Why everything should be taken with a grain of salt.

When one looks into the current state of astrobiology, one would be torn between fits of dismay and ecstatic rejoice. A case in point are two articles from "the telegraph". The first article written and posted on 23 Jan 2011, decries "Alien life deemed impossible, according to analysis of 500 exo-planets". Obviously, this pessimistic survey, attempts to assert (or rather the astronomer in question does) that "ours" is a most unique solar system; and that all "others" out there are much too inhospitable to support exo-life. This assertion was, and presumably still is made regardless of the well studied and documented "extreamefiles" found here on earth. However, if we (as in the normal public) were to fall down in veneration to all scientists who espouse institutional bias, we would have simply said, "oh, that is one more mystery we do not need to worry about" and reallocated resources to other areas of research. And, if we had been so unquestioning, as to accept what one expert had proposed as the "truth" then this article and required research would have never been done. "New Planet May Support Life" posted on 13 Sept 2011, this article in seemingly direct contradiction to the former, goes on to state:

It has been found to lie (exo planet) in the so-called "Goldilocks zone", meaning it is not too hot and not too cold for the presence of liquid water - the key for a planet to support Earth-like life. A Goldilocks planet was previously discovered in 2007.

The above example, is one of innumerable reasons that research, proposed findings and scientific "truth" should all be taken with a grain of salt.

A Matter of Time.

Who would have thought, researching and writing a few detailed essays would have been so time consuming. Anyway, work on this foray into UAPs UFOs has been progressing, and something of substance should be out by the end of the month. In the mean time, I have come across some more sites worth of note. The first would be the successor to seti@home or rather, the rebooted version. I will be getting "back" to it soon: I was an avid member between 98/99 but, life got in the way, and I haven't been back since. The next is very much related: http://www.seti-germany.de/. I think the web address says it all. The last is Citizen Science I expect some great things will come from that site soon.

That is about it for this week, as the other projects are still forming and requiring much time.

BTW: Does anyone out there know of a good tutorial on DIY RADIO-Telescopes?

Alien Propaganda.

Some brief thoughts on Secrecy, Human Subjugation and Alien Propaganda.

IF an ETI were to land, with the intent of subjugating mankind, incorporating the planet into some galactic empire all "they" would have to do is point to the decades of government censorship on issues of UFO/UAP.

Really, it would be that easy.

"they" come down, all flash and pizazz; showing off some new-cool techno-jewelrysaying, "hey, we come in peace, but you first have to get rid of your current leaders." And then the "masses" reply Why? and then "they" say "well, geez, you see, we really want ya'll to come and join our galactic empire, in fact, we've wanted this for some time. The deal-o you see, is that your leaders, have been sayin, like no- and even been denying that we're here. We think they just want to be holdin' on to their power, and not carin' a bit 'bout the normal people, like You. So, get'em out of the way, and we'll let ya'll join our empire (as junior members at first) and we all can live in peace and harmony and all that jazz."

At this point, the middle and lower classes overthrow the current power elite: The world delves into even "more" inter species wars and death: meanwhile the Aliens sit back and wait, 'till we've all but killed ourselves. There will not be much resistance, as there won't be many left.

Of course, this is just a thought, an intellectual tinker toy, in-which to play. But, it is also something that should be considered some what seriously. The affect of "aliens" coming down today, and saying "your leaders, have been keeping you enslaved, for their own gain, we bring you peace and harmony and lots of honey- as long as you sign on the dotted line" well, I think the "elite" would be in for a serious issue. In fact, I think it would be as easy as buying Manhattan for a handful of beads.

In the end, this is another reason for disclosure.

volume = 4/3 π r3

Nothing of real importance today, as the work is still on going. In the mean time, I came across this video. I am not a big fan of the History Channel, but this does seem a bit interesting.

Update: Disclosure, Myths and other "things"

As I am currently working on my first foray into the field (yes, I am writing a book) this post will be brief and to the point.

Disclosure: will only happen once it is forced. The way of forcing disclosure is for citizen science to come to the forefront and "prove" as much as possible that the ETH is not only the most viable hypothesis, but in fact the only hypothesis.

Myths: Joseph Campbell, in an interview once stated that there were no "aliens" nor "ufos". All ufos were a product of man; either from the collective unconscious or technology. Now, I do understand this point of view: the world's lexicon of myths, religions, beliefs are fertile to say the least. We have used imagery which is very much akin to most ufo sightings. In fact, the vast majority of abduction cases echo the great myths of yore almost to the letter. However, because we have used these images to explain natural phenomenon (from floods to shooting stars) does not in itself preclude the existence of extraterrestrials. If anything, it shows the human imagination, and thus the collective unconscious is quite capable of assimilating new, and perhaps exotic life forms. One thing I would take away from the late Joseph Campbell's work though, is that if/when contact is made, the "new" faces should not be looked to for salvation: as more than likely they will be mortal creatures much as we are, and prone to the same failures of flesh.

