२५ जून, २०२१

"The government still has no explanation for nearly all of the scores of unidentified aerial phenomena reported over almost two decades and investigated by a Pentagon task force..."

"... according to a report released on Friday, a result that is likely to fuel theories of otherworldly visitations. A total of 143 reports gathered since 2004 remain unexplained, the document released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. Of those, 21 reports of unknown phenomena, involving 18 episodes, possibly demonstrate technological capabilities that are unknown to the United States: objects moving without observable propulsion or with rapid acceleration that is believed to be beyond the capabilities of Russia, China or other terrestrial nations. There is no evidence that any of the episodes involve secret American weapons programs, unknown technology from Russia or China or extraterrestrial visitations. But the government report did not rule out those explanations."

The NYT reports.

Let's assume they're not lying when they say it's not some secret American technology....

What do you *want* the answer to be?
 
pollcode.com free polls

१० टिप्पण्या:

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Bob Boyd writes:

"Let's assume they're not lying when they say it's not some secret American technology...."

It could be some secret technology, American or otherwise, without being an actual, physics-defying aircraft. It could be a display of advancing "spoofing" technology.


But they're saying there's no explanation. If we were doing it, they'd have an explanation. Maybe they do and they are lying, but I wanted to exclude that possibility for the poll, otherwise that would be the obvious winner.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Lucien writes:

I voted for Russia because it is the least dangerous of the limited options given. I would have liked “none of the above” but where’s the fun in that.

Yeah, I think that option would have made the poll less valuable.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

TickTock 1948 writes:

Ok, confession time. I believe in only one conspiracy theory and it is of my own invention. I have long wondered if/suspected that these reports were a NSA or CIA operation aimed generating funding for "black" program. Other than these thoughts, I consider myself a normal person.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Montgomery Scott writes:

While I can't rule out the Russians or Chinese as the operators of the UFOs, I don't think that they are the sources of these objects. Historically, these 2 countries have spent a lot of time, money, and effort on industrial espionage to steal the intellectual property and technology of the U.S. military and U.S (and other Western countries) companies and incorporate that stolen technology into their machines. At best, the Chinese have at best slightly enhanced what they stole. If the U.S. is telling the truth that these objects are not of our making, it is highly doubtful that the Chinese and Russians have made this quantum leap in technology past the U.S. into creating vehicles that seemingly defy the laws of physics as we understand them. And, some of these unexplained phenomena from U.S. military aircraft gun camera footage goes back almost 2 decades now - if the Russians and Chinese had this technology back then, they should currently have a good sized fleet of these vehicles and would have been able to challenge the U.S. directly in military confrontations with a good chance of defeating the U.S. Plus, the U.S. should have picked up something by our various Intelligence agencies with the spy technology on hand in the past couple of decades.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

exhelodrvr writes:

"If these phenomena were actually alien, or extremely advanced technology from another nation, there would have been a huge increase in the research/funding for defending against them. That's how you can tell that these (and Roswell, etc.) don't actually fit into those categories."

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

R.T. O'Dactyl writes:

I want the answer to be "unknown or misidentified natural phenomena." If *ANY* of your radio button answers are correct, then we're in big trouble. Humans in charge of UFOs with those characteristics easily could conquer us. Aliens might not even think in terms of "conquering" us so much as exercising pest control.

One possibility that's been bruited about is that the UFOs are time travelers, either from our future or "crosstime" from other timelines. Travelers from very distant timelines, in which Homo sapiens didn't evolve as the dominant species of hominin on Earth, might explain why various "close encounters of the third kind" seldom involve exactly the same type of non-human aliens and why there doesn't seem to be much cooperation among them..


As to why I left off those other options: "unknown or misidentified natural phenomena"

"unknown" — that's not an answer to what you hope it is. The question is really what is the least bad thing it could be. While it may be best to never find out, "unknown" isn't a possible explanation, just a wish to never learn the explanation!

"natural phenomena" — of course, that's the answer we'd all hope for, so to put that in the options is pointless. Oh, I mean, I suppose some people WANT aliens to come and be our Close-Encounter friends....

Cheers!

--

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Oh! I see I left "Cheers!" from R.T. O'Dactyl's comment where it looks like I ended my comment that way. Sorry, that was unintended. You make you own decisions about what mood to be in. I'm not pushing you one way or another.

In any case, R.T. O'Dactyl writes back to say:

You parsed my response in a way that I hadn't intended ...

> As to why I left off those other options: "unknown or misidentified natural phenomena"

> "unknown" — that's not an answer to what you hope it is. The question is really what is the least bad thing it could be. While it may be best to never find out, "unknown" isn't a possible explanation, just a wish to never learn the explanation!

What I meant was that I wanted the answer to be "natural phenomena of some kind, either currently unknown or else misidentified."

And I do hope that's the answer. Unknown natural phenomena would be WONDERFUL! We could do SCIENCE! to them!

;^)


If I'd seen the ambiguity, I'd have made the right choice about which of the 2 meanings he mean. I genuinely didn't notice the alternative.

In any case, as I said above, of course, something natural would be better than the other choices. That's why I left it out.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Ernest writes: "There is at least one more option that could be placed into that quiz: supernatural beings such as angels."

There's also the idea that our reality is a simulation...

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

David writes:

How many years have they been studying this? How many millions of dollars has been spent? They mention 143 reports of unidentified phenomenon since 2004, but the "report" produced is only 9 pages? One page for the title page and 2 pages for appendices, which leaves 6 pages of "meaningful" content.

Project Bluebook originated in 1952, collecting 12,618 reports of sightings, and it was preceded by Project Sign in 1947 and Project Grudge in 1948. Harry Reid initiated his effort in 2008 with millions dedicated to the effort.

When have you ever seen a government "report" this thin?

They're not even trying to be open and transparent.

Ann Althouse म्हणाले...

Michael writes: "Any discussion of a political appointee's retirement is political by nature. Trying to gussy it up with legal scholarship is thin cover for the self-serving nature of the argument. Obviously thin cover."