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As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

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Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#971

Post by pmarreck »

WalterBright wrote: post #291
ceejayoz wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really key. Eyewitness accounts are reliably dismal in evidentiary value, even by people with relevant knowledge. Our brains lie to us all the time.

I remember a case long ago where a woman was cruelly raped. She was face-to-face with her attacker. She identified him in a lineup, he was convicted, and sent to prison. He always insisted on his innocence, but people just laughed at him. She was face to face with him, and identified him. But decades later, as DNA testing became available, a testing was done and he was not a match! But a known sex offender was a matc…

There was a story about this on a podcast.

This is a case of a single witness during a single traumatizing event.

You're trying to compare this to a situation where we have thousands of witnesses across time across hundreds of events, with a few events having multiple witnesses.

Who are also under no emotional duress.

Sorry, but not remotely comparable.

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#972

Post by pmarreck »

WalterBright wrote: post #864
pmarreck wrote: post #826

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the radar system exhibited other types of "steady anomalies identifying nonexistent objects in space" that didn't happen to fit the "UFO expectation", we would be hearing of those too, no? Have we? Since the whole point of a radar system is identifying friend, foe or possible collision courses, it would seem to be extremely important that this basic function of a radar be extremely reliable, no? Also, what are the…

I've been hearing my whole life about the "it can only be aliens" explanation. Many, many of these have been debunked, but it never dampens the enthusiasm "yeah, but this one must be aliens!" Why has nobody ever taken a photo of these alleged aliens? It's up to the proponents to provide convincing evidence. "But I saw it with my own eyes!" is completely unconvincing. Anyone who claims to have never misinterpreted any…

I hear you on the "it must be aliens!" argument. Really, I do. And until at least the concept of the "Alcubierre drive" came out, one could simply claim "there's no possible way for any being to physically come here from any galactic-level distance because of the amount of time it would take at sub-light speeds" and that would be the end of the story. (Even then, my response was usually "no way that we can think of"...)

I am well aware of all of your other arguments, as I was a Psych major who specialized in perception.

I'm of the government's stance on this currently: I think it's a real phenomenon, I trust most qualified eyewitnesses especially if it is in concordance with radar data, and I refuse to concretely claim anything further. And it is a mystery.

But I AM free to speculate.

I could claim something like "assuming there IS some alien intelligence controlling these hyper-performing craft... if another intelligence was advanced enough to even make it here in the first place, ostensibly they also have fairly full control over all elements of the interactions with us, which includes not showing themselves outside their craft", but this is also the Conspiracy Fallacy. Two thoughts on that though: The Conspiracy Fallacy does not disprove conspiracies (which is why I am openly stating this is speculative). And secondly, this also means that (if this claim is at all true), they are likely voluntarily showing themselves at some "pace" as to not overly upset us. Why that? Well, perhaps you've heard of systematic desensitization (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systematic_desensitization) as a treatment for phobias? That might be going on here. And it's apparently working, since nothing crazy's happened since the USG openly admitted this is real. This is a far cry from the Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" broadcast days.

So, no. I can't say it's aliens, at least rationally. But I do speculate that. ;) And honestly, I think it's fun to think that not only might we be not alone (wouldn't that be amazing??) but that we're kind of in a galactic kindergarten. ;)

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#973

Post by BbzzbB »

natch wrote: post #724
BbzzbB wrote: post #629

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One might think such an elaborate prankster would keep his benign pranks to himself when going on a podcast tour to protect appearances.

Going on a podcast tour to protect appearances? One would think he went on the podcast tour to seek attention, as pranksters are wont to do.

I meant he probably wouldn't publicly talk about his pranking history on his podcast tour if he wants to con everyone.

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#974

Post by juskrey »

heinternets wrote: post #435
juskrey wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Throughout my already 20 year IT career, I can't even count how many times I've come across extremely paranoid explanations, often in the verge of insanity, of regular computer behavior like basic non obvious algos or glitches. From people otherwise normal. What is interesting, almost never I could change person's mind, once toxic explanation is in. Recently, with all that internet marketing and real surveillance tec…

I would love to hear what some of these explanations were

Mostly "Someone did it on purpose". Usually person they don't like, or rival department, or government, overall situation ranging from light computer illiteracy to full blown X-Files scenario.

