| Author | Message | ||
     Ferris_von_bueller |
I'm curious if anyone has ever seen one. I believe there is life on other planets but I haven't seen any evidence that would convince me aliens are visiting the earth | ||
| Hootowl |
I've seen flying objects I could not identify. Does that count? Seriously though, given the distances involved, it is highly unlikely. And if a civilization has advanced to the point that they're able to build vehicles that fold/bend/warp space, or otherwise get around relativity, their interest in our backwater planet, far out in the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy, has got to be just about nil. | ||
| Reepicheep |
It's the Fermi paradox... The universe is so big and so old that it is insanely unlikely that if we can be the only intelligent life. But if we are, we are making such a racket and listening so carefully, it is insanely unlikely that we haven't at least heard something on a radio telescope. The fact that Mars may have harbored bacterial life makes it even more insane. | ||
| Hughlysses |
I've kind of gone back and forth on the issue over my life. I've seen some weird stuff in the sky, but nothing that couldn't be explained by aircraft. I was really into UFO's as a teenager, then decided it was all bunk, and now I'm largely undecided. One of the most compelling pieces of testimony I've ever seen was on "Unexplained Mysteries" (I think that was the TV show). They had an ~80 year old lady on that was the widow of a former USAF colonel. She said that on his death bed, he swore he had transported alien bodies from Roswell, New Mexico to Wright Patterson AFB. He and the others were sworn to secrecy on penalty of death. He told her he was SURE it was real and he couldn't believe the US government hadn't come out with the story in all that time since the original crash, and he felt like he had to tell someone before he died. Maybe more bunk, but to me, she was pretty convincing. The Roswell case is crazy on just what the government is documented to have done. A US Air Force official originally announced "we found a crashed alien spacecraft". A few days later, the government announces, "Oops, no, that was a weather balloon." 5~0 years later, they announce "OK, back in ~1950, we lied. It was a secret nuclear detection balloon." We know they lied; we just don't know if the lies have stopped. | ||
| Rick_a |
I haven't either, though I could tell you some ghost stories.  | ||
| Aesquire |
My old TV doesn't get TV anymore. My AM radio can't get the local FM stations. Radio telephones? It's cellular digital now. Listen to the stars. Expect Martian Pink Floyd? How about a digital, encrypted hiss? Pulse Modulated? Phased rotation of Neutrino beams? Gravity wave pulses? With all that said, Yes, I have seen flying objects that I could not positively identify. Most were I think weather balloons, some I now know were Moon dogs, a few turned out to be reflected car headlights, and 1 case of ball lightning. ( which doesn't count since I ID it ) No spaceships, darn it. Really, the only explanation for the redneck bothering probing alien reports is frat boys swooping down on the primitive reservation to tip cows. OTOH maybe they've been here all along. | ||
| Cityxslicker |
I don't know about UFOS, .... but the base hotline and police phone sure would light up after a rebel rousing round of 'Night Ops' from my old Squadron. I do believe most 'UFO' sightings are .... 'us' scaring the cows, nap of the earth, black birds and high rates of speed. | ||
| Alfau |
I believe there is life on other planets God will be pleased. | ||
| Kenm123t |
If you don't believe in Aliens I dare you to visit Walmart after 10 pm Or the DMV any state at any time ! Or Track Down Fast Fred in person lol | ||
| Pwnzor |
Genesis 1:1 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The language is fairly plain. We are not alone. To think that we are the full extent of God's creation is mere folly. That being said, my brother and I witnessed something in the skies over Alamagordo, New Mexico back in 1996. It was very far away, and appeared to be a black oblong shape that seemed to wobble a bit. We first observed it while driving at 60+ mph, and it looked stationary from our vantage point. It remained there for 20-30 minutes and we both remarked that it was very odd. We pulled over and kept looking at it, and to our surprise it seemed to stay in the same place. Then, after several minutes of staring at it while standing on the side of the road, it vanished from sight. I have no idea what it was. | ||
| Rotzaruck |
You know, they DID pick me up that night, but of course they COMPLETELY erased my memory......... | ||
| Torquehd |
Genesis 1:1 speaks to the creation of places. It says nothing of where, in those places, he installed life forms. For a long time, I wanted extra terrestrial life to exist. There is no commonly available evidence. The government generally sucks at keeping secrets. The majority of "whistleblowers" have holes in their stories. Why would aliens decide to come here and hide from everyone except the government? Wouldn't there be some type of mass visitation, where they visit more than one drunk redneck in his back 40 at a time? The bible speaks of angelic beings, perhaps they could be perceived as aliens. But I haven't found any reason to believe that people from other planets have visited ours. | ||
| Pwnzor |
Genesis 2 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. The Bible is an account of what happened on Earth, but in my opinion it is clear that there was much going on elsewhere. The UFO stuff you see on TV is malarky at best. File it with the hunt for bigfoot. I saw something, I won't say it was an alien craft... but I won't say it wasn't an alien craft. | ||