Things: As noted above, I have been working on my first foray into the field. Subsequently, I have been doing a lot of reading, trying to get my head around some of the more obtuse "weirdness" which is prevalent in this field. Along my journeys I have come across a handful of interesting "things" which don't exactly fit into what I am currently working on. Below you will find a collection of links and other such stuff for your enjoyment.



Links of Interest.

1. Ocean Explorer These are the guys who have found "something" in the north sea.

2. The Anomalist One of the best news collection sties out there.

________________
Stay tuned for future updates.

Putting the Horse before the Cart.

While working on my own contributions to the exo-field, I have come across several disheartening instances of well intentioned individuals putting the cart-way before the horse. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people associated with exo-politics, UAPs, UFOs, ETIs and the such; take for granted the scant reliable evidence to be had, is in itself undeniable "proof" of Aliens, UFOs and a world-wide cover up. These overstatements are unfortunate due to the fact that for the majority of those outside of the exo-community, UAPs, UFOs and ETIs are not a forgone conclusion. In other words, most people not only "don't" believe in UFOs, but they seriously doubt the existence of life outside of this pale blue dot. We still live in a world, where people seriously put forward dinosaur bones were placed there by (g)od as a means of testing our faith.

Further, with people purporting to have "seen" "heard" and "been abducted by" aliens (not UFOs) it causes the rest of the community much distress, as it paints everyone with an accepting brush, that "he" believes he has been abducted, when in actual fact, "he" just wants to do some real science and research into the phenomenon.

Alas, though I digress from the original intent, I would like to swing back around to the meaning of open-science. Last week I posted a short video clip of The Ocean Explorer Peter Lindberg. This is an example of "open-ish" science. He found something interesting, decided to throw it out there and now there are several hundred interested souls. It may be a bunch of rocks, or something else- It doesn't matter, because in the end, regardless of everything, this small portion of the ocean floor, will have been mapped, studied and cataloged. So, even if it turns out to be just a really cool undersea rock formation, science has been pushed forward by that much. Additionally, I believe in one of my first posts, I wrote about Copenhagen Sub-orbitals and their launch of an open source rocket on June 3rd. Again, this is something the exo-community should take seriously! And there are also the countless open science sites, where the community could participate in cataloging, defining and basically "doing" real science.

The above are all examples of what I mean, when I call for an exo-community lead, "open science" group. We could do research into UAPs, UFOs and ETIs while, also doing related science which benefits all. Further, if after decades of research, we are forced to concede that the ETI hypothesis is not viable, we will have contributed a great deal to the scientific community regardless.

Disclosure?

If and When disclosure comes, I would imagine it will be something like this and not governments actually coming out.

If you want to help out, or just follow this interesting development, check out their Facebook Page

Perspective

Note: The following piece is a collection of meandering thoughts: It is not in the least bit analytical.

I was traveling home from a trip to the north of Germany, trying to sleep away some of the insistently boring landscape. As one is apt to do, when confronted by miles and miles of farm land, my mind started to drift and meander. Ideas, thoughts, images began to flow: not all of them coherent. However, one sequence of thoughts / images did escape the trash bin of my mind, to form a fairly coherent narrative.

Follow me if you will -and I will show you the world in a grain of sand. 

One man, sitting on a train with approximately 300 other people.

One train, out of several dozen moving throught out Germany. 

One country, of about 80 million people in Europe. 

One continent*, of about 855 million people. 

One world, of about 7 billion people. 

One planet, of 8* in our solar system.    

One sun, of about 200 billion stars in our galaxy.

One question, are we alone? 

In perspective, in context,  the absurdity of  saying "we're alone" should be self evident. How utterly arrogant is it to say, "we are the sole arbiters of logic, reason and understanding" To proclaim to the heavens above "I think, therefore I am- And I am the only capable of thought and reason" Yes, the inverse would be true too; to proclaim "we're not alone" and I know it because, I can think, reason and deduce.

Dare I say, the only "reasonable" course to take, is one of agnostic skepticism, armed with our clumsy, but trustworthy, sword of scientific method? It seems to be the only solution is just that- after all, it is all we have.  

Magnetic Hyperthermia. Strange Technology.

