"Secret drones" that for some reason keep their nav lights on... definite public hysteria.
See: Governor Larry Hogan mistakes stars of Orion for part of drone conspiracy.
See: 1954 Seattle - Windshield Pits
Aliens:
As an ardent "visiting aliens" skeptic with an astronomy background, here's some thoughts:
1) Water is not scarce in our universe. It's one of the most abundant molecules. Right here in our solar system, there's strong evidence that Europa contains oceans twice the volume of all of earth's water. Enceladus (moon of Saturn) as well likely has massive oceans. Comets are also massive balls of ice. Additionally, the ability to create water from even more abundant hydrogen and oxygen is already available technology to we primitive humans: fuel cells.
That the author suggested our water is what makes our planet valuable and that this was an idea by "respected" individuals is disqualifying. I would not trust a single word out of this person's mouth. Life does seem to need liquid water to exist, and this might be more rare. But an already existing alien life form that has the technological capabilities to see us as ants probably has the capability to melt ice. That the author's making this mistake reeks of someone who is just making things up off the top of his head and claiming it's authoritative. He's making objectively unreasonable and misleading suggestions and claiming that they're authoritative. That's a major red flag and a reason to dismiss any other claims he makes on the basis of authority. For what it's worth, the Pentagon does not accept his claim that he was director of this program.
2) Seems like a more likely reason for UAPs appearing after WWII is that it corresponds with a massive increase in both numbers and technology of human made aircraft.
3) So much wild speculation about alien motives. And the motives are all mysteriously understandable and relatable to human motives. Is it that aliens are conducting a very human-like experiment? Or is it that humans are imagining the experiment we might like to do with primitive aliens and then projecting this notion onto hypothetical aliens we know next to nothing about.
4) It's also suspiciously American-centric. Americans are the ones discovering them and hiding them. Why didn't the USSR discover them? Why wouldn't their secrets have come out with the collapse of the Soviet Union? How has the US been able to keep it a secret in spite of all of the massive intelligence leaks over the past 50 years? And why did the Pentagon allow the author to publish this if it's so secretive about it?
5) "There is an alien base thing that we can see but we can't prove it because it disappears every time we try to study it." So they allow us to know they're there despite having protective disappearing technology? If we can't study it, how do we know so much about it, like for instance that it's a base? It's a flying spaghetti monster argument. "There's a thing that's there, but we can never prove or disprove it, so just trust me."
Admittedly not having read the book (and not likely going to), the highlight summary does seem like sci-fi, and not at all convincing.
These are all very rational counter-arguments. Most if not all of them might be true. And if they're not true exactly as you state, they may be true in some other rational way.
I think the thing that I find so fascinating, and why I've been following along more closely recently, is that what was previously the "conspiracy theory nonsense" side is starting to come out with science-backed evidence and highly-credible witnesses for a large number of things that were previously dismissed out-of-hand.
I'm by no means "spreading the gospel" or trying to convince anyone...I'm not convinced fully myself. But after doing more digging through sources I believe are fairly credible (primarily US government stuff), I'm no longer able to dismiss the idea of UAP these scenarios it quite so easily...
Joe, I agree exactly. The water argument is maybe the most obvious one.
One option is that somehow everything is coming out now...
OR
another option is that using the homage of Julius Caesar: "Panem et circenses!" we are thrown another bone to chew on like UAPs and "aliens" where everyones imagination can run freely, and we once again we become distracted from the really important topics.
It's certainly convenient in terms of timing (regading the distraction theory) but the timeline of events (from the dropping of the first atomic bomb to now), totally ignoring US/world politics, really does make sense, the more you dig in.
Ignoring the problematic NJ "drone" sightings, and only following declassified US government documents and sworn statements from high-ranking officials, it's still *incredibly* compelling.
After the 2017 NYT article, my believe in UAPs went from 0% to maybe 3%. But it even being at 3% totally blew my mind, because 3% is HUGE for a possibility this reality-shattering.
If even 99% of sightings can be explained, then the question remains about what to do with that 1% of legit unexplained anomalous phenomena.
The parts that are compelling to me is when this stuff is studied and tracked by legitimate scientific processes (not just crackpot science and conspiracy theororists). And that's actually happening right now. And I encourage people who are skeptical to wade through the garbage to find sources they actually trust. Because these trustworthy sources are out there.
