You'd think that if space aliens were really interested in humans, they'd pick a more diverse cross-section

[BroomJockey]

Here's something else to think about. Why is it, that most reported "UFO sightings" are always out in the middle of nowhere, usually by some three-toothed redneck named "Bubba?"

That's a stereotype perpetuated by the media. Who are YOU going to pick to interview. The reasoned, well-spoken individual, or the ranting, grimy crazy guy? If you check around, you find a lot of reports by just normal people.

[AdminAssistant]

That's a stereotype perpetuated by the media. Who are YOU going to pick to interview.

It never fails that every single time a tornado would hit anywhere in Arkansas, if it was bad enough to warrant regional or national attention they would find the biggest redneck in the world (who, of course, lived in a trailer park) to interview. Pisses me off to no end.

Here, of course, there are just loads of Wizard of Oz jokes. Yeah, it's hilarious; the entire town of Greensburg is still laughing, assholes.

[lordlundar]

Is it wrong of me to go into the old joke:

Of course I believe there's intelligent life in the universe. They're being smart enough to avoid us, aren't they?"

[Flyndaran]

Space is huge. REALLY FREAKING HUGE! Going under the known light speed limit would take centuries or more likely milenia to reach us. Ironically, I think the chances that they would come here is directly proportional to the rairity of earth like planets. If we are really rare, then by chance they might start toward here. If they are more common, then by chance they wouldn't have come here.

I just don't believe redneck abductees over cold rationality.

[MergedLoki]

I figure the univerise is SO huge and SO vast (with all of nasa's budget we can cover somethign like 3% of VISIBLE space a year so yea... VERY small when you think how huge the universe is). that there's gotta be life out there somewhere.

BUT that doesn't mean it's more advanced than us, it doesn't mean it's even SENTIENT, it doesn't mean that these aliens travel in super light speed ships to abduct our best and brightest (rednecks attracted to shiny things 'look ma!').

so the whole UFO thing.... i'm gonna say no i don't think that any human has seen a REAL UFO on earth here.

[protege]

BUT that doesn't mean it's more advanced than us, it doesn't mean it's even SENTIENT, it doesn't mean that these aliens travel in super light speed ships to abduct our best and brightest (rednecks attracted to shiny things 'look ma!').

Of course if they *did* go around abducting rednecks...would anyone have a problem with that?

[AdminAssistant]

Of course if they *did* go around abducting rednecks...would anyone have a problem with that?

Since the majority of my family would fit your "redneck" stereotype, yes, yes I would.

[Boozy]

This is probably a topic for another thread, but I suspect protege and AA have completely different definitions of "redneck". The term "redneck" has such negative connotations around here that I can't imagine anyone using it to describe the people they love.

[Slytovhand]

Alll.... righty then...

The This universe is apparently 16 Billion years old.

This planet is a mere 5 billion years old.

Human life is a mere few million years old..

Now, if you take the amount of time it took to get humanity to the level it is, and you move it from Earth's 5 billion years to a planet that has been around a lot longer.... and you suddenly get a species that now has vastly amazing technological skills... perhaps enough to laugh outrageously at what we call 'science'.

No, not all UFO sightings are by Bubba and his sister/cousin/wife. Actually, the vast majority are by military or air-safety/airlines people..

Jules Verne and HG Wells started it all??? They must have been around for quite a while... to explain the UFO references in the Bible, and to have told the aboriginals of various continents what to put up on their rock paintings...

Why would they want to come here? Well, aren't we extremely interested in life on other planets?? As GK said, there's not a real lot of it around, statistically speaking.

The only real question comes down to the timing... maybe, just maybe, we've interested a few of them due to where we're at? Maybe they've been watching us for a while...

As for the crashes... also maybe this planet is 'known' out there as a having a fairly young species of (amusingly called) intelligent life, and some of the other species out there who are in a similar sort of situation (but just a bit above us to be able to communicate with them - and take some of their technology) have stuffed up while watching? While the official stance is "Stay away for now"???


Just ruminating....

[Flyndaran]

The first few billions of years were populated by first generation stars which would not have had habitable planets.

I still say that interstellar travel is so incredibly absurdly difficult, that the chances of a species developing such long term planning and resource squandering to make it even a possiblity is so unlikely as to make it easily ignored without massive evidence to the contrary.

Even super smart aliens are bound by the laws of physics.

I doubt that our species has the requisite qualifications to do it.

[BroomJockey]

I still say that interstellar travel is so incredibly absurdly difficult.

And what proof do you have? Just because humans aren't smart enough yet doesn't mean it's difficult. It's just like trying to explain Differential Equations to a 5 month old.

Even super smart aliens are bound by the laws of physics.

You mean "the laws of physics as limited human understanding has currently defined them." It's possible for a discovery to change that. Quantum entanglement proves instantaneous travel over absurdly large distances is possible, after all.

Again I say, open up your mind, use some freaking imagination. Humans don't even know enough to know what we don't know, and you're trying to define the abilities and behaviours of a life form that you can't even envision.

[Crazedclerkthe2nd]

It's funny how UFO = Spaceship in common parlance.

The term UFO unidentified flying object refers to exactly that, anything airborne that's of unknown origin, not necessarily a spaceship. There are many things that can be spotted in the sky and not immediately identified.

As for extraterrestrial life, I believe it's naive to think that life is the only planet in the galaxy that can support life. They've already found planets with similarities to earth in other solar systems, not to mention the increasing likelihood that even Mars hosted life at some point in its history.

There is someone out there. Whether they have ever been here is a more interesting question. The scientific answer is not likely due to the time needed to travel from star system to star system. As someone said, space is really, REALLY big. Now of course there's the possibility of something like Star Trek's warp speed (faster than light) being developed, but for the moment that is still science fiction.

[Flyndaran]

And what proof do you have? Just because humans aren't smart enough yet doesn't mean it's difficult. It's just like trying to explain Differential Equations to a 5 month old.



You mean "the laws of physics as limited human understanding has currently defined them." It's possible for a discovery to change that. Quantum entanglement proves instantaneous travel over absurdly large distances is possible, after all.

Again I say, open up your mind, use some freaking imagination. Humans don't even know enough to know what we don't know, and you're trying to define the abilities and behaviours of a life form that you can't even envision.

No. Blast it. Too many experiments have proven that the speed of light is not just some curiosity, but a real limit. Even without that, it takes stupid amounts of energy to propel even a tiny mass to relativistic speeds.
I don't think you fully understand the physics involved. Ignoring science you can't understand does not make us the ones with a lack of imagination.
The universe is vast beyond belief, but it is still limited by real world rules. Sorry but your parents were wrong when they said that anything is possible.