UAP rationale thread (updates pertaining to standards & abstract matters of the UFO preoccupation)

Here we have a shift from [justifiably] disparaging conspiracy stuff that has not produced any evidence over decades, to celebrating or expressing enthusiasm for a belief-based endeavor that likewise has failed to produce any evidence over a similar period of time. (Though the skepticism pertains to the lofty strata of complex life and technologically advanced intelligent life, not simple instances arising temporarily before snuffed out. Or never developing further due to persistent unfavorable environments, constant extinction-blow stellar cataclysms in the crowded parts of the galaxy, and evolution not being inherently devoted to progress to such things to begin with.)
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Here’s what a scientist makes of Congress’ UFO hearing
https://bigthink.com/13-8/uap-ufo-congressional-hearing/

EXCERPT: . . . All that said, I’m all for a transparent investigation into what the government has in its UFO/UAP file cabinets. There is no doubt that during the Cold War, they were happy to play UFOs for misinformation in their endless back and forth with our main adversary, the USSR. But I wouldn’t be surprised if 70 years from now, we are still rummaging around in these files and not really getting anywhere. If you want an analogy, think of the JFK assassination, an event for which no file dump ever really resolves the question.

But here’s the thing: I really do want us all to get somewhere when it comes to life in the Universe. That’s why I’m putting my cards down on the explosion of possibilities happening right now in the actual-factual science of astrobiology. I’m happy to be wrong about UAPs, but I know that the astronomical telescopes, technologies, and techniques coming online now mean we will soon be able to sniff out life in the atmospheres of alien worlds... (MORE - missing details)
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Well I must say I think that is absolutely spot-on.

 

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What the scientist writes, I mean.

 

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Journalists fail on UAP Story
https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/journalists-fail-on-uap-story/

EXCERPTS: Nothing about the recent resurgence in interest in UFOs is new [...] It’s basically the same stories with the same level of completely unconvincing evidence. But what is somewhat new is the level of credulity and outright journalistic fail with which the mainstream media is reporting the story. ... Take this recent article in the Washington Post, for example.

[...] The main point of the article is that in the US information about UAPs is often classified, but this is not the case in many other countries. Author Terrence McCoy then focuses on Brazil, telling some of the UAP stories that have come out of this country. McCoy breathlessly tells these stories without capturing the real context here, missing the significance of his own premise...

[...] What McCoy misses is that the UAP reports coming from these other countries are of the same low quality and those originating in the US. It’s not as if Brazil has shown the world alien bodies, or a captured alien spacecraft. It’s just more of the same – hoaxes, misidentified terrestrial or natural objects, or the information is simply of too low quality to make a positive ID.

[...] The fact that these countries have nothing to offer but the same low level ambiguous evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that there are no alien visitations and that UAPs are simply a manifestation of terrestrial phenomena and a cultural belief that has taken on a life of its own... (MORE - missing details)
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I do not think this is discussed enough. There is a huge cultural element to this, ET just happened to show up during the cold war paranoia and 1950s B movies? Other parts of the world have practically zero UFO culture or history? ET prefers America?
Around 90 space telescopes launched since the 1960s plus the huge array of ground based telescopes have found nothing? But can pick up, comets, asteroids and space dust from light years away?
Perhaps the science guys are just keeping the secrets?
So 100s of 1000s of 21 year old PhD students can be trusted to not report ET when they are in Hawaii looking at the night sky with a telescope?
Speaking from experience? No. (Son did exactly that- no ET!)

 

Nasa's UFO report: What we learned from UAP study
https://news.yahoo.com/nasas-ufo-report-learned-uap-153902216.html

INTRO: A Nasa probe into hundreds of UFO sightings found there was no evidence aliens were behind the unexplained phenomena, but the space agency also could not rule out that possibility. If the truth is out there, this long-awaited report offers no conclusive evidence.

But it did outline how Nasa will investigate what it calls UAPs (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) with improved technology and artificial intelligence. Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said the US space agency will not only take the lead in researching possible UAP incidents, but will share data with more transparency.