While researching something completely unrelated, I came across this "possibly" new method of treating cancerous cells. In essence, the technique proposed, would inject iron-nano particles into the cancerous tumor, and via magnetic fields, heat up the cells, tumor to (at least) 40 degrees Celsius.  With the extreme heat, the cells would ´be killed (actually, out right destroyed) and thus preventing further growth of the tumor. Intrigued, I decided to dig a little further, and came across this technical paper on the whole procedure (from Rice University 2006)

And, of course this got me thinking. What they are proposing, in essence is a phazer of sorts to "zap" the cancerous cells. Granted, in the procedureas described above, they would add "targeted nano-iron particles" to ensure that only those cells with the extra iron would be destroyed. However, as we all know, the human body already contains a significant amount of iron, In fact according to the American Red Cross, one pint of blood contains about 250 milligrams of iron: which may at first not sound like very much; but for this use may be enough.

Imagine for a moment if you will, what would happen if every iron atom in your body suddenly increased in temperature- basically, causing the boiling of blood within a few moments. And if the heat increase were fast enough, one would think there would not be an explosion per se, rather an instantaneous vaporization; very much like the phazers of sci-fi lore.

-Just something to think about, and how our current technology very much represents (and is) something most strange indeed.

Special Announcement::

Today is World Disclosure Day, (July 8th) Go to link below and give your support.

World Disclosure Support

Ministry of Defense UAP statistics. (overview)

In December of 2000, the Defense Intelligence Analysis Staff of the British MOD complied a report on UAP sightings over the United Kingdom. Contained within this report, amongst other insightful tidbits: were the annualized numbers of sightings from 1959 through 1997. Now it occurred to me, that these data provided by the MOD, were bound to be more reliable than data collected by private organizations: primarily based on the fact that the ratio of pranksters, and bored drunken youngsters would be of representative insignificance. That is to say, it is easy for a bored teen to prank a private organizations, as compared to the British Ministry of Defense. Further, the two years which will be discussed presently, are from a time just before "the internet" became widely available to universities, let alone private connections. Lastly, these years also present a time, of a slightly more "conservative" Briton (as compared to contemporary society.) And as such, are probably some of the more reliable numbers to be found in regards to UAP sightings.

The MOD technical report's annualized "event reports" for 1977 and 1978 were chosen for this brief meta-analysis, as they represent one of the more striking contrasts of the whole 36 year period. Ideally, a deeper analysis should be made of the whole period, with the goal of teasing out any predictive qualities which might be contained therein.

1977 - 1978

In the year 1977 there were 425 reported sightings to the MOD. In the year 1978 there were nearly twice as many.(750) The first and most pertinent question to be asked about these data, would be, what was the cause of the seemingly dramatic increase in UAP sightings between those two years? One approach to addressing this question would be to compile all atmospheric data for the corresponding years, and compare any such anomalous events from year on year. By comparing these data from year on year, any corollary between weather phenomenon (as suggested in the MOD report) and Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon could be found. This is something which is being done presently; however, and as always, I am more than open to volunteers and suggestions to this path of investigation.

For this brief analysis however, a social-cultural perspective has been used. Choosing to research any possible correlations between the reported UAP events and that of cultural / social events is in the real of "overview" at best, and at worst could lead down false paths of investigation. Having that said though, there are some interesting cultural events which do seem to have played (at least to some extent) a part in the increase of UAP sightings over the United Kingdom. In the following Headlined sections, some of the more interesting (possible) causes will be highlighted.

Hollywood (as acting agent.)
Star Wars
UK 27 December 1977
Close Encounters.
UK 13 March 1978

Now it would seem, with these two movies alone, the collective consciousness of the UK would be literally buzzing with the idea of UFOs / UAPs. And to some extent I am sure that is correct; however, this would be another area, where looking into later years, and other theatrical releases would be of benefit. Further, to reiterate what was said earlier, these numbers are UAP events reported thttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifo the Ministry of Defense, and not that of the local radio show.

Space Programs.
Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere.
Soyuz 28 (Aleksei Gubarev, Vladimir Remek) is launched on a rendezvous with Salyut 6
Charon, a satellite of Pluto, is discovered.
The U.S. scientific satellite Seasat is launched.
A massive short circuit in Seasat's electrical system ends the satellite's scientific mission.

The above events too could hold a key to the increase in reported sightings, though again, they alone may not offer a full explanation. Further, as an aside, this year (1978) NASA was pretty much ran over by the Soviet space program: That is to say, during this time, the soviets had several successful launchers, whereas NASA had only one, and if failed after 10 days.


Religion.
August 6 – Pope Paul VI dies in Rome.
August 26 – Pope John Paul I succeeds Pope Paul VI as the 263rd Pope.
September 28 – Pope John Paul I dies after only 33 days of papacy.
October 16 – Pope John Paul II succeeds Pope John Paul I as the 264th pope.

The above almost speaks for itself as for relevance; it is of note however, that Briton, does have a rather mixed history with the Catholic Church.

