NationStates Jolt Archive

Ever since that faithful day in 1947, people has been fascinated with UFOs, some think that they are aliens from another world, from another dimension, and some believe that they are highly classified Military aircraft. Ever since the Roswell crash, people have thought that UFOs technology recovered from crashes were used to progress our own technological advances. However, I always wonder why people thought that. I mean why do people think that the technology that we have today, could not be created by man himself, but by some highly developed alien? I mean do they really think that we are that stupid or that slow on progress when it comes to making new and exciting technology? Personally I think that we did make all the technology from 1947 onward, and that until I see undeniable fact that our technology came from aliens that crashed or came here, I'll always believe that.

(Yes I've been listening to Coast to Coast AM again.)

Yah, I agree. I think a lot of our cool tech that had its roots back them came not from crashed UFOs but from Nazi scientists smuggled into the US in the late 1940s. Though there were some top notch US dudes at the time too.

I guess people want to believe the UFOs are responsible because they have a problem understanding how such complicated stuff could come from a people that are otherwise so dumb.

Ever since that faithful day in 1947, people has been fascinated with UFOs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_airship

I mean why do people think that the technology that we have today, could not be created by man himself, but by some highly developed alien?People people are stupid and will believe any bullshit shoveled at them (even when it contradicts their other bullshit beliefs).

Also, banal explinations are less interesting than fantastic ones. I mean, aliens are just "sexier" than saying "some group of dudes spent their lives working it out, and then some other dudes built something with it".

People people are stupid and will believe any bullshit shoveled at them (even when it contradicts their other bullshit beliefs).

Also, banal explinations are less interesting than fantastic ones. I mean, aliens are just "sexier" than saying "some group of dudes spent their lives working it out, and then some other dudes built something with it".

Hmm that is true.

Work on your grammar, Wilgrove... "Faithful" day? "People has"? Jesus Fucking Christ, man!

:p

I'd say it was us that developed it, no question. Technology is inherently a positive feedback loop; each new advance makes the next one happen faster, which in turn makes the next one faster, and so on. To paraphrase, we as a society are on the "second half of the chessboard", when all the prior exponential growth in our technology is really starting to ramp up and produce leaps and bounds in our understanding, and those advances in turn produce even bigger gains, and even the rate of change accelerates faster and faster.

(IMO, UFOs, if they exist, are probably nature spirits or one of the "creatures of faerie"...I could see nature playing tricks on us like that. But, of course, I'm of a more spiritual bent so I'm inclined to think that way rather than of aliens)

Work on your grammar, Wilgrove... "Faithful" day? "People has"? Jesus Fucking Christ, man!

:p
I believe he is committing a PWI right now, posting while intoxicated. You should try it sometimes.

I love technology. No doubt if you showed computers, cell phones, wireless networks, etc. to someone from the 1940's, they would think it was alien. Who knows what really happened in 1947.

I don't understand why some want to dismiss humans as being capable of rapid technological advancement. Now if all of a sudden we had interstellar travel mastered tomorrow then I may start believing the alien tech theory. But stealth tech? It wasn't that hard to figure out.

I don't understand why some want to dismiss humans as being capable of rapid technological advancement. Now if all of a sudden we had interstellar travel mastered tomorrow then I may start believing the alien tech theory. But stealth tech? It wasn't that hard to figure out.
Why would you think that it was aliens? Sure it seems highly unlikely, nigh impossible even, but some people probably thought the same thing when 2 cities disapeared off the face of the Earth in the span of a few seconds.

well i don't think 1947 had a very much to do with it. people have always been fascinated by the idea of meating straingers for the first time, and i think ever since the conquests of alexander there has been the fear too of invasion and conquest. what the renasaunce and signifigantly more the 20th century brought to public conscionse was the possibilty of tangable everyday tecnology taking the place of what had previously been arbitrarily conjectured 'magic'.

i think anyone would have to be pretty numb not to at least consider the possibility of other creative intelligent life, somewhere, out there.

and there's no reason we couldn't have been clandestinely visited, even semi-good reasons of scientific curiousity, for someone from somewhere to do so.

and there may be more to it then that. or there may not.

i have to take with a bit of a grain of salt any claim of certainty one way OR the other. i mean as to our having been visited and what have you.

but as for their existence, i think it's unlikely in the extreme for them not to.

it IS a BIG universe out there. a hell of a lot bigger then our collective egos, whatever any belief may seem to imply to the contrary.

will our own tecnology someday be able to produce such craft, someday perhapse not all that far down the road?

the only fly i see in the ointment of our doing so, is that our carelessness with our environment, if we don't get our heads out of our assess and chainge our ways about that, could very well end up screwing us out of the opportunity to do so contiguous with the bout of tecnological evolution we've enjoyed, for the most part enjoyed, throught much of the 20th century.

=^^=
.../\...

Its probably something to do with the unbelieveably quick progression of the "Computer Age".
The Industrial Age just got really rolling in the last 300 years, however, the Computer Age, has made uncanny strides in less than 50.

I mean, we have 2 gig memory chips the size of chocolate chips.
Pretty freakin amazing if you think about it.

However, there are people who just cant accept that it may be attributable to genius and hard work, and instead wish to place the accolades on retro-engineered alien technology.

I like to keep an open mind, I really do.
Hell, Im not saying aliens arent out there.
Im not even saying they havent visited the earth, im just saying that a visitaton is so unlikely its silly, let alone capturing alien technology and integrating it into our own.

Thats science fiction, folks.

