Live data from Hacker News

No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

thetimes.co.uk

61–70 of 229 posts

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#61
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a lot of credulous people describing these reports as proof of aliens. To me the idea that aliens exist is unsurprising, but aliens being here would imply FTL is possible, and that would be a huge discovery!

> aliens being here would imply FTL is possible Why? There are plenty of stars within a sub-light-speed radius since events that could've announced us to the galaxy: advent of radio, first nuclear tests, etc.

My favorite back of the napkin math about the practical reality of interstellar space travel, from cstross:

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/06/the_hig...

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#62

The NY Times Headline is much more informative and interesting: > U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can’t Rule It Out, Either Sub header: > A new report concedes that much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge. Those descriptions are a tectonic shift on the topic from the US governmen…

"Those descriptions are a tectonic shift on the topic from the US government." Feels like we are being primed for something new to be afraid of and give our treasure to in defense of. Aliens being non-peaceful fails so many logic tests though. I hope the script doesn't go that way.

was just thinking the same thing as I watched this video easily explaining one of the apparent objects

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ka_bX9Hx1H0

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#63
My biggest question when I see statements about these UFOs being aliens is “Where is the mother ship”?

The constraints on something built to operate in the Earth’s atmosphere are much different than a ship that can actually cross interstellar distances.

So if we are seeing the equivalent of alien fighters (small, fast, highly maneuverable) there should also be the equivalent of an aircraft carrier which provides the long distance transport and logistics for these fighters.

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#64
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard a lot of credulous people describing these reports as proof of aliens. To me the idea that aliens exist is unsurprising, but aliens being here would imply FTL is possible, and that would be a huge discovery!

> aliens being here would imply FTL is possible Why? There are plenty of stars within a sub-light-speed radius since events that could've announced us to the galaxy: advent of radio, first nuclear tests, etc.

Even near-lightspeed travel (say, >0.2C) would be leaps and bounds beyond what we know how to do at this point.

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#65

The NY Times Headline is much more informative and interesting: > U.S. Finds No Evidence of Alien Technology in Flying Objects, but Can’t Rule It Out, Either Sub header: > A new report concedes that much about the observed phenomena remains difficult to explain, including their acceleration, as well as ability to change direction and submerge. Those descriptions are a tectonic shift on the topic from the US governmen…

"Those descriptions are a tectonic shift on the topic from the US government." Feels like we are being primed for something new to be afraid of and give our treasure to in defense of. Aliens being non-peaceful fails so many logic tests though. I hope the script doesn't go that way.

>Aliens being non-peaceful fails logic

Um, why?

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#66
>Senior US administration officials briefed on the findings of the report said that the majority of more than 120 incidents over the past 20 years did not derive from any US military or other advanced US government technology, according to The New York Times.

So they have no evidence that it's aliens, no evidence that it's US military technology, and no evidence that it's foreign technology. In other words nothing new has been discovered and we're still at square 1. Not really news, but I guess it's good to keep us updated.

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#67
There is a guy on YouTube, who is a PhD physicist, called Thunderf00t (sp?). He thinks it might be a duck in the Cmd. Frasier (sp?) video. Some species of duck do crazy kamikaze dives into the water. Flapping wings might not show up due to camera shutter speeds. Given wind speed variation at differ altitudes and the relative velocities of the plane and bird it might appear to be going much faster than it is from the birds frame of reference. It’s a much more sane theory. Speed of light and distance between planets and all that. Or it could be the dirty commies messing with the US with some drones.

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#68
post #32

They exist. They are real. They aren't ours. They aren't an adversary's, because a) the military would never admit it if that were possible and b) if it were the case the adversary would have already taken over the world. There's no evidence they were made by aliens, leprechauns, or ghosts. But there's evidence they were made. Not that they are swamp gas or funny clouds. So lets get past that, and realize there's som…

> My 2c is extra-terrestrial civ is less likely than co-terrestrial civ (subterrainean/ocean) - but lets stop talking about this like they are hallucinations or possible atmospheric phenomenon.

Why?

This whole thing reminds me a bit of the "Havana Syndrome", in that:

- It's an extraordinary claim, presented with limited evidence.

- It defies obvious logical explanation (i.e., a motive).

- The phenomenon lacks a clear definition, leaving the door open for multiple disparate phenomena with different causes to be lumped together.

I believe the third aspect is really underemphasized as a causal factor in "hard to explain" phenomena: because this may in fact be multiple different phenomena, with different causes, it's likely that any single mundane explanation does not explain all observations, and thus appears to be a weaker explanation than it is.

This is sort of a "defender's dilemma" of strange phenomena: if you can't explain all of them, you appear to be unable to explain them. But because of the aforementioned definitional problem, that's not necessarily a surprising or meaningful thing.

To your specific point: the idea of a co-terrestrial civilization is extraordinary. I struggle to imagine the only evidence would be a few spurious radar signatures and odd videos.

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#69
post #50

The public has a right to know certain things, like if there is any evidence of aliens visiting Earth. The right should probably be an explicit constitutional amendment: The people, being free citizens of the universe, shall never be denied access to any information that may pertain to the existence of alien life.

[deleted]

Re: No evidence UFOs are alien craft, unclassified US intelligence report to reveal

#70
post #8

Is this really a surprise to anybody? UFO means "unidentified flying object", not "alien".

I've heard a lot of credulous people describing these reports as proof of aliens. To me the idea that aliens exist is unsurprising, but aliens being here would imply FTL is possible, and that would be a huge discovery!

> aliens being here would imply FTL is possible, and that would be a huge discovery!

"Huge discovery" is understanding that - FTL would imply that either causality doesn't hold, or that we've fundamentally misunderstood relativity.

Post reply on HN