The first aliens I really paid attention to – or understood, I suppose – didn’t happen until I reached adolescence. At that point, I got serious. By the time I was fifteen, I’d checked out every book from the library on UFOs and aliens that I could find: INCIDENT AT EXETER; FLYING SAUCERS: SERIOUS BUSINESS; UFOs EXPLAINED; PROJECT BLUE BOOK; CHARIOTS OF THE GODS; UFOs: HOAX OR REALITY; FLYING SAUCERS: SERIOUS BUSINESS. The photo above gives me chills to this day and it was in virtually every book about UFOs I read.
But what was the draw for me? Didn’t I want to play ball for the MLB, or NFL, or the NBA? Didn’t I wait with bated breath for the MLB Spring Training?
Nope. I was too busy trying to find a way I could see a UFO. I didn’t talk about it EVER, cause my family thought I was weird enough without saying anything about aliens and UFOs. Dad introduce me to “real science fiction” when he started to let me stay up and watch STAR TREK for the third season, 1968-1969 (I still have a fondness for peanut butter toast with a fried egg on it…he and I ate a late supper on “STAR TREK” nights. That was because besides steaks, Dad could cook one other thing: fried eggs.) I knew that people had seen UFOs – not because I actually KNEW someone who had, but just because…it had become a tenet of my personal philosophy that there HAD to be “someone else” out there.
I’ve since taught middle school through high school sciences – for forty years. I like to say I’ve taught every science at one time or another, from astronomy to zoology. I still use rigid science principles when I teach a summer school class to gifted and talented fourth to tenth graders. I even writer science fiction (look to the right of this column to see a few places you can read/listen to my stuff online.)
Because I’m a scientist (of sorts), however, I have to admit up front to myself and everyone else: There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE (the definition of science? “…the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained.”) for the existence of life on any other planet ANYWHERE but here. No evidence. Therefore, belief in aliens is no different than belief in elves or magic or perpetual motion – it’s an unsubstantiated psychological construct Humans had somehow cobbled together out of the abandonment of belief in something that we simply WANT to believe: in the 1997 movie CONTACT Jodie Foster, playing the astronomer Eleanor Arroway says, “The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space.”
NEWSWEEK Magazine gives Sagan’s quote as: “"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."
But Sagan – or any other astrobiologist (the singular most peculiarly HOPEFUL field of science on Earth) has no proof that there is life anywhere but here on Earth. Granted that life is sometimes in the most inhospitable places: black smokers leap to mind; and there’s even a bacteria that live on the walls INSIDE of a nuclear reactor… (“The most extreme extremophile that is known at the moment is the Deinococcus radiodurans. This microbe can survive extreme cold, drought, thin air and acid. It has even been found on the walls inside nuclear reactors, where the radioactivity would be instantly fatal for humans.”
There’s the POSSIBILITY of life on other worlds living at the extreme edges of temperature, pH, humidity, and without oxygen.
But NO EVIDENCE.
But what was the draw for me? Didn’t I want to play ball for the MLB, or NFL, or the NBA? Didn’t I wait with bated breath for the MLB Spring Training?
Nope. I was too busy trying to find a way I could see a UFO. I didn’t talk about it EVER, cause my family thought I was weird enough without saying anything about aliens and UFOs. Dad introduce me to “real science fiction” when he started to let me stay up and watch STAR TREK for the third season, 1968-1969 (I still have a fondness for peanut butter toast with a fried egg on it…he and I ate a late supper on “STAR TREK” nights. That was because besides steaks, Dad could cook one other thing: fried eggs.) I knew that people had seen UFOs – not because I actually KNEW someone who had, but just because…it had become a tenet of my personal philosophy that there HAD to be “someone else” out there.
I’ve since taught middle school through high school sciences – for forty years. I like to say I’ve taught every science at one time or another, from astronomy to zoology. I still use rigid science principles when I teach a summer school class to gifted and talented fourth to tenth graders. I even writer science fiction (look to the right of this column to see a few places you can read/listen to my stuff online.)
Because I’m a scientist (of sorts), however, I have to admit up front to myself and everyone else: There is absolutely NO EVIDENCE (the definition of science? “…the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained.”) for the existence of life on any other planet ANYWHERE but here. No evidence. Therefore, belief in aliens is no different than belief in elves or magic or perpetual motion – it’s an unsubstantiated psychological construct Humans had somehow cobbled together out of the abandonment of belief in something that we simply WANT to believe: in the 1997 movie CONTACT Jodie Foster, playing the astronomer Eleanor Arroway says, “The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space.”
NEWSWEEK Magazine gives Sagan’s quote as: “"The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space."
But Sagan – or any other astrobiologist (the singular most peculiarly HOPEFUL field of science on Earth) has no proof that there is life anywhere but here on Earth. Granted that life is sometimes in the most inhospitable places: black smokers leap to mind; and there’s even a bacteria that live on the walls INSIDE of a nuclear reactor… (“The most extreme extremophile that is known at the moment is the Deinococcus radiodurans. This microbe can survive extreme cold, drought, thin air and acid. It has even been found on the walls inside nuclear reactors, where the radioactivity would be instantly fatal for humans.”
