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Sep 22, 2022Liked by Steve Skojec

Dr. Jacque Vallee, the French astrophysicist and computer expert was the first to accurately map Mars and contributed to the development of the internet. He broke ranks with many/most other scientists years ago in openly researching the UAP phenomenon. Spielberg paid tribute to him with his character Lacombe in "Close Encounters". He long ago concluded that this phenomenon is not a simple case of extraterrestrial visitation. It has been with us throughout recorded history and taken many forms. Yet, an underlying unity between these forms is evident. Absurdity and strangeness are among these. Vallee believes the phenomenon has impacted culture, religion and other human realities throughout the centuries.

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It's still possible this turns into a nothingburger, the way things in this sad world will do. But that is coming to seem a less likely outcome now, isn't it?

I think it'd be really neat to encounter an extraterrestrial civilization. But in another sense, the reading of this phