UFO's: Proof We're not alone?

[Evilly]

First, I know that the federal government, in all of it's wisdom, has decided to drop the designation UFO <Unidentified Flying Objects>. And, replaced it with the designation UAP's <Unidentified Aerial Phenomenom>. But, I'm calling them UFO's Because, IF I ever see onw? I'm saying "Damn! I saw a UFO!" And, I personally think UFO is a cooler designation. But, if anyone wants to bother replying to this thread? I welcome your vote on UFO vs UAP. And, why?


Now, on to the main question. Does the US government, or some secret corner of it, have physical proof of alien visitors, to our Earth? The federal government released a declassified report, on UFO's, last June. Which, of course, neither confirms, nor denies the possibility of investigated UFO sightings of being extra terrestrial activity. But, most people, know better than to expect the plain truth, from our or any other government.
But, some interesting things, have recently come out. I believe it was of 145 UFO's investigated, 144 sightings could NOT be explained. The one UFO report, that was explained? You guessed it. A weather balloon, A lot of these investigated sightings were witnessed by serious people, like military and civilian pilots. And, there are some rather amazing video clips, with radar or sonar readings. Showing flying objects doing maneuvers and reaching speeds, that no known human piloted craft can perform. One flying object was videoed diving into the ocean, at a speed that would destroy a human made craft, at our current technology level. And, yes, I'm aware of past US aircraft, like the U2 and the stealth fighter being kept secret from the public. Bot, some of this appears to be on a different scale of technology. With objects moving, without leaving a heat signature.
Plus many UFO sightings are around our nuclear technology. Such as, nuclear powered naval ships. And, our nuclear missile silos. Our nuclear missiles have even been deactivated. Making them unlaunchable. This was done during the Cold War era. When, only enemy, that had nuclear weapons, was the USSR. The Chinese were suffering and starving to death, under Chairman Mao's rule. I submit, if the USSR could have shut down our missiles? They would have done so. While, launching their own missiles.
Today, is a different matter. The USSR is gone. Leaving Russia in a different state of affairs. And, China has apparently surpassed us all, with a hypersonic missile. Nut, there are still UFO's, and our government is not the only one with reports of UFO's. Personally, though, I doubt Russia or China are behind all of the UFO sightings, investigated by our own government.
So, does our government have proof? In Area 51, from the infamous Rosewell sighting? Or, some other secret installation, from one of the many other investigated sightings? Good question.
Until proof comes out, we can only guess and theorize possibilities. Anyone here have uber Top Secret access or is an alien, in disguise, that wants to spill the beans? I'm guessing not. But, I do have a couple of theories, O'll toss out.
One theory:
Aliens, from other star systems are visiting Earth. Coming to study the primitive life forms on this planet. They might even come here, on vacation. Considering Earth a drive-thru theme park. Coming to amuse themselves watching homosapiens scampering around, with our silly, primitive antics.
Second theory:
Sasquatch aka Bigfoot, is a highly intelligent and advanced alien race, That has been coming and going from Earth for centuries. That would explain why we have never found the corpse of a Sasquatch.
Third theory:

Aliens are living so mehwere hidden on an ocean floor. There are unexplained sonar readings. Along with the sighting and video of a UFO going into the water and disappearing.

I'm interested in hearing what other people think. And, thank you, for taking the time to read this.

[Oniya]

I don't mind the designation 'UAP' because it does make an allowance for the 'thing' to be something not wholly physical in nature.  For example, ball lightning, which is still not completely understood and has a number of similarly bizarre behaviors; or lenticular clouds which are understood but account for a number of sightings.  I'm not going to quibble if someone calls it a UFO, though.  (What do you call a UFO on the ground, though?  Unidentified Landed Object?  )

This doesn't mean that I think we're alone in the universe, but space is really big.  You think it's a long way to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.  The 'really big' aspect is both the reason that I think there's other life out there - somewhere - and the reason that I look for more terrestrial explanations for UFOs/UAPs.  The factors that led to life evolving are pretty specific, but with the sheer amount of stars out there, even a millionth of a percent is going to give you a few likely candidates.  It's just unlikely that they'd home in on us.  We've only been sending out radio signals for about a century, after all.

