Page 8 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2023 Edition

8 App For Reporting A UFO

Spotted a UFO? There’s

an App for That

Enigma Labs launches a

project to crowdsource and
quantify data about

“unidentified aerial
phenomena.”

The tech startup Enigma Labs wants to
turn UFO sightings into data science.

Previously, people who had seen strange
lights darting around the sky could do no
more than tell their friends—or call

intelligence agencies. Soon, anyone with
a smartphone will be able to use an app
to report an unexplainable event as it
where in the sky the user saw something, specializes in scientific knowledge
happens.
and approximately what shape the object production.
had. It also gives them space to tell their
Enigma Labs’ mobile app was released
sighting story and provide more details, UFO sightings began as an American
today, initially on an invitation-only
and they can upload a photo or video. It’s obsession following World War II and the
basis as they work out the bugs, although
a bit like citizen science projects in which Roswell incident in 1947, when people in
they plan to make it available to the
volunteers help classify telescope images New Mexico found mysterious debris
wider public. For now, it’ll be free to
of galaxies, but in this case the images are that may (or may not) have come from a
download and use, although the company
submitted by volunteers and most of the crashed military balloon. Sightings
could later charge for additional features.
classification is done by an algorithm. quickly spread across most of the world,
The company will not just be amassing
Dorsch says, and interest in Roswell, as
new data—it has already gobbled up data
The company wants to do more than just well as the US’s and USSR’s nascent
on around 300,000 global sightings over
ingest lots of data though: They want to space programs, may have encouraged
the past century and included them in
apply their proprietary models to rule out people to think of lights in the sky as
their system—and while their dataset
things that are not UAPs, such as by alien technology. But, she continues,
will be available to the public, their
determining whether there’s lightning or there were fewer UFO sightings after the
algorithms for assessing it will not.
unclassified aircraft nearby. And they Soviet Union launched the Sputnik
want to filter the credibility of the data satellite in 1957—when people saw
“At our core, we’re a data science
sources as well, distinguishing between something weird in the sky, they chalked
company. We’re building the first data
“highly credible military pilots, trained it up as a human-made spacecraft. And
and community platform exclusively
observers with corroboration from the geopolitics of where you live matters,
dedicated to the study of unidentified
multiple sensors, and then at the opposite too. Today, she says, when Germans
anomalous phenomena,” says Mark
end of spectrum … a single witness who witness strange phenomena, they often
Douglas, chief operating officer of the
maybe had a few drinks too many and attribute them to Russian and American-
New York–based company.
saw a point of light in a sky,” Douglas made craft. “When you’re looking for
says. something in particular, that is what
Part of their goal is to reduce the stigma
you’ll see,” she says.
of reporting something unexplainable—
“The core issue to studying this has been
even if the viewer doesn’t actually think
a data problem: ‘What is credible, what is (Continued on Page 9)
it’s visiting aliens. (For the record, some
not, who is credible, who is not?’” he
government agencies and companies like
argues. “What we’re trying to do is bring
Enigma Labs now use the term UAPs
a level of standardization and rigor to
instead of UFOs: unidentified anomalous
that.”
phenomena, rather than unidentified
flying objects. The change is meant to
Of course, the challenge will be applying
encompass a broad range of objects that
scientific standardization to something
might not have an extraterrestrial origin,
that might not be scientific at all.
and to make the terminology sound less
Eyewitness testimony is notoriously
pejorative.)
unreliable, and people interpret what they
Identifying an unknown and distant
see based on factors like current events
object or explaining a phenomenon one
and their scientific, political, and cultural
has never seen before poses a unique
backgrounds. “The data you’re getting is
challenge. Nevertheless, the app asks
socially constructed,” says University of
users structured questions, like when and
Pennsylvania historian Kate Dorsch, who