___________________________________

As stated before, the above is more of a thumbnail sketch, a "meta-analysis" of cultural / social causes to mass UAP / UFO sightings. Any predictive qualities, (unlike the atmospheric proposal) would be difficult, at best to define. Further, evaluating social causes to these sightings is a rather subjective affair; making it harder to concretely say: When popes die, people see UFOs.(or the reverse, when people see UFOs, popes die.) What would be of note, and worthy of further research would be a combination of the two meta-analysis (cultural and atmospheric) combined with a greater data-set (the whole 36 year period). This would provide a fuller picture of the "current" situation, and perhaps allow elements of predictability to emerge.

Magnitude

A total of 19 countries have officially engaged in UFO/UAP investigation and research. Some of these countries have subsequently released files to the public. Either there is something behind UAP/UFO if it be natural, or other. Otherwise, if there isn't then this is the worlds largest delusion, a delusion beyond an Jungian meta-crisis. The magnitude of such a shared delusion, reaching every corner of the globe, would in itself be more unbelievable than the ETH for UFO/UAP.

-Food for thought.

Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, France, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Spain, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA.

And these are only the countries who have "officially" investigated and released documentation, presumably, the actual number is much greater.


In other news, we are still trying to form an open science project to actively (as opposed to the passive collection of data points) research these phenomenon. Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

Critique of UFO / UAP Research.

A Brief Critique of UFO Research and some suggestions of future course.

A troubling aspect of current research seems to be a tendency to apply exotic theories and explanations to the physics of UFOs / UAPs. Further, these theories are presented without first looking into the possibility that current technology may account for some (if not all) of the observed phenomenon. A case in point would be radar returns (or lake thereof) from encountered UAPs.

Though I am hopeful that duel static passive radar, as described by Peter Davenport may be of use; the point being made here has more to do with "radar" being some sort of defining variable between what is "real" and what is not. Leslie Kean and many others put forward these "5%" figures of UAPs which have been observed visually (often by multiple witnesses) and also were monitored and recorded by ground radar systems. Granted, the 5% which has both radar and witness evidence would be the logical place to being research; lack of radar returns should not mean that the visually observed phenomenon be discounted. The reason why these occurrences of witness only observations should not necessarily be discounted is based on the simple fact that stealth technology does exist. Not only does the technology exist to render aircraft virtually invisible to radar returns, the technology is practically "commercial" in availability. As of this writing, known states which posses this technology are: USA, Russian Federation, and China. Presumably the United Kingdom and pretty much every NATO member at this point, either has in operation or soon will the same stealth capabilities.

Almost needless to say, being "invisible" to radar is something that science and engineering overcame nearly thirty years ago; in which case, not having radar returns, does not necessarily "mean" anything. On the other hand, it does still go, that having some sort of returned signature from ground based radar stations could be used as a "further" validation- but lack of returns should not be used to dismiss observations.

The radar problem is but one example of where research should take into account our current abilities, and what light they might shed on the observed phenomenon. Unfortunately, "often" researchers construct theories without taking a good accounting of the current state of the art; and thus base subsequent (maybe logically derived) conclusions on a faulty premise.


Update: DIY Science.

I have yet to hear anything back from anyone in regards to requests for thoughts, proposals and suggestions on implementing a true "open" science project. At this point I have posted on several more forums, sites and social sites with the same request. It is slowly becoming apparent that the UAP community in many ways is a passive / perhaps closed community which does not like to engage in these types of discussions. My next step will be to present some of the ideas which I have formed to pre-established communities, which might take an interest. i.e Amateur Astronomers, Open Source Hardware, 3d printing communities. I am still hopeful to gather a team of like minded (science minded) individuals who feel a project like this is worth the doing. Will keep things updated as they progress.

Social Disintegration and ETIs.

This weeks post will be a short thought experiment; after which I will reiterate my requests for "like minded" volunteers to start the first International UAP Research Group. What would happen to western society in general, if and when it becomes common* knowledge that UFOs / UAPs are commanded and controlled by Extraterrestrial intelligences? Which institutions do you think would be the first to fall, and which would survive?

The institutions which would fail, may seem self evident; but, as often is the case, in the exopolitical community there is too much emphasis placed on the obvious and not the subtle. The obvious would entail: Banking and all of its affiliated parts, Science (industry) and many universities, Aerospace industry (in general and maybe only at first) and various other sectors fragile to sudden shocks. Government for the most part would not be one of them. The idea of others being out there, if anything, would drive people closer to their power base for protection and succor. The collapse or social disintegration as speculated before, would occur culturally and only if it were proved to be too rigid to the introduction of a new paradigm.

Generally speaking these are the areas which have been discussed as having the most to lose from total disclosure. Science, Aerospace and especially Banks all have something to lose if the general populace becomes united from a(n) "in your face" disclosure event. It is clear these ares would fight tooth and nail to insure their survival, and in fact go to great lengths to forestall any kind of legitimate discourse on ETIs and disclosure in general.

