

Ask HN: What is your opinion on UFO phenomena? - coleifer

What is your opinion on UFO phenomena? Do the sightings represent physical objects of unknown origin, or can they be attributed to misidentification&#x2F;hoaxes&#x2F;etc?
======
mathattack
If unknown includes the military, yes.

I wouldn't extrapolate that to aliens. Too much else would be going on.
(Technological advances, invasions, who knows what?) As much as I loved the
X-files, Snowden would have outed this secret project. :-)

------
duncan_bayne
Both. Clearly, some UFO sightings have been of objects that are physical and
unknown. Many (most?) were misidentification and hoaxes.

If you're actually asking whether they're alien spacecraft, well, there's a
million dollar prize for anyone who can prove that they are, and it's yet to
be successfully claimed:

[http://www.csicop.org/si/show/fakers_and_innocents_the_one_m...](http://www.csicop.org/si/show/fakers_and_innocents_the_one_million_dollar_challenge_and_those_who_try_for)

------
anigbrowl
Mostly the latter, than I think there's a few cases where it might be some
undiscovered natural phenomenon. I seem to remember people rejected the
existence of ball lightning at one stage.

But alien spaceships, most unlikely, though it disappoints me to say so. I
don't think we live anywhere special in galactic terms, or that our technology
or environment is so interesting enough as to attract extraterrestrial
attention.

------
eip
Dr. Ben R. Rich former Lockheed Skunk Works CEO:

1\. There are 2 types of UFOs — the ones we build and ones ‘they’ build. We
learned from both crash retrievals and actual “hand-me-downs.” The Government
knew and until 1969 took an active hand in the administration of that
information. After a 1969 Nixon “purge”, administration was handled by an
international board of directors in the private sector…

2\. Nearly all “biomorphic” aerospace designs were inspired by the Roswell
spacecraft — from Kelly’s SR-71 Blackbird onward to today’s drones, UCAVs, and
aerospace craft…

3\. It was Ben Rich’s opinion that the public should not be told [about UFOs
and extraterrestrials] . He believed they could not handle the truth — ever.
Only in the last months of his decline did he begin to feel that the
“international corporate board of directors” dealing with the “Subject” could
represent a bigger problem to citizens’ personal freedoms under the United
States Constitution than the presence of off-world visitors themselves.”

~~~
maxharris
I searched for "Ben R. Rich" on Google, and I can't find any non-UFO sites
that substantiate your claims.

