Ever seen a UFO?

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Zanman, Jan 3, 2005.

  1. Grim

    Grim Wandering Wonderer

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    Yep, it was about 1 or 2 feet in diameter as I recall. Don't know the weather conditions, though I think it was the fall...I've heard of ball lightning and this certainly could have been it, though I've never heard of it happening in a suburban area so near any structure. Oh well :)
     
  2. maryjaneguitargurl

    maryjaneguitargurl I am just like you.

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    An Unfucked opening? what?? haha

    peace
    chickens
     
  3. NEMISIS

    NEMISIS GONE

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    Of course I've seen a UFO.
    But those who talk don't know,
    those who know don't talk.
     
  4. Barefoot_Surfer

    Barefoot_Surfer Member

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    There are a lot things that can produce UFO stuff. In meteorology (Atmospheric Science) there are lots of things that can produce bizzare effects. Ie a lenticular cloud caused by air being forced over a mountain in a stable atmosphere. Lenticular coulds look really bizzare. Almost like a flying saucer.

    Matt
     
  5. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  6. Jaz Delorean

    Jaz Delorean Senior Member

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    i've seen one - i can still remember what it looked like after if dropped me off years ago... man that was a scary night, i was only small and didn't know where to go...
     
  7. Kandahar

    Kandahar Banned

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    For a moment, I'll suspend my skepticism of UFOs. Let's assume for a moment that extraterrestrial intelligence DOES exist in our stellar neighborhood, and it is interested enough in us that it is willing to travel for light-years to visit us.

    In The Age of Spiritual Machines, Ray Kurzweil makes the following argument against the existence of (at least the popular conception of) UFOs, which I find very convincing. Having read the book along with many of his others, I'd be happy to answer any questions or debate his argument.

     
  8. inbloom

    inbloom as the crow flies...

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    i believe in aliens, and ufo's. i think anything in this universe is possible, and to deny something like that is absurd.

    i believe i saw something unworldly, once. i was driving with my friend, one night, and we saw something in the sky. it was a large, orange light. far bigger than any plane could have been, and it was not from any tower or any such thing, because it was next to a few light towers, but it was higher up than they were and much bigger. we parked and sat and watched this light for about two minutes, when suddenly, it turned (as if pivoting on an axis) and cloaked in some weird way and vanished. it was the weirdest thing i've ever seen.
     
  9. Zanman

    Zanman Member

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    Well I think Kurzweil makes some good points, but each of these could be considered differently if viewed from a different event base.
    What’s their motive? For example, a lot of thinkers would say, "Why would they bother visiting us, not for minerals"? But then supposing advanced life really is rare in the Universe, which seems increasingly to be the case, perhaps you would be VERY interested in any emerging civilization you might stumble across, for cultural reasons rather than economic ones.

    In this case you would be doing EXACTLY what we are doing, sending out probes. Of course ours are very primitive at the moment, a few hundred years from now they won’t be.

    Regarding the nanotech point, and another good one, but if we did encounter another civilization do you think we would be sending machines out there? Hell no, we would be sending people as ambassadors - the purpose at some point translates from observation to communication to trade.
    I should add that we do not know what means of propulsion is possible say 100,000 years from now, but from observations of the "ships" so far we can be assured they are not using diesel engines. Surely it is possible that with such an advanced civ fuel and propulsion would be the least of their concerns, so why not send huge ships with loads of equipment.
     
  10. Pressed_Rat

    Pressed_Rat Do you even lift, bruh?

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    Let's keep in mind that UFO's are simply unidentified flying objects. They are not necessarily related to extraterrestrials, but rather anything that cannot be readily indentified. I think that a lot of what people describe as "spacecraft" can easily be something else, like aircraft or a satellite.

    Most people know that the US is likely testing very unusual, highly advanced technology that has been seen in the form of unusual aircraft in the skies across the world, but most often in remote areas of desert land in the southwest US, around military installations like Area 51.

