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> But scientifically speaking, there is little to warrant that connection. Nothing more annoying than people pretending they are open minded about extraterrest

> But scientifically speaking, there is little to warrant that connection. Nothing more annoying than people pretending they are open minded about extraterrestrial life when they are not. Plus the need to defend one’s "credibility". Nobody talking about ufos as non-scientists pretends they are doing science. Just excitement, and interesting questions. A very healthy exercise, essential part of philosophy, metaphysics in particular... Questions which open our mind and help reconsider the "mundane" also, by reframing it. Who is this guy writing for? Nobody. Or himself. "Look at me I am a very rational person, that does not believe in fairytales". As Alan Watts said: "science is the art of prediction". edit: Perhaps explaining my thinking better: - a lot of science is in fact predictions aka theories / models based on what is deemed sufficient, correlated observations - as long as the model fits with the data, it is an acceptable explanation, it still is not "truth"... and if the model doesn’t fit anymore than just discard it, that’s how science progresses So in light of that, if/when we have sufficient observations, why would a theory that we may be visited by extraterrestrial life, ie. that these UAP may be crafts of extra terrestrial origin, why should such a theory be more problematic or less "scientific" than any other? The article reminds me of the rejection and resistance even physicists receive as in the Oumuamua story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua#Alien_object_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua#Alien_object_hypothe... He was on Joe Rogan explaining how much resistance he met even among his peers but thankfully he doesn’t care about social media... because lets call it for what it is : what the author ofthe article does indirectly is continue a long line of shaming others who dare put theories (aka predictions) that are unconventional.

pohl 5y ago
"Open minded" is not necessarily a virtue. Sometimes it's a weakness. QAnon adherents are, in ways, open minded.
- zzzeek 5y ago
  open-minded and critical thinking skills are orthogonal.
- NaN1352 5y ago
  If open mindedness is a weakness, then you’re talking about something else. Conspiracy theories have nothing to do with open mindedness. The latter is about asking questions, not outright rejecting established ideas.
- hnlmorg 5y ago
  Having chatted to a few folks who believe in QAnon -- if there's one thing I wouldn't describe them as, it's open minded. Conspiracy theories are basically just modern day religions. They prey on people who like to think of themselves as open minded but who actually just want to be reassured that their paranoid delusions are justified.

pohl 5y ago

"Open minded" is not necessarily a virtue. Sometimes it's a weakness. QAnon adherents are, in ways, open minded.

zzzeek 5y ago
open-minded and critical thinking skills are orthogonal.
NaN1352 5y ago
If open mindedness is a weakness, then you’re talking about something else. Conspiracy theories have nothing to do with open mindedness. The latter is about asking questions, not outright rejecting established ideas.
hnlmorg 5y ago
Having chatted to a few folks who believe in QAnon -- if there's one thing I wouldn't describe them as, it's open minded. Conspiracy theories are basically just modern day religions. They prey on people who like to think of themselves as open minded but who actually just want to be reassured that their paranoid delusions are justified.