The whole UFO-alien theory is undermined by the simple observation that a UFO doesn't necessarily imply aliens. As we all know, many things can fly, from swarms of tiny mosquitoes to massive jumbo jets, and potentially any one of them can be an UFO. It would be the heights of irrationality to make the jump from a UFO to extraterrestrials without ruling out more likely terrestrial explanations.

A suggested methodology: This is just how I go about watching UFO documentaries. You may have your own methods, to each their own.

I'll pick out a particularly interesting story and watch it a number of times studying the faces of those making the reports. While this is hardly a foolproof method of determining truth, most of us (especially the older one gets) tend to be reasonably skilled at scanning faces for BS. In real time real life this can be challenging because conversations only happen once and can go by pretty fast. But in video you can watch the claims being made over and over again and take your time studying the faces.

There are typically a limited number of choices.

1) They are telling the truth as they understand it, but are mistaken.
2) They are lying.
3) They are insane.
4) The report is generally accurate.

As example, I'll be sharing a report from a military officer who claims he examined, walked around, and touched a landed UFO in the woods. No one could be mistaken about such a thing, so he's either telling the truth, is lying, or is seriously delusional. Examine his face, and decide for yourself.

And of course there are the credentials and credibility of the observers. A military officer in charge of a nuclear weapons launch facility is reasonably considered more credible than a group of half drunk hunters wandering around in the woods at night.

It seems likely to me that most reports of UFOs are a case of mistaken identity or hoaxes. So skepticism is clearly warranted. It's indisputable that the UFO subject is highly polluted with all kinds of nonsense.

However, please keep in mind that it only takes ONE report to be true to qualify as one of the biggest stories in human history. I'm defining "true" as 1) the object that was observed really was there, 2) it was under intelligent control, and 3) was not made by us.

There have been thousands of UFO reports. If one of them is true, we have a big story to chew on.

The whole UFO-alien theory is undermined by the simple observation that a UFO doesn't necessarily imply aliens. — TheMadFool

Yes, agree completely. The evidence for UFOs seems quite strong. The evidence of aliens seems quite weak. This is why I suggested dividing the topic in to UFO vs. aliens.

The evidence for UFOs seems quite strong. The evidence of aliens seems quite weak — Nuke

I fully agree with the first sentence. As for the second sentence, what about us? The extant notion of aliens has acquired a sense of meaning non-human but that fails to capture the full meaning of aliens as life in our universe. In the first sense, there's literally zero evidence but in the second sense, we are a paradigm case.

As for the second sentence, what about us? — TheMadFool

My highly speculative crackpot theory for which I have no proof whatsoever :-) is that the "aliens" are future human archaeologists. Time travel seems no more speculative to me than inter-stellar travel, so hey, why not? Well, because I have no proof whatsoever, that's why not. :-)

My highly speculative crackpot theory for which I have no proof whatsoever :-) is that the "aliens" are future human archaeologists. Time travel seems no more speculative to me than inter-stellar travel, so hey, why not? Well, because I have no proof whatsoever, that's why not. :-) — Nuke

I wouldn't call anything a crackpot theory. In fact, I must confess to being sympathetic toward ideas that aren't mainstream. A little detour from the beaten path, on the road less travelled, sometimes leads to hidden truths, truths that may cause paradigm shifts in our understanding of ourselves and the universe itself.

I decided to change strategies. Instead of focusing on examining the faces of particular witnesses of UFO sightings, it seems better to focus on sightings with multiple unrelated witnesses. Perhaps the best example of a mass sighting could be the Phoenix Lights incident, given that it involves hundreds of reports of the same phenomena.

Story begins about 10 seconds in to the video:

Hmm.

Fractured porcelain, or aluminium cranial Faraday Cages?

Perhaps the most persuasive evidence for UFOs is the sheer number of reports from credible witnesses. Credible witnesses include folks like airline pilots, military pilots, radar operators, astronauts, nuclear weapons launch officers, police, Jimmy Carter :-) and so on.

If we take just a particular incident it's understandable to seek to dismiss the claim based on unknown information about the event and so on. But when you add all the reports together it's quite a bit harder to dismiss the entire pattern. That's the value of the documentaries above, they collect the most credible reports and present them together as a package.

With credible witnesses the possibility of hoax can probably be taken off the table most of the time, which makes the calculation easier. Mistaken identity is still a possibility, but some of the reports are very specific. As example, astronaut Gordon Cooper claims a UFO landed within full view on the ground in front of him, he describes details like the landing gear of the craft. There's no way that's swamp gas or strange weather phenomena etc. So that narrows the options to lying, insane, or factual report. Why would Cooper lie about such a thing? Where is the evidence that he's insane?

Nuclear weapons launch officers are another interesting class of credible witnesses as I assume that before the government gives you the keys to a collection of nuclear weapons they check you out pretty carefully. I would guess that any hint of wackiness and you're out of there in a jiffy. Nobody is perfectly credible, but these guys would seem to get as close as is humanly possible.

Adding to their credibility are their reports that once they say anything about UFOs mysterious agents swoop in and make them sign documents changing their story. If UFOs are nothing, what's the point of these deceptions? If UFOs are a fanciful tall tale, why are nuclear launch officers who make such reports left on the job?

Perhaps the most persuasive evidence for UFOs is the sheer number of reports from credible witnesses. Credible witnesses include folks like airline pilots, military pilots, radar operators, astronauts, nuclear weapons launch officers, police, Jimmy Carter :-) and so on. — Nuke

The existence of UFOs isn't in doubt. The Pentagon released some videos a few months ago of some, for example.

https://www.defense.gov/Newsroom/Releases/Release/Article/2165713/statement-by-the-department-of-defense-on-the-release-of-historical-navy-videos/

Thanks for sharing the Pentagon videos, a great contribution.

Imho, I agree, the existence of UFOs is sufficiently proven. What they are exactly is a whole other question still mired in wild speculation.

If it is true that there are unidentified craft which seem to be under intelligent control navigating our atmosphere an interesting questions arises....

Why are we talking about anything else???

Aliens from other planets? Life forms from other dimensions? Mass hallucination? Humans from the future? Something else we can't even imagine?

Aren't all these possibilities more interesting than those topics we typically discuss?

Those are nothing more than mere "light shows" put on for the humans to go "oooooooh what is that!" like a child does. Humans are the freaking aliens to this planet. Out of nowhere in the last few "seconds" of this planet's evolutionary clock history, humans popped up out of no where and became the dominant species of life on the planet. Billions of years of work in the happening, until 200,000 years ago, then suddenly "intervention" through genetic splicing and genetic expression, poof humans appear and dominate suddenly in a very very short time compared to every other species today.

We're the aliens buddy lol. Don't let your mind and imagination slip into hallucination and delusion after illusion. What you don't know is stoking your limitless imagination. Real easy to slip into madness and mental illness that way.

Hmm.

Fractured porcelain, or aluminium cranial Faraday Cages? — Banno

:rofl: