UFOs and Aliens

                                                                                                      

"People often don't want facts getting in the way of a   good  story"

I am often asked if I believe in UFOs, and on being informed that I do not, my interlocutor's response is frequently something like this; “So does that mean you do not believe in intelligent life in the Universe?”. This is not the case and the comments below will explain and clarify my views.

Aliens

The term "Alien" is often used to describe the hypothetical “Little Green Men” from outer space who allegedly pilot flying saucers and UFOs and interact with humans – sometimes abducting them. In this context I do not believe in "Aliens". On the other hand when the expression "Aliens" refers to extra-terrestrial intelligent beings; then my answer is a qualified “They must almost certainly exist somewhere in a vast Universe like ours, although at present we do not have any compelling evidence to support their existence".

UFOs (Flying Saucers)

To some the belief in UFOs is an act of faith like a belief in astrology, the Mars face, Atlantis, paranormal activity and the Bermuda Triangle; hence it is something that most astronomers would prefer to ignore. My view is that far from being piloted by aliens and coming from the depths of space most “sightings” of UFOs have much more prosaic explanations. These include misidentification of known astronomical, meteorological or geophysical phenomena. Some alleged sightings may also refer to man-made objects such as aircraft, reentering rocket boosters, UAVs (drones) etc. Those alleged sightings of UFOs which cannot be explained by any of the foregoing are, in my opinion, psychological phenomena which take place in the human mind and are therefore best investigated by the psychologist or psychiatrist. For example many reports of alien abductions can be explained by hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations, whereas a high level of dopamine in the brain can also trigger hallucinations of aliens and abductions. Another phenomen Pareidolia (seeing familar objects in random patterns) could be a contributory factor. A further discussion of this interesting subject is beyond the scope of this account. Additionally one must always keep in mind the possible activities of hoaxers. Especially suspicious is information gathered under hypnosis. It is well known and scientifically established that "Hypnosis stimulates the imagination and not the memory". (This is the reason that most courts do not permit evidence gained under hypnosis). And what about those compelling images of UFOs? I believe that most actually demonstrate the amazing versatility of modern digital photography and image-processing software.

Have I seen UFOs? Yes: in over half-century as a recreational astronomer, I have seen more than my share of mysterious objects in the sky. However after reflection, careful consideration, research, the application of scientific logic, critical thinking and most of all the use of plain commonsense, virtually all of these have turned out to have relatively mundane (i.e. non UFO) explanations.

Intelligent life in the Universe

To say there is no life in the rest of the Universe would be to take us back to the dark ages of pre-Copernican thinking when it was believed that the Universe was Earth-centered and the planets, stars etc. were all in orbit around us and man was the master of it all. There is little doubt in my mind that life, and intelligent technological life, exists elsewhere in the Universe. Nevertheless, in our present state of ignorance, this can only be speculation. There is a suggestion that life may have originated more than once on earth. If this is proved correct it gives hope that life may be fairly common in the Universe as well.

Given the enormous distances between stars, any communication between two neighbouring star systems would take a very long time. For example using radio to say “Hello” to an intelligent creature in the Alpha Centauri system (the star system closest to Earth at 4.3 light years) and receive a "quick" reply would take 8.6 years; and most stars are tens, hundreds, thousands or millions of light years away. A visitor from another star system travelling in his spaceship at almost the speed of light will, if his star system is one thousand light years away, take around 1,000 years to reach Earth, where I'm certain he would find more useful things to do than go around building pyramids or stone circles, interbreeding with humans, frightening people or abducting them.

One point that is often overlooked in discussions such as this, is that for one civilization to visit another the two must be contemporaneous and their technological civilizations must be fairly long lived. What are the possibilities of this in comparison to the enormous age of the Universe? An interesting possibility would be that of two technological civilizations in star systems relatively close to each other, but separated in terms of time so that neither would have any knowledge of the other. A hypothetical example is that of an intelligent race which became extinct, say, one million years ago in the Alpha Centauri system. Their last dying radio broadcasts and possibly calls for help would have reached Earth when our caveman ancestors were chipping stone tools and rubbing sticks together to make fire; so we modern humans would be totally ignorant of their existence.

The point I am making is that while it is likely that other technological civilizations exist in the Universe, the chances that hypothetical "Aliens" are visiting, or even communicating with us is vanishingly small. Of course if all the speculation about wormholes, branes, faster-than-light travel and parallel universes is correct then . . . . .

Hopefully the SETI project, and others like it, will soon find evidence to answer these questions. I eagerly await the first acceptable evidence for extraterrestrial life, especially intelligent life. I must say however that I have seen no unequivocal evidence for Aliens visiting, or having ever visited, the Earth. The so-called "evidence" often put forward for Alien-inspired Nazca lines, Pyramids, Crop circles etc. is, in my opinion, nothing more than uninformed speculation. The Nazca lines, Pyramids and Crop circles can easily be explained by more prosaic human activity.  So until scientifically acceptable evidence is forthcoming, I expect to devote my time to "Real" astronomy and will leave further speculation on the subject to others.

So hopefully, you will not hear anything more on this subject from me.

This is my personal opinion and if you disagree with my views that is your prerogative which I respect.

                                                                 

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