Why would you think that it was aliens? Sure it seems highly unlikely, nigh impossible even, but some people probably thought the same thing when 2 cities disapeared off the face of the Earth in the span of a few seconds. If you are referring to Sodom and Gomorrah in the biblical sense then it was an alien that did it by definition. Of course one would have to believe that happened first.

I love technology. No doubt if you showed computers, cell phones, wireless networks, etc. to someone from the 1940's, they would think it was alien. Who knows what really happened in 1947.

Eh? They had computers in the 40's, and as for cell phones and wireless networks - it ain't as if they hadn't had radio for decades by then.

isn't the argument based on the exponential growth in the rate of progress since then rather than questioning human's ingenuity. i mean the 20th century saw huge leaps in technological advance in most areas and it is now slowing, perhaps to the rate of the natural development of human ingenuity. or something.

isn't the argument based on the exponential growth in the rate of progress since then rather than questioning human's ingenuity. i mean the 20th century saw huge leaps in technological advance in most areas and it is now slowing, perhaps to the rate of the natural development of human ingenuity. or something.

It's not really slowing, though. The fields we're advancing in are different, so the effects are not seen in the same way; just look at how much the world has changed in the past decade since the internet and cell phones became common, or look at the exponential growth in computing power that is pushing our knowledge far beyond anything previously possible.

Most of our advances aren't in easily visible fields; colossal advances in genetics and neuroscience aren't as visible as the development of planes or the TV, but their effects are far broader and far deeper than those developments.

(IMO, UFOs, if they exist, are probably nature spirits or one of the "creatures of faerie"...I could see nature playing tricks on us like that. But, of course, I'm of a more spiritual bent so I'm inclined to think that way rather than of aliens)

OR as they are "Unidentified Flying Objects" mightn't they reasonably be prototype aircraft?

If I'd built a prototype and crashed it, I'd cover it up ASAP to prevent others from discovering what it was, and I'd thank God for any silly-ass conspiracy theory people made up to explain it -- hell, I might even plant the rumor myself!

PT Barnum was right.

PT Barnum was right.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time"? - or have I got the wrong quote?

OR as they are "Unidentified Flying Objects" mightn't they reasonably be prototype aircraft?

Possibly. But one problem is that UFO-style sightings appear to predate aircraft, so we'd have to find a way to explain the continuity of experience. Given that many of the stranger experiences are in wooded or wild areas, I lean towards more paranormal explanations for them.

I think the perception of UFOs as aircraft is linked to this idea, but at least some of the phenomena have nothing to do with it. A UFO sighting near a major military base is likely to be an aircraft, but one in the middle of nowhere isn't so easy.

If I'd built a prototype and crashed it, I'd cover it up ASAP to prevent others from discovering what it was, and I'd thank God for any silly-ass conspiracy theory people made up to explain it -- hell, I might even plant the rumor myself!

The first UFO sightings in their modern form were by military pilots...so make of that what you will.

"You can fool some of the people all of the time; you can fool all of the people some of the time, but you can never fool all of the people all of the time"? - or have I got the wrong quote?

I thought that was Abraham Lincoln.

I was referring to "There's a sucker born every minute."

I was referring to "There's a sucker born every minute."

Ah, file that with "one death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic" as spurious or most likely wrongly attributed. There's no evidence that Barnum ever spoke or wrote the 'sucker' line.

If you are referring to Sodom and Gomorrah in the biblical sense then it was an alien that did it by definition. Of course one would have to believe that happened first.
Actually I was refering to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, each of which were mostly destroyed in the span of a few seconds. One second the near-all clear was sounded and people went back to what they were doing before the 3 planes were spotted, the next all broadcasts and phone lines out of Hiroshima just went silent. At first no one knew what was going on. Then it happened again. Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death instantly.

Actually I was refering to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, each of which were mostly destroyed in the span of a few seconds. One second the near-all clear was sounded and people went back to what they were doing before the 3 planes were spotted, the next all broadcasts and phone lines out of Hiroshima just went silent. At first no one knew what was going on. Then it happened again. Practically all living things, human and animal, were literally seared to death instantly.

Alright wasn't thinking of those two. Yeah I see what you mean but given the context of which it happened I highly doubt anyone would have attributed that to anything other then the war. Now if it happened under peaceful conditions in lets say the 1920's. Just out of the blue for no reason then I could see that people may point to "aliens". Especially if no one took responsibility for dropping the nukes.

Who knows what really happened in 1947.
A Project Mogul balloon crashed. It's quite well documented.

I think aliens would have contacted us by now if they could. Especially if they built the pyramids, or intervened in some other way. Once we expand into space we'll evolve into seperate species due to extreme enviornmental changes, and we won't need aliens :D

Alright wasn't thinking of those two. Yeah I see what you mean but given the context of which it happened I highly doubt anyone would have attributed that to anything other then the war. Now if it happened under peaceful conditions in lets say the 1920's. Just out of the blue for no reason then I could see that people may point to "aliens". Especially if no one took responsibility for dropping the nukes.
Even today there are some who believe that those bombings and similar events and/or the technologies that made them possible were somehow tied to aliens. There are also people who believe in magic and others that believe that toxic waste will give you super powers. Just like there are those that think 9/11 and Pearl Harbor were inside jobs. If you can think of it there is someone who believes it.

(IMO, UFOs, if they exist, are probably nature spirits or one of the "creatures of faerie"...I could see nature playing tricks on us like that. But, of course, I'm of a more spiritual bent so I'm inclined to think that way rather than of aliens)

Huh? UFOs as nature spirits, now that's a theory I've never heard before.