| Sifo |
I've certainly seen things flying that I couldn't identify. Some exhibiting characteristics that I found unusual. Nothing that I would say has to be alien though. Crop circles have been thoroughly debunked as an alien phenomenon. There are some intriguing bit of evidence in the world. No smoking guns that I know of though. My personal believe? I'm open to it either way. It's entirely possible that we are unique in the universe. It's also possible that the universe is teaming with life. Neither would really surprise me too much. I have a feeling that it's either one or the other though, not where life is incredibly rare. The idea that aliens frequent our world would surprise me. Even if the universe is full of life, we know little about the typical span of an intelligent society that could be recognized across vast distances. That plays into looking for signs of life from any given star at the right time. We may miss the sign by only a few hundred years and never be the wiser. It does seem a bit odd though, if life is common, and it's common for life to advance itself into technologies such as we have, why can't we find some evidence of this from any point in the sky so far? SETI was trying to do this for quite a while with zero success. I'm not sure if they are still active or not. They have checked a lot of points in the sky though, and no one else seems to be broadcasting Elvis. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Daniken, an interesting read. My personal view is that, purely from a statistical point of view, it's highly unlikely that we're the only so called "intelligent" (sometimes I wonder) life form in this vast universe. Anyhow be honest, if you were an advanced alien lifeform & you scooted around earth a bit checking out what's going on, would you announce yourself? would you even want to be associated with folk like humans? | ||
| Sifo |
My personal view is that, purely from a statistical point of view, it's highly unlikely that we're the only so called "intelligent" (sometimes I wonder) life form in this vast universe. I would call that pure speculation. Statistically, we have only a single data point where we know of any forms of life in the universe. That doesn't bode well for finding more. Granted though, statistically, our data set is very lacking. Nothing wrong with speculation on this, but it's not statistics. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
You can call it what you like Sifo, but there's solid research indicating mind boggling numbers of planets in our galaxy alone. I appreciate that only a very very tiny proportion of them may support life, but when you take into account the monstrously huge numbers, statistically speaking it's likely there's other forms of sentient life out there. Here's a populist version for you but it's based on solid science. http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2013/01/05 /how-many-planets-are-in-the-universe/ | ||
| Xdigitalx |
We are the only humans in the universe,... if there is anything else out there...it's probably not unlike the Starship Troopers movie. It is also my belief there are no real alien abductions... these are simply dreams and premonitions of our own future by people with extraordinary minds... blended with some imagination. Or maybe it is a genetic trait. (from our unknown past) Our possible future in space... with no gravity and surviving on soylent powder for generations... we will eventually look like ET right??  Spring is around the corner right?? 21 degs tonight but 60 on Saturday!!  | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
We are the only humans in the universe,... Possibly. Or then again maybe not... | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Saw something back in the early 60's, I was maybe 6-7 or so. I was with my parents and a couple of my sisters. Small town MN. Just before dusk but still light out. Spooked us all out, still does. Lots of folks on the block saw it. It was odd enough that no one wanted to talk about it. It was off the the north of town (pop 512). It hovered and moved around. Went east to west and back, sometimes diagonal. It finally shot off to the west so fast you could barely follow it. Many years later I saw sketches of supposed UFO's, they were startling close to what we saw. It was weird as hell for sure... Haven't thought about it for many years, thanks a lot... | ||
| Hootowl |
So I guess no one appreciated my rather clever interjection of a hitchhiker reference into a thread on UFOs. Sometimes the jokes are just for me. Makes me want to stick out my electronic thumb and get the hell off this rock. You know, before it gets demolished. No? Nothing? Is this thing on? | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Hoot, the only possible reply I can give you is, "So long & thanks for all the fish." The BBC have just started replaying the original radio series, you may be able to listen to it here. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007jlzj | ||
| Aesquire |
