Weird Subject--- UFOs

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I have for some time now been looking for a UFO discussion forum populated by thoughtful, informed adults, including those who are skeptical but open minded to all sides of the UFO question.

I have considered the UFO question in terms of Fermi's Paradox and the Technological Singularity. Detailed commentary on these are at this blog site, and more at
http://techsingularity.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?pid=2#p2

Briefly, I have asked the question of whether UFOs (accepting that many of the sightings are valid) could even remotely be considered evidence of space ships from other planets.

Enrico Fermi posed the question in about 1950 as to why we are not overrun by alien spacecraft, and a number of possible explanations were proposed. I go through each of these, and find all of them implausible.

Aliens capable of traversing interstellar space would be capable of either overrunning us at will, ignoring us with impunity, or hiding from us with no possibility that we could detect them. The last thing to expect from such beings is that they would occasionally, and only occasionally, be seen by us, which is what the valid UFO sighting reports would seem to indicate is the case.

So how to solve Fermi's Paradox?

Then I stumbled upon Vernor Vinge's paper on the Technological Singularity, http://mindstalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html which while it does not intend to do so, does seem to offer a completely logical explanation.

The technological singularity is loosely associated with post-humanism or trans-humanism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism

but as regards UFOs, I think all these ideas come together in a compelling synthesis.

I promised to be brief, so I will conclude:

All technological civilizations capable of space travel must inevitably come to rely upon computers. This reliance only increases, until the interaction between biological organisms and computers reaches an irreversible threshhold. At that point, either the biological organisms revert back to a more primitive state, or else, they cross the threshhold into a symbiosis about which no reliable predictions can be made.

Likely, such a cybernetic civilization would not have "human" (or any biological) motivations that we could understand. Likely, the motivations would be "computer" motivations, bereft of territorial instincts.

This might explain the seemingly incomprehensible behavior of UFOs--- or else rule them out completely as manifestations of any technological process. If they are not spacecraft at all, we are faced with a truly mysterious phenomenon, as mysterious to us as were volcanoes to prehistoric villagers.

I hope to find competent people who can articulate their views on these ideas.

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No, this is not your usual UFO hyped up report. I did not see one, nor do I claim any knowledge about what they are, or even if they exist outside the mind of man. For all I know, they might all be optical illusions, natural events, or little green men from the planet XYZ.

But I do wish to explore the basic question, pro and con, of whether there is technological life on other planets, whether or not they come here, and if so, what we might expect from such an encounter.

For the sake of doing that, I start with a preliminary assumption that may or may not be true. But at least it gives us a working hypothesis of sorts, from which we can proceed to a sensible analysis of the basic questions in the preceding paragraph.

Let us assume, as a starting point, that at least some of the UFO reports may be true. That is to say, that in some cases, skilled, credible observers of good reputation, have reported seeing what appear to be aircraft in the sky that exceed any known technology of earth. Some of these sightings have been carefully researched, documented and corroborated by multiple witnesses making independent reports without knowledge of the other reports. Some of the sightings occur simultaneously by eye witnesses on the ground, pilots in the air, and air traffic control radar. There does seem to be the distinct possibility that there are occasionally in our skies, technological objects beyond any earthly ability to construct.

But this is by no means a certainty. There might be ordinary explanations for even the most dramatic of these sightings. It is possible that on rare occasion, numerous multiple coincidences can occur--- and we know that in nature sometimes this happens. These coincidences can produce reports by credible, skilled witnesses that later prove to be entirely mistaken. We cannot entirely rule out that even the most powerful UFO accounts could be shown to be mistakes.

But the basic question still remains, and so let’s not abandon our working assumption just yet. In regards to that assumption, we must still ask our basic questions, which bear a little restating. In the unimaginably vast reaches of space, might there be distant planets inhabited by intelligent creatures who have developed the ability to travel to our planet? And if so, then what might we expect if and when we encounter them? Might such encounters result in something like the aforementioned reports of UFO sightings by credible witnesses?

Let’s lay some groundwork.

