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Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist, humanity not ready
- neonate 6y agohttps://archive.is/NZdO1 https://archive.is/NZdO1
- acqq 6y agoAs I've read: "As for why he's chosen to reveal this information now" ... I've just thought "because he has something to sell"! And sure, just a little later in the text: "Eshed provided more information in his newest book, The Universe Beyond the Horizon – conversations with Professor Haim Eshed" Knowing that, I also understand why he waited up to now: "I have nothing to lose. I’ve received my degrees and awards." He is 87. Ka-ching. Humanity is ready for his book. Aren't we lucky? P.S. Two years ago there was a book Haim Eshed co-authored: "Project Management of Technological Innovation", then, one year ago, he also co-authored "Satellites and the New Space"... This year the world was really ready for... literally a book about Men in Black -- if we're to believe the journalists! This latest one, the said "conversations with" is a book where he is being interviewed and the writer interviewing him is Hagar Yanai, the "author of novels and fantasy books" who received "the Deborah Omer Prize for children and youth and three Geffen Prizes for Israeli fantasy" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagar_Yanai https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagar_Yanai I also wouldn't mind telling her whatever she asked. And I wouldn't be surprised if the journalists haven't covered the whole story up to now, about what's actually written in the book and how it came to be. I'd really like to read an interview with her about the book.
- generalizations 6y agoIf he was 20 years younger, I'd tend to agree with you. At that age, though, it doesn't seem like the income would mean much.
- firecall 6y ago..because people in their 80's don't need money for themselves or their family?
- generalizations 6y ago...late 80s. The dude has probably less than a decade left. Though, sure, family can always do with a bit more money.
- breck 6y agoThe dude was in charge of Israel's space and satellite divisions at least as recently as 2007 (source: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080 https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080). I don't think he has to worry about money.
- octopoc 6y ago> [the aliens] wished to prevent mass hysteria I don't think any government agency has a right to hide the existence of aliens from the public for the public's good, whether the aliens consent or not. Proof of the existence of aliens would impact our understanding of the universe and ourselves so fundamentally that hiding their existence is cruel. It would be like teaching your kids not to kiss or they'll get pregnant. It's a misguided attempt at protecting people in ways that prevents them from dealing with real life.
- rthomas6 6y ago"If you disclose our existence then we will [leave/blacklist Earth/blow up the planet]."
- piracy1 6y ago"Former Israeli space security chief says aliens exist" posted 9 hours ago uh oh lol
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 6y agoSo long and thanks for all the fish.
- vanusa 6y agoI don't think any government agency has a right You think that you have some say over what rights governments have?
- cdnpal 6y agoYou should consider that these aliens may be small insects or even microscopic. Our scale is not "universal". Revealing them could endanger them?
- cdnpal 6y agoConsider for a second if some highly intelligent tardigrades or resilient small insects from another civilization hitched a ride on a comet in suspended animation, then took a small fragment to earth. It could be as abstract as that, and it would fit a similar description. The fact that most of the readers here expect a human-like creature at our scale with x neurons and physiology like us is pretty naïve. It's sort of like Hollywood OS to actual operating systems. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-he-s-heard-very-interesting-things-about-roswell-n1231521 https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-he-...
- m0ngr31 6y ago"This cooperation includes a secret underground base on Mars, where there are American and alien representatives." Wouldn't this require some pretty big coordination to pull off? Assuming the UFOs didn't just suck up some astronauts with a tractor beam... Just seems like lots of people would have to know about this, making it hard to keep secret. I'd have a hard time believing Trump would know about this and never say anything... But what do I know?
- makerofspoons 6y agoConsidering the Air Force can't hide the X-37B from amateur astronomers it's more than a little suspect that Americans have been traveling to Mars for decades without anyone noticing anything leaving.
- phkahler 6y agoThey managed to keep things like the F117 secret for years, and those nifty helicopters used in the bin laden raid. If (and that's a huge if) this were true they could hitch a ride with ET, no need to use human tech. OTOH why meet in secret on mars? That seems silly. But large numbers of people successfully keeping secrets from the public is common.