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#975

Post by Shocka1 »

graderjs wrote: post #969
Shocka1 wrote: post #960

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why would the DoD permit people to get all in a huff in confusion about this I think sometimes we underestimate the power of social media in today's outrage and conspiracy driven culture, which is all but impossible to contain. I've said it what seems like a thousand times now - I believe there would be much more positive than negative as a result of shutting the internet off indefinitely.

I'm not sure I understand the connection, you'll have to state your conclusion explicitly if you don't mind.

>why would the DoD permit people to get all in a huff in confusion about this

"I think sometimes we underestimate the power of social media in today's outrage and conspiracy driven culture, which is all but impossible to contain. I've said it what seems like a thousand times now - I believe there would be much more positive than negative as a result of shutting the internet off indefinitely."

I'm not sure if there is much more I can say explicitly. By people I'm assuming you mean the average person with social media access, which is the prime medium for people to get in a huff on. It doesn't matter what objective facts are presented by the DoD. Social media will run with it to the extremes, just like kids would playing the "Chinese whispers" game.

That being said, I'm making a joke about shutting the internet off, but there is some truth to it.

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#976

Post by natch »

BbzzbB wrote: post #973
natch wrote: post #724

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going on a podcast tour to protect appearances? One would think he went on the podcast tour to seek attention, as pranksters are wont to do.

I meant he probably wouldn't publicly talk about his pranking history on his podcast tour if he wants to con everyone.

I think there’s some subtlety there you’re missing, and that is that there’s is a kind of pleasure and prankster humor in revealing to the more perceptive subset of the audience that you pulled an epic con, while still keeping the con alive for another less perceptive subset.

For an example of this kind of prankster game see Woz’s short videos about how he sources (actually real, but he intentionally does not say that) two dollar bills in pads from a local printer “who gets them from another very high quality printer.” He knows some people get what he’s doing and others don’t, and that’s part of the fun.

And some people transition during the exposition from being people who are being duped, to people who realize they were temporarily duped. That’s another part of the fun.

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#977

Post by graderjs »

Shocka1 wrote: post #975
graderjs wrote: post #969

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I understand the connection, you'll have to state your conclusion explicitly if you don't mind.

>why would the DoD permit people to get all in a huff in confusion about this "I think sometimes we underestimate the power of social media in today's outrage and conspiracy driven culture, which is all but impossible to contain. I've said it what seems like a thousand times now - I believe there would be much more positive than negative as a result of shutting the internet off indefinitely." I'm not sure if there is…

Ah, I get it now! Thanks. Internet is like a comm medium that contains too much "error rate". So the transmission is imperfect. Plus coupled with that, it's looped back on itself. So you get feedback loops. Couple high errors with feedback and you have a system designed to create chaos. Fuck yeah! What an awesome theory. I never saw such a concise "information theoretic" approach to why the internet is so fucked up and society because of it. Now I get it. Thank you! :) ;P xx ;p. I'm not joking it is a good theory.

Re: As a US Navy fighter pilot, I witnessed unidentified anomalous phenomena

#978

Post by Shocka1 »

graderjs wrote: post #977
Shocka1 wrote: post #975

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>why would the DoD permit people to get all in a huff in confusion about this "I think sometimes we underestimate the power of social media in today's outrage and conspiracy driven culture, which is all but impossible to contain. I've said it what seems like a thousand times now - I believe there would be much more positive than negative as a result of shutting the internet off indefinitely." I'm not sure if there is…

Ah, I get it now! Thanks. Internet is like a comm medium that contains too much "error rate". So the transmission is imperfect. Plus coupled with that, it's looped back on itself. So you get feedback loops. Couple high errors with feedback and you have a system designed to create chaos. Fuck yeah! What an awesome theory. I never saw such a concise "information theoretic" approach to why the internet is so fucked up a…

This is such a strange response as I was in no way debating or countering your original comment. Quite the opposite really as I agree with most of what you said. If I encounter you again I'll make it known next time.
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