More Americans now believe UFOs are alien

[UM-Bot]

A recent Gallup poll has highlighted an upward trend in the number of people who believe that UFOs are alien.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/350126/more-americans-now-believe-ufos-are-alien

[Dejarma]

imo these polls mean nothing.. i imagine what normally happens is when asked they reply with something like: 'yeah why not'- not really thinking about it before hand

[NCC1701]

I wonder what the outcome would be when they asked: Do you believe that this UFO hype is a hoax?

[pallidin]

The sheer number of galaxies, not to mention the mind-blowing expanse of our Universe, to me absolutely demands a high probability of life elsewhere than Earth.

[Dejarma]

1 hour ago, pallidin said:

The sheer number of galaxies, not to mention the mind-blowing expanse of our Universe, to me absolutely demands a high probability of life elsewhere than Earth.

I agree but that's not really in question imo. Personally I'd say it's highly highly unlikely (I'd go as far as saying bordering on impossible) that life on earth is the only life around & also we, us humans are the only sentient beings around.

The question is: have any other life forms visited this planet in the past or are indeed here now.......

[khol]

29 minutes ago, Dejarma said:

The question is: have any other life forms visited this planet in the past or are indeed here now.......

I lean towards no. It just seems so improbable given the energy required to get here with the distances so vast. Having said that I honestly dont know what to make of this latest UAP flap.I totally respect the hard core skeptic evaluation but personally feel theres something more going on.

Our understanding of the universe is in its infancy and we could be limited by our current perceptions of it

[Dejarma]

21 minutes ago, khol said:

Our understanding of the universe is in its infancy and we could be limited by our current perceptions of it

of course, therefore i must ask why you lean towards no? there could be life forms out there who view light travel as we now view the horse & cart with regards to 'going places', we have no idea what's out there.....

personally i feel it's quite possible for others to come here but the so called evidence put forward that tells me it's true just don't convince me- not even a little bit, but who knows what the future will bring.. hope springs eternal 

[Dejarma]

53 minutes ago, khol said:

Having said that I honestly dont know what to make of this latest UAP flap.

there are 'some' who know exactly what to make of it= money! the 'some' are the ones who started the flap in the first place for this very reason- in my opinion

[Skulduggery]

8 hours ago, khol said:

I lean towards no. It just seems so improbable given the energy required to get here with the distances so vast. Having said that I honestly dont know what to make of this latest UAP flap.I totally respect the hard core skeptic evaluation but personally feel theres something more going on.

Our understanding of the universe is in its infancy and we could be limited by our current perceptions of it

I like the idea of figuring out outside-the-box ways to make that type of travel possible. Lots of science fiction has inspired scientific endeavors at least, so why not. Like, has there been much research into projection-based travel, etc.? Asking for a friend with chalky skin.

[ThereWeAreThen]

22 hours ago, Dejarma said:

imo these polls mean nothing.. i imagine what normally happens is when asked they reply with something like: 'yeah why not'- not really thinking about it before hand

Polls and surveys are pointless unless atleast 95% of the population take part (obviously accept kids) and I think it also depends on the wording of the question.

[Gaden]

On 8/26/2021 at 11:28 AM, UM-Bot said:

A recent Gallup poll has highlighted an upward trend in the number of people who believe that UFOs are alien.

https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/350126/more-americans-now-believe-ufos-are-alien

I would not be surprised, as there has been a downward tick in IQ for many years.

[Gaden]

19 hours ago, pallidin said:

The sheer number of galaxies, not to mention the mind-blowing expanse of our Universe, to me absolutely demands a high probability of life elsewhere than Earth.

That wasn't the question.

 

[Gumball]

Mission accomplished.

[astrobeing]

On 8/26/2021 at 7:37 PM, Dejarma said:

of course, therefore i must ask why you lean towards no? there could be life forms out there who view light travel as we now view the horse & cart with regards to 'going places', we have no idea what's out there.....

I can imagine a lot of things. That doesn't mean any of them are possible.

[Phantom309]

If the unidentified technology was either Chinese or Russian, they would have used it to their advantage by now in some form or manner against us.

[+DanL]

The thing about the vast distances making it so unlikely that UFOs are of alien rather than human-based ships has one flaw.
At the time when the first Europeans came to the Americas the distances that they traveled were unimaginable to most native Americans. Now it is an 8-hour nonstop trip. I suspect that something like this is where that idea comes from. If we can't do it then, since we are the ultimate lifeform that we know of, then it must be impossible. I am almost certain that rockets are NOT the last word in speedy space travel. Think of what we might achieve in another 2000 years if we don't blow ourselves up. At the rapid advancement that the last i50 years have offered us it is probable that we are not looking at thousands of years. We may manage it in a couple of hundred years...Or we may just fade out and fall from our current heights.

[Golden Duck]

33 minutes ago, DanL said:

The thing about the vast distances making it so unlikely that UFOs are of alien rather than human-based ships has one flaw.
At the time when the first Europeans came to the Americas the distances that they traveled were unimaginable to most native Americans. Now it is an 8-hour nonstop trip. I suspect that something like this is where that idea comes from. If we can't do it then, since we are the ultimate lifeform that we know of, then it must be impossible. I am almost certain that rockets are NOT the last word in speedy space travel. Think of what we might achieve in another 2000 years if we don't blow ourselves up. At the rapid advancement that the last i50 years have offered us it is probable that we are not looking at thousands of years. We may manage it in a couple of hundred years...Or we may just fade out and fall from our current heights.

