There's also the theory the government would rather you think weird things are UFOs instead of whatever top secret military project they actually are.

Ironically, that could include top secret craft using reverse engineered alien parts

Maybe the Aliens have some nano-machine clearcoat technology the pinball industry could steal

The universe was spinning 8 billion years before our planet even formed. We went from hunter-gatherers to visiting Pluto in just tens of thousands of years. 99% of mankind's technology has been created in just the last few hundred years.

Imagine what a civilization could achieve with even a 100,000 years head start on us. Then consider they could have BILLIONS of years head start.

I think the opinion that no civilization could last that long without destroying themselves is close minded. That's assuming a closed system. Easter Island is a good example of this. So is a planet.

But if we could travel the stars such problems as politics, famine, war would be inconsequential. Also spreading your race across worlds would increase your chance of survival not limit it. Pretty much all our issues stem from resources. Space travel, hell even mining asteroids would solve a lot of that. Imagine claiming not just a continent but entire planets.

Worrying about light speed is also naive. We don't even know how our own universe works. We didn't know how electricity worked 300 years ago. There could be means of travel we can't even conceive of yet. Spooky entanglement is totally a thing. How does it work? Could these underlying substructures to space time be exploited?

To say space travel is limited to what we can achieve with our current combustion based propulsion methods is like Ben Franklin getting zapped by a battery and assuming it could never be harnessed into a super computer.

Perhaps aliens use Dyson sphere quantum entanglement resonators which to us would appear as a zero point energy device.

Dyson sphere (not the one on your vacuum) is a theoretical solar collector built around a star. There are some blank spots in the universe where people think they may have been built en masse.

Anyway, you'd use that energy to resonate one end of quantum entangled particles, the receiving end would be on your vessel. Then you'd somehow transfer that energy into something the ship could use. That would solve the problem of "fuel weight" with spacecraft.

Again, only a few hundred years after we were burning witches we humans have experimented with quantum entanglement. It's bizarre, that's why they call it Spooky. You can make a grid of particles, shine light or affect them in some way and the other pair, no matter where they are, will copy the result. I'm sure the first use will be military for 100% non-interceptable communications. Down the road it could provide zero-lag internet by taking the pesky speed of light out of the data transmission equation.

The government would never willingly admit the existence of ET life because then there would be something in the universe above government.

It's the same reason communist countries ban religion.

Phones.

I've seen speculation that UFOs/aliens are actually US from the far future, coming back in time to observe our origins. And we don't see as many UFO's these days because every modicum of life is now recorded via social media = nothing to learn.

INTERESTING THEORY but if you think about time travel, if you travel more than 7 minutes forward or back your Delorean will be spinning in space. And that's just the orbit of Earth to say nothing for the transits of the solar system or the galaxy in which it resides. Unless of course space time is intrinsically tied to matter (which it very well may be) in which case the gravity well of a celestial object may keep you "tethered" enough to make the trip. (see also time dilation)

It's also possible that the aliens have achieved "warp speed" by realizing the universe is a simulation and coming up with mechanical ways of "hacking" it. For an analogy:

Whenever a UFO gets its photo taken the alien captain gets chewed out by the alien admirals for violating the alien Prime Directive.

Well in Star Trek even being seen is against the Prime Directive. The episode where they think Picard is a God is a good example of this, how the crew has to fix the issue.

I think the concept of aliens "conquering" us is pretty dumb. It stems from movies where humans/Earth have to be the center of everything. If you're an advanced space faring race you could easily mine asteroids, gas whatever you needed from countless places where you don't have to worry about having missiles shot at you.

It's also very likely that alien life would be incomprehensible to us. We've gone from being hunter gatherers to launching space probes in less than 50k years. And this is after "only" 4 billion years of Earth being a thing. If that's the going rate to have intelligent life it means there could be civilizations 10 billion years older than our own.

I doubt they'd bother blowing up monuments.

Yes Prime Directive is specifically to not interfere with the development of any pre-warp civilization. The TNG episode I referred to is called "Who Watches the Watchers?"