    While many UFO "sightings" can be explained as natural occurances, I believe that a good majority also cannot be explained.

    I personally do believe in extraterrestrials, and I believe they have been visiting this earth since the beginning of mankind; likely before. Hieroglyphics suggest that early man may have had contact with extraterrestial beings, as many of these glyphs are seen suggesting unearthly beings and unusual saucer-shaped objects in the skies.

    I think the biggest proof of E.T. existence is the mass sightings over Washington DC and the Capitol Building in 1952. The sky was filled with unearthly-looking unidentified flying objects that were seen by thousands of people. Either it was a really strange weather phenomenon, or everyone who witnessed it was hallucinating at once.

    Let's also not forget about the mass sightings over Mexico City in 1993.

    I believe there are a lot of quacks out there in the UFO field, but also a lot of serious investigators who don't deserve to be laughed at.
     
  11. Kandahar

    Kandahar Banned

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    Any civilization with interstellar capabilities is almost certainly capable of assembling whatever materials they need on their own world.

    I think it's still very early to jump to that conclusion. I doubt UFOs are visiting us, but I do think extraterrestrial intelligence is most likely commonplace.

    I think that's the point Kurzweil was making...you might be able to learn a lot from a new civilization, but it's unlikely that they'll have access to any resources that you don't.

    But the odds of any civilization being at EXACTLY the same point in technological development as we are (give or take a hundred years) is almost zero, so the chances of another civilization sending clunky flying-saucer-sized spacecraft to earth is almost zero.

    Most likely they would be one and the same. Even our own species will almost certainly undergo such a transformation during the 21st century. For example, we'll be able to implant neural chips in our brain to speed up our thinking, and computers will become more intelligent than non-augmented people. In other words, the line between "people" and "machines" will become more and more blurry as we progress through the next century, until it disappears entirely. I think the same would be true of any other intelligent civilization, because technological evolution is much faster than biological evolution. In other words, a microscopic spaceship could easily house the memories, knowledge, and personalities of the people who made it.

    It's not a question of propulsion...there's just no need to send loads of equipment when anything you need can easily be assembled on the new world by nanobots.
     
  12. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  13. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  14. Kandahar

    Kandahar Banned

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    Absolutely. Once we have self-replicating nanobots (2030-2040 is my best guess), the computer programs that govern them might allow for a small fraction of mutation. If that is the case, they'd look a lot like any other microscopic life form except they'd have a computer program instead of DNA. But the same rules of evolution would apply to them too.

    Whether or not we SHOULD make this kind of nanobot is another question, but I'm sure it's possible for machine-like "life" to evolve.
     
  15. MeAgain

    MeAgain Dazed & Confused Lifetime Supporter Super Moderator

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    How would a machine like enity develop on its own. Machines, by my definition, have to be constructed by a form of intelligence capable of that feat. The only one we know of is us.


    If you conceive of a "machine like" intellegence which developes on its own, I assume you mean a self replicating, intellectually autonomous, decision making, independant enity.

    Which is what we already are.

    I think we can be viewed as a type of a machine that has already developed consisting of hardware, in the form of our bodies, which are made of various inorganic elements; and software, consisting of our thinking skills which are programed into the hardware much as a computer hosts computer sotware.
     
  16. shaggie

    shaggie Senior Member

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  17. TresBizzare420

    TresBizzare420 Member

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    Word.
     
  18. BlackGuardXIII

    BlackGuardXIII fera festiva

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    Michael,
    I see no reason for you to lie, and until I do, I believe you.
     
  19. Kandahar

    Kandahar Banned

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    Don't you think it's more likely that you had some sort of hallucination than invisible aliens are invading the earth?
     
  20. Zanman

    Zanman Member

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    If that is a true experience you should continue to tell others and when others tell you its crap so what. If its true it doesn't matter what other's think.
    How wierd would it be if 100 years ago someone said they got on a plane and flew to wherever?
    Don't shortchange your experience but expand on it.
    But you do need to get much more specific.
     

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