By the way - there's a good reason that they won't tell us what these things are:

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

If they told us what they were, they wouldn't be 'Unidentified' anymore!   *cackles*

[Evilly]

I don't mind UAP being used. And, you made a good point. Though, a cloud, no matter how strange or awesomely shaped? Is still a cloud. And, a near perfect, circular hole, in a cloud? And, is possibly created created by an unidentified object. And, there are other things, like ball lightning, to consider. But, I choose UFO. And, what do I call a landed UFO? I call it, my ride off this dirt ball.

Actually, I agree with your point of how vast our Milky Way galaxy is. And, the likelihood of super advanced, intelligent, life forms finding and visiting Earth? Seems like the same odds of winning ten power ball lotto, in a row. If memory serves me? Our nearest star, to our own sun, is Polaris. Being 4.1 light years away. That's interstellar walking distance.
But, when we consider how far above our current technology, Faster Than Light <FTL> technology, must be? I imagine a tech level, that can produce FTL apace craft, can detect planets capable of sustaining life, at super nerd, mind blowing distances. So, in short. We just can't truly know what the odds of intelligent life, finding and visiting us, truly are?
Plus, let's norget. UFO's have been sighted, and even going into the ocean. So, it's entirely possible, that zero UFO's are space craft, from another planet. Maybe, they are native Earthlings, living in Atlantis? Hod only knows what's on Earth's ocean floors?

[Lustful Bride]

Full Disclosure: I believe that 90% of all UFO related stuff are misidentifications, hysteria, insanity, and ignorance. That other 10% though? That is the actual weird stuff that we might need to look into more. I do not think that they are little gray aliens (unless that can shapeshift or those are mechanical drones). They most likely look like something out of Lovecraft, Eclipse Phase, or Starship Troopers (the book).

I have no idea if they are hostile or have hostile intents, since their mindset would be so utterly alien to our own that violence may literally not be possible by them, or they may not see it as viable for us (since they could have exterminated us easily many times over....but no guarantees that they will not in the future).

I think that most MIB stories are bull, but of the ones that do catch my eye, it makes it sound/look as if there are multiple factions of MIB, some are the aliens pretending to be human and some are human federal agents.

I do not think there is some shadowy illuminati or reptilian conspiracy (especially as those have quantifiable racist origins in antisemitism and other racist shit). But if there is a group behind it, its probably multiple spy agencies and military and industrialists keeping a lid on things for various reasons (Defense, Offense, Economic, and Scientific interests). They most likely want to keep it quiet and may be preparing people for war as 99% of alien related material has us fighting the good fight against the impossible odds and eldritch enemies, instead of bowing and submitting to our alien masters. But I'd be ignorant to not say that there is probably also a motivation of self interest as well.

I do not believe that we have our own spaceships or secret space stations/moon bases. If we had that technology we wouldn't be having such climate change issues right now. I wish we did though :/

I don't fully believe in ancient aliens guiding humanity every step of the way because that renders history utterly pointless and also makes humanity too important in a cold and mostly dead universe. If they are watching us, its the same way we watch animals on our own planet. We mostly do our own thing and all our sinful and virtuous moments are our own doing. We can't place the blame or credit on aliens for things we like/do not like.

Aliens may have a base on the ocean floor simply because it is so hard for us to get there and they outclass us more in the ocean than everywhere else.

My Thoughts: Honestly when it comes to UFOs and alien life/cryptids, etc. If they truly do exist then the government only knows slightly more than we do. Which is a more terrifying truth than if there was a full on UFO treaty with the usual conspiracy theory stuff. Hence more reason why they are going for slow dissemination of information and keeping the hardcore stuff secret.

