UFOs? Seriously?
The results of the BBC UFO pollI was just browsing the BBC Science & Nature site, when I found a poll (near the bottom of the page) about whether people think UFO sightings are hoaxes, mistaken identities, or actual alien spacecraft. When I selected "mistaken identities" and pressed the vote button, I was surprised at what I saw!
Do 53.2% of people really think the unidentified objects in the sky are alien spacecraft? Seriously?
It's possible, albeit very unlikely, that we've had visitors from outer space. I'm certain there's life out there, perhaps even intelligent life on par with our own technological advancements, but would that life visit Earth and simply make a fly-by over London or New York or Roswell? I doubt it.
Until we have much better propulsion, habitation, and sensing capabilities, we're unlikely to see much of anything truly alien, save the odd bit of organic meteor remnants that happens to impact someone's house and tear a hole through the living room.
I'm up too late to write a long article on how we might go about finding extraterrestrial intelligence, so I won't. But, really, 53.2%?
Comments
You are surprised by 53.2%?? Well, you have obviously never worked in retail banking. What I mean by that is that you are giving the American (or British) public way too much credit. I would encourage you to find the stupidest person that you can find and have a conversation with them about life. You will be most surprised. (Excerpt from my conversation with random stupid person: ME: Have you ever been to Europe? Stupid Person: Yeah, I drove there one time.) My point is simply that whatever minimum level of intelligence you believe the average Brit has, cut that level in half and then you may be almost there. 53.2%? That tells me that a lot of people must think that the movie "K-PAX" is actually a true story.
Posted by: arc | August 12, 2007 08:31 PM
I think the 53.2% is probably more indicative that people are OPEN to the possibility that we're not exactly alone in the universe(s).
Have you seen the new show, "Masters of Science Fiction"? Good stuff.
Posted by: Kari | August 12, 2007 11:52 PM