However, this is where I would like to turn this into a true thought experiment and pose the question: Which areas would actually thrive and grow under disclosure? In whose interest would it be to have the UAP and ETI question resolved?

Naturally, the "meta" benefactor would be the human race as in the words of Arthur C Clarke- Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Unfortunately, our current geo-political climate is not as such, conducive to the better part of the curious man- rather it is caught up in the "real" politic of the now. I will not proffer any speculation now, rather that is for the reader to think about! And, once thought about, and some sector divined (which I am sure there must be at least one) go out and educate, support and promote them to the forefront; as it will be those areas that have something to gain from total disclosure which will be the true bastions of progress.

-I am still "trying" to form a working group as to how to bring applied science to UFO/UAP research. I have sent several emails, and have yet to receive a reply: Namely from Peter Davenport. on his dual static passive radar idea. The longer this takes, the longer disclosure takes.

*What I mean by common, is much akin to that of the CIA smuggling cocaine into LA. Everyone living in Southern California knew of their involvement five years before it became news. (and even then, it took MSM another 3 years to report on it)

ETIs and The Incompleteness Theorem.

In last week's post, I commented on the improbability of Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETIs) being able to stop by our planet on a "whim" and settle down for a chat and probing. The doubt arises from the ability of any sentient being to be able to "know" a completely foreign language (without even the most rudimentary basis of comparisons) and use to it convey anything of meaning. However, the last post did not state it was impossible, and more importantly did state that after some time, some type of mutual "meaningful" communication might be had. I further contended that even the seemingly universal language of mathematics might not be enough, due to our incomplete understanding or the very real possibility that two sets of sciences, mutually exclusive, developed in isolation from one another may turn out to be incompatible; at least in the short term. This incompatibility, brings us to the thrust of this weeks post: Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem.

Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem in essence states:

1. If the system is consistent, it cannot be complete.
2. The consistency of the axioms cannot be proven within the system.

or in other words: It is possible to have a true statement (mathematically) not only without proof, but by its very nature unable to be proven. Now, most mathematicians will shudder at the next few lines; and I do not intend to convolve this theorem with some misguided attempt to "prove" ETIs, UAPs, UFOs exist; rather, I would like to offer the following more as a thinking point, an intellectual nugget to ponder. If these phenomenon are dimensional in nature, as some would contend: how could their existence(or lack there of) be proven without a complete dimensional model? It would seem this argument alone necessitates an agnostic approach to all UAP/UFO phenomenon; as to dismiss these events out of hand, would seem premature and counter logical.

I will not draw this post out, as there are "things" afoot! Hopefully, by next week I will have some things of import to discuss.

Thoughts on ExoLinguistics and Glorified Stamp Collectors.

Something that should be made clear on the outset: This blog does (and for that matter, myself) take seriously the notion UAP/UFO could be controlled by ETI. The extraterrestrial hypothesis, contains a symmetry, which often is the hallmark of a valid theory. However, the community surrounding "UFOs" is something left to be desired. Two weeks ago, I posted a "call out" to anyone and everyone who had any ideas on how to approach the UAP "problem" scientifically. To this day, I have not received a single response. Last weeks post dealt with the possible reasons why this might be; namely: 1. People don't know how to read. 2. The mystery is better left as such, otherwise the UFO story telling would come to an end. (a concept not to be taken too lightly) 3. The UAP/UFO community works under the same general rules as all "virtual" social groups, mainly that I have no street cred, so was/is ignored. In essence that is what was posted. And by not too much of a surprise, no one commented.

Being more "proactive" myself.

Shortly after writing last weeks post, I did make the rounds through the various online forums, social sites and podcast. I was checking to see if any of the other attempts to gather ideas had come to fruition; once again, not really any surprise, several views but not a single comment. It felt, as if I had run into a brick wall of apathy, the community seemed comprised of two sets of people: drooling, brain dead "ufo-ists" and self proclaimed "ufologists" who, when not busy fighting amongst their peers were salivating in philatelic delight over the latest scraps of government documents.

But, then I came across this: www.atlanticcoastufos.com Not having anything better to do while despairing over the ineptitude of the community, I decided to load up the latest show and give it a listen. The episode I happened to download, was an interview between Kate Valentine and Peter Davenport of NUFORC I was gratefully shocked to hear Peter Davenport, echo many of the same thoughts I had had about the UAP/UFO communities. Further, he had also approached the community with a science based proposal which was promptly ignored. Naturally, I was ecstatic to read his proposal and "see" if it was along the same lines of thought as my own. The white paper he had written, proposes to use passive radar to detect and calculate characteristics of UAPs. Granted the white paper is not "technical" in the sense that someone could read it and start building; but, it was certainly along the same lines I had had in mind. (There does seem, according to his proposal, a DIY solution which could be more conducive to the "open science" ideas I had in mind. Simply put, this interview restored some hope that had been lost by the lack of response; though it does leave the question: Why didn't anyone in any of the forums "at least" post a link to Peter Davenports white paper? Presumably, the answer is self evident, the above characterizations of the community are almost accurate.

