Monday, August 25, 2008

The Provenance of UFO's




One thing we find with UFO sightings is that they still don't seem to shed any light on the issue of provenance. Where do they come from?? What are they?? What is their origin?? This problem makes for unrealistic scientific inquiries. Science is based on observation, experiments, testable hypotheses and so forth. Usually, when presented with a scientific problem, observations help. In this case observations of UFO's hurts


The collection of sightings and continued observations is supposed to make the science better. It doesn't. And this is why UFO's, at this point, are not a scientific problem. Science as we know it cannot solve the UFO question until more verifiable data is unveiled. So what is the problem??


One of the problems is that UFO's are an evolving phenomena. Sure they tend to be discs, lights in the sky, triangles or boomerangs, or even weirdly constructed craft, but they continue to get mixed with all sorts of prosiac phenomenon as well. And that prosaic stuff is changing.


We have been in a technological age that builds new, many times secret, aircraft. And these aircraft have to be tested. We now have true drone craft. Unmanned craft that can pull off manuevers that human pilots cannot withstand. Again they need to be flown many times to test their construction. We also have satellites that can become highly visible from the ground. The Internation Space Station has been the culprit of many UFO encounters. So has the development and subsequent testing of American spy planes.


We also have many gadgets and toys that are airborn. We haven't always had all the different spectrum of flying objects in our sky. So as we are unfamiliar with many of these objects, they become the source for many UFO sightings. Then we also have even more complex hoaxers out ther as well. Lanterns in the sky. Balloons that carry timed LED flashing lights. More and more of this has been happening. All the while these hoaxes are observed by unsuspecting people and are reported.




Meanwhile if there are some real intelligently controlled non-human craft, it often or always, will be carried with the muddy array of the above mentioned. This is why, or at least one reason why, we cannot source UFO's. There is simply too much and more to come. I can't really propose a way aroud this. Ufologists have to be careful and perhaps try to classify better these sightings. Perhaps with responsible and detailed classification we can begin to recognize the lanterns, the ballons, the flares, and so forth. Not to mention the meteors, space junk, lenticular clouds, Venus, ordinary planes, flaming oil wells, and frisbees.



The subjectivity of humans seeing these phenomenon doesn't help either. Because what we may find is that people don't really describe what they actually objectively saw. They mix this in and distort the sighting with what they want to see. They may want to unconsciously be a part of something greater than themselves. And this feeling may seep into their descriptions of "something not from this world". When in truth it could have been something much simpler.


Newly developed aircraft, toys, satellites, and hoaxers all present us without a source for true UFO's. While I don't discount real UFO's, I tend to think that there is less in the numerous observations than more. It is up to the intelligences to reveal themselves if they so desire to be known. And that hasn't happened. I doubt it will happen any time soon. Until then, expect observations to weaken even the validity and acceptance of the UFO reality.

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