
The Hunt for Aliens Is a Grassroots Movement Funded by Billionaires - elorant
https://www.inverse.com/article/25908-hunt-for-aliens-grassroots-movement-funded-by-billionaires
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rubicon33
You know that recent "pill shaped" craft that the F-18 pilot saw in the
Pacific Ocean?

What I don't understand is why it seems NOBODY is asking about DIVING beneath
where it was hovering. If you read the more detailed account of the encounter
(not the NYT article), the pilot clearly describes that the craft was hoving
above the water.

Why not dive straight down where it was hoving and see if there's something
special down there? I mean, maybe it was hovering there for a reason?

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TallGuyShort
From the details I've read it was hovering at a very low altitude above the
water. From normal cruising height down to right above the waves at visual
range in a short period of time is probably a bit aggressive. As I've heard
one former fighter pilot describe, the military has no interest in losing
trained pilots and jets. If you really follow all the rules they have to keep
you away from risky areas when it isn't necessary, there's a very low chance
you'll ever encounter an enemy Mig, etc. So with that said, following
procedure when encountering a UFO, a steep dive to very low altitude in close
proximity to an unidentified phenomenon is probably not something many crewmen
would immediately jump at.

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tgb
I think the suggestion was scuba diving, FYI.

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rubicon33
It was indeed... Use a robot, for all I care... But dive down to the ocean
floor!

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TallGuyShort
Oh you mean dive down there now, after the fact? That makes more sense...
Doesn't sound like it was there for very long at all.

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sebbecai
The premise of "The Three Body Problem" is that the fastest way to make a
technological leap is to find another species that has already developed the
technology. Even seeing what can be done would make a huge impact. China's
effort in the article parallels what happens in the book. Surprising that they
don't mention this when talking about the motivations of billionaires and
nation-states.

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pavel_lishin
I don't think that was the premise at all; what you're describing sounds
closer to "Signal to Noise" [1], another book that covers a lot of the same
themes as Three Body Problem (first contact, the dark forest hypothesis, etc.)

[1]:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/700919.Signal_to_Noise?f...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/700919.Signal_to_Noise?from_search=true)

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caseymarquis
Agreed.

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blacksmith_tb
This article is a breathless rush which conflates SETI with exploring the
solar system. I can't speak for Elon Musk, but I highly doubt he wants to land
a SpaceX crew on Mars to meet intelligent life (obviously finding any life
would be an astonishing discovery, plenty to go down in history). Yuri Milner
might have a little more luck in that regard with Breakthrough Starshot, if it
works (just in the sense that it's slightly - though only very slightly - more
likely there'd be intelligent life in another solar system). The universe is
big - my instinct is there's lots of life out there, likely even lots of
intelligent life, but we're all so spread out it'd be remarkable to find one
another...

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pwaai
I absolutely believe in extra-terrestrial intelligence. The fact that
recurring themes (oval shape, weather disturbences and seemingly instant
movements) dating back even before a long haired dude who claimed to have
defied the laws of biology and physics (every religious prophet ever).

This suggests the following three scenarios:

\- They don't necessarily care about being seen but will not interact with us.

\- Whatever it is they think we have, they keep coming back.

\- Just because we decide to pour billions, they aren't going to suddenly
change their minds.

To me this is a typical behavior of a civilization that exceeds us
technologically and their behavior suggests they are here to observe or gather
data somehow.

So is it colonial ambitions or just fascination with what they found--tiny
parasites with inferior intelligence and technology but entertaining to watch.

It would be like finding worms on some random planet. Not very useful to
attempt communication or establish trade. Maybe they come back every once in a
while to check if there has been any progress....

We could be many such "worms" find throughout the universe that these guys are
just cataloging, to figure out and understand it better.

edit: One final crazy out there theory is that these UFOs are just time
traveling machines operated by future versions of us. But if they interact or
spend too much time beyond being "UFOs", they might cause some type of
catastrophic failure in the fabric of time and space triggering another big
bang.

edit2: okay one really even more crazy but plausible idea is that we diverged
from a common intelligent being, and the OG smart guys are now discovering a
much more stupid version of them running around thinking they are smart.

