Hi. Welcome to the blog for my IB English B class at Jur Hronec High School in Bratislava, Slovakia. Below you will find links to other websites and discussion questions. My students are required to comment on one of these postings every month and also respond to each other's comments. Feel free to add your two bits, but be aware that all comments are monitored before being posted.
Why are some people fascinated by
UFOs? Why do others ignore or even shun these people?Are the ufologists right when they claim that
the scientific community should be paying more attention to this, or is it
a wild goose chase?
I can recall multiple instances of friends and family telling me about their personal stories with paranormal phenomena. These anecdotes revolve around an interaction with an unidentified entity, which the speaker usually interprets to be a ghost, a demon, some unclassified animal or a UFO. From my experience, stories about UFO sightings are much more frequent than the rest of the aforementioned phenomena, and are also amongst the most fascinating. In the text, the author Brad Badelt sheds light on stories told by members of various UFO watching communities, and mentions that the claims seem far-fetched and improbable, yet he doesn't completely disregard them. Personally, I share this perspective. Whenever the topic of having experienced something paranormal comes up in conversation, I'm always interested to hear about it, and these stories never fail to amaze me. Even if people tend to omit or dream up details about the stories they tell, I find it unlikely that it's fruitful to try to quarrel with them over the validity of their claims. There's a striking comparison made in the article which links a UFO sighting to "a profound religious moment" or having fallen in love with someone, and I think it holds up quite well. Like Jason Guillemette mentions, he is not willing to be convinced by anyone that he didn't actually see what he saw during his close encounter of the third kind, and if his description of it is accurate, I know I wouldn't be too keen on the idea having that proven wrong either.
If I'm going to be completely honest, ufology in it's current state seems to be more of a hobbyist occupation than a real, exact science. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, but it is important to realize if it were to evolve into something that is more highly regarded. The data collection of Ufology Research is entirely centered upon individual accounts of UFO sightings. Although Rutkowski does admit that roughly 95 percent of sightings can be explained as satellites or lens flare, human sensory perception and memory is simply an extremely volatile and unreliable source of information. There are many studies conducted that confirm that memories can be altered or even artificially implanted. Although I admit they are very entertaining to listen to, I simply don't buy many of these stories. It's always one or two people, completely alone, who barely remember any details. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe that aliens are somewhere out there - the universe is incomprehensibly vast, so the chances of us being alone are astronomically low. Nonetheless, to say that aliens have visited us in the relatively tiny era of human civilization is definitely a stretch. Although the age disparity of the universe and planet Earth would allow it, there are many theories physicists have for why we have not yet been visited. To spare you the details, we are either uninteresting, have already been claimed by some superior space race, or are simply too far to bother reaching. What's also interesting to me is the fairly recent shift of our attention from planet Earth to the horizons. Why the sudden rise in interest for aliens? The article suggests that it could be related to the decline in religious activity. Although this is certainly related, I observe a much broader ideological shift. As technology evolves and our quality of life rises, less and less people are concerned about the materialistic needs of humankind. If this continues, the shift in thinking may become even more profound. Is a space odyssey the next logical step after we solve our problems back home? Perhaps it might even be the solution.
I find the ufologists’ repeated reports of their excitement about unresolved cases of sightings rather motivational. Though the article mentions some of the ufologists (Mr. Rutkowski) being highly sceptical when researching UFO sightings, I can’t help myself but think of how excitement and joys of discovering the unknown are often what leads us to new knowledge, even in the case of sceptical researchers. In my eyes, it’s the excitement that a person is endowed with during their seeking, or put simply, the fun aspect behind discovery that matters more than overwhelming talent or intelligence when in pursuit of the new. With this in mind, I hope I might one day be as excited for something as these ufologists are over alien life and discover something new myself.
More importantly, what has really caught my interest in this article was the mention of confirming the existence of alien life. According to Mr. Guillemette we are sure to make contact with alien life in the next five years (if they exist). As you can probably imagine five years is far from being a long period of time when you consider the significance of aliens. Aliens! In fact, one thing that especially terrifies me is the possibility of the alien life being hostile! For reasons beyond certainty, I am compelled to assume that an alien life wouldn’t welcome us with a warm smile. Obviously we can’t know the degree of their technology, or the extent of their knowledge, etc…, but assuming that both humankind and aliens “make contact” mutually, I’d say that it would be safe to expect the aliens to be at least at around our level of development. In addition the SETI, as mentioned in the article, is probing for life at all times. The D-Day might come even sooner than expected! Thus, to avoid an utter defeat of any sort, humanity had best be preparing!
