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A reminder that UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object. This is just a report on what the military saw in the air and could not identify. It neither confirm

A reminder that UFO stands for Unidentified Flying Object. This is just a report on what the military saw in the air and could not identify. It neither confirms nor denies popular ideas about aliens visiting earth. In most cases, you can guess these are probably aircraft from other countries. In some cases, they may be experimental aircraft being developed in secret by some organization or other. I am someone who thinks there likely is alien activity on earth, but government reports about unidentified flying objects aren't about efforts to prove or disprove that aliens from elsewhere visit earth. They are data on sightings in US air space of things we could not identify. That's all they are. If you want to extrapolate "It's aliens!" Coolios. If you want to insist "Aliens don't exist! This is nonsense!" Equally coolios. "Aliens" isn't why the US government tracks this stuff. National security is the goal and nothing more than that should be inferred in terms of what the US government "believes" in.

busyant 5y ago
> I am someone who thinks there likely is alien activity on earth Can you elaborate on why you think this (or provide some additional detail)? For example, do you mean "intelligent" life? Or is this more along the lines of panspermia? Thank you.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  No, I don't care to elaborate on my personal opinions about this topic. I only noted that because I habitually remind people on HN that UFO just stands for Unidentified Flying Object and the reason the US government is interested is for national security reasons. I noted it just to suggest "If you are inferring that I am on your side in thinking only nutters believe in aliens you are wrong." I have no desire to have that conversation here. Comments on this topic are consistently appallingly bad by HN standards and my only desire is to say "Keep it real people. This is not a government report on aliens. That's not what this is."
  - tw04 5y ago
    I think if you threw out why you feel there is alien activity with a "not looking to debate it" that would be more interesting than saying you think people are going to argue with you. If you've stated reasoning in the past maybe just link to that?
    - f02a 5y ago
      I, for one, 100% believe that at least some of this is advanced, non-human tech. Trying to convince HN about the "why" is at best problematic. I could give evidence from my own observations and experiences, but they would be easily dismissed due to lack of evidence. I'll just say that we, as humans, do not fully understand how consciousness works. I'm certain that there are others in this galaxy who do, and I have personal experience to back that up. What percentage of HN is going to believe that I, for whatever reason, have come into contact with an advanced, non-human intelligence? Spoiler: near zero. That's why I post about this topic on a burner account.
      - camjohnson26 5y ago
        I mean, I’ll believe that something happened to you that has completely convinced you, and it’s a nice piece of data that helps explain why some people believe differently than I do. The goal of every discussion doesn’t have to be to convince the other person, just acknowledging the existence of differences is enough sometimes.
      - nojokes 5y ago
        Was this a conscious contact? Would be interesting to read about this experience.
        f02a 5y ago
        Since this is the HN crowd, I'll explain it this way: if you assume your brain is a biological machine, what if you could decipher its firmware and hack into it? What if you could remotely exploit it and take over its sensory inputs? It's hard to say if a contact is "conscious" or not because "they" seem to have the power to exploit and control it, to communicate by sending symbolic language and imagery. Contact is difficult to explain to this crowd; when I turn the tables and imagine someone explaining their experience to me, it would sound like something indistinguishable from magic. Something so unbelievable that you would immediately discount it and look for alternate explanations, or question the person's sanity.
drcode 5y ago
Do you really think there is a single human being that reads HN and thinks "UFO" means 100% aliens? I sorta doubt anyone here needs such a reminder.
- sillysaurusx 5y ago
  Yes, I think the reminder is helpful. In fact I saw a fella on HN argue that because some rocks on Mars looked a bit like faces, we should consider the alien possibility. (This was many months or years ago; HN becomes an orange blur after awhile, but it was surprising enough to stick in my memory.) Edited to tone down the intro sentence a bit.
- bellyfullofbac 5y ago
  Ctrl-F, "If UFOs are real", someone actually wrote that in this comments section. Yes, the concept of objects that are in the air/flying and you can't identify what they are, is real, and that commenter was using the incorrect definition of UFO=aliens...
jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 5y ago
> In most cases, you can guess these are probably aircraft from other countries. From the report: "We currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary."
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ssully 5y ago
  They also say: "We are conducting further analysis to determine if breakthrough technologies were demonstrated." Basically, the summary of the report is that there are 10+ incidents that they cannot explain to what they believe is insufficient data, so please give them more money so they can collect and analyze more data to try and identify them.
neom 5y ago
Bill Nelson sorta said as much in this interview: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/06/04/ufo-nasa-navy-pilots-bill-nelson-chief-investigation-pentagon-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-spacex/ https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/06/04/ufo-nasa-navy...
aliasEli 5y ago
Actually, I really prefer the term UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon) over the term UFO (Unidentified Flying Object). Using the name object makes everybody assume that it is physical object, which may or may not be true.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