Today, when we see an object flying in the sky, our first assumption, often correct, is that it is an aircraft, and that it is under the control of a pilot. Because this is usually the case, we tend to build up an expectation for the next time we see something. When that next time occurs, our first conclusion is usually that we are looking at an aircraft flown by a pilot.

Therefore, some years ago, when I saw a spectacular meteor in broad daylight, trailing smoke, I thought it was a large airplane going down in flames. I was about to call the police, when it occurred to me that many hundreds of witnesses were probably already doing the same. Only after further reflection did I realize that what I had seen was likely a rare meteor, which later appeared on the news as such. In fact, many thousands of people saw it from Florida to Quebec. And for many of us, our first reflex was to think it to be a piloted aircraft.

So the first thing that we must ask in regards to credible UFO reports, is this. When such reports come in, do we as a first resort, assume these objects to be piloted aircraft, possibly from another planet? And we must ask, is that a reasonable assumption?

I think that our first assumption is indeed to regard what appear to be material flying objects as piloted aircraft. Our experience leads us to assume that.

But consider. What we are seeing or reading in reports, even if they are from other planets, even if they are the product of alien technology--- even then, they may not be piloted. Indeed, they may not even be of material construction. They could be transmissions of some sort. Or they could be of some exotic material as unknown to us as is dark matter.

In order to explain what I mean by this, let’s try to ask some questions about the supposed space aliens. What sorts of creatures might they be? How similar to us are they? How different? Indeed, how vastly different might they be from us, not only in appearance, but in the ways that they think, in the ways that motivate them?

Physically, of course, they are likely to be very dissimilar to us. While our body plan is vertebrate, theirs might be more like an octopus, or an amoeba, or like something we have never imagined. Their brains could be even more unlike ours, not just in their degree of intelligence, but also, in the ways that they think--- if they think at all, at least by our ordinary definition.

As humans, we tend to explore and conquer. That has been our history. Humans get curious as to what is over the next hill. We go look. We often settle there and partake of nature’s resources. And if someone else has already settled there, we may have a conflict of interest to be resolved, sometimes peacefully, but often violently.

But can we assume that extra-terrestrial populations might share the same history? And even if they share a similar history, how far beyond us may they have proceeded? Might they have proceeded to become super-conquerors? Or might they have become super-benevolent? What if they have become utterly indifferent?

To begin with, we must ask this: if UFOs come from other planets to earth, then why do they come here? If they come to conquer, then surely they would already have conquered us. Their technology would overpower our most forceful resistance. They would not even need death rays. A simple meteor strike, or a few, instigated and well calibrated, would certainly be a simple tactic for them to employ.

If instead they come to rule us with benevolence, then they would likewise already have done so. We would be enjoying the utopian fruits of an advanced civilization even now.

And if they are indifferent, then why do they apparently attempt to evade detection by us? Why don’t they simply travel about with no regard for whether we see them or not? We could pose no threat to them.

One idea says that we are the subjects of study, that the space aliens wish to observe us without disturbing us, without altering the natural course of our development.

But that idea falls apart the moment that we see a UFO (assuming it is a spacecraft). Let’s face it. Any technology capable of getting from a distant planet to here, is surely capable of avoiding detection utterly and completely.

Okay, you say, nobody is perfect. Maybe space aliens are everywhere all the time, studying us thoroughly and intensely. Maybe the few times we see them are just rare mistakes, slip-ups, accidents. Maybe. But it is difficult to believe that some of the prolonged sightings could be momentary errors. If the aliens are so smart, one simply would not expect them to slip up at all, but certainly not in ways that indicate inept attempts at evasion. It’s just not a strong argument. A blundering alien, if they do blunder, could just as easily make a mistake that would kill us all as one that would merely result in a UFO sighting.

So if they are not conquering, and if they are not bringing us utopia, and if they are not indifferently walking over us, then what explanation could there possibly be? Haven’t we covered all the possibilities?

No. While there are a few other speculations, they seem even less likely than the ones we have examined. Are we simply some kind of amusement to them? Are we some kind of toy for them, some kind of game they play? None of the sightings make sense when explained in that way.