Lucas, I do not think we can somehow prepare ourselves for a mutual contact with aliens. I think the possibility that two separate civilizations living on different planets would be at the same level of development is improbable. It would be too big of a coincidence. So, one of the civilizations has to be ahead of the other. If we were to be visited by aliens with technology far ahead of ours, there is nothing we can do. We can just pray they will rule us justly. On the other hand, if we were the more advanced ones we probably would not have to fear. However, there is a question Enrico Fermi asked. “Where is everybody?” Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology could eventually colonize their entire galaxy. This would take some millions of years but also many of the stars similar to our Sun (and also their planets) are billions of years older. Theoretically we should have already been visited by extraterrestrial civilization. But as stated int the article there is no hard evidence, that this has happened. There are a few theories, some of which Teo K. has mentioned in his comment, trying to explain this Fermi paradox. Maybe at least one of the “steps” in evolution resulting in extraterrestrial colonization is highly improbable and civilizations are stuck at this point. We could have passed this point or this barrier in evolution is still lying in front of us. Maybe they have already visited Earth, but we have not observed them. Or maybe they simply chose not to visit us. So, the D-Day might not even come.
I was about ten years old when I looked out of a window at night and saw the sky glow red. At the time I was convinced I witnessed UFOs flying in the clouds, so naturally I told my parents. I was disappointed to hear that the glow was caused by light from an oil refinery burning chemicals. After this experience of a seemingly mysterious phenomenon, which was easily explained I went on to believe that UFOs were made up. I considered ufology to be a pseudoscience. After all, there has never been any conclusive evidence for the existence of UFOs. Nonetheless, multiple ideas in the article sparked my interest.
Guillemette and Rutkowski are two very different people, yet they share the same interest in UFOs. Their reasons for getting into ufology are various but there has to be something connecting them and also most other ufologists. I think it is the idea that there’s a chance aliens might be roaming the skies, which could also be called curiosity, combined with a strong passion for uncovering truth. Guillemette is the more passionate one, he said he would do anything to get to the truth, while Rutkowski has followed his curiosity despite heavy stigmatization of the subject.
Sometimes curiosity and passion can go too far. Conspiracy theories, which are closely related to UFOs, are one example of this. However, unlike in other fields you don’t have to be a fanatic ufologist who believes in conspiracies in order to be shunned by others. There is a reason behind this. Even before modern media dramatized the topic, society was very hesitant to believe that aliens are right at our doorstep, because it conflicts with most people’s basic worldview. Only time can tell whether ufology will become accepted in society like SETI did, or remain a taboo forevermore. I personally continue to believe ufology is a pseudoscience, at least for now.
I can recall multiple instances of friends and family telling me about their personal stories with paranormal phenomena. These anecdotes revolve around an interaction with an unidentified entity, which the speaker usually interprets to be a ghost, a demon, some unclassified animal or a UFO. From my experience, stories about UFO sightings are much more frequent than the rest of the aforementioned phenomena, and are also amongst the most fascinating.
ReplyDeleteIn the text, the author Brad Badelt sheds light on stories told by members of various UFO watching communities, and mentions that the claims seem far-fetched and improbable, yet he doesn't completely disregard them. Personally, I share this perspective. Whenever the topic of having experienced something paranormal comes up in conversation, I'm always interested to hear about it, and these stories never fail to amaze me.
Even if people tend to omit or dream up details about the stories they tell, I find it unlikely that it's fruitful to try to quarrel with them over the validity of their claims. There's a striking comparison made in the article which links a UFO sighting to "a profound religious moment" or having fallen in love with someone, and I think it holds up quite well. Like Jason Guillemette mentions, he is not willing to be convinced by anyone that he didn't actually see what he saw during his close encounter of the third kind, and if his description of it is accurate, I know I wouldn't be too keen on the idea having that proven wrong either.
If I'm going to be completely honest, ufology in it's current state seems to be more of a hobbyist occupation than a real, exact science. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this, but it is important to realize if it were to evolve into something that is more highly regarded. The data collection of Ufology Research is entirely centered upon individual accounts of UFO sightings. Although Rutkowski does admit that roughly 95 percent of sightings can be explained as satellites or lens flare, human sensory perception and memory is simply an extremely volatile and unreliable source of information. There are many studies conducted that confirm that memories can be altered or even artificially implanted. Although I admit they are very entertaining to listen to, I simply don't buy many of these stories. It's always one or two people, completely alone, who barely remember any details.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I truly believe that aliens are somewhere out there - the universe is incomprehensibly vast, so the chances of us being alone are astronomically low. Nonetheless, to say that aliens have visited us in the relatively tiny era of human civilization is definitely a stretch. Although the age disparity of the universe and planet Earth would allow it, there are many theories physicists have for why we have not yet been visited. To spare you the details, we are either uninteresting, have already been claimed by some superior space race, or are simply too far to bother reaching.
