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Comment by HourglassFR | Hacker News Reader

> To dismiss all evidence of UAP's out of hand as "illogical" is just as unscientific as to accept them as being proof of ET visitation.

I think it's pretty disingenuous to present those two takes as being equally bad. Yes we don't know everything and leaving room for extraordinary things to happen is healthy, but I have yet to see evidences that aliens have cause a UAP. On the other hand we have good empirical evidence that sighting of unusal phenomenas with perfectly mundane explanations can, and do, create testimonies of so called "alien visitations". We even have pretty good psycho-sociological explanations for why this happens.

So without even looking at the specific details of a particular UAP sighting, coming at it from the angle of "people probably saw weird stuff and their brains filled the gap" is the right approach in my opinion. That doesn't mean we have to stop here of course, but it is a sensible default position.

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> I have yet to see evidences that aliens have cause a UAP

Neither have I but the title of this article is "why look at flying saucers", not "why believe in ET visitation".

> We even have pretty good psycho-sociological explanations for why this happens.

What well accepted psychological explanation is there for 4 naval aviators reporting an encounter with an object that appeared to defy our knowledge of aerodynamics in clear weather and broad daylight in the exact location they were vectored to by an Aegis radar system ?

They got confused by a mundane object?

Four pilots in two different aircraft plus the radar operators all confused in the same way. What are the odds of that ?

> What are the odds of that ?

Not good.

My best alternative explanations is:

top secret research project going out of their way to fool everyone, possibly with the help of a few pilots and radar operators :-)

Sure. Let's assume that there are top secret research programs. What this tells us is that the research had yeilded such results as

* Super High Density energy storage mechanism, that when being used actually cools down instead of heating up

* An energy source that isn't based around burning fossil fuels for propulsion, that is highly efficient.

* A device that could atleast in theory be using some kind of an inertial cancellation mechanism.

Any of this could be a solution to climate change. Why would our own governments lie and put the future of this planet in jeapordy?. Just so they can win the next war but lose a Future?.

The idea that this is some kind of a secret research project doesn't add up.

> What this tells us is that the research had yeilded such results as

Personally, if I was tasked with making sure everyone respected the American Army I'd make sure to hire a magician and keep that hire very very secret.

I'm not saying there aren't any serious technical breakthroughs.

But I'd still hire the best reliable magician I could get.

After all, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic and my bet is that it goes the other way too. (Some replace "magic" with "rigged demo" and that too is true - and possibly relevant.)

Also, I think it is Penn or Teller who says something along the lines of: there's one thing people constantly underestimate when it comes to magic and that is how incredibly far magicians are willing to go to conceal their tricks.

If I'm understanding your hypothetical correctly, this would require the American Army to publicly take credit for the "magic", not publicly announce that the "magic" is unidentified.

Actually not, if you fake it you don't want to do that because then people (including high ranking people) will start asking you for demos and it will become impossible to keep the secret.

If this is the case it is way better do like they do today and selectively leak stuff and then let everyone, friends and enemys, fill out the blanks :-)

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