I'm sure aliens go by their own sets of rules haha. But even on our planet, there are still-uncontacted tribes in the Amazon that freak out when they see planes in the sky and throw spears at drones. Insane to think about but true. And like the Prime Directive, the local governments leave them alone (even if they're dirty tax dodgers!)

Well I think they'd want to avoid detection as much as possible. We would do the same if we observed intelligent life on other planets.

And who knows?. Maybe intelligent life is rarer than we think, making us special and worthy of study?

I mean, look at the moon. Many think it's the result of another planet hitting us long ago. Did this event spin up our molten core? We've got a much better one than Venus, and Mars has none at all. This created an electromagnetic field that protects us from the sun's radiation.

Then this impact debris coalesced into the moon, which is the largest moon in relation to its planet in the solar system. The moon creates tides which may have helped move life from the sea onto land.

So maybe life is rare and aliens were thrilled to find it?

Maybe the UFOs use some sort of quantum entanglement power distribution. Like you have a Dyson sphere someplace and it transfers that energy to the ship. (Though I think Dyson spheres are dumb, it'd be easier just to make your own sun)

It's possible aliens have a better understanding of the fundamental construction of the universe and use that to access power we can't even conceive of. Or maybe they don't space travel at all, maybe it's more of a cross dimensional shift.

Our Space Shuttle, one of the most complex things ever built by man, was taken out by a chunk of ice. As Scott said in Star Trek 3 “the more they over think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain"

I'm sure you get a UFO lined up in the sights of an A10 Warthog and that sucker is going down.

MK Ultra wasn't about controlling your mind. The idea was to use LSD as an enhancement so subjects could "remote view" Soviet secrets (like an out of body experience)

Basically trying to do what 11 did in first season of Stranger Things, at taxpayer expense.

The first 2 seasons of Fringe were great... they it got lame.

Kind of like an inverse X-Files! (which really got good in season 3)

I found Fringe a real slog to finish. Took years (back when it was on Netflix) I think Fox kept it on as some sort of penance for canceling Firefly.

Starting getting tired of it once everything was about the dual universes instead of "monster of the week" - one (of many) things X Files did better was to save the overarching conspiracy plot for the season start/ends.

Have not. Maybe I'll try it when I re-up Disney+.

I think as far as life goes Earth may be somewhat lucky. If you consider the hypothesis that the moon was another planet that collided with us billions of years ago this would have helped to give us a molten, spinning core (that Venus and Mars lacks) which in turn gives us an EMF that protects us from solar radiation. And even down to evolution, having such a large moon in tidal lock (causing, you know, TIDES) may have forced creatures onto land that eventually evolved into land-faring creatures such as us.

Which begs the question: if they are being flown by aliens what sort of beings are they? Or are they machines?

It's like the fallacy of Superman catching Lois Lane. Doesn't matter that she's been caught she'd still die from the force of suddenly deceleration.

Then exactly how do the aliens defy (our) laws of physics? Maybe it's more of a hack - exploiting the base structure of the universe. Maybe because it's a simulated universe and the UFO is simply performing a "warp glitch" like a video game speed runner.

Interesting hypothesis. There are theories that our universe is actually flat and the depth we perceive is an illusion of how the fabric of existence is presented to us.

Toyota raised good points about the "why" - if they can manipulate gravity then they could also bend light and make themselves invisible. Or maybe they're already doing that, and the ships aren't actually saucers or oval shaped but that's all we can see because of the light bending around the object - kind of like something that looks small and out of focus due to a lot of light being behind it.

We had weird stuff happen fairly regularly at our old shop.

Mostly lights turning on, we'd come in the mornings and the main lights would be on. Or they'd be on when we came back from lunch. Sometimes lights would shut off when we were in other room.

Had the clock fall off the wall a few times, I still have it even though it no longer works. Frame is all cracked from the falls.

Came in one morning and Attack from Mars was on. That pissed me off, waste of electricity. Sometimes we'd hear things, like the front door opening or voices. One time I was sitting there soldering, and our metal box fan emits a "brrring!" sound like someone scraped their fingernails across the metal grates. Fan wasn't running. By then I was like "whatever"

We'd also sometimes find things on the floor, like binders fallen off a shelf or a power strip fallen off its mounting hooks.