- bradjohnson 6y agoI think that keeping the specifics of some aircraft/technology projects a secret (which are obviously and clearly being developed, this is not a secret) is quite a far cry from keeping the existence of aliens and coordinated secret meetings on Mars a secret.
- generalizations 6y agoAll that anyone would ever see, though, is a flying saucer or one of those 'pill'-shaped things. That's pretty easy to write off, regardless of the credentials of whoever made the observation. And, anyone who blows the whistle gets written off as crazy.
- redis_mlc 6y agoOh look, weekly HN UFO post. Talk about jumping the shark.
- WhoCaresLies 6y agoDon't forget to buy his book! This submission should be flagged
- jgwil2 6y agoGo ahead and flag it? That's what the button is there for.
- WhoCaresLies 6y agoi didn't know we as users could flag things it should be up to the moderators no?
- jgwil2 6y agoIf you see a submission you think is inappropriate, hit "flag" next to the time stamp. If enough users do so it will be marked flagged. I think moderators can restore it manually at that point. You can also vouch for submissions you think were wrongly flagged.
- gabrielblack 6y agoI just flagged it
- kps 6y agoI don't believe it. If there's one thing I learned from Star Trek, it's that you can cure the technologically-limited species' plague in 42 minutes.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mrfusion 6y agoPandemics end when people end them, not when the disease ends.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- whack 6y agoThis is absolutely wild. I've never entertained conspiracy theories about aliens for a minute. But this guy's credentials are as legit as they come. I don't understand why this isn't bigger news than it currently is. > retired Israeli general and current professor > served as the head of Israel's space security program for nearly 30 years and is a three-time recipient of the Israel Security Award Assuming the article isn't misrepresenting his comments, my belief in alien conspiracies has just shot up from 1E-6 to something like ~1%. Ie, I still don't believe in them, but given what's at stake, this is mind blowing.
- breck 6y agoCredentials: https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-chaim-eshed https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-chaim-es... Reuters 2007: https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080 https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080 He was literally in charge of Israel's space and satellite operations.
- mrfusion 6y agoEven 1% is huge.
- gabrielblack 6y agoNo photos, no references: could be a man with the same name. And he's 87 years old, I'm sorry but he can be senile, without evidences, this article IMHO is only a clickbait example.
- breck 6y ago> could be a man with the same name I think this is the most likely explanation, and where I'd put my money. I'll admit if he pranked me (as a fellow prankster, that would be a good one). But still, the slim odds times infinity makes this a story worth spreading so we can get eyes on it and put it to bed fast.
- istorical 6y agoI mean, if you just want highly credentialed people saying they believe they've seen evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft or life, you can look at Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Christopher Mellon, a ton of former astronauts, Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, Sen. Mike Gravel, Representative Roscoe Bartlett, former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer. Really it's pretty shocking people dont't care. That's just a short list I was able to remember / google my way to.
- breck 6y agoHe is on the Wall of Honor at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum: https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-chaim-eshed https://airandspace.si.edu/support/wall-of-honor/dr-chaim-es...
- ceejayoz 6y agoBeing notable for something doesn’t make you credible in everything. https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Nobel_disease
- breck 6y agoIf aliens existed and we knew about it, who would know? The head of Israel's and USA's space defense programs.
- dwaltrip 6y ago> If aliens existed and we knew about it... That is an absolutely enormous "if".
- ceejayoz 6y agoSure. “He’s full of it” is still an option, though. I’d argue it’s the likely one. People have been killed for revealing lesser secrets.
- breck 6y agoMy priors would say 99% odds he's full of it, but you have to admit that if he's not (and if he really was the head of Israel Defense space division, makes him 1 of a very few people who would know), then this would be the biggest story in the history of the earth. So shouldn't we at least take a look? The Top Story on HN right now is about a finance deal between Uber and Aururo. Pretty sure that even though that one is almost certainly true, it's expected impact on the world relative to this is zero.
