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Afternoon, dead.

Let me chime in here: I pop up on UFO threads from time to time, and it is amazing how quickly the forum descends to ridicule on this subject. There is an unproven assumption that UFO=liberal=loony, when in fact the possibility of interacting with another race is utterly indistinct in terms of conservatism or liberalism. And quite to the contrary, considering the possibilities in a serious way is profoundly conservative.

It is a conservative ideal to create value in the universe, and to explore. Understanding whatever UFO's might be is of this nature.

Other conservative ideals are the concepts of self-protection and liberty, which require seeing beyond your present and into the future to understand threats to both. If indeed there is a "them" visiting us, we need to evaluate them with same scrutiny we should be applying to terrestrial aliens. This does not mean that we should assume invasion, but neither does it demand a new-age benevolent contact. It requires a certain balance, something that is often lacking by both the sides of the discussion.

Beyond that, intelligent consideration of how such possible technologies work is a useful exercise for the mind. As an engineer, I find it particularly fascinating that there are theories being stoked for faster-than-light travel, and that the atmospheric ops of UFOs are very much in accordance with physics, despite foolish and sloppy claims to the contrary.

For those of us that take study of ufology seriously, it is extremely grating that there are so many clowns and con artists in our midst that make us look loony by association.

What is the point of this little embedded vanity? A plea for a little due respect for the subject, as it is warranted.

I was kind of goaded into my mocking mode, which is never very difficult to do.

I don't believe that we have been visited by alien civilizations. I would like to see some proof before I do believe that.

I happen to believe that limitations imposed by time and space preclude actual physical contact with an alien civilization, but would welcome proof that I am in error. If contact is as wide-ranging and verifiable as some UFOlogists assert, I don't think a sliver of incontrovertible evidence is an unreasonable request.

I do hold out hope for some contact with an alien intelligence, though I believe that, if it does occur, the same limits of time and space will make that conversation distinctly one-sided. We will detect some alien communications by a long since dead civilization amongst themselves, and will attempt to respond. And in a few hundred million years, some other civilization may hear our response, but our existence as a species will have long since flickered out by then.

I think our universe is likely teeming with intelligent life, each existing in its own little bubble of time and space, with little hope of meaningful conversation outside that circle.

But of course, I could be wrong.