So yeah, nobody believes it until they experience it and it's more annoying than scary.

It is possible that the unique nature of our moon greatly helped with life on Earth. Still, the universe is too vast for that to not have happened, statistically, elsewhere.

Our moon is certainly unique, at least in our own solar system. The running theory is that it's the coalesced debris from an inter-planetary collision. This explains the tidal lock (why we only see one side) and why it's the largest moon (compared to its planet) by a long shot. Venus is roughly our same size 0 moons, Mars is smaller with 2 moons that are glorified asteroids.

This video shows the barycenter orbit of Earth and moon. Barycenter is the center point of gravitational mass between two objects in space.

Note how the Earth and Moon almost act like a binary planetary system (much like Pluto and Charon)

A moon collision could have been responsible for "spinning up" our molten core, which Venus and Mars lack. This creates an EMF that protects us from solar radiation (which is going to be an issue on Mars Elon!)

In addition even the tides could have contributed to life. Maybe a fish shores up enough time, and it like "screw it, I'm growing legs!" If events like these are required for evolved life then Earth could be rarer than we think.

Important to think about how rare an inter-planetary collision could be. Most of space is empty. Even our own asteroid belt is empty enough that NASA doesn't even bother aiming probes, they just say "screw it" because the chance of a craft-asteroid (random) collision is so remote.

If life can happen here it can happen anywhere. The universe is too vast to rule it out.

Earth is fairly young. Even if we assume early conditions after the Big Bang precluded life for a while there could still be life many billions of years more evolved/advanced than us.

Now consider how fast technology has grown since the adoption of electricity and computers. Insane progress in just a couple hundred years. What happens after a few BILLION? Not to mention the evolution of a species itself.

Einstein's theory of relativity is "only" a hundred years old. It's held up thus far but science is always changing. A billion year old society would collectively make Einstein look like a dunce.

Alien life would be a HUGE boom to human relations. (and the economy)

The problem is governments can't have anything be "above" them. This is especially true with Communism (its why they ban religion) and these days China is "hold my beer" bigger than Soviet Russia ever was.

It's not insulting it's just the truth. It's science. We don't even know how our own BRAINS work FFS.

Would only take about 50-100 years of advancement to make something inconceivable to today's top minds - and there could be species (or machines) out there billions of years more advanced than us.

They wouldn't bother talking to us like we wouldn't bother talking to an ant hill.

Remember there's like 12 levels of clearance above the President.

Jimmy Carter asked George WB Bush (then CIA director) about UFOs after seeing out outside AF1. Bush wouldn't give him any info.

A Googleplex of stars and we're the only planet to develop life?

Math much?

Oh how about "a lot"?

Also we can only see exoplanets whose orbits cause an occlusion across their star. Any angle off and we don't detect them. So yeah.... Lots of shit out there. Including space snakes.

I don't agree with using the speed of light as a hard constant to decide which stars are close enough to visit us.

Again, these aliens could be BILLIONS of years more advanced that us. Our knowledge of "light speed" is only a few hundred years old. The theory (not fact) of relativity is only a hundred years old. Things change. Science is not static.

But let's say light speed is a hard limit. That implies some sort of underlying structure that we can't possible comprehend (unless it's all a simulation which we can understand)

UFOs might simply be "hacking" the underlying structure to accomplish what they do. In the case of a simulation, it's like changing RAM values to jump to the end level of a video game.

Maybe I've posted this before:

So imagine Mario as the UFO, "tricking" his existence into doing what he wants.

Mining? Please. There's an entire asteroid field with all the metal you would ever need oh and BTW they aren't guarded by billions of people with nukes.

Or maybe they're pushing UFOs in the news as a distraction ahead of a Wuhan Lab Leak Reveal.

Bending over for political moderation paddling... now.

One reason could be propaganda against the CCP. As Communists they ban religion so nothing can be above government. Aliens changes that. Could drive a wedge of hope between the Chinese people and their oppressive government. (and a weaker CCP benefits the world)

Ah I didn't know you could practice in China.