There’s the POSSIBILITY of life on other worlds living at the extreme edges of temperature, pH, humidity, and without oxygen.
But NO EVIDENCE.
So, what keeps my faith alive that there IS life “out there?”
Why do I so desperately want to believe that there are aliens? Korin Miller on YAHOOLIFE has this to say: “…what makes someone believe that aliens exist? Experts say there's more to it than many people think…The need to believe in a higher power can fuel viewpoints.
“For some people, belief in a higher power means turning to religion; for others, it's believing in aliens. Mayer says that a "strong personality characteristic" of people who believe in aliens is "a person’s need to believe that something exists beyond the earthly reality they are experiencing."
"For these individuals, their life is not fulfilling enough — they are searching for something more to fill the void inside them," he says.
“But French says that the desire to know whether we're alone in the universe is "perfectly understandable."
“Arthur C. Clarke famously said, 'Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying,'” he says.”
And why do things like this STILL HAPPEN, even in the third decade of the 21st Century?
“DORSCH: There was a rider in the COVID relief bill requiring a report from the Pentagon about the current state of the unidentified aerial phenomenon investigations inside the Pentagon…”
“CORNISH: Do you think that this is enthusiasm that will last - right? - like, now that this report is out?
“DORSCH: It would not surprise me. This is what UFO interest does. It goes through these sorts of peaks and valleys. There will always be an enthusiastic community, regardless of how visible they are in the media. But I would not be surprised if in the coming months, the story dissipates and, like a UFO does, disappears sort of back into the stars for the time being.
“CORNISH: That's Kate Dorsch, science and technology historian at the University of Pennsylvania.”
Don’t worry, this isn’t the end. I’ll be taking the subject up again in a few weeks!
Resources: https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=1011043735, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291121000206 (VERY LONG paper!), https://time.com/4232540/history-ufo-sightings/, https://www.newsweek.com/arl-sagan-quotes-death-pale-blue-dot-astronomer-25-years-1661545, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile
Image: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2015/01/UFO-04.jpg
Why do I so desperately want to believe that there are aliens? Korin Miller on YAHOOLIFE has this to say: “…what makes someone believe that aliens exist? Experts say there's more to it than many people think…The need to believe in a higher power can fuel viewpoints.
“For some people, belief in a higher power means turning to religion; for others, it's believing in aliens. Mayer says that a "strong personality characteristic" of people who believe in aliens is "a person’s need to believe that something exists beyond the earthly reality they are experiencing."
"For these individuals, their life is not fulfilling enough — they are searching for something more to fill the void inside them," he says.
“But French says that the desire to know whether we're alone in the universe is "perfectly understandable."
“Arthur C. Clarke famously said, 'Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying,'” he says.”
And why do things like this STILL HAPPEN, even in the third decade of the 21st Century?
“DORSCH: There was a rider in the COVID relief bill requiring a report from the Pentagon about the current state of the unidentified aerial phenomenon investigations inside the Pentagon…”
“CORNISH: Do you think that this is enthusiasm that will last - right? - like, now that this report is out?
“DORSCH: It would not surprise me. This is what UFO interest does. It goes through these sorts of peaks and valleys. There will always be an enthusiastic community, regardless of how visible they are in the media. But I would not be surprised if in the coming months, the story dissipates and, like a UFO does, disappears sort of back into the stars for the time being.
“CORNISH: That's Kate Dorsch, science and technology historian at the University of Pennsylvania.”
Don’t worry, this isn’t the end. I’ll be taking the subject up again in a few weeks!
Resources: https://www.capradio.org/news/npr/story?storyid=1011043735, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590291121000206 (VERY LONG paper!), https://time.com/4232540/history-ufo-sightings/, https://www.newsweek.com/arl-sagan-quotes-death-pale-blue-dot-astronomer-25-years-1661545, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile
Image: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2015/01/UFO-04.jpg
Could it be that aliens are SAFE foreigners or people of another race? They aren't as messy or complicated as real foreigners, they always have motives that make sense by "our" standards, and at the end of the story, they usually leave?
ReplyDeleteThe stories that seem really rare in SF are the ones in which the aliens come to Earth to STAY, and we have to figure out how to live peacefully side-by-side with them. Pete Wood has written a few like that and I've been happy to publish them.
The very old TV series (despite gaping logic flaws and sometimes absurd storylines) ALIEN NATION tried to address that -- and sometimes succeeded. It's been years since I watched it, but I was a fan and they raised some interesting issues regarding slavery, drug use/abuse, assimilation, they had some REALLY strange customs -- one of the weirdest was their music, filled with whistles and deep chanting. Their language was fascinating, too.
ReplyDeleteI'd never in a million years want to see it remade -- the PREACHING that would gush out of it would overwhelm whatever was left of sensibility...even so, I still thought it raised interesting questions...I even seem to remember an episode about Newcomer/Human dating!