h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Do I? Well, yes and no. Any Unidentified Flying Object is, by definition, a UFO until it has been identified. This does not necessarily mean that all UFOs have extra-terrestrial origin. OK, there are some for which photographic 'evidence' exists, which can't be defined as balloons, test flights or clouds, and where experts say the photos haven't been faked. Big deal. Experts said the same about pictures of Nessie, Saskwatch and the fairies that fooled people in Conan Doyle's day. As far as UFOs are concerned, I'll believe in flying saucers when I see one.

As for aliens, I believe they exist - the universe is too darned big for us to be the only sentient life form - but not necessarily that they have visited Earth. I am especially dubious of people who claim to have had a 'close encounter' and describe the aliens as '3 - 4 feet high, bipedal, grey, with large, almond-shaped eyes, no noticeable nose and a slit for a mouth'. Why? That's the description everybody comes up with, and it's so well-known that somebody could come out with it out of their subconscious memory and it wouldn't mean a thing. If the person who had the encounter said, 'They were purple, 6 feet high, had 2 heads, 4 arms and 4 legs', I might be more inclined to believe them.

Will we ever meet E.T.? Probably not, because of the distances involved. If their planet's development took place at the same rate as our own, and their evolution and technological development took place at the same rate, then they've only just discovered space flight. So they're a long way from interstellar travel. Even if planetary and/or technological development took place at a faster rate, they'd still need to have some form of 'faster-than-light' travel to get here.

I agree - it's a shame that the term "UFO" is often assumed to mean so much more than it actually does. It refers to any object above ground level which has not (yet) been identified. Period.

The publicising of "Alien" descriptions is much more problematic... The same descriptions come from many cultures - when the former Soviet Union collapsed, many reports of such encounters were released which had originally been filed by people such as illiterate Siberian peasants who had no access to Western literature or television. Historians have noted an astonishing degree of similarity between modern "abduction" tales and Medieval stories of "Faerie folk" who would capture people and torture them. When the people were released, they found long periods of time had passed which they couldn't account for. The modern "Grey", as these creatures are known, bears a striking resemblence to the Goblins of folklore...

One possible explaination for this might be found in the works of Jung, who suggested that all our brains are "hard wired" with certain images and ideas which he called "Archetypes". It's possible that an external stimulus, say, for argument's sake, an electrical, magnetic or gravitational anomaly, could trigger memories of seeing small, grey figures with enlarged heads and dark, spooky eyes in any member of the populous who was unlucky enough to be around at the time...

Depending on how convincingly the person recounted this "memory", they might be laughed at, locked away, or made the subject of folklore for future generations...

I was just about to make the same argument you made. I'm glad I clicked on your post first.

As to the rate of development of other intelligent species, our Sun is a relatively young star. It's entirely possible that there are civilizations that have outlived the star around which they developed. That still doesn't mean that these civilizations are visiting our backwater region of the galaxy, of course.

I belive that it is possible for lifeforms/energyforms other than our own to exist. I cannot see the point of vast areas of space existing as an empty void. On the other hand I cannot prove/disprove that are or are not in existance. If they were to exist we may not be able to contact them or travel to their planets as our technology has not and possible may not become advanced enough. Of course that would depend on how many light years away theplanetary system actualy is. If are out there I hope they are non-hostile. Maybe they might be able to work with us and help us solve many of our problems on our planet. What do you think about this issue?
ZaphaAnndroyd