There's a cosmic speed limit.

[Piney]

On 8/27/2021 at 11:14 AM, ThereWeAreThen said:

Polls and surveys are pointless unless atleast 95% of the population take part (obviously hhebbllaww kids) and I think it also depends on the wording of the question.

Stick with Welsh! Your English is worse than a Yammy's you spitting snot chucker!!! 

[Dejarma]

44 minutes ago, DanL said:

The thing about the vast distances making it so unlikely that UFOs are of alien rather than human-based ships has one flaw.
At the time when the first Europeans came to the Americas the distances that they traveled were unimaginable to most native Americans. Now it is an 8-hour nonstop trip. I suspect that something like this is where that idea comes from. If we can't do it then, since we are the ultimate lifeform that we know of, then it must be impossible. I am almost certain that rockets are NOT the last word in speedy space travel. Think of what we might achieve in another 2000 years if we don't blow ourselves up. At the rapid advancement that the last i50 years have offered us it is probable that we are not looking at thousands of years. We may manage it in a couple of hundred years...Or we may just fade out and fall from our current heights.

yep. i agree--- good words

[+joc]

2 hours ago, DanL said:

The thing about the vast distances making it so unlikely that UFOs are of alien rather than human-based ships has one flaw.
At the time when the first Europeans came to the Americas the distances that they traveled were unimaginable to most native Americans. Now it is an 8-hour nonstop trip. 

The flaw is in  your logic.  You are comparing the distance That might take 6 months on a ship but now 8 hours on a jet to the distance that would take 4 years traveling at the speed of light to even reach our closest neighboring star system.  Want to attempt to calculate the difference in those distances?  Have fun.

In all of our technological advancements...we haven't achieved 50,000 miles per hour...much less 186,000 miles per second.  You are trying to extrapolate Science Fiction into reality to explain things that have been explained over and over and over and over and over.  

Let me ask you one question:

Who put the Freak in Aliens?

[Dejarma]

41 minutes ago, joc said:

The flaw is in  your logic. 

IMO there is no flaw in this logic...you/ We have no idea what's out there- that's a fact.

I've put this forward many times when discussing this subject:

there could be races out there that look at light travel in the same way as we now look at getting about via horse & cart

[ChrLzs]

The flaw with that flaw... is that everything, every single thing that exists in the Universe that we are thus far able to observe, obeys that speed limit.  Plus, all the observable evidence like light lensing and many others point at the very, very high likelihood that light *is* the speed limit, for very good reasons as outlined by Albert...

Finally, if it isn't the speed limit, then why haven't we been visited?  Anyone passing even remotely close to our solar system, or this arm of our galaxy for that matter, would be able to detect our life-signs.  Are we not worthy?

 

We are a little better informed than our ancestors, you know the ones who thought that we would asphyxiate and die if we exceeded 30 mph..  Did they never stand in a strong wind, or realise that it didn't matter if you were inside an enclosure?

[Tatetopa]

Were I a budding alien technology, I would send out "un-aliened"  probes. They could be smaller  and  faster,  travelling in swarms in all directions and individually  expendable.  Maybe we have been unobtrusively surveyed and put on record.  Aliens might not want to make personal contact or inform us that we had been surveyed.

Were I an advanced alien technology with that imagined trans-light speed,  I would have 100 billion plants at my fingertips in this galaxy. Based on a weak statistical assumption that we are about average on a normal distribution of interesting planets to visit, there may be hundreds of millions of planets with life more interesting than earth to visit. If you had seen hundreds of thousands of civilizations advancing, adding  one more to the list might not be a high priority.

Or maybe Oumuamua was like Gomptuu in the Next Generation episode Tin Man.  Crew long lost, no purpose, just going on.

I am not supposing that any of those situations are the case, just that there would be a multitude of reasons that even aliens capable of passing through  the solar system  would not choose to stop by for a visit.

[ThereWeAreThen]

10 hours ago, Piney said:

Stick with Welsh! Your English is worse than a Yammy's you spitting snot chucker!!! 

Don't you start on me now Piney, you...you...I'll think of something. 

[+joc]

7 hours ago, ChrLzs said:

The flaw with that flaw... is that everything, every single thing that exists in the Universe that we are thus far able to observe, obeys that speed limit. 

Where do people get the idea that outside our solar system...out there in 'outer space' ...the universe is strange and unknown and who knows what could be out there...    I will just say...it all comes from Science Fiction... i.e.  Star Trek...Star Wars... Hollywood...etc. 

We do know what is out there.  We have vast knowledge of what is 'out there'  and what is not.  But the Human Imagination is well known for creating fantasy and believing it to be reality.  With Trillions of Galaxies, each containing Billions of star systems...to think that there isn't life elsewhere is to ignore the most incredible of odds.  

There is life somewhere else in the universe.    There may well be civilizations of life forms more technologically advanced than ours.   We will never know.  They will never know either.   The distance between stars is       so       incredibly        vast       it is not possible to even calculate the numbers without advanced technology.   Perhaps if Humans ever get past the end of their own egocentricity...perhaps the world could become a remarkable place.  Humans will destroy themselves before that happens.  We have been destroying ourselves over and over and over since we realized we were.    And to think that Life any  place else in the universe would be any different is silly.  Why would it be?  The Laws of Physics don't just apply to planet Earth...they apply to the entire universe.   The only place that the Laws of Physics do NOT apply is Star Trek and Star Wars.