UFOs

Philosophy and Skepticism

BRENT SILBY
Unlimited (UPT)
UFOS
Unidentified Flying Objects

Has Earth been visited by extraterrestrials?

discuss

Is there any evidence?

UFOS
Traditional evidence--pictures

This picture was taken in 1956 by a pilot flying over the Canadian
Rockies.
"I had the object in good view for upwards of 45 seconds. It was stationary, with sharply
defined edges. Looked like a shiny silver dollar sitting horizontal. The light emitted
was much brighter than the existing sunlight and overexposed the film causing blurred
edges in the picture... It neither moved nor changed shape while I had it in sight."
UFOS
Traditional evidence--pictures

Salem Coast Guard Station, Massachusetts USA, 16-Jul-1952 photo of a formation of

4 UFOs.
UFOS
Traditional evidence--pictures

Another old picture from the 1950s. These days it is easy to fake
pictures, so they can be explained away quickly. It was more
difficult to produce fake pictures in the 1950s.
UFOS
Are these pictures convincing?

At first glance they may look real, but when we look a little deeper
we see that they could easily be faked.

How would you produce a fake UFO picture without computer

graphics?
[discuss]

You see it would be easy to do this

UFOS
What other evidence do we have?

Personal encounters

Eye witness accounts describe the appearance of UFOs. Often

they depict landings of space-craft and encounters with alien
species.

In some extreme cases, the accounts describe abductions by

aliens for the purpose of scientific experimentation. Some
nightmarish stories have been told.
UFOS

The abduction stories usually involve the feeling of being

paralyzed while weird experiments are carried out.

Can these stories be believed?

UFOS

No! There is never any evidence that can be independently tested.

Furthermore, these UFOs only ever seen to present themselves to
the people who are least likely to be believed-just like ghosts.

If they wanted to make contact, surely they would be more direct.

Stories of paralysis can be explained by certain stages in the

sleep pattern. Our bodies are semi-paralyzed during sleep. If you
happen to slip back into consciousness during that stage, you will
feel paralyzed. Add the remnants of REM sleep, and you have a
story to tell.
UFOS

Lets look at the situation rationally…

How likely is it that aliens have visited Earth?

If closest star had inhabited planets, those aliens traveling at the speed of light
could get here quite quickly. But their homeworld friends would age 10 years
during that round trip.

This is a consequence of relativity theory

UFOS

If the closet star has inhabited worlds, surely we would have

detected some activity from those worlds--radio transmissions
being the most likely

UFO crazy began during the 1950s when the airforce were testing
new technologies over Roswell, New Mexico

What is most likely:

1 That aliens from other worlds traveled for thousands of
years to visit Earth, and keep their visit relatively secret; or

2 Some people witnessed new airforce technologies

Is there a better way to discover life elsewhere?

There is no evidence to support the claim that UFOs are

visitors from other worlds

Scientists are searching for evidence of life elsewhere by:

1 Sending robotic probes to Mars
2 SETI
Life on other worlds

Viking missions to Mars in 1970s

These probes had a limited laboratory, which tested the soil on

Mars.
Life on other worlds

Robot arm scooped soil into the portable laboratory

Life on other worlds

All experiments came back negative

Life on other worlds

The rovers “Spirit” and “Opportunity” that have been on Mars

since the early 2000s were not designed to test for life.

But robot “Phoenix” landed in the Martian north pole in 2008. It is

designed to test for life frozen in the perma-frost.
Life on other worlds

Philosophically, what would it mean if the probe discovers the

remains of life?

1 It would shift our egocentric view of our own importance

Earth ain’t so special

2 It would show us that emergence of life is more common

than we once thought

3 The fact that Mars is now life-less has implications for the
way we think about the future of life on Earth
Ecosystems are fragile…
The continuation of life is not guaranteed
Life on other worlds
Another way to look for life elsewhere in the universe is the
SETI project

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Can’t go to other star systems, but we can listen for signals

Evolution of Life elsewhere

Probably won’t detect a signal purposely sent to us, but we might

detect their internal communications

We have been leaking signals out to space for the last 100 years,
so any species that lives within a radius of 100 light years from
us will be just starting to hear us

If they are listening…

Evolution of Life elsewhere

Galaxy is 100,000 light years across, so our signals have traveled

0.1% distance across the galaxy

Intelligence of similar age to us on other side of galaxy would

have reached similar distance.
Evolution of Life elsewhere

Maybe an ancient civilization discovered radio communication

100,000 years ago.

If they lived on other side of the galaxy, we will just be hearing

them.

If we decided to direct a response to them, they would receive it

for 100,000 years. There will be no 2-way conversation with
a species that distant.

They may be extinct before our signal reaches them

Importance of the search

Answering the question about intelligent life elsewhere is

important to us

If we discover intelligent life, then it gives us hope for long term

survival

It would show that it is possible for intelligent life to survive

If we do not discover intelligent life in the universe, it could mean

that intelligence is not an adaptation with long term survival
viability
Importance of the search

Intelligence is nothing more than an evolutionary experiment, just

like teeth, or fur.

There is no guarantee that it will survive long-term.

Evolution selects traits that provide an adaptive advantage. We

can see that intelligence was adaptive when it first emerged, but
perhaps it is now mal-adaptive.

Intelligence gives us the ability to alter the Earth for our short
term survival needs. Long-term is not an issue for us.
Closing thought

Consider cancer cells

They are excellent reproducers, reproducing fast and effectively

However, they eventually bring about the death of the organism

within which they live.

Is it possible that intelligence suffers from a similar problem?

We reproduce without end, and extend our lives, consuming

everything in our path until eventually there will be nothing left to
consume.

Earth will no longer be suitable to sustain us and we will die out.

Powerpoint by BRENT SILBY
www.def-logic.com

Produced at UPT
Christchurch, New Zealand
www.unlimited.school.nz