I remain fascinated by UFOs/UAPs. I have been this way since I was a child, although I went from "I want to believe" to "This is an example of people being stupid" and finally my current position.
UAPs are intermittent, non-reproducible phenomenon. Life is full of such experiences.
Sadly, when these experiences involve extraordinary experiences, they tend to make all of those involved look stupid. Turns out people and organizations don't like looking stupid.
The reason National Security is so tied up in this area is that when or if a new weapons system is deployed against the U.S., it's going to involve a lot of these exact kinds of reports. Any investigation into any of them is, in effect, an investigation into how the country learns from strange new things, like the Chinese joining the Korean War. These kinds of public investigations simply cannot occur.
I still love these stories, but I love them because they tell us what happens when a large organization comes across really weird stuff it has no labels or processes for.
There's no conspiracy here, that's my guess. Maybe a conspiracy of human nature.
The UFO/UAP story is going nowhere, and it says a lot more about us than it does about anything in nature that anybody might encounter.
ADD: I'm glad Kirkpatrick is getting some reputational payback here. I'll leave my opinions of his essay aside. I strongly support dragging out the Sagan response and banging on it again and again until folks finally focus on the real issues involved. Recommended reading: Hynek's biography, "The Close Encounters Man" https://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Man-World-Believe/dp...
UAPs are intermittent, non-reproducible phenomenon. Life is full of such experiences.
Sadly, when these experiences involve extraordinary experiences, they tend to make all of those involved look stupid. Turns out people and organizations don't like looking stupid.
The reason National Security is so tied up in this area is that when or if a new weapons system is deployed against the U.S., it's going to involve a lot of these exact kinds of reports. Any investigation into any of them is, in effect, an investigation into how the country learns from strange new things, like the Chinese joining the Korean War. These kinds of public investigations simply cannot occur.
I still love these stories, but I love them because they tell us what happens when a large organization comes across really weird stuff it has no labels or processes for.
There's no conspiracy here, that's my guess. Maybe a conspiracy of human nature.
The UFO/UAP story is going nowhere, and it says a lot more about us than it does about anything in nature that anybody might encounter.
ADD: I'm glad Kirkpatrick is getting some reputational payback here. I'll leave my opinions of his essay aside. I strongly support dragging out the Sagan response and banging on it again and again until folks finally focus on the real issues involved. Recommended reading: Hynek's biography, "The Close Encounters Man" https://www.amazon.com/Close-Encounters-Man-World-Believe/dp...