Does intelligent life exist outside of Earth? And if you think it does, are those life forms visiting the earth? That might sound like the stuff of science fiction, but three witnesses are expected to testify at a house oversight committee on Wednesday, the Subject: "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency".
Does intelligent life exist outside of Earth? And if you think it does, are those life forms visiting the earth?
For another perspective, KAZU’s MaryJane Peters asked Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute what he makes of some of the assertions being made by one of the witnesses that is set to testify.
Seth Shostak: His arguments sound exactly like arguments I heard more than half a century ago, that the government knows that the aliens are here and it's covering up. Why is it always that only the government can find this evidence? Right. If the aliens are really here, it's not going to just be the U.S. government that knows about it. You know, a lot of people are going to know about it, too, if the aliens are really here. Don't you think that all those satellites that are making photos of the Earth all the time would occasionally show them or show their craft? I mean, there would be other evidence which I don't see.
MaryJane: So what is going to come of this?
Seth Shostak: Well, you know, I suspect that what will happen, is that there'll be this report. There'll be a public version of the report which will be released. And it will say, we found no evidence that any of this was due to extraterrestrial technology or presence. And then the public will say, Yeah, okay, but what about the secret part of the report? Right. So it'll continue as a conspiracy theory, which Americans love. They love the idea of conspiracies.
MaryJane: And one more article I was reading recently said that some police were called out in Vegas, and I think it was because of a green flash in the sky.
Seth Shostak: Yeah, well, there's a whole laundry list of explanations for what people see. Right. And one of the items on that list is alien visitors. But there are all these other possible explanations. So given that, you know, the evidence is not really compelling. I mean, everybody has a camera with them all the time now everybody carries a smartphone. So if aliens actually landed in your front yard or your backyard, you know, you just take one good photo of them and that would really be pretty compelling evidence. But we don't see that.
MaryJane: And finally, one last question. I just wanted to know if you'll be paying attention to what Congress says about all this?
Seth Shostak: Well, I will do that. I've testified to Congress a couple of times, actually, and they occasionally show some interest in the subject, but they don't have any expertise. You know, they would ask me questions like, well, what really happened at Roswell and things like that. They're very, very naive questions which show that, you know, their minds are not on this subject. Their minds are elsewhere, presumably with contemporary legislation and stuff like that. But, you know, NASA's involvement might be a little more interesting because NASA's actually has access to scientists who know something about all this. And if NASA's were to come in and say, well, we've got good evidence that the aliens are here, you know, that would be worth paying attention to. I've talked to people who are on that NASA committee and so far I don't think they've found that evidence.
MaryJane: Well, thank you so much for making time for me.
Click here to the watch an archive of the hearing which took place on Wednesday, July, 26, 2023.
