Do You Believe?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by Capt Jack

technically, any object in flight you cannot immediately identify would be considered an unidentified flying object, wouldnt it?

it makes no assumption to be alien or extra terrestrial...just that you cant tell/dont know what it was.

yes?

Yes, but the meaning of "UFO" has changed.

[BarTopDancer]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I'm trying to switch my general belief from "people are stupid" to "people are people." Time to tone down my negativity.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.


It still works.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I'm trying to switch my general belief from "people are stupid" to "people are people." Time to tone down my negativity.

It's a tough call. Can we create a category called "Situational Awareness" IQ?

An individual might be a ground breaking theoretical physicist, Oscar winning screenwriter or brain surgeon, but if they wait until they get to the front of the line at McDonald's to start deciding what they want to eat then they have a low SA-IQ.

[Capt Jack]

my dads term for those was 'educated idiot'

[flippyshark]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

It's a tough call. Can we create a category called "Situational Awareness" IQ?

An individual might be a ground breaking theoretical physicist, Oscar winning screenwriter or brain surgeon, but if they wait until they get to the front of the line at McDonald's to start deciding what they want to eat then they have a low SA-IQ.

The town I grew up in (Los Alamos, New Mexico) was full of physicists, and I saw lots of this type of pre-occupied, oblivious behavior.

Though I'm no scientist, I suspect that being surrounded by them in my formative years had something to do with my now rationalist, naturalist outlook, though I went through several flavors of Xtianity to get there.

Of all the speculative topics mentioned here, alien visitation is the one I would most love to discover is true.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by flippyshark

Of all the speculative topics mentioned here, alien visitation is the one I would most love to discover is true.

Be careful what you wish for. To make the trip, aliens would have to be more advanced than us. If you look at our own history where more technically advanced cultures have run across lesser ones the results have been less than optimistic.

[flippyshark]

I guess I should specify. I want the visiting aliens to be the technically advanced but fond-of-shiny-objects variety found in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. And, emphatically, NOT the sort seen in E.T.

[BarTopDancer]

E.T. was scary looking!

[lizziebith]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Be careful what you wish for. To make the trip, aliens would have to be more advanced than us. If you look at our own history where more technically advanced cultures have run across lesser ones the results have been less than optimistic.

And they wouldn't even have to bring weapons to be a threat -- they'd just need to cough a couple of times, and their alien germies would take care of us in...well probably not much time at all!

[flippyshark]

Unless our germs get them first. (Tip o' the hat to Mr. Wells.)