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What We Can Learn from Studying UFOs (Avi Loeb, former chair of the Harvard astronomy department)
A report to Congress from the Pentagon and various intelligence agencies about sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by military personnel is scheduled to be made public shortly. The report reportedly concludes that some of the UFOs are likely real objects whose nature cannot be assessed with any confidence.
[snip]
The possibility that the Pentagon UFOs are human-made can potentially be excluded by identifying behavior that cannot be reproduced by our most advanced equipment. We know our technological limits because any advance that goes well beyond them would have introduced major commercial or military benefits and would have been represented in the consumer market or on the battlefield.
Nevertheless, most people might choose to ignore the Pentagon report and maintain an attitude of business as usual. My daughter told me explicitly that she will not miss her routine soccer match on the day that the report is made public, irrespective of its content. At a recent forum about my popular-level book Extraterrestrial and new textbook Life in the Cosmos, I was asked how long humans could ignore extraterrestrial intelligent life. I replied: “Humans may choose to remain ignorant forever. They can refuse to recognize a reality that does not flatter their ego, like the simple idea that we are not the smartest species that in the Milky Way.”
But reality does not care whether we ignore it or not.
[snip]
The Pentagon has access to much more data than it releases to the public. Its report is expected to say that the reality of some UFOs is beyond doubt but that their nature requires further study. It is therefore an opportune time for the scientific community to take a closer look at UFOs by collecting and analyzing new data with the finest instruments and computers in a controlled setup.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
A report to Congress from the Pentagon and various intelligence agencies about sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by military personnel is scheduled to be made public shortly. The report reportedly concludes that some of the UFOs are likely real objects whose nature cannot be assessed with any confidence.
[snip]
The possibility that the Pentagon UFOs are human-made can potentially be excluded by identifying behavior that cannot be reproduced by our most advanced equipment. We know our technological limits because any advance that goes well beyond them would have introduced major commercial or military benefits and would have been represented in the consumer market or on the battlefield.
Nevertheless, most people might choose to ignore the Pentagon report and maintain an attitude of business as usual. My daughter told me explicitly that she will not miss her routine soccer match on the day that the report is made public, irrespective of its content. At a recent forum about my popular-level book Extraterrestrial and new textbook Life in the Cosmos, I was asked how long humans could ignore extraterrestrial intelligent life. I replied: “Humans may choose to remain ignorant forever. They can refuse to recognize a reality that does not flatter their ego, like the simple idea that we are not the smartest species that in the Milky Way.”
But reality does not care whether we ignore it or not.
[snip]
The Pentagon has access to much more data than it releases to the public. Its report is expected to say that the reality of some UFOs is beyond doubt but that their nature requires further study. It is therefore an opportune time for the scientific community to take a closer look at UFOs by collecting and analyzing new data with the finest instruments and computers in a controlled setup.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificamerican.com ...
