Hacker News Reader

Comment by lend000 | Hacker News Reader

You didn't hear about Mao's peasant anti-gravity division?

Jokes aside, I'm certain the OP didn't read the article and isn't well read on the subject. The OP's idea makes for an interesting story if you don't try picking it apart, but the real story is much harder to grasp.

Most rational people cannot delve too deep into this subject without training wheels -- it can take years to get comfortable with some of the concepts that have been made public with some level of credibility, in my personal experience. So most folks will attach themselves to a half-baked explanation like this and then feel comfortable dismissing it, but hopefully will come around and revisit it over time, as I eventually did.

View on HN

You seem to have done some reading on this subject - care to recommend a few books that are well-researched and well-reasoned and not written by cranks?

The pinnacle of UFO research quality is from Jacques Vallee [0], who seems to have always been well ahead of the field, but he doesn't really hold back, which is both a pro and a con to someone casually interested. I'm also not familiar with his opinions on more recent developments in the space, which are quite significant.

I can recommend a fictional book "Sekret Machines" by the former lead of Blink 182 who has used his fame and lifelong passion for the phenomenon to create a media company espousing a more gentle introduction to the subject, while still providing some sobering and fascinating context on the phenomenon. The flashbacks are allegedly historical fiction, one of which was referenced in this popular mechanics article (when a UFO floated over Malstrom AFB and took all the ICBM's offline). It's also just a really good read. This same company hired Elizondo and a number of other "in-the-know" advisors, and caused the current UFO media hype cycle by releasing the Nimitz tape to the NYT in 2017.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Vall%C3%A9e

Richard Dolan has written a number of books from a ‘smoke then fire’ perspective focusing on how much the US (and other) governments appeared preoccupied with the subject while denying that preoccupation.

He doesn’t speculate or fill in gaps. He is and writes like an historian, however, so get ready for some dry reading.

From what I've seen almost everyone who "specializes" in UFO's ends up going off the deep end in one way or another.

Some people who tend to try to stick to what's verifiable are:

John Greenwald - Specializes in FOIA, sometimes over-focuses on probably irrelevant details but is evolving.

Mick West - A skeptic, one of the few people who has attempted any serious public analysis of the Navy videos, seems reasonably open minded though biased toward the most ordinary possible explanations even of phenomena that clearly deviate substantially from the ordinary.

Luis Elizondo - Certainly worth listening to, though opinions vary greatly on his credibility.

Tim McMillan - The author of the original post. Looks promising, especially if most of his claims here turn out to be accurate.

> isn't well read on the subject.

Me neither, though the History Channel sure tries these days, lol.

Anyway, can somebody explain what the fascination is with UFOs to somebody who never really got it?

I just assume the Universe is so big (and expanding) that nobody besides bacteria could make it alive to Earth. The End.

> I just assume the Universe is so big (and expanding) that nobody besides bacteria could make it alive to Earth.

Why would you assume that ?

Even if the speed of light is an absolute barrier why do you rule out the following:

- ET's that are immortal or with enormous lifespans, either naturally or because they re-engineered themselves that way

- ET's that have produced artificial intelligent entities that are immortal

- Generation ships

- Ships that travel at a significant fraction of c, causing time-dilation effects to greatly reduce travel times in the traveler's frame of reference

I certainly wouldn't be surprised if humans were able to achieve at least one of these in the next thousand years and an ET civilization could easily be millions of years ahead of us.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think ET's are the most likely explanation for what's happening either, but I also don't think they can be ruled out entirely.

I think that the problem with all that is the communication barrier gets exacerbated to the point that its a self limiting mechanism for intelligent life.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com