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Imagine some gorillas deep somewhere in the jungle pointing at the Jeep the naturalists have driven up in. ape #1: You see that thing, holy crap what is it?

Imagine some gorillas deep somewhere in the jungle pointing at the Jeep the naturalists have driven up in. ape #1: You see that thing, holy crap what is it? ape #2: Oh yeah, that's just a bunch of rocks. ape #1: But, it moved!!! ape #2: Must be some animal from another part of the forest. ape #1: I've seen it move faster than any other animal in the forest! ape #2: You've been eating rotten bananas!! ape #1: But the big chief apes said they saw them too! ape #2: <This thread, but with gorillas> Anyway, that's my pet theory. We are way out in the middle of nowhere Milky Way Galaxy and the ETs have sent a few guys out to check on us, learn about us, etc. They don't get out of the Jeep because they know they'll get their arms ripped off if they startle any of us, the gorillas, so they just watch us from a distance and speed off if there's any danger. So even if these are E.Ts. They don't want to talk with us, or invite us to join the federation. They don't even want to destroy us. They might as well be on the other side of the Galaxy, except we occasionally get to see them zip around.

titzer 5y ago
If aliens are smart enough to conquer interstellar travel, why do they put lights on their otherwise-invisible spaceships?
- hindsightbias 5y ago
  Just because they’re aliens doesn’t mean they haven’t read FAA regs.
- narrator 5y ago
  Same reason we do stuff to prevent bird strikes of airplanes. It's just practical, and considerate of nature. They aren't vulnerable to our weapons, the same way gorillas throwing rocks can't hurt the jeep. All sci-fi, except for maybe Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos, assumes that we have something that makes us important enough for the Universe to care about Humans as anything more than a biological curiosity. I think the "we're just wildlife to them" idea would be a very tough metaphysical pill for most people to swallow.
  - titzer 5y ago
    If we posit the level of technological advancement necessary to travel between stars, it makes sense to me that if they wanted to go undetected, they could easily do so. Putting lights on their spaceships so that thousands or millions of people notice seems extremely implausible to me. It rather seems more "considerate of nature" to watch and not disrupt by essentially studying as invisibly as possible.
gruez 5y ago
>Anyway, that's my pet theory. We are way out in the middle of nowhere Milky Way Galaxy and the ETs have sent a few guys out to check on us, learn about us, etc. They don't get out of the Jeep because they know they'll get their arms ripped off if they startle any of us, the gorillas, so they just watch us from a distance and speed off if there's any danger. But that doesn't answer the biggest problem with "ufos are aliens" theory: why do you think the unexplained phenomena must be explained by aliens?

titzer 5y ago

If aliens are smart enough to conquer interstellar travel, why do they put lights on their otherwise-invisible spaceships?

hindsightbias 5y ago
Just because they’re aliens doesn’t mean they haven’t read FAA regs.
narrator 5y ago
Same reason we do stuff to prevent bird strikes of airplanes. It's just practical, and considerate of nature. They aren't vulnerable to our weapons, the same way gorillas throwing rocks can't hurt the jeep. All sci-fi, except for maybe Lovecraft's Cthulu mythos, assumes that we have something that makes us important enough for the Universe to care about Humans as anything more than a biological curiosity. I think the "we're just wildlife to them" idea would be a very tough metaphysical pill for most people to swallow.
- titzer 5y ago
  If we posit the level of technological advancement necessary to travel between stars, it makes sense to me that if they wanted to go undetected, they could easily do so. Putting lights on their spaceships so that thousands or millions of people notice seems extremely implausible to me. It rather seems more "considerate of nature" to watch and not disrupt by essentially studying as invisibly as possible.

gruez 5y ago

>Anyway, that's my pet theory. We are way out in the middle of nowhere Milky Way Galaxy and the ETs have sent a few guys out to check on us, learn about us, etc. They don't get out of the Jeep because they know they'll get their arms ripped off if they startle any of us, the gorillas, so they just watch us from a distance and speed off if there's any danger. But that doesn't answer the biggest problem with "ufos are aliens" theory: why do you think the unexplained phenomena must be explained by aliens?