UFOs, UAPs, and who knows what else, Oh My!

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
– Hamlet (1.5.167-8)

In every age, there are those who assert that everything worth discovering has already been discovered, and in every instance, they have been absolutely, gloriously, wrong. It never ceases to amaze me that some of those who think that the adventure of discovery is complete are the same ones who should know better: Scientists.

Moreover, science is not, it can’t be, the purview of only a selected few. You see, science is not a thing, it is a method,  a method that we use to interrogate the natural world in order to figure out its secrets. It is true that certain questions that we pose to Mother Nature require specialized training in science and mathematics as well as sophisticated equipment, but the reality is that science is just organized common sense.

Before I say anything else, I want you to know that I am not saying that all opinions are equally valid. Training and knowledge count for something. Actually, they count for a lot, and the gross falsehood of the idea that everybody is entitled to a scientific opinion is the cause of many of the things that are wrong in our society.

I won’t even go there right now.

Also, please don’t get me wrong; I am not deifying scientific knowledge. What I am saying is the source of an opinion matters. For example, I am only willing to accept medical advice from a qualified professional, and so should you. In other words, if I have a toothache, I will not consult a podiatrist. You surely get the idea.

If it feels like I’m beating around the bush and not getting to the point of what I really want to say, you are absolutely right.

Sigh… Here goes.

All this preamble serves to give me the courage to talk about a topic that few academics dare to touch even with a six-foot stick: UFOs.

Or UAPs.

And similar things.

Followed by (the obligate) “Oh My”.

It used to be that most self-respecting academics would never even consider the idea of admitting an interest on UFOs/UAPs in order to avoid becoming the target of the “ridicule factor” or to avoid being perceived as “lesser scientists” or worse.

At the same time, there’s no denying that many scientists were and are interested on this and other mysteries.

I hereby state that I am one of them interested ones.

I also state that I have no idea what UFOs/UAPs are.

Then there are those who categorically deny a priori even the possibility that these things, whatever they are, exist at all. This is a mistake that exposes a fundamental lack of understanding of what science is and what it does.

I will not explore here the historical accounts of the things that have been seen in our skies for centuries, millennia even. It is undeniably that most of these sighting accounts came to us from honest, reliable people who just like today, did not know what they were looking at. Add to the mix the fact that they saw what they saw without the advantage of any technological aids at all.

More recently, with the advent of radar and other contraptions and methods that allow us to make observations beyond our unaided senses, we are in a better position to try to understand, or at least document for further analysis, what is flying up there.

I cannot help myself to tell a silly joke while at the same time, I’m really only half-joking. Here goes: The reality is that even now, despite our relatively sophisticated technology, the discourse on what UAPs are is oftentimes limited to literally stating the following:

“It’s a bird!”

“It’s a plane!”

“It’s …”

Well, you know the rest.

It is an undeniable reality that there are flying “things” that are observed not only visually, but also on radar, satellites, and maybe other advanced technologies not known to the general public. Moreover, UFOs/UAPs oftentimes display capabilities that go way beyond the technology that we are supposed to have. Furthermore, some of these things seem not to know—or care—about the physical laws that control the universe. Paraphrasing a question/comment that I posited to two cherished friends for a podcast they were in, these things do not seem to give a flying (see what I did there?) ***k about inertia, for example.

Our best hope for the identification of what UFOs/UAPs are will depend on reliable evidence, not on speculation or opinion. Personally, I am very skeptical of assertions, regardless of the source, that purport to categorically state the nature of UFOs/UAPs. Maybe someone knows what UFOs/UAPs are, but it seems that nobody really knows, or at least, admit to knowing. For the rest of us mere mortals, the best (nay, the only) honest statement that we can offer on this matter boils down to the following:

1. UFOs/UAPs are real.

2. We don’t know what they are.

I don’t take seriously people who dismiss the above points as a matter of course. I am especially skeptical of extreme opinions, for example, whether said people believe that there is nothing to UFOs/UAPs, or whether said people believe in the most “out there” (pun absolutely and unapologetically intended) explanations. I just don’t know, so I cannot in good conscience make a judgment on this matter.

I also forcefully reject the attitude of ridicule that many display towards the people who assert they have seen “things”. Sure, hoaxers and liars are out there, no doubt about it, but the beauty of properly applying scientific common sense is that hoaxes and lies are exposed in a relatively short time, at least for those who honestly and objectively examine the evidence. The same applies to honest misidentifications.

Also, please note that I am not dismissing anyone’s personal experiences. I happen to believe that most people are honest. I even have people very close to me who have shared unexplainable, very strange happenings with me, and I have no reason to believe that they are lying. Alas, although I believe what they say, I cannot take single, personal observations as the guiding light to make scientific opinions. In fact, I cannot even base scientific opinions on single, personal observations of my own. This is not negotiable. Science depends on objective, independent, repeatable, and reliable observations.

Which reminds me about another important point that I want to make.

I have little patience with those who assert that all witnesses are equally unreliable. Take the case of pilots in general, but especially military pilots. In my humble opinion, military pilots are much better equipped than the average person to identify the things flying up there with them, as their very lives, as well as the lives of others, depend on it.

Furthermore, it is very unlikely that the U.S. Navy will give a 60-million dollar fighter plane to anyone on account of nepotism, politics, monetary influence, or “any of the above”. These pilots must make split-second decisions while flying inside a metal machine weighing thousands of pounds (which includes very flammable fuel), at hundreds of miles per hour. Nobody can make a serious argument against the fact that under these conditions, mistakes can be lethal, and second chances are rare. Simply because of the facts above, I’d give more credence to the observations of a military pilot over the speculations of the smartest, logical, most excellently published, ground-bound scientist.

And I don’t think that I should elaborate too much on the self-evident fact that military pilots have access to the most advanced technology that money can buy; end of story.

In the end, I do not know what UFOs/UAPs are, but I can tell you that we will never know if we don’t try to find out… Scientifically.

Sometimes even self-evident truths need to be explicitly stated.

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Picture credit: space.com

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