What's also interesting to me is the fairly recent shift of our attention from planet Earth to the horizons. Why the sudden rise in interest for aliens? The article suggests that it could be related to the decline in religious activity. Although this is certainly related, I observe a much broader ideological shift. As technology evolves and our quality of life rises, less and less people are concerned about the materialistic needs of humankind. If this continues, the shift in thinking may become even more profound. Is a space odyssey the next logical step after we solve our problems back home? Perhaps it might even be the solution.
I find the ufologists’ repeated reports of their excitement about unresolved cases of sightings rather motivational. Though the article mentions some of the ufologists (Mr. Rutkowski) being highly sceptical when researching UFO sightings, I can’t help myself but think of how excitement and joys of discovering the unknown are often what leads us to new knowledge, even in the case of sceptical researchers. In my eyes, it’s the excitement that a person is endowed with during their seeking, or put simply, the fun aspect behind discovery that matters more than overwhelming talent or intelligence when in pursuit of the new. With this in mind, I hope I might one day be as excited for something as these ufologists are over alien life and discover something new myself.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly, what has really caught my interest in this article was the mention of confirming the existence of alien life. According to Mr. Guillemette we are sure to make contact with alien life in the next five years (if they exist). As you can probably imagine five years is far from being a long period of time when you consider the significance of aliens. Aliens! In fact, one thing that especially terrifies me is the possibility of the alien life being hostile! For reasons beyond certainty, I am compelled to assume that an alien life wouldn’t welcome us with a warm smile. Obviously we can’t know the degree of their technology, or the extent of their knowledge, etc…, but assuming that both humankind and aliens “make contact” mutually, I’d say that it would be safe to expect the aliens to be at least at around our level of development. In addition the SETI, as mentioned in the article, is probing for life at all times. The D-Day might come even sooner than expected! Thus, to avoid an utter defeat of any sort, humanity had best be preparing!
Lucas, I do not think we can somehow prepare ourselves for a mutual contact with aliens. I think the possibility that two separate civilizations living on different planets would be at the same level of development is improbable. It would be too big of a coincidence. So, one of the civilizations has to be ahead of the other.
DeleteIf we were to be visited by aliens with technology far ahead of ours, there is nothing we can do. We can just pray they will rule us justly. On the other hand, if we were the more advanced ones we probably would not have to fear.
However, there is a question Enrico Fermi asked. “Where is everybody?” Fermi realized that any civilization with a modest amount of rocket technology could eventually colonize their entire galaxy. This would take some millions of years but also many of the stars similar to our Sun (and also their planets) are billions of years older. Theoretically we should have already been visited by extraterrestrial civilization. But as stated int the article there is no hard evidence, that this has happened.
There are a few theories, some of which Teo K. has mentioned in his comment, trying to explain this Fermi paradox. Maybe at least one of the “steps” in evolution resulting in extraterrestrial colonization is highly improbable and civilizations are stuck at this point. We could have passed this point or this barrier in evolution is still lying in front of us. Maybe they have already visited Earth, but we have not observed them. Or maybe they simply chose not to visit us. So, the D-Day might not even come.
I was about ten years old when I looked out of a window at night and saw the sky glow red. At the time I was convinced I witnessed UFOs flying in the clouds, so naturally I told my parents. I was disappointed to hear that the glow was caused by light from an oil refinery burning chemicals. After this experience of a seemingly mysterious phenomenon, which was easily explained I went on to believe that UFOs were made up. I considered ufology to be a pseudoscience. After all, there has never been any conclusive evidence for the existence of UFOs. Nonetheless, multiple ideas in the article sparked my interest.
ReplyDeleteGuillemette and Rutkowski are two very different people, yet they share the same interest in UFOs. Their reasons for getting into ufology are various but there has to be something connecting them and also most other ufologists. I think it is the idea that there’s a chance aliens might be roaming the skies, which could also be called curiosity, combined with a strong passion for uncovering truth. Guillemette is the more passionate one, he said he would do anything to get to the truth, while Rutkowski has followed his curiosity despite heavy stigmatization of the subject.
Sometimes curiosity and passion can go too far. Conspiracy theories, which are closely related to UFOs, are one example of this. However, unlike in other fields you don’t have to be a fanatic ufologist who believes in conspiracies in order to be shunned by others. There is a reason behind this. Even before modern media dramatized the topic, society was very hesitant to believe that aliens are right at our doorstep, because it conflicts with most people’s basic worldview. Only time can tell whether ufology will become accepted in society like SETI did, or remain a taboo forevermore. I personally continue to believe ufology is a pseudoscience, at least for now.