So what are we left with?

We must return yet again to ask, what sort of creatures might there be on other planets who could come here?

And to answer that, I will import and adapt Vernor Vinge’s idea of the technological singularity. In short, what this idea says, in my interpretation, is that at some point, but inevitably in all techno-civilizations anywhere in the universe, technology becomes the master of the creatures that produced it. This is not to say that the robots revolt. Quite the contrary. It is to say that the creatures become so utterly dependent on their technology that they adapt to it, that they absorb it, and that they become one with it. For example, we all depend on computers to perform mathematical tasks more skillfully than our brains could. Our brains could do mathematics without computers. But computers can do it much faster and with vastly fewer errors. So we have become dependent on computers to perform complex mathematical tasks, in enormously repetitive operations that would bore us. Computers do in milliseconds what would take us years, and they do it almost error free.

The present step is to put computers aboard aircraft, to monitor our power grids, to help operate our commerce and industry, and in short, to assist in almost every aspect of our lives. If in a moment all electronic computers were to suddenly suffer some catastrophe, leaving us without them, we might find ourselves in devastatingly primitive conditions, and without the benefit of having been trained in how to survive under those conditions. We are becoming utterly dependent on them already.

So we must now consider how the technological singularity might affect us in the near future, and how it might have already affected civilizations on distant planets.

Perhaps the next step for us is to integrate computers more closely with our brains. We have already inserted computer chips inside of human brains to prevent seizures. This is not science fiction. The next step might be to insert computer chips in our bodies to detect cancers, tumors, or other conditions before they become serious health problems. That also is not science fiction. We might insert computer chips into our brains to expand our ability to make fast, accurate computations in complex mathematics. We might eventually use them in our brains to provide instant access to encyclopedic information. Imagine containing the entire Library of Congress in your head, in a readily searchable computer database. This might still be science fiction for now, but soon it will almost surely become science fact.

It is not unreasonable, then, to imagine that extra-terrestrial civilizations, if indeed they exist, have already reached this phase of development, and even gone far beyond our speculations. Some of these civilizations could be millions of years ahead of us.

But the technological singularity does not end there.

If we as humans begin to integrate technology into our bodies, and into our brains, how will that alter the very nature of what it is to be human? How human would we be? To what degree might we become less biological, and more technological? If we enhance our ability to think through complex problems, quickly and accurately, how might we alter the very ways we think entirely?

Because of our biological natures, we have biological motives. These motives express themselves in many ways: survival, reproduction, territory, fight or flight, love, fear, art--- and so forth in a multitude of forms. But mechanical objects, even the most advanced computers, have no such motives.

One computer does not get jealous of another. Cars do not fear airplanes. Even a military armored tank has no desire to conquer an enemy. Machines have no curiosity, no hopes, no affections.

Imagine then, an alien technology that has been completely integrated with the biological creatures that initially produced it. As the limitations of biology were gradually replaced with the powers of computing, the very direction of research and development would likely have changed as well. Survival itself may have become unimportant to such a society. Reproduction, expansion of territory, curiosity and affection may all have become subsumed into other motivations which the biological mind cannot begin to fathom.

If this is the case, if this is what universally happens to technological civilizations throughout the universe, then we are confronted with two questions. One of them is, how will we react if and when we come into close, verifiable contact with the space aliens? And two, can we (or should we) avoid becoming like them?

On the first question, we can only hope that we can prevent the space aliens from harming us. Even if they have no intention of harming us, their motives may have nothing to do with our safety from them.

On the second question, the time is now to consider the far reaching implications of our technology. The time is now to begin thinking of how to embed our values, our morals, our very spirituality into the essence of our further technological development. We must decide whether, and how, to preserve the best features of our human nature.

Maybe somewhere in the universe there is a civilization that has managed to avoid being consumed by its own technology. Maybe it is possible to find the right balance. I don’t know. But if they have, I suspect they have made the most important discovery in the universe--- that the only way to live successfully--- whether for a society or an individual--- is to live according to God’s word.