We started making radio waves you could pick up at interstellar distance shortly after Nicola Tesla invented them. We'll stop sending radio waves that make any sense to 1970's humans as soon as AM & FM go digital world wide. ( which won't be a purely good thing ). A few ham operators, but pretty much everything will be hiss and whistles. Expecting to have an alien species that went through the exact same technological few centuries was we just went though EXACTLY as long ago as they are far away........ Far worse odds than the ones for alien life existing. And Alien life does exist, here on this planet. ( insert political joke of choice here ) You try running your metabolism on Hydrogen Sulfide. ( deep sea hydrothermal vents....tube worms ) Do I need a "don't try this at home"? It's one of the bummers of my young adulthood that we discovered that Mars doesn't have algae blooms & canals, Venus isn't a vast swamp full of titanic creatures, and surplus radio receivers run a few hours a year have failed to pick up any better TV shows. ( although there was that threat to exterminate us all if Farscape didn't go back on the air.... ) OTOH we have probable bacteria in Saturn's rings, An entire ocean under the ice on a moon, and have evidence of far more planets than the pessimistic views of my yout. | ||
| Hootowl |
I'm sorry, did you say yout? What is a yout? | ||
| Aesquire |
Sundogs and Moondogs are pretty spectacular. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundog Easily mistaken for UFO's Lot's of UFO photos in books are lenticular clouds. They look pretty unreal too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_cloud Especially when you are downwind and the Roll Cloud is getting closer. ( they eat Jets ) Seen "the glory" a number of times, mostly on cliff tops looking down at cloud with the sun behind me.... And I've been waiting forever to see a Green Flash. | ||
| Sifo |
You can call it what you like Sifo, but there's solid research indicating mind boggling numbers of planets in our galaxy alone. I appreciate that only a very very tiny proportion of them may support life, but when you take into account the monstrously huge numbers, statistically speaking it's likely there's other forms of sentient life out there. At this point in time we have confirmed life on exactly one single rock, out of the entire known universe. Statistically speaking, based on what is known, life is incredibly rare. Trying to use statistics in something like this, where we know so little as fact, is misusing statistics though. Anything beyond that is pure speculation. So far we haven't been able to confirm life on Mars, Jupiter's moons, asteroids, or comets. To speculate that life may be common in other solar systems might just be a stretch when we can't even claim it to common in a solar system that we know supports life. If we ever do confirm life someplace other than our rock, that changes our understanding in a huge way. I wouldn't be shocked if it happens, but it would be a huge step in actual knowledge. Keep in mind that all assumptions on how common life is in the universe is based on a knowledge base that can't even explain how life that we know of came to be. They call that ignorance. What do you have when your theories are based on ignorance? | ||
| Midknyte |
Anyhow be honest, if you were an advanced alien lifeform & you scooted around earth a bit checking out what's going on, would you announce yourself? Nope. Most folks trolling for strange try to keep it on the downlow... | ||
| Kenm123t |
As the recruiter said in SIGN'S they are probing to see if it's all clear FOR THE REST OF THEM ! The most likely case is the Plan in Monsters on Maple Street From the original Twilight Zone series  | ||
| Leftcoastal |
They're here, and have been for a while apparently. They are slowly and insidiously softening up what little intelligence we humans once possessed. Especially those pesky motorcyclists that always seem so 'free-thinking' and independent. I just got back from Daytona and got to witness their latest foray into this operation: Trikes, nothing but trikes every freaking where you looked. Harley trikes, Victory trikes, Indian trikes, V-rod trikes, big Yamaha trikes, Gold Wing trikes, Factory trikes, custom trikes, Chopper trikes, ad infinitum. MAKE IT STOP!!! I was riding a 47 Indian Chief, which, amazingly enough, only had 2 wheels. Back to the alien thing: if we do ever encounter any off-worlders showing up un-announced, our best bet is to immediately kill 'em and eat 'em. That will hold them at bey while we work on weaponry. Worked for the cannibals, didn't it? (Message edited by leftcoastal on March 13, 2014) | ||
| Aesquire |
I'm pretty sure if they have the technology to traverse interstellar space they can kick our butts so fast they may not notice. "Do you know how much damage this bulldozer would sustain if I just let it roll over you?" "How much?" "None at all." I suspect any objections we have will be answered, thus.... There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now. … What do you mean you’ve never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven’s sake, mankind, it’s only four light years away, you know. I’m sorry, but if you can’t be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that’s your own lookout. Energize the demolition beams. But. That has been a theme in Sci-fi for a long time. If the above opinion is true, the story is too short to be entertaining, so Authors invent blind spots or odd flaws in Alien Cultures to give us a chance. Like...."if they are that advanced, they must have abandoned war, and eradicated any warlike tendencies." Then we surprise them by being the nastiest things around, or....."they never heard of advertising" The mind boggles. You can't do statistics based on 1 sample. We've hardly sampled our solar system. Just because the Martians haven't landed, we assume they don't exist. Silly. How about those probes that never made it? And, "War Of The Worlds" aside, why in the name of Zod would anyone want to go someplace where the Gravity is 3 times normal, and an atmosphere you need a deep sea diving bell to resist. 14 freaking pounds per square INCH????? crushed instantly. |