Now, with the skeleton of a project in place, I will be contacting Mr Davenport with proposed modifications to his concept and then bring it to the DIY, Open Science communities. (which, I think might be more receptive and participatory than the UAP/UFO has been.) As this first project progresses, I will be posting updates and complaints and further derogatory statements about the UFO community until they get off their collective lard-asses and start being a tad bit more proactive.


ExoLinguistics

The main reason I am skeptical about many of the abduction / experience(er) stories has to do with communication. I am not implying these people did not "experience" something; but, rather I am not entirely convinced it was ETI based in nature. The abduction stories, often contain an element of telepathy; as the mood for communication. This in itself is not absurd as there have been many "human" advances in technology which would allow us to do much the same. Some of the more dramatic (exotic) examples can be found here, here and here. No, it is clear, even with the primitive commercial technology available, we can perform telepathic "like" stunts; so assuredly, any ETIs who have traveled here would be able to also. Rather, the problem I have is not exactly with the mode of communication, but rather viability of communication at all. It is becoming increasingly clear, that human language, regardless of region, culture or even history, shares certain entropic principles. Further, the study "Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families" has shown there is innate structure to human written (and verbal)communication. Additionally, because human language has built in redundancy (not to mention physical cues)the "fatal" error rate is quite small. These are the reasons, we can understand one another in circumstances less than optimal for communication. i.e. different languages, noisy atmosphere, whispering. Now, the above, would seem to indicate: "oh, human language is simple, so the ETIs would have no problems with communication" Here, is where the seemingly obvious is wrong. Because, of these shared traits in communication, we are able to communicate with one another; but, also it may very well prevent cross species communication from occurring. (at least easily)

Imagine for a moment if an ETIs language doesn't contain the same amount of redundancy as human language. A case where every "letter" contained meaning, without which no communication would be possible, meaning conveyed or perhaps, where a single inflection changed the entire concept of discourse. And these above examples are things that still do happen in natural language, notwithstanding communication between species. Further, we could compound the above problem with cultural artifacts which play a part in language too: what if the concept of ocean or blue sky or even the color blue were foreign? So, even if ETIs had somehow gained total access to our mental language processing: how would they even know what they were saying? Outside of instilling emotions, and perhaps "spacial" instructions, real communication between humans and ETIs would be problematic at the least. It has been partially for this reason, that many scientists have proposed that mathematics would be the common language between ETIs and humans: though I do see some potential issues with this e.g. mathematics built upon a different base, our incomplete understanding of some natural phenomenon.

Communication between ETIs and humans would require time, patience and a lot of thought. If the ETIs have however, been here for some time (more than 50 years) I could see the breaking down of the world's languages into its constitute parts and being able to communicate broad terms and concepts; but, find it highly doubtful they would be able to communicate with any amount of understanding abstract concepts such as: liberty, justice, shadenfreund and saudade.

DIY Science and the Exopolitics / UAP Community.

Where is everyone?

Last week's post contained (amongst other things) a call for comments / ideas on how to devise a scientific frame work for detecting and "proving" that UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomenon) were in fact controlled by ETIs. The essential request was reiterated in several forums, posted to numerous "social" sites affiliated with the community and alas, was tweeted. Much to my chagrin or rather, dismay the single piece of "feed back" received was from someone not even remotely affiliated with the community. Though, his comments were helpful and insightful; it spoke more that no one within the community took the opportunity to post their ideas.

Why is it that none took the opportunity?

It may have been my implying, most "researchers" were glorhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifified stamp collectors; a comment which was as brutal as honest. But, for the life of me, I can not understand why so many would rather suckle at the teat of government(s) waiting for some disclosure which may or may not ever come. There is a community, there are several highly trained professionals who could offer their expertise; a support structure which spans nations! Yet, I get a lot of "views" but no comments. Presumably, one of the following is why.

1. Fairly Unknown: This may be a fair reason, but humor me; I would like to know which ideas are floating around and what might have already been tried.

2. Abstruse Writing. The previous post contained a few paragraphs about the demise of "government" sponsored space programs and some praise for COPENHAGEN SUBORBITALS. This lengthy introduction (in internet time) may have buried the actual request for comments. This will be remedied; as once this post has been published, I will write a short concise request for feed back on DIY / Open Science research into UAPs and ETIs.