busyant 5y ago

> I am someone who thinks there likely is alien activity on earth Can you elaborate on why you think this (or provide some additional detail)? For example, do you mean "intelligent" life? Or is this more along the lines of panspermia? Thank you.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
No, I don't care to elaborate on my personal opinions about this topic. I only noted that because I habitually remind people on HN that UFO just stands for Unidentified Flying Object and the reason the US government is interested is for national security reasons. I noted it just to suggest "If you are inferring that I am on your side in thinking only nutters believe in aliens you are wrong." I have no desire to have that conversation here. Comments on this topic are consistently appallingly bad by HN standards and my only desire is to say "Keep it real people. This is not a government report on aliens. That's not what this is."
- tw04 5y ago
  I think if you threw out why you feel there is alien activity with a "not looking to debate it" that would be more interesting than saying you think people are going to argue with you. If you've stated reasoning in the past maybe just link to that?
  - f02a 5y ago
    I, for one, 100% believe that at least some of this is advanced, non-human tech. Trying to convince HN about the "why" is at best problematic. I could give evidence from my own observations and experiences, but they would be easily dismissed due to lack of evidence. I'll just say that we, as humans, do not fully understand how consciousness works. I'm certain that there are others in this galaxy who do, and I have personal experience to back that up. What percentage of HN is going to believe that I, for whatever reason, have come into contact with an advanced, non-human intelligence? Spoiler: near zero. That's why I post about this topic on a burner account.
    - camjohnson26 5y ago
      I mean, I’ll believe that something happened to you that has completely convinced you, and it’s a nice piece of data that helps explain why some people believe differently than I do. The goal of every discussion doesn’t have to be to convince the other person, just acknowledging the existence of differences is enough sometimes.
    - nojokes 5y ago
      Was this a conscious contact? Would be interesting to read about this experience.
      - f02a 5y ago
        Since this is the HN crowd, I'll explain it this way: if you assume your brain is a biological machine, what if you could decipher its firmware and hack into it? What if you could remotely exploit it and take over its sensory inputs? It's hard to say if a contact is "conscious" or not because "they" seem to have the power to exploit and control it, to communicate by sending symbolic language and imagery. Contact is difficult to explain to this crowd; when I turn the tables and imagine someone explaining their experience to me, it would sound like something indistinguishable from magic. Something so unbelievable that you would immediately discount it and look for alternate explanations, or question the person's sanity.

drcode 5y ago

Do you really think there is a single human being that reads HN and thinks "UFO" means 100% aliens? I sorta doubt anyone here needs such a reminder.

sillysaurusx 5y ago
Yes, I think the reminder is helpful. In fact I saw a fella on HN argue that because some rocks on Mars looked a bit like faces, we should consider the alien possibility. (This was many months or years ago; HN becomes an orange blur after awhile, but it was surprising enough to stick in my memory.) Edited to tone down the intro sentence a bit.
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
Ctrl-F, "If UFOs are real", someone actually wrote that in this comments section. Yes, the concept of objects that are in the air/flying and you can't identify what they are, is real, and that commenter was using the incorrect definition of UFO=aliens...

jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 5y ago

> In most cases, you can guess these are probably aircraft from other countries. From the report: "We currently lack data to indicate any UAP are part of a foreign collection program or indicative of a major technological advancement by a potential adversary."

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ssully 5y ago
They also say: "We are conducting further analysis to determine if breakthrough technologies were demonstrated." Basically, the summary of the report is that there are 10+ incidents that they cannot explain to what they believe is insufficient data, so please give them more money so they can collect and analyze more data to try and identify them.

neom 5y ago

Bill Nelson sorta said as much in this interview: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/06/04/ufo-nasa-navy-pilots-bill-nelson-chief-investigation-pentagon-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-spacex/ https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/06/04/ufo-nasa-navy...

aliasEli 5y ago

Actually, I really prefer the term UAP (Unexplained Aerial Phenomenon) over the term UFO (Unidentified Flying Object). Using the name object makes everybody assume that it is physical object, which may or may not be true.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]