Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe

Good... good. *wrings hands*

Human beings aren't ready for a coherent response to a power that can travel the stars, besides, we can only hope the government is hiding this from the rest of the world.

Gov't have to plan and act according to what the worst likely case will be. A cold revelation of any actual intelligent life in the universe, especially if they're visiting, would in all likelyhood cause society to shit the bed.

Or JohnM would put on his tinfoil hat at the very least.

There was no UFO crash at Roswell. People's memories are inaccurate and their imaginations have run wild. Several events have been conflated and, though there may indeed have been warnings "not to talk" about wreckage, etc., this would be as easily believable for Project Mogul as for a flying saucer crash.

And I think the world could handle the revelation that intelligent life exists beyond the Earth. Geez, our popular fiction has been saturated with that very idea for 100 years.

For what it's worth, my money's on there almost certainly being other intelligent life in the universe and very likely in our own galaxy, but I've seen no compelling evidence that we've been visited in any way.

JohnM would have a heart attack and die of fright.

If a 60 ft satellite dish deploys from Starguard's ass, would that convince you?

Startard laughs, knowing the dish is a 120ft'er.

Can't wait.

Begun the Bed-Shitting Wars have...

I'm of the belief that human advancement needs a swift kick in the ass. Most of the people fighting for their survival right now are too primitive and superstitious rise to our collective potential. An alien invasion might be just the ticket....

I have little doubt there is other intelligent life in the universe. It's just a question of whether or not the technology is possible to travel the vast interstellar distances, and if it is would they be interested in us.

But to assume that we are the only intelligent life seems unlikely.

Life itself is a given to any but the worst cynic.

It's just my guess, but I think in all likelihood any envoys from another intelligence would be at least partially - if not wholly - cybernetic.

Maybe they aren't interested in us merely organic beings...yet.

Give it another 50 years - for us to develop (or develop into) our own Cylons - and then maybe they'll want to talk.

I don't think the worlds governments are competent enough to keep this sort of thing a secret for so long.

Well given that the first people who would know are a bunch of civilian scientists, I think it's impossible.

I've been saying the same for years now. If there was proof somebody would've leaked it by now.

Humans are nothing if not adaptable, sure there would be resistance, some folks would never accept the idea but by and large we'd keep on keeping on.

I know some consider it society ending event but I've never understood why.

You have no more proof than it didn't happen than they have that it did. That is unless you have inside knowledge. If the Air Force admits something caused a wreckage buts says its classified, do you have the facts to tell us exactly what happened to dispell the beliefs of these people?

Fiction my boy, fiction. That is the operative word. I read many comics books during my childhood but if Superman showed up and started flying around I'd be dumbfounded. Alien life, though grounded in science, is still so fantastical to many that it would cause shockwaves throughout society.

I agree, but having read some of the books the stories of visitations and adbductions do have a very scary set of similarities to them. I say there's no smoke without fire so if it's not ET then something else has been going on.

That suggests there is a purpose to existence. A goal to be reached, a promise to be fulfilled. Yet nobody knows what that goal might be. Sure we're all confident in pointing out what's holding us back but nobody's confident in stating what we're being held back from.

That unknown renders any criticism of humanity's advancement meaningless.

I've gotta call the Project Mogul story BS just on the fact that the USAF's own timeline shows that that program didn't even start until '49 or so, a good two years after the Roswell incident, whatever it was.

It is by no means a secret. Everyone knows the theory that there are aliens visiting us, and everyone knows the theory that the government knows about them and are covering it up. Hell, it's part of our entertainment complex. On top of that most major governments have openly investigated, and not all of them came to the same conclusions ours did. In addition, there are literally thousands of people that think they have seen evidence themselves.

The question then becomes two things - would a interstellar society that traveled here leave any evidence if they didn't want to? And would we even be able to understand the evidence if we did encounter it? Could be every landing site is just awash in fluxor radions - we just don't know they exist yet.

Once you get past that, then you have to decide if the government would be capable of keeping it from the populace - and we are talking overt, tangible evidence, such as a body or crashed ship, because nothing less would do for the skeptics.

I certainly don't think it's beyond the realm of possibility, but that's very different from saying it's happened.

Yep, not to mention the evidence could be disguised as everyday stuff we don't want to examine. Think about it, there is way more dog crap than there should be, so where is the rest coming from?

Is Earth an intergalactic fire hydrant of sorts? A storage facility?

I'll be honest, I fear the front yard may be an alien Haz-Mat unloading zone, some of the shit I've found couldn't have come from this planet's dogs.

Bah. The TV show "Stargate: SG-1" is fiction.









In reality the interstellar portal is hidden in Hawaii, not Colorado.

Yes, but why are these things always in America?

Nah. All I mean to suggest is that we stagnate without pressure to fight and adapt for survival, and the more we stagnate, the weaker we become.

Some would argue that humanities first and moist basic instinct is survival, so by virtue of that wouldn't it be correct to say that there cannot be stagnation?

No, because we mostly don't have to struggle for our basic needs, and in fact help many to survive in spite of their total lack of success at sustaining it on their own.