A truth which I've come to embrace recently, because if the average person cannot handle being told to just wear a mask and get vaccinated against a virus, without throwing riots and attacking medical personnel,  they will absolutely lose their shit over being told Aliens are real and they can annihilate us without any effort the exact moment it suits their fancy.

This isn't the 90s where those seeking the truth are handsome Agent Fox Mulder, but raging racists and bigots like Alex Jones. With people like that holding the airwaves and the narrative on aliens and the government, it makes me side more with the feds on keeping a lid on things because the average person really is not ready for the truth.

I've also seen that the military is calling them AAT (Advanced Aerial Threats) so....that is reassuring. [Internal Screaming].

[Tolvo]

I should mention when discussing alien life we actually already have 100% conclusive evidence that it exists. But it's that important distinction of intelligent life that we have yet to find. Since we have found single celled life in space, the fossils of them that is. But we do know they did exist and easily illustrates more life is going to be out there as even Mars didn't have great conditions for it to form. But that aspect of intelligence is going to probably be elusive for thousands if not millions of years.

[Oniya]

Our nearest star, to our own sun, is Polaris. Being 4.1 light years away. That's interstellar walking distance.

Alpha Centauri, actually.  Polaris is a couple hundred lightyears away.  https://www.space.com/18717-north-star-distance-measurement.html

But in addition to being able to traverse the distance, they would have to know what direction to look.  That's where things like SETI would come into play.  Also, depending on what signals they pick up from us, there's the question of 'do they really want to visit that place?'

As far as what they look like, there are certain factors to take into account.  Being able to move things around is going to require manipulative limbs, placed in such a way that the being can observe what it's doing.  Sensory organs are more likely to be clustered, likely in a symmetrical arrangement for efficient processing.  Motor limbs will be out of the way of the manipulative limbs (and also likely to be symmetrical due to balance considerations.)

I should mention when discussing alien life we actually already have 100% conclusive evidence that it exists. But it's that important distinction of intelligent life that we have yet to find. Since we have found single celled life in space, the fossils of them that is. But we do know they did exist and easily illustrates more life is going to be out there as even Mars didn't have great conditions for it to form. But that aspect of intelligence is going to probably be elusive for thousands if not millions of years.

That's actually another distinct factor - the evolutionary time scale.  Not only does the planet have to have the conditions for life, but it has to have had sufficient time to develop to the sentience/tech level to cross even galactic distances.

[Tolvo]

Something I always find kind of fun is how people are often wondering about highly advanced alien life being out there somewhere when it's entirely possible we have the most advanced technology in the universe, and we'll arrive somewhere in thousands of years in nuclear ships to find a bunch of aliens figuring out animal husbandry in small isolated villages in brush huts. If we found life we wouldn't know exactly when it evolved, how, or even if they became sapient before us if they had the same inventions we did. There could be a civilization that simply stagnated at some level.

[Oniya]

'All these worlds are yours, except Europa...'

I mean, assuming that some percentage of UFOs are alien encounters, they are obviously well above our level of technology.  It stands to reason that if we make it to another inhabited planet before they reach us, we stand a chance of being the 'superior tech' ourselves.

[TheGlyphstone]

Personally, I lean against the odds of aliens having visited Earth for essentially inconsequential reasons whether that be anal probing, galactic tourism, stealing our gold, replacing world leaders, etc., because of the time and resource investment it would take to get here in the first place. If we set aside the universal cop-out of sufficiently advanced technology and assume aliens, even if they're more advanced than us, are still bound by the laws of physics and relativity, any sort of interstellar journey is going to require a massive cost in resources and take a very long time objectively (along a sliding scale, the more energy/resources you can invest the less time it takes). To make such a journey worth it, what lies at the other end has to be worth the cost, and there are basically only unique two things on Earth that can't be obtained astronomically easier from other sources - its biosphere and its inhabitants. If aliens come to Earth and they're on a level our brains can comprehend as opposed to being essentially physical gods/space wizards, they'll be coming for either our land or for us, both of which end poorly for humans.