3. Lack of Interest. This "possible" reason I find the most troubling. There can be several reasons for lack of interest; from not knowing how one could participate to actively not wanting to participate. Not knowing "how" is within the domain of the requester; and in this case fairly explicit: What are YOUR general ideas on how to go about detecting / recording UAPs with the intention of proving they are being controlled by ETIs. Everything is game, no idea too absurd- I just want(ed) to know what the community thinks and what might have been done in the past. (it would be impossible for me to read all of the literature out there, though I have given it a good go! The second aspect of "lack of interest" is the most perplexing, as it bodes ill for the community and UAP / ETI research in general. Actively not wanting to participate could be due to two "main" points. (a) The person has accepted ETH for UAP as a given and no research need be done. This is as self defeating as the congressperson who cuts funding to science programs: The average person does not believe the same as you! (b)Belief might be threatened if meaningful results were not found, or heaven forbid negative results were produced. I can understand this hesitation, Ufology has played a big part in society, many of the fictions it has produced: symbolic and archetypical, have become so much of the social glue, that to disprove any aspect of them would be akin to holding up camp fire stories to the Socratic method. In other words, asking to many questions, spoils the magic. As said before, I can understand this aspect; I for one would never take someone's dreams away; so, for those who fall into this category- farewell.

4. Where are your ideas? This final "probable" reason for not receiving feed back I find the silliest, but most understandable. I did not include any proposals in the first post as the likely-hood of that guiding the discourse would have been too great. (or so I thought)However, to quash this right away, some general ideas have come to mind. After reading the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defense Region: Executive Summary of 2000 which proposes that the 5% still unexplained UAPs might be due to plasma / magnetic waves and spooky action at a distance could actually be tested. (of course the actual report is a bit more concise in its hypothesis)It seems, that some simple DIY ballooning with the proper equipment could "produce" these same proposed results. (again, the actual report is more detailed and fleshing out this idea is the WHOLE reason for this post.)

So, never to be deterred by the sounds of crickets after a question has been asked; I will once again call out to the community for ideas on DIY / open science with the sub-goal of building up relationships to begin science based research into the ETH for UAP.

*

Ideas Worth Having: Exopolitics and DIY Science.

Today we saw the launch of the last scheduled STS mission for Endeavor. Endeavor sped towards the heavens with a majesty befitting its final voyage. If you missed the actual launch, take a moment and watch it here: Endeavor.

While watching the pre-flight inspections and preparations, the dedication and professionalism, struck me as most profound. This (I thought) is something to be proud of, something the United States could show the world -as if to say, "we don't only make war, we also explore." And, most admittedly it was with a cringe of frustration that I reflected upon the myopic politicians who would rather fill the coffers of the rich, than fund these truly worthy "Endeavors" (SETI and the Allen telescope array, being another such example)

As the waves of frustration and despair percolated through my mind; I recalled an article I had read sometime before about DIY " manned " spaceflight. After a few moments of searching I found what I was looking for: Copenhagen suborbital It had been sometime since I had read about their "going-ons" so it was with some surprise that I found they were ready for the first test launch of their space vehicle. This news did indeed help to dampen down the chagrin I had felt towards state-sponsored science. (in particular space exploration and SETI)

If our leaders lack vision, it does not mean the individual should. And this is exactly what the folks at Copenhagen Suborbitals have: vision and tenacity to do the unthinkable. I even broke down and gave them some cash. Being notoriously stingy, it does say something about how struck I was/am with what they are doing. But, I digress with the back-story which lead me to this thought: The Exopolitics, ETH, UFO communities should do something similar. An Exopolitical inspired DIY space program, whose main goal is to test the hypothesis that the earth is being visited by entities unknown.

And this is where I open it up to the community: Which experiments and modes of exploration could be funded and produced using an open-source, DIY model? How could we frame the ETH in terms which could be tested, verified and repeated? And, wouldn't active engagement with the phenomenon be better than the passive collecting of data afterwards?

The ETH* communities are vast and varied: Engineers, Teachers, Retired Military; the skill set is there, why not start to use them? This is very much an idea in its genesis stage; I'd welcome all comments, both detracting and supportive, as there may be something I have missed. It seems though, the time is ripe for us to stop being glorified stamp collectors, passively waiting for disclosure and to become proactive in bringing these phenomenon to light.

*I am using ETH in a very general sense, as it flowed better in the writing.

Restating The Drake Equation.

The Drake equation has literally been reworked and recalculated thousands of times; however there is one variable which seems to get little of its deserved attention. Currently, the best estimates are stated as follows:

R* = 7/year, fp = 0.5, ne = 2, fl = 0.33, fi = 0.01, fc = 0.01, and L = 10000 years

These estimates produce:

N = 7 × 0.5 × 2 × 0.33 × 0.01 × 0.01 × 10000 = 2.31

The variable "fi =" which above is given the value of 0.01 seems to be a gross understatement and a product of human centric reasoning. The reasoning for the value is predicated on the millions of species which exist and have existed on earth, which there has evolved only one intelligent species capable of communication. This chauvinism based on human centric world view is slowly starting to change. According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dolphins are not only "self-aware" but may also have an intelligence comparable (at the least) to that of chimpanzees. In this new paradigm, the fact that this single planet may have given rise to two (not including our probable antecedents) intelligent life forms should drastically change the value as stated above.