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squozzer
It surprises me a little to hear that billionaires would even WANT to
establish contact with aliens.

For one, disregarding the aliens' dispositions towards us, the mere fact of
alien contact would probably introduce all kinds of unpredictable behavior,
especially in markets.

Moreover, once you build scenarios around possible alien intents, it doesn't
look good for humanity, much less the billionaires, in some of them.

Hostile - enslavement or extermination = no good for markets. Hostile -
exploitation = depends on what the aliens want, what they'll do to get it, and
how much of it one can control (e.g. 3rd world dictators) Benevolent -
capitalist = might actually work out for those who can act as gatekeepers for
the alien stuff. Benevolent - socialist = unlikely to grant anyone a monopoly
on alien stuff distribution.

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LeoJiWoo
The hunt for aliens suddenly cropping up in the nytimes has the feel of a
distraction.

The video itself felt like one of those old bigfoot vidoes.

I want to believe in aliens as a huge fan of star trek (TNG is best :) ), but
I feel skeptical for now.

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imglorp
Yep, as much as I want to believe, which is more likely?

1\. Our understanding of physics is very wrong and this is the very first time
we've seen any phenomena that overwhelmingly demonstrates that; OR

2\. Someone shopped up some videos for distraction and/or marketing? Perhaps
there's going to be an expensive military-industrial spending activity that
needs public support?

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pfisch
"Our understanding of physics is very wrong" \- this seems very likely to me.
Pretty much all scientists have been proven wrong so far in significant ways.
The entire structure of the universe makes no sense without tons of dark
matter and dark energy we can't observe, which sounds a lot like the way we
used to balance the equations of orbits so the earth was the center of the
galaxy.

[https://youtu.be/Zgk8UdV7GQ0?t=71](https://youtu.be/Zgk8UdV7GQ0?t=71)

2\. I think this alleges a pretty large conspiracy theory on the order of 9/11
being faked. There is a wide body of evidence from a lot of reputable
witnesses of unexplained phenomena. The idea that the military fabricated that
video and the pilots who are the witnesses is more ridiculous to me than "Our
understanding of physics is very wrong"

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24gttghh
>The entire structure of the universe makes no sense without tons of dark
matter and dark energy we can't observe

It's not _directly_ observable, but it's effects are certainly observable in
the surrounding organization of baryonic matter. It could very well be an
incorrect assumption, but we would need some evidence to the contrary to
change our minds, no?

edit: spelling

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uoaei
> It's not directly observable, but it's [sic] effects are certainly
> observable

You could say the same thing about the ether, the centrifugal force, and the
argument about flat earth.

My money is on dark matter's effects being due to some as-yet-undetectable
acclerative force, maybe due to deformative effects of gravity that are only
apparent at massive scales. Some sort of extension of GR that takes into
account local clustering of energy that it isn't yet doing. But I'm no
cosmologist.

Is that what the cosmological constant is all about?

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egwynn
I'm not sure it's possible for a movement to be both "grassroots" and also
"funded by billionaires".

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anaran
They Live

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bitsnbytes
Love that movie. I would almost wish they would make a remake of it , but
Hollywood would ruin it with their myopic political views.

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ivanbakel
It's kinda funny that this comment could equally apply to the original -
there's nothing apolitical or anti-contemporary about it either.

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KasianFranks
Are we the pinnacle of intellect in all the history of space and time?

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cabaalis
One thing I've though about is that it isn't just intelligence that matters.
It's also available resources. In order for a galactic civilization to spawn,
the intelligence must evolve on a planet or group of local bodies with natural
resources sufficient to allow it to spread. Spacecraft have to be built out of
something. Fuel has to come from somewhere.

I wonder if there have been countless other lifeforms and civilizations that
evolved and then subsequently died out because they used up all the natural
resources available to them.