The report is 36 pages(PDF) of quite technical and scientific observations, so here are some of the key takeaways... (MORE - details)

To whit:

• There's no proof aliens exist, but they might
  
• Limited amount of UAP data
  
• Nasa weighs in on viral 'alien' photos from Mexico
  
• Identity of new UFO boss remains a mystery because of threats
  
• Nasa recommends using AI tools

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Why are people starting to believe in UFOs again?
https://theconversation.com/why-are-people-starting-to-believe-in-ufos-again-61717

EXCERPTS: [...] The narrative of triumphant reason dates back, at least, to German sociologist Max Weber’s 1918 speech “Science as a Vocation,” in which he argued that the modern world takes for granted that everything is reducible to scientific explanations. “The world,” he declared, “is disenchanted.”

[...] Sociologists of religion have also suggested that skepticism is countered by a different societal trend, something they’ve dubbed “re-enchantment.” They argue that while science can temporarily suppress belief in mysterious forces, these beliefs will always return – that the need to believe is ingrained in the human psyche... (MORE - missing details)
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Despite science's best efforts, even those of its stellar hero Carl Sagan, the persistent interest and belief of the masses in the mysterious and supernatural returns again and again. Even the Discovery Channel, once the proud domain of science documentaries and Mythbusters, is getting taken over with programs about ghosts and bigfoot and ufos. There's no stopping it. People just innately prefer to live in a world haunted by enigmas and riddles. A universe where everything is explained ends up becoming very boring and monotonous after awhile, in spite of being supported by abundant evidence. People don't want dry sterile facts and complicated theory. They want story and narrative--the sense that there is meaning out there that provides their lives with wonder and .drama. It's really ironic since science, presented properly, is itself filled with enough mystery and profundity to last anyone a whole lifetime.

 

Of course. Well over 2/3 of Americans believe in a God.

However, Carl Sagan wasn't telling people there are no aliens. He was just giving them the odds.

 

The entertainment of the mass population speaks volumes. Even the video games played that aren't built around fantasy, sorcery, scifi, or superheroes probably still feature improbable events. Like in movie action thrillers (John Wick disabling or killing 10,000 attackers single-handedly, etc).
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Sorry. Got too tied-up/rushed with other online matters and offline distractions at the time to either add an intro comment or realize that inference would be insufficient for tackling it. A belated version might zig along this line:

One would think predating the "easy stimulus" of military videos and media hoopla of this decade would compel a piece to have to fall back on more "timeless" or philosophical and underlying psychological considerations. Rather than being dependent on the effects of such eventually dated or contingent, specific events. There often seem to be proto-religious or proto-spiritual like attitudes about UFO interests (without having to venture into that extreme of UFO cults). Coming across the ten-cents of someone who studies religious movements, thus seems applicable at some point, in terms of exploring possible factors in what makes UFO believers or buffs tick.
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Could flirt with being a conspiracy theory in itself, if it ever evolved to a point in the future of blaming most or all of it on affluent devotess. Recruiting anti-vaxx territory as an analogy, would be vaguely akin to declaring RFK Jr. (etc) as the ground zero for that. (Still rich and influential via political legacy, just not the mega kind.)
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How wealthy UFO fans helped fuel fringe beliefs
https://www.livescience.com/space/e...w-wealthy-ufo-fans-helped-fuel-fringe-beliefs

EXCERPT: . . . This legacy of plutocrat-backed fringe science comes as political partisanship, corporate propaganda, and conspiracy mongering continues to sow distrust in science. One lawmaker, Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee, recently said, "The devil's been in our way," claiming a "cover-up" of UFO reports by military and intelligence agencies.

Such talk was once solely the domain of Internet fever swamps and late-night conspiracy-themed radio shows. Now it's part of the political mainstream. This doesn’t happen without Bigelow (and other wealthy eccentrics) greasing the way with their fat wallets. For example, Laurance Rockefeller was undoubtedly the most prominent UFO benefactor in the 1990s. The wealthy heir financed numerous UFO panels, conferences and book-length reports that kept flying saucers in the public discourse.

From a scientific standpoint, all this money seems wasted on a zany quest that is akin to the search for Bigfoot or Atlantis. The same might be said of Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb's recent hunt for evidence of extraterrestrial life off the coast of Papua New Guinea, which cost $150,000 and was funded by cryptocurrency mogul Charles Hoskinson. Loeb's polarizing claims of finding traces of alien technology and of having a more open-minded and dispassionate approach to fringe science have garnered a truly staggering amount of media coverage, but his peers in the scientific community are rolling their eyes... (MORE - missing details)
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