I think you've tweeted this before, but this is just the Ozymandias plan. Unify by creating a Extraterrestrial Other who may or may not be hostile but definitely scary.
Hi Jeet! I have been a fan of your writing for a long time! Glad we can interact.
Regarding your second point which ends in :"So, that makes the possibility of extraterrestrials visiting earth also extremely unlikely." I think it's very possible, that an alien species with enough time could explore and even settle an entire galaxy. What I don't buy is lack of evidence.
If we are being visited evidence should be more concrete than what we are seeing.
I think that UFOs are not alien craft. They are certainly worthy of study. Some might be weather balloons. Some might be drones and experimental aircraft, possibly not our government. Some are simply the result of interesting natural phenomenon that we don't fully understand. Some are simply the result of human error.
When we encounter aliens, I think we will know that it is happening and not as ambiguous as the UFO phenomenon.
Here are some excellent sources of information, Dr. Steven Greer, https://siriusdisclosure.com/ and Kostas Macreas https://etletstalk.com/ . Both also help people get in touch with people near them who go out and experience sightings themselves. Highly recommended! :-)
A couple of comments from a physics PhD student on your numbered points:
2. The universe is large, but clocks don't run at the same speed for everyone. The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower your clock runs, asymptotically approaching 0. Some benchmarks for a 1000 light year journey:
- at 90% the speed of light, we'd see the spacecraft take about 1100 years, but on the spacecraft, only about 485 years would pass
- at 99% the speed of light, we'd see 1010 years, but it'd see about 140 years
- at 99.9% the speed of light, we'd see 1001 years and it'd see about 45 years
- at 99.99999% the speed of light, we'd see about 1000 years and it'd see just over five months[1][2]
The fastest object humans have ever made is a solar probe that went at about 70 km/s -- 0.023% the speed of light.
On the other hand, it'd take about 700 years to get up to 90% the speed of light at 100 g's and about 200 years at 1000 g's, and those accelerations are... deadly.
3. There are a few possible corners of known physics that'd potentially, someday, let human-built technology hit those kinds of speeds and accelerations, but they're completely infeasible right now. As in, "physically unstable mathematical object we aren't even going to see in a particle accelerator" infeasible, or "requires a type of matter that we've never seen before/ harnessing the energy of the expanding universe" infeasible. So I'd argue the required propulsion, at least, is at least centuries (rather than decades) ahead of us :)
For more info, you could check out Prof Kevin Knuth of the SUNY Albany physics department -- he's been studying UAPs since that 2017 NYTimes story, has done some public interviews and lectures, and has written some papers. And while he's a lot more open-minded than most scientists, his brains haven't fallen out.
[1] The relevant theory is special relativity, which describes how space and time are "stretched" differently for observers moving at different relative velocities. Similar effects hold for observers accelerating in arbitrary ways; this is called general relativity, which is Einstein's theory of gravity.
[2] The math: in special relativity, this "time dilation" is calculated with Δt' = Δt/γ, where 1/γ = sqrt(1 - (v/c)^2). You also have to take into account how long it takes to travel a certain distance at that speed, meaning you end up with formulas that look like
"Destabilizing polarization has been the norm in America since the early 1990s."
Right, because the massive conflict in US society over the Vietnam war, the Civil Rights movement, the sexual revolution, feminism and Women's rights, gay rights, environmental degradation (pollution) in the 60s and 70s weren't polarizing at all. It was the fall of Berlin wall and Soviet collapse was when we were all polarized and destabilized-like. I mean, what? Peculiar, arbitrary starting point to posit. The 90s? Pretty placid era in the US, compared to the 60s and 70s. Do you think average Americans paid much attention to the Cold War's end in their daily lives? The 90s brought imbaugh and Fox News to the fore but..
UFOs were pretty well represented in American popular culture in the 70s, along with bestsellers and cheap paperbacks covering astrology, horoscopes, reincarnation, ghost and poltergeists, the psychic and paranormal. My NYC library was happily well-stocked with books about UFOs and related phenomena, as a kid I ate them up. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a massive hit and cultural phenomena, absolutely everyone and their mothers went to see it. So, saying you had to go to tabloids rags like Weekly World News (yes, the tabloids definitely did heavily feature UFOs and aliens as a staple, it was great!) to find our about UFOs is.. not really accurate.
I mean, I know you're Canadian living in Germany, maybe you experience what it was like in 70s America but..it doesn't read like it.
I think you've tweeted this before, but this is just the Ozymandias plan. Unify by creating a Extraterrestrial Other who may or may not be hostile but definitely scary.
Hi Jeet! I have been a fan of your writing for a long time! Glad we can interact.