In short, the first-encounter scenario I find most plausible is more in the direction of Independence Day or To Serve Man than E.T. or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. But I'm a bit cynical that way.

[Evilly]

Well, this discussion is getting VERY interesting. My personal thanks to all of you that have taken the time to read and reply to my first thread, I expected it to go over like a lead balloon. But, my Lila UFO has achieved lift off.

I go seriously doubt any part of our government is collab erating with space aliens, in Mob style. But, if so? I sent a flashy thingy Our government often proves to be too incompetent to maintain such a massive secret. Yet, the federal government has also proven very clever at hiding secrets. Like the massive hidden, nuclear bomb shelter to preserve the government, in Green Briar, in case of a nuclear bomb attack.
And, if aliens are visiting us? Why haven't they already conquered us, or simply wiped us out and moved in? I'm  guessing, they have their own good reasons. Hopefully, for us humans, it'll be more like Star Trek's Prime Directive, rather than Independence Day.

[Oniya]

So, serendipity strikes - or is it synchronicity?

Firefox has this 'Pocket' thingy that recommends articles and this popped up just now:

Is Physical Law an Alien Intelligence?

Kinda fits in with LB's comment about how aliens might be 'something out of Lovecraft', if you remember that HPL also included 'violet gasses' and 'congeries of iridescent bubbles' among his alien sentient beings.

[Lustful Bride]

So, serendipity strikes - or is it synchronicity?

Firefox has this 'Pocket' thingy that recommends articles and this popped up just now:

Is Physical Law an Alien Intelligence?

Kinda fits in with LB's comment about how aliens might be 'something out of Lovecraft', if you remember that HPL also included 'violet gasses' and 'congeries of iridescent bubbles' among his alien sentient beings.

Honestly the way the article describes it, this sounds much more like the terrifyingly advanced ETI in Eclipse Phase than strange Alien Gods of Lovecraft.

[Oniya]

Yeah. well - I've been bingeing weird tales and haven't played Eclipse Phase. 

[Cassandraks]

I believe in them, I also think I have possibly seen one. I have always been into the weird stuff since I was a kid. UFO's and Alien's scared the crap out of me back then but still couldn't get enough of it either. Funny enough my father was a UFO Investigator for MUFON though we were really not close so never really got to talk about our similar interests.

Having been hearing about all this stuff since the 80's until now, I honestly don't know what we or our Government actually knows. It is especially because of the stuff that has come out more recently, that has me thinking a bit about all the stuff that used to be said before. Maybe they know all about it and that contact has already been made and they know exactly what is going on. But...maybe they don't. Maybe this is just as confusing to them as it is to us? Maybe they have been looking at it for a long time, which we do have proof of. And maybe it is just that. I don't know really for sure, all I know is this is becoming more main stream now and maybe someday we might fully know what is really going on.

All I really know is I am open to the information, I would like to know what is really happening. I am still fairly obsessed with these ideas, and am always watching whatever is new about it or reading another book. I always will be. I think I would be very disappointed to ever find out that all of this is just our government just doing on their own. I feel there is more to the universe then just us.

[Gadifriald]

I saw a UFO when I was 11 and living in Northern California during Spring Break in 1988. Then when I was a little older the existence of the F-117 stealth attack aircraft was made public and I realized that was what me and my brothers had seen that night. UFOs exist, however, sadly they are just aircraft and such that cannot be identified. In fact, the sightings of UFOs began in the late 1940s when new jet and other military aircraft were being developed and tested across large parts of the United States. The very first relatively well known UFO sighting were flying wing type aircraft and were either the Northrop YB-35 or YB-49 bomber prototypes sighted by a commercial airline pilot. Also, it really was a balloon that crashed at Roswell, New Mexico. A high altitude balloon of the type the US Military was flying over the Soviet Union to gather data on their nuclear weapons program. Odds are that the US Government actually encouraged stories of UFOs as alien spacecraft and such to obscure their own secret programs. Yeah, just call me Mr. Scully . . . lol