UFOs 'have been here since 1947', expert claims

For an interesting look at the probability of intelligent life existing elsewhere in the universe, I recommend looking at a peer-reviewed article published by Dr. Andrew Watson earlier this year. The paper is titled "Implications of an anthropic model for the evolution of complex life and intelligence" and can be downloaded from his web page:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/~ajw/pubs1.htm

Dr. Watson argues that intelligent life (read: us) developed on our planet because of 4 unlikely critical steps: the emergence of single-celled bacteria; complex cells; specialized cells allowing complex life forms; and intelligent life with an established language. Each step is independent of the other and can only take place after the previous steps in the sequence have occurred.

"[T]he origin of what we call intelligence––the transition which separates humans from the other apes––is just about the most unlikely event to have happened in the history of life. However, the history of life includes increases in structural and genetic complexity concentrated in certain major transitions that can be correlated with major changes in the fossil record and upheavals in the biogeochemistry of the whole Earth system. These earlier transitions appear, on the face of it, to have been of equal or greater difficulty than the origin of human intelligence."

Watson finds that there's less than a 0.01% probability of intelligent life evolving on an Earth-like planet over 4 billion years.

NOTE: Dr. Watson is just factoring the biological development of intelligent life as influenced by geologic activity on an Earth-like planet. He has not factored in the probability of Earth-like planets existing, nor those Earth-like planets existing within a celestial environment that is conducive to evolution (we benefited greatly from our Moon and Jupiter, for example).

He didn't factor in the additional probabilities of these lifeforms developing a culture in which their intelligence would be nurtured and developed great enough to enable intergalactic travel (overcoming both technological and biological barriers), of having a social and political environment that would endure the cost of developing and perfecting such programs, and so on and so forth.

All of these additional factors would make intelligent life zipping around in our skies absurdly unlikely.

to understand enough about "wormholes" or "blackholes" or anything else merely puts into perspective our mere 500 years from thinking the world is flat. just because we don't have the capacities to understand these stellar ideas doesn't mean someone or something doesn't. We just don't know. Call me what you will and state what you believe because yes, we did think the world was flat. OK, now we know. A couple of years ago, we thought a computer that fits in your palm and communicates through the atmosphere to anywhere in the world...YEAH RIGHT haw haw haw...see?

I don't know who refuted my statement with this, but there is one hell of a leap between believing there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe and believing they have come to see us.

I have no doubts there is at least life out there. What kind and how intelligent is a googleplex of possibilities. It depends on every aspect of physics and time, but It would be foolish to think we are the only life just by virtue of the numbers.

Yes, people were afraid to go 35mph at one time, and people once believed the earth flat, but it is mathematically and physically impossible to travel at the speed of light. There are scenarios where it would be possible to approach the speed of light (the c in e=mc2) it wont let me superscript the 2.

Wormholes invariably come up in these discussions, and there are very real possibilities of bends and folds in time/space and wormholes that go through them. There are 2 problems with wormholes, first, they aren't set up like convenient highways to go to and from any desired destination. Second space/time is in constant expansion and there is no guarantee a wormhole would deliver you to the place you expected and furthermore, the ability to return begins to really push the numbers. The third and most important aspect of wormholes is that they are not known to be a safe little escalator through the universe, and it has been thought they can contain a singularity as does a black hole, which would basically render matter to powder.

I believe they're out there, but I do not believe they have, or likely will ever come here until we can communicate with any civilization out there. I keep the Seti at home listening program going on my computer, but I haven't gotten signal one.

Remember that even at the speed of light, it takes 2 generations to reach the first planetary system near us.

McCain walks like an ET imho.

Duh
My only question is which ones are feeding off our misery and sadness
And which ones are helping us evolve
And which ones watch us on TV like the Mojoverse

how do you think we got here??

Jesus flew a UFO.

Just like God another mystery to existence of things we have not seen or experienced. Me personally I want to believe there are aliens and a God out there because something else has to be out there or it is just like a boring existence.

I believe the SETI folks announced a few months ago that they believe that our little section of the galaxy probably doesn't have extra terrestrials.

Heck, we haven't even picked up any signals yet...

The more we look, the more we find out that our old little Earth is a pretty special place:)

Without trying to sound like a complete nut case, aren't we being a little too egotistical when we say there is nothing out there but us?

oh, and aliens will "reveal" themselfs in 2012...

We also said at one point it was impossible for humans to fly, or that if we went above 35 M.P.H. that our skin would rip off of our face.

Can we at least say that it is possible to travel the distances?

Mankind cannot conceive the actuality of UFO's because of his immature status in the universe. Mankind has not been around long enough. Like children, he is still learning. Unfortunately, just like an unruly child, mankind also, has become closed and shallow-minded.
He acts as if he is the now teacher, and no longer needs to ask the teacher (the universe) for help.

Mankind is getting ready to find out that the universe does not tolerate troublemakers.

The Elohim have been here since the beginning.

I believe in UFO's in as far as it pertains to: "look what is that thing"? "I don't Know, it just flew across there". Probably was a windblown stick, but I wasn't able to identify it.