That was a theory. My main point is the government NEVER does anything without a reason.

It's like a human trying to communicate with ants.

ET made several times more money than Aliens. It was the top grossing movie of all time until Jurassic Park.

You guys haven't even scratched the surface.

What about UFOs in medieval art? The ancient Chinese emperor people think was an alien robot. All the UFO stuff in the Bible. All the craft allegedly buried under Antarctica. The mercury driven Indian fighting aircraft. The underground bases. The underwater bases. The Nazi time traveling bell.

Chariots of the Gods, Nazca lines, Aztecs drawing rocket ships, the stone cutting of Machu Picchu, the Great Pyramid being a hydrogen burning power generator... The list is ENDLESS!

Oh and the London Hammer.

Yup. Then confirm aliens one day and the COVID lab leak the next. WW3 averted.

I'd assume if you can harness gravity you could solve inertia.

I mean, it's such a caveman problem. A wet sack of meat affected by the speed of its vessel. How cute.

Remember we don't even know why gravity works. Or how it works. Only that it does. A race that has solved and exploited it is far beyond our own.,

Then of course, the conspiracy theory that the Reagan "Star Wars" program was meant to fight aliens, not the Russians.

They say the military has stuff about 20-30 years beyond what we know about publicly. Assuming this also applies to China & Russia this still doesn't get us anywhere near what UFOs seem capable of.

Unless of course the reverse engineering of crashed or discovered alien craft was successful. Even then seems doubtful - obviously they do something with controlling gravity, a force we barely even understand. Ben Franklin knew what electricity was (and coined the term "battery") but he wouldn't be able to reverse engineer a 100 year old radio, let alone a modern integrated circuit.

My theory is they are caused by a weakness, a fracture between dimensions. Like a bad tile on a roof, sometimes things seep through.

Also seems tied to gravity and mass "Old woman died in this house and been haunting it for 80 years" well 80 years ago the solar system containing that house has rotated 300 billion miles in the Milky Way. She's not haunting an empty part of space. What made it "sticky?"

Also... What makes a passive or active haunting? Passive is like "we still hear Grandma pacing in the hallway" Could be a trick of your own memory. Unless the next owners or the house hear it too.

Active is the ghost doing things. Flipping lights, moving objects etc. It seems... Alive. Not just a shadow of a memory. That's a lot harder to explain with science.

OK now onto aliens! What if they're not alien?

What if they're an older, much more advanced species? Granted the fossil record doesn't support this but consider this. We went from Kitty Hawk to landing on the moon in just 60 years. What could we accomplish in another 1000?

Maybe they hid before The Great Cataclysm (what many religions call The Great Flood). Maybe "Atlantis" is off the coast of San Diego. That's been a UFO Hotspot for years, not just recently.

Now they pop out and see how we are doing!

The first shop we rented for the show (and also where I designed AMH coincidentally) had weird stuff too.

Something I didn't even notice until a "ghost hunter" friend of my sister pointed it out. The light that switched on and off the most. There was glue residue on the switch plate. I grabbed a roll of duct tape and sure enough, the size matched. A previous tenant had actually taped the light OFF. So we weren't the first.

Yup see also radon, EMF, lead paint and bad wiring.

It's fun to look for UFOs in the Bible but remember it's all allegorical.

Like Jonah and the Whale in the Christian Bible. It's "the cave" from Monomyth, the trash compactor from Star Wars the scene at the end of Act 2 in every romantic comedy where they break up for no reason. Introspection, the journey into one's self. The darkness before the dawn. (see also Job)

Point being, religion isn't meant to be taken literally.

Hey I'm not dissing religion just saying the stories are metaphors for life lessons.

Why would beings who can travel across galaxies/dimensions gives a flying toss about a big bomb?

What if they aren't aliens? What if it's US, traveling back in time from like a million years in the future?

You know who these insane parts shortages are making me think of?

JON TITOR!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Titor

Do aliens exist? Yes. Statistically impossible for them not to.

Is this a giant distraction? Also yes.