Regarding your second point which ends in :"So, that makes the possibility of extraterrestrials visiting earth also extremely unlikely." I think it's very possible, that an alien species with enough time could explore and even settle an entire galaxy. What I don't buy is lack of evidence.
If we are being visited evidence should be more concrete than what we are seeing.
I think that UFOs are not alien craft. They are certainly worthy of study. Some might be weather balloons. Some might be drones and experimental aircraft, possibly not our government. Some are simply the result of interesting natural phenomenon that we don't fully understand. Some are simply the result of human error.
When we encounter aliens, I think we will know that it is happening and not as ambiguous as the UFO phenomenon.
Here are some excellent sources of information, Dr. Steven Greer, https://siriusdisclosure.com/ and Kostas Macreas https://etletstalk.com/ . Both also help people get in touch with people near them who go out and experience sightings themselves. Highly recommended! :-)
A couple of comments from a physics PhD student on your numbered points:
2. The universe is large, but clocks don't run at the same speed for everyone. The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower your clock runs, asymptotically approaching 0. Some benchmarks for a 1000 light year journey:
- at 90% the speed of light, we'd see the spacecraft take about 1100 years, but on the spacecraft, only about 485 years would pass
- at 99% the speed of light, we'd see 1010 years, but it'd see about 140 years
- at 99.9% the speed of light, we'd see 1001 years and it'd see about 45 years
- at 99.99999% the speed of light, we'd see about 1000 years and it'd see just over five months[1][2]
The fastest object humans have ever made is a solar probe that went at about 70 km/s -- 0.023% the speed of light.
On the other hand, it'd take about 700 years to get up to 90% the speed of light at 100 g's and about 200 years at 1000 g's, and those accelerations are... deadly.
3. There are a few possible corners of known physics that'd potentially, someday, let human-built technology hit those kinds of speeds and accelerations, but they're completely infeasible right now. As in, "physically unstable mathematical object we aren't even going to see in a particle accelerator" infeasible, or "requires a type of matter that we've never seen before/ harnessing the energy of the expanding universe" infeasible. So I'd argue the required propulsion, at least, is at least centuries (rather than decades) ahead of us :)
For more info, you could check out Prof Kevin Knuth of the SUNY Albany physics department -- he's been studying UAPs since that 2017 NYTimes story, has done some public interviews and lectures, and has written some papers. And while he's a lot more open-minded than most scientists, his brains haven't fallen out.
[1] The relevant theory is special relativity, which describes how space and time are "stretched" differently for observers moving at different relative velocities. Similar effects hold for observers accelerating in arbitrary ways; this is called general relativity, which is Einstein's theory of gravity.
[2] The math: in special relativity, this "time dilation" is calculated with Δt' = Δt/γ, where 1/γ = sqrt(1 - (v/c)^2). You also have to take into account how long it takes to travel a certain distance at that speed, meaning you end up with formulas that look like
[our observed time] = [distance/velocity]
[their observed time] = [distance/velocity][time dilation factor]
or concretely, for the 90% speed of light calculation,
[our observed time] = 1000/0.9
[their observed time] = 1000/0.9 * sqrt(1-0.9^2)
We were always at war with Oceania/Eastasia.....
Your opinion lines up exactly with my opinion and therefore I think you are right and also very smart and probably handsome as well.
"Destabilizing polarization has been the norm in America since the early 1990s."
Right, because the massive conflict in US society over the Vietnam war, the Civil Rights movement, the sexual revolution, feminism and Women's rights, gay rights, environmental degradation (pollution) in the 60s and 70s weren't polarizing at all. It was the fall of Berlin wall and Soviet collapse was when we were all polarized and destabilized-like. I mean, what? Peculiar, arbitrary starting point to posit. The 90s? Pretty placid era in the US, compared to the 60s and 70s. Do you think average Americans paid much attention to the Cold War's end in their daily lives? The 90s brought imbaugh and Fox News to the fore but..
UFOs were pretty well represented in American popular culture in the 70s, along with bestsellers and cheap paperbacks covering astrology, horoscopes, reincarnation, ghost and poltergeists, the psychic and paranormal. My NYC library was happily well-stocked with books about UFOs and related phenomena, as a kid I ate them up. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a massive hit and cultural phenomena, absolutely everyone and their mothers went to see it. So, saying you had to go to tabloids rags like Weekly World News (yes, the tabloids definitely did heavily feature UFOs and aliens as a staple, it was great!) to find our about UFOs is.. not really accurate.
I mean, I know you're Canadian living in Germany, maybe you experience what it was like in 70s America but..it doesn't read like it.