I wish Space travellers were here as much as anyone, but theres one problem. Physics. The distance to the nearest star other than the Sun is 4.2 light years away (Proxima Centauri) and it is not a planetary star. Now just to get there from here (assuming that it is possible) at the speed of light would take 4.2 years.

Now Vega, a young star shows a lot of planetary promise and its not so far either, just 25.3 light years away. Taking into account what we are seeing on Vega happened 25.3 years ago, it is still relatively young for a system to be very evolved in planetary terms.

Let's say Vega were stable enough to have a population that has conquered physics and could travel at light speed. Why would they come here? and Why wouldn't they make themselves widely known considering the time and capital investment they would have made to travel to a planet they haven't communicated with. It's possible our radio and TV signals could have reached there. I'm not sure if that would encourage a civilization to say "by God, we need to go there in 10 years and safely return back."

The thought of visitiors? very cool

The likelyhood of visitors? worse than lottery odds, slimmer than Karen Carpenter.

I know. I wish it were real too, but take comfort in the amazing stuff that can be and is found at the depths of our very own oceans and be in awe of what we will and do have rather than hopeful of that we wont and have not.

i love UFOs

I know I always count on "UFO Data Magazine" for journalistic integrity. (sarcasm)

Ive always wanted to try soylent green.........

Yep...UFOs exist. UFO, as ktnite1 says, is an unidentified flying object, and there are many of them in our skies.
I live in NV, about 60 miles from Area51/Groom Lake area, I have seen UFOs many times and I doubt they are aliens.
However........

UFO belong IBM.. Atomic Secret of postmenopausal..
Human being of Journey....

I find it funny that several people have felt it necessary to comment here trying to discredit the term UFO. I think we are all aware of what UFO means and the special meaning it has held since the 40's.

I love how UFOs are now codename for alien crafts.
UFO-- Unidentified Flying Object.
You know, they probably have been around since the 1940s, I'm sure a lot of people didn't know what an airplane was back in the day.
I mean, sometimes I see lights in the sky, I can't determine whether or not they're airplanes or "visitors", and that makes thm a UFO.
Calling someone a "ufologolist" really should mean being able to determine whether the things flying around in the air with blinking lights are airplanes or not.
Seriously.
Get a grip people.
I want to believe that aliens have visited here too, but honestly, what are the chances?
If we haven't found them in our universe yet, the chances are they haven't found us.
Thank you sci-fi for planting these images into the human mind,
Go Star Trek.

This physics lecture has a pretty compelling theory to explain roswell:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TJWb06p71k

Namely that the US military was practicing a method of measuring noise disturbances in the upper atmosphere for evidence of Russian missile launches.

That is why they were secretive, and the UFO myth was a convenient public screen.

The whole reason they call them UFO's is because they are unidentified. wtf

It's naive to think that Earthlings are the only creatures in the universe,... but, it's also naive to think that alien lifeform is existing at the same time as us. Earth and its time periods are a teeny tiny dot in time/space,... so in all probability,... alien lifeforms would be before or after our planet's lifespan. And any evidence of alien creatures has got to be extremely far away in the time-space realm.

Besides, if these aliens would be anything like us,... why would we want to meet them?!!?

I think the roswell crash was more military tech testing than anything. And as for the raditon, its more likely that that is due to some form of military nuclear testing.

well honestly...i don't know what to think of this. mind you, i do believe in aliens...it's hard to believe that in the entire universe, we are the only planet with life on it. But if they actually do this, and prove it, it was a long time coming

The universe is so large there is a good chance that there is life out there that is billions of years more evolved then us.

I think the proof is that there is an abundance of the elements needed for life to exist on planets in our own solar system.

1947? lol ....why that year? good wine year?

Technically, UFO just means Unidentified Flying Object. So if there were ever any flying objects that have not been identified, there have been UFOs. That does not mean there are spaceships. But there is NO reason to not believe there is life on other planets.

I think they would've taken over the world a long time ago...but its way too polluted.

Yeah, I heard they're coming for us on October 14th.. get out your tin foil hats people!

mind you, it wouldn't surprise me if ufos go back way further than '47. Sounds a bit too recent to me.

The Bible, itclearly states in Genesis 6:4 as follows: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” The beginning of that chapter says: God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
Even if you think the Bible is not the Word of God, these stories do hold some water.
Those giants have also been referred to as Angels in other translations

not to sound like a crazy. but i've been saying for weeks that im pretty sure we're gonna find out about aliens soon.

i mean, the vatican said if we find out about aliens that doesnt mean there's no god. why would they say that if they didnt know somethings up? the uk released there military ufo sightings recently. nasa has talked about releasing the biggest news in fifty soon.

i mean, i dont know what happend in roswell, but i bet the government does. I bet know they know alot about aliens by now. (or atleast i would hope) I mean, they couldn't announce it before, it would cause panic. but with new technology like the internet, i think people are more prepared for an announcement like that.

I almost pulled a muscle I laughed so hard the first time I saw someone referred to as a 'Ufologist' on TV. Well, he must be legitimate; he has a title that sounds scientific, lol. Objects have been seen flying that could not be clearly identified? Then they must be from Alpha Centauri; that's the only logical conclusion.

Totally, obviously untrue. We are giving the authorities WAY too much credit if we believe they could cover up the presence of Alien life.