- 6y ago
- gabrielblack 6y agoThis article give us no evidence/proof/fact at all, only the affirmations of a 87-year-old general that could be affected by senility . I don't know that newspaper, I don't know it it's some kind of satirical newspaper or not (forgive me but "Yediot" sound me like "Idiot") (EDIT: I found this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yedioth_Ahronoth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yedioth_Ahronoth , it seems a regular newspaper), but, if it's the work of professional journalists they should interrogate themselves about the importance of their job it these times of fake news, avoiding to produce this kind of material, even for "clickbaiting" purposes.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- breck 6y agoHe was literally in charge of Israel's space and satellite programs as recently as 2007 (https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080 https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL11678080). If what he says is true, this is exactly how'd you expect to hear about it: an old insider with nothing to lose who wants to tell the truth. "gabrielblack", what national space agency did you lead to tell us so assuredly that he's lying? All I know is that if I'm a reporter at the WSJ or NYTimes I'm not telling this story, because if it were true it would probably be your head.
- gabrielblack 6y agoNo photo, no references, no curriculum ! Could be a person with the same name! This article is full of speculations, Could someone honestly say that there is a single thing reliable there ? IMHO it's more like the plot of an episode of "Men In black" then a serious newspaper article.
- gabrielblack 6y agoAnd don't forget. this isn't the original article: it's an article describing another article. What's that ? Metajournalism ?
- breck 6y agoAnyone speak Hebrew? How does he sound here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdK9KwjBn0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbdK9KwjBn0
- breck 6y agoHere he is talking 9 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjSeORB1Og https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myjSeORB1Og The dude seems legit. This could be real.
- ceejayoz 6y agoBernie Madoff seemed legit, too.
- uniqueid 6y agoThis could be real. Yeah, it's not. The saying goes "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", not "extraordinary claims must come from one important-sounding guy."
- breck 6y agoAnonymous user "uniqueid", I forget which defense space agency were you head of?
- uniqueid 6y agoI probably should have phrased my comment in a less confrontational way. I think there are more likely explanations for this story; my guess is a confluence of a nervous breakdown with a life-long desire to meet aliens. I reckon most people who work at space agencies are also fans of science fiction.
- breck 6y agoSorry to harp on you there, you never know if you're talking to GPT-3 on these things. The most plausible explanation is that the person who “recorded his conversations” also took “creative liberty” with his conversations. IMO, the story is too airtight to be a result of senility. It seems like, in order of probability, 1) the work of a really good sci-fi author 2) a really good elaborate prank 3) really sharp 87 year old having a good laugh 4) senile 87 year old 5) the truth. Even though #5 is low, expected value of the story is very high. As far as I know, never in history has the former head of one of the top space agencies come forward and said "yes, aliens are real and we are communicating with them".
- mikewarot 6y agoIf I were from the Star Trek future, and had contact with us right now, I would definitely not hand over the galactic car keys.
- giardini 6y agoBut it would be only charitable to open the galactic medicine cabinet.
- mikewarot 6y ago>But it would be only charitable to open the galactic medicine cabinet. Not really, consider what happened when we got Antibiotics, we ended up feeding them to livestock for a few % body weight. If we got future level medicine, we'd breed future proof plagues.
- theonlybutlet 6y agoAlthough the whole thing is ridiculous, he would've nearly had me at they're in communication part with me imagining some laser communication method. The Mars story just took it too far. Come on people, at least make sure your conspiracy is plausible.
- thinkingemote 6y ago"humanity isn't ready" is classic conspiracy theory. It means "we the (secret) governments are in control of the situation". Especially with the moon base. It's a classic comforting and chaos limiting conspiracy theory giveaway. To consider it possible implies you think it's possible for our governments to collaborate and keep things secret for our own benefit. I believe that if there were aliens that mankind will do just fine, no panic, in fact the existence of a real "other" maybe something the species might need.
- generalizations 6y agoIt's also a solution to the Fermi Paradox: we can't see other species out there, because they're hiding and have chosen not to show themselves.