"Secret drones" that for some reason keep their nav lights on... definite public hysteria.
See: Governor Larry Hogan mistakes stars of Orion for part of drone conspiracy.
See: 1954 Seattle - Windshield Pits
Aliens:
As an ardent "visiting aliens" skeptic with an astronomy background, here's some thoughts:
1) Water is not scarce in our universe. It's one of the most abundant molecules. Right here in our solar system, there's strong evidence that Europa contains oceans twice the volume of all of earth's water. Enceladus (moon of Saturn) as well likely has massive oceans. Comets are also massive balls of ice. Additionally, the ability to create water from even more abundant hydrogen and oxygen is already available technology to we primitive humans: fuel cells.
That the author suggested our water is what makes our planet valuable and that this was an idea by "respected" individuals is disqualifying. I would not trust a single word out of this person's mouth. Life does seem to need liquid water to exist, and this might be more rare. But an already existing alien life form that has the technological capabilities to see us as ants probably has the capability to melt ice. That the author's making this mistake reeks of someone who is just making things up off the top of his head and claiming it's authoritative. He's making objectively unreasonable and misleading suggestions and claiming that they're authoritative. That's a major red flag and a reason to dismiss any other claims he makes on the basis of authority. For what it's worth, the Pentagon does not accept his claim that he was director of this program.
2) Seems like a more likely reason for UAPs appearing after WWII is that it corresponds with a massive increase in both numbers and technology of human made aircraft.
3) So much wild speculation about alien motives. And the motives are all mysteriously understandable and relatable to human motives. Is it that aliens are conducting a very human-like experiment? Or is it that humans are imagining the experiment we might like to do with primitive aliens and then projecting this notion onto hypothetical aliens we know next to nothing about.
4) It's also suspiciously American-centric. Americans are the ones discovering them and hiding them. Why didn't the USSR discover them? Why wouldn't their secrets have come out with the collapse of the Soviet Union? How has the US been able to keep it a secret in spite of all of the massive intelligence leaks over the past 50 years? And why did the Pentagon allow the author to publish this if it's so secretive about it?
5) "There is an alien base thing that we can see but we can't prove it because it disappears every time we try to study it." So they allow us to know they're there despite having protective disappearing technology? If we can't study it, how do we know so much about it, like for instance that it's a base? It's a flying spaghetti monster argument. "There's a thing that's there, but we can never prove or disprove it, so just trust me."
Admittedly not having read the book (and not likely going to), the highlight summary does seem like sci-fi, and not at all convincing.
These are all very rational counter-arguments. Most if not all of them might be true. And if they're not true exactly as you state, they may be true in some other rational way.
I think the thing that I find so fascinating, and why I've been following along more closely recently, is that what was previously the "conspiracy theory nonsense" side is starting to come out with science-backed evidence and highly-credible witnesses for a large number of things that were previously dismissed out-of-hand.
I'm by no means "spreading the gospel" or trying to convince anyone...I'm not convinced fully myself. But after doing more digging through sources I believe are fairly credible (primarily US government stuff), I'm no longer able to dismiss the idea of UAP these scenarios it quite so easily...
Joe, I agree exactly. The water argument is maybe the most obvious one.
One option is that somehow everything is coming out now...
OR
another option is that using the homage of Julius Caesar: "Panem et circenses!" we are thrown another bone to chew on like UAPs and "aliens" where everyones imagination can run freely, and we once again we become distracted from the really important topics.
I personally lean towards option two.
It's certainly convenient in terms of timing (regading the distraction theory) but the timeline of events (from the dropping of the first atomic bomb to now), totally ignoring US/world politics, really does make sense, the more you dig in.
Ignoring the problematic NJ "drone" sightings, and only following declassified US government documents and sworn statements from high-ranking officials, it's still *incredibly* compelling.
After the 2017 NYT article, my believe in UAPs went from 0% to maybe 3%. But it even being at 3% totally blew my mind, because 3% is HUGE for a possibility this reality-shattering.
If even 99% of sightings can be explained, then the question remains about what to do with that 1% of legit unexplained anomalous phenomena.
The parts that are compelling to me is when this stuff is studied and tracked by legitimate scientific processes (not just crackpot science and conspiracy theororists). And that's actually happening right now. And I encourage people who are skeptical to wade through the garbage to find sources they actually trust. Because these trustworthy sources are out there.