Now, sitting the other "questionable" posited values aside for a moment- let's take a moment to fully grasp what this truly means. A single planet, in the "Goldy locks zone" has been capable of producing two distinct living organisms capable of both insight, self-awareness and communication. One planet, two intelligent life forms; how many stars and planets are there again in our own milky-way? There seems to be every reason to restate the Fi variable to something much larger than 0.01. Further, it seems that our understatement of this variable has more to do with humanity's collective inability to conceive of an intelligence that does not fit our predefined stereotypes.

What these new developments do however, is inform us that the extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) is not only a valid hypothesis and a good starting point for the explanation of many "ufo" type encounters; but, also intelligent life should not be considered "unique" to our planet but rather ubiquitous to the entire universe.

Exopolitics and Culture Collapse.

An area of exopolitics which has received little attention is the impact on society and culture do to disclosure. Richard Dolan and others have "touched" on these issues; but, not nearly to the degree that is warranted. Disclosure and its corresponding affects on society / culture could* lead to the dissolution of the social fabric; which despite all of its apparent ills, does keep the world plodding along in a somewhat civilized manner.

As an analogy to the seriousness of the disclosure issue and the real need for open dialog and planning; let us take the Cultural Collapse of the Hawaiian islands.

In 1778 Captain James Cook made first contact with the indigenous islanders. The affects of first contact were not immediate in a cultural context though the introduction of non-native disease did have its immediate consequences for the population.

By 1804 however, the first signs of social / cultural collapse became apparent largely due to the devastation caused by disease, but also the beginnings of labor displacement caused by the introduction of western technology into a pre-industrial society.

In 1819 the fist signs of dis-adherence of native religious world views, governing structures and obedience to pre-existing authority structures further destabilizes Hawaiian society.

In 1893 the Hawaiian Monarchy is overthrown.

Granted the above is an over simplification of what transpired; actual Polynesian history is much more detailed and subtle. However, the notion European explorers facilitated this collapse is unquestionable tho to what extent is open for debate. The function of the above analog is to serve as an illustration of what happens to society and culture when confronted with a world view changing event. In this instance, the western culture was perhaps a hundred years more advanced* (which may be an over statement) yet, a short 115 years after first contact the total collapse of the Hawaiian monarchy and the social contract which supported it was apparent- ultimately paving the way for annexation by the United States.

There are a few social-cultural points that should be contrasted from the above analog and that of true disclosure.

About the ramifications of disclosure.

In 1778 when James Cook landed at Kauaʻi, western society and culture were in the early stages of mechanization. Steam power and musket were state of the art; hot air balloon flight a few years into the future. The society Cook came from had just fought a war in part over inalienable rights* of man.

The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was indeed primitive in relation to Europe at the time: but, not so primitive as to be unrecognizable. Agriculturally based with a fairly sophisticated network of trade distributed amongst the various islands; the kingdom a monarchical cast system was perhaps stratified, but definitely not dysfunctional. Yet, the kingdom fell in little over a century from first contact.

If full or even partial disclosure occurred tomorrow, what would be the outcome: Culturally? Socially? Economically? How would the world react let alone the current dominate culture of the west? This is an area which few within and outside of the community are really discussing: regardless of the obvious seriousness of the issue. The indigenous peoples of the Hawaiian islands met with a technologically superior culture of human origin; what would be our fate if/when coming into contact of a technologically superior alien species? This is something which needs to be considered much more in depth when talking about disclosure and exopolitics.

As conscious beings with agency, our greatest strengths are our ability of forethought and adaptation. Now is the time of forethought.


Notes:
*As with every encounter with the new, Humanity as a whole may take an approach to disclosure as a challenge to reinvent itself ushering in a new renaissance.

**To say one civilization is more advanced than another is to open a can of subjective worms. The approximation of 100 hundred years "more" is a very crude measurement of the social-technological-cultural disparity between Europe and the Polynesian islands at that time. Suffice it to say Cook had firearms and the natives had spears.

***The age of reason: written by Thomas Paine was published in 1794. The arguments he put forward in his book had been long since established in the educated elite prior to publication. Further, concepts like equality and the questioning of the divine right of Kings had had also long been established. These "foreign" concepts would have radically altered local belief systems which were heavily predicated on casts and the divinity of the Hawaiian King / Leaders.