- ChuckStone 6y agoGovernment's have shown a huge capacity for co-operation on a global, almost absolute scale. There are times when they have shown a capacity to engage in conflict, yes. But since the mid-50s, at least two major powers have held the capacity to destroy earth in its entirety and have hitherto failed to do so. Since then, we've built the World Wide Web, established a global world governing structure (UN, and it's instruments)... Co-operated on a whole host of humanitarian projects. Ronald Reagan ordered the GPS system to become open to all, in order to protect humanity from air disasters. That said, disputed evidence for the existence of aliens exists all over the place. People "know" about Roswell. Countless people have seen UFOs. And sceptics have simply said "now now, don't be silly. There must be other some explanation". That's hardly proof, but there isn't a complete blackout of information out there. Whether you dismiss it all as a collective delusion (also feasible, considering The Mandela Effect, and other similar phenomenon)... Or the leaked whispers of a genuine conspiracy. If mankind can keep the secret of how to saw a lady in half on a stage, it can keep this one.
- totalZero 6y agoHe's selling a book. Also, this part is so contradictory: But Eshed insists that Trump is aware of them, and that he was "on the verge" of disclosing their existence. However, the Galactic Federation reportedly stopped him from doing so, saying they wished to prevent mass hysteria since they felt humanity needed to "evolve and reach a stage where we will... understand what space and spaceships are," Yediot Aharonot reported. So it's wrong for Trump to disclose the existence of the Galactic Federation, but Eshed is free to do so? Hmm...
- jon_osterman 6y agoAnd, if Trump did know, he would have somehow worked that into his presidential campaign and a reason to re-elect him. Sort of like: “Meeting with us very, very soon. Very good people on both sides,..well maybe people on one side. We’ll have to see. They are staying at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, the absolute best place. We are looking very strongly at renaming it Trump Intergalactic Hotel”.
- Lidador 6y ago2020
- giardini 6y agoTime required for "humanity needed to "evolve and reach a stage where we will... understand what space and spaceships are,"" could only be measured in eons, so this would be the same as saying "You'll get no help." Consequently this appears to be BS: why contact any earthlings millions of years before you'll reveal yourself to most earthlings. On the other hand, the Israelis claim to be "God's chosen people" so why shouldn't they also be the "aliens' chosen people"?
- SpelingBeeChamp 6y ago"On the other hand, the Israelis claim to be "God's chosen people"" That is not correct. A quarter of the population of Israel isn't Jewish. They certainly don't. And of the ~75% who are, around half identify as secular / not religious.
- ftr45 6y agothat's obviously false, alien would never contact israel or usa
- raelmiu 6y agoHonestly, I know this sounds like a conspiracy theory or a crappy way to sell his book, I just really want this to be true.
- LittlePeter 6y agoI think it is much more likely that the 87-old is - suffering from a mental disease - is bored to death and pulling a prank before it's his time to go
- jon_osterman 6y agoThe aliens asked specifically not to have their contact revealed. So, what does he do? At least Mulder will be happy...
- jon_osterman 6y agoI am extremely skeptical of this claim, but I thought I might look at the book. It is published in Hebrew. I do not know if it will be translated into other languages...
- BuckRogers 6y agoThe people are ready, but we can't say our leaders are.
- cryptica 6y agoThis guy just decided to sell his reputation for some quick cash (with his book). Maybe he saw a last opportunity to get in on the Bitcoin craze. His family can blame it on dementia and his reputation may stay intact anyway. We're just crossed the threshold were a world-class pristine reputation which spans almost a century has become less valuable than a modest sum of money...
- serani 6y agoI read the jokes on some of the comments on here which I could understand bc it’s a bit scary thinking about if something like this could be true. Having Said that, I am a bit terrified and it’s because I heard of this gentleman and he is highly respected throughout the world in space Security. What he said was true and when whenever it is going to be confirm. Life is never going to be the same.
- rspoerri 6y agoWe were visited by aliens and i did not even get a lousy tshirt? No, seriously, i would like to discuss terms of humanity joining your galactic federation. And About the promised tshirts. I might not be representative, but neighter is the current president of the usa. At least i try to be funny, he is definately not. I wear M, address is at my ip, please dont forget the custom declaration documents when sending the package. Kind regards :-)
- kelsolaar 6y agoThis is in direct contradiction to what Edward Snowden is saying in Permanent Record. He could not find anything.
- offRamGiG 6y agoThe aliens would take a look at Twitter and the U.N and quarantine the system