Page 12 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - September 2021

12 No Reason To Conclude Aliens In UFOs

Sure UFOs Exist. But

There’s No Reason To
Conclude That Aliens Are

Flying Them

Continued from Page 11

Named after renowned nuclear physicist Enrico
Fermi, is the apparent contradiction between the
lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life (in the
form of higher civilizations) and various
estimates for their probability.

Walking to lunch with three other prominent
physicists in 1950, the issue came up because of
widespread coverage then of alleged alien
UFOs. Fermi weighed in with a question that
has remains a staple in the field: “But where is
everybody?” (or something similar.) The
“paradox” over time became a critique of sorts
of the search for extraterrestrial life.
noticed a brilliant star rising in the south. As it life) to the scientists.
climbed steadily up the sky. I assumed was the
This hardly seems like a paradox to me because
ECHO balloon satellite—but to our A U.S. government report found that there was
the focus on extraterrestrial civilizations is off
astonishment, when it reached the zenith it no evidence to conclude that the more than 140
base. We now know there are billions and
apparently came to rest, hovering vertically unidentified flying object sightings in recent
billions of exoplanets out there, but the scientific
above the city.” years involved extraterrestrial beings.
focus is now primarily on searching for signs of
life of any kind — microbial, simple multi-
“We rushed indoors to collect Stanley’s The government was unable to determine
celled or just possibly more advanced. Life on
telescope. By the time we had it set up, the whether the flying mysteries were atmospheric
Earth, after all, was present for more than 3
object was moving again, and we followed it for events distorting readings from sensors,
billion years before it evolved to the
almost 10 minutes before it disappeared over the confusions in judging objects in motion,
multicellular level, and Homo sapiens emerged
northern horizon. But even through the spacecraft from other potential hostile or
only 300,000 years ago and technological
telescope, it remained a featureless point of whether the objects were extraterrestrial in
civilizations only about 200 years ago.
light.” origin.
So based on our planet’s evolutionary history,
Clarke looked up the expected timing of the But the long-anticipated report released Friday
technological civilization is a blip in time. In
transits over New York of the ECHO balloon by the nation’s top intelligence official made
terms of astronomical and evolutionary time,
satellite – a very early NASA communications clear that although the presence of aliens
there is no particularly good reason to assume
satellite — and found it was later than when the couldn’t be 100 percent ruled out, there was no
potential life on other planets has reached that
two men saw the “UFO.” Clarke writes that he evidence at all that they were commanding the
point, or will ever reach that point. And if it did,
was shaken and the men really thought they had UFOs.
maybe the intelligent beings just aren’t
seen something unusual and maybe
interested in travel.
extraterrestrial. About Marc Kaufman:
(The effort to find extraterrestrial life does
Only later did they find that the timing they had Marc Kaufman is the author of two books about
include a search for intelligent life — the effort
relied on was incorrect, and that the ECHO space: “Mars Up Close: Inside the Curiosity
of SETI practitioners. They are indeed
satellite was indeed passing over New York at Mission” and “First Contact: Scientific
scientists, using radio astronomy to identify
the time they saw it. Breakthroughs in the Search for Life Beyond
narrow-band transmissions from other planets
Earth.” He is also an experienced journalist,
that are clearly not natural. They have also
Clarke’s assessment, and rather acidic having spent three decades at The Washington
begun seaches for laser-like beams. In more than
conclusion: Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He began
60 years of observing, however, no signs of
writing the column in October 2015, when
intelligent life have been detected.)
“The illusion that the object was hovering at the NASA’s NExSS initiative was in its infancy.
zenith had, like so many U.F.O.’s, multiple While the “Many Worlds” column is supported
A final observation comes from Arthur C.
causes: (1) We were too excited to observe and informed by NASA’s Astrobiology
Clarke, science fiction writer extraordinaire,
calmly, (2) it is almost impossible to judge the Program, any opinions expressed are the
futurist and early advocate of space travel and
angular movement of anything vertically author’s alone. []
exploration.
overhead, (3) bright moonlight had obliterated
the star background which normally {reveals)
As he wrote in a 1975 review of books on UFOs
satellite motion.” DID YOU KNOW.….
for the New York Times, he and filmmaker
Stanley Kubrick had what they initially thought
“The whole incident once again underlines the
was a sure observation of a UFO. At the height of the Cold War,
only lesson we have so far learned from U.F.O.s.
They tell us absolutely nothing about U.S.President Ronald Reagan and
The two men had just decided to go forward
intelligence elsewhere in the universe; but they Soviet General Secretary Mikhail
with a movie project that would become “2001:
do prove how rare it is on Earth. “
A Space Odyssey” and were extremely excited Gorbachev agreed to team up in
by it. They walked to Kubrick’s Manhattan
My conclusion: Let’s leave the search for the event of an alien invasion.
penthouse and, Clarke wrote, “Suddenly we
extraterrestrial life (and just possibly intelligent