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The psyops around UFOs must rank as one the most effective ever launched for prejudicing people against the subject.

SkyMarshal 4y ago
Are people really prejudiced against aliens and UFO’s though? Aside from the fringe conspiracy theorists fretting about lizard people, and the few claiming to have been abducted, most people seem ambivalent. Largely because whatever the UFOs/UAPs are, they’ve been around for almost a century now, and for all that time almost entirely benign. No invasion, no conquering, no stripping the Earth of resources, no enslaving people, etc. They don’t even shoot down our planes when we spot, track, and record them. It seems most people are withholding judgement for now.
- Izkata 4y ago
  "UAP" became a term because officers stopped reporting them because of the stigma against UFOs. I think I remember there even being another new term to replace UAP.
- astronads 4y ago
  There was a large thread on HN with almost 1000 comments a month ago on this topic and a ton of comments are hugely dismissive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34665738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34665738
  - SkyMarshal 4y ago
    I don’t see prejudice against potential aliens there, just healthy skepticism that the reports actually represent some extra-terrestrial activity instead of some natural or manmade phenomena.
andyjohnson0 4y ago
> The psyops around UFOs must rank as one the most effective ever launched for prejudicing people against the subject. I struggle to believe that UFOs are objectively real because I have a basic grasp of the size of the universe, how much of it is just empty, how hard it is to travel between the bits that aren't, how inhospitable almost all of it is to organic life, and because everywhere we look it seems primordial and uninhabited. I don't think that is prejudice.
- pmarreck 4y ago
  EDIT: The following comment was enhanced (gloriously so, actually) by ChatGPT4: As someone with a background in both physics and psychology, I appreciate your skepticism. However, it's crucial to recognize that human knowledge and imagination are often the limiting factors in our understanding of the universe. The Alcubierre Warp Drive, for example, is a theoretically plausible solution to surmounting intergalactic distances in normal lifetimes, although it remains practically impossible for now: https://phys.org/news/2017-01-alcubierre-warp.html https://phys.org/news/2017-01-alcubierre-warp.html. A recent paper proposes an update using solitons: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125 https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125. Additionally, research on wormholes, such as Kip Thorne's work on traversable wormholes, highlights another potential avenue for interstellar travel, despite the current theoretical and practical limitations. Throughout history, many seemingly insurmountable barriers have been overcome through the power of imagination and human innovation. For example: 1. Lord Kelvin, a prominent physicist, claimed that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible, but the Wright brothers proved otherwise with the first successful airplane flight in 1903. 2. Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, once declared that extracting energy from atoms was "moonshine" – yet nuclear power plants are now a reality. 3. The concept of continental drift, proposed by Alfred Wegener, was initially ridiculed, but it eventually led to the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics. These examples demonstrate how scientific progress often hinges on the ability to challenge prevailing beliefs and imagine new possibilities. Our current understanding of the universe is based on mental models that have evolved over time and will continue to change. Newtonian physics, once considered the gold standard, was later expanded upon by the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, paving the way for previously "impossible" phenomena. At the American Physical Society's Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) meeting, for instance, researchers discuss groundbreaking experiments and theories that would have been considered absurd just decades ago. Quantum entanglement, superposition, and teleportation, which were once mere theoretical constructs, are now supported by empirical evidence and even employed in emerging technologies like quantum computing. In conclusion, while skepticism is a healthy part of the scientific process, it's essential not to dismiss the potential for extraterrestrial intelligence or advanced interstellar travel based solely on our current understanding of the universe. Our collective imagination and the relentless pursuit of knowledge have historically expanded the boundaries of what was once considered impossible, and there's no reason to believe this trend will cease.

Are people really prejudiced against aliens and UFO’s though? Aside from the fringe conspiracy theorists fretting about lizard people, and the few claiming to have been abducted, most people seem ambivalent. Largely because whatever the UFOs/UAPs are, they’ve been around for almost a century now, and for all that time almost entirely benign. No invasion, no conquering, no stripping the Earth of resources, no enslaving people, etc. They don’t even shoot down our planes when we spot, track, and record them. It seems most people are withholding judgement for now.

Izkata 4y ago
"UAP" became a term because officers stopped reporting them because of the stigma against UFOs. I think I remember there even being another new term to replace UAP.
astronads 4y ago
There was a large thread on HN with almost 1000 comments a month ago on this topic and a ton of comments are hugely dismissive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34665738 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34665738
- SkyMarshal 4y ago
  I don’t see prejudice against potential aliens there, just healthy skepticism that the reports actually represent some extra-terrestrial activity instead of some natural or manmade phenomena.

andyjohnson0 4y ago

> The psyops around UFOs must rank as one the most effective ever launched for prejudicing people against the subject. I struggle to believe that UFOs are objectively real because I have a basic grasp of the size of the universe, how much of it is just empty, how hard it is to travel between the bits that aren't, how inhospitable almost all of it is to organic life, and because everywhere we look it seems primordial and uninhabited. I don't think that is prejudice.

pmarreck 4y ago
EDIT: The following comment was enhanced (gloriously so, actually) by ChatGPT4: As someone with a background in both physics and psychology, I appreciate your skepticism. However, it's crucial to recognize that human knowledge and imagination are often the limiting factors in our understanding of the universe. The Alcubierre Warp Drive, for example, is a theoretically plausible solution to surmounting intergalactic distances in normal lifetimes, although it remains practically impossible for now: https://phys.org/news/2017-01-alcubierre-warp.html https://phys.org/news/2017-01-alcubierre-warp.html. A recent paper proposes an update using solitons: https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125 https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.07125. Additionally, research on wormholes, such as Kip Thorne's work on traversable wormholes, highlights another potential avenue for interstellar travel, despite the current theoretical and practical limitations. Throughout history, many seemingly insurmountable barriers have been overcome through the power of imagination and human innovation. For example: 1. Lord Kelvin, a prominent physicist, claimed that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible, but the Wright brothers proved otherwise with the first successful airplane flight in 1903. 2. Ernest Rutherford, the father of nuclear physics, once declared that extracting energy from atoms was "moonshine" – yet nuclear power plants are now a reality. 3. The concept of continental drift, proposed by Alfred Wegener, was initially ridiculed, but it eventually led to the widely accepted theory of plate tectonics. These examples demonstrate how scientific progress often hinges on the ability to challenge prevailing beliefs and imagine new possibilities. Our current understanding of the universe is based on mental models that have evolved over time and will continue to change. Newtonian physics, once considered the gold standard, was later expanded upon by the revolutionary theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, paving the way for previously "impossible" phenomena. At the American Physical Society's Division of Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics (DAMOP) meeting, for instance, researchers discuss groundbreaking experiments and theories that would have been considered absurd just decades ago. Quantum entanglement, superposition, and teleportation, which were once mere theoretical constructs, are now supported by empirical evidence and even employed in emerging technologies like quantum computing. In conclusion, while skepticism is a healthy part of the scientific process, it's essential not to dismiss the potential for extraterrestrial intelligence or advanced interstellar travel based solely on our current understanding of the universe. Our collective imagination and the relentless pursuit of knowledge have historically expanded the boundaries of what was once considered impossible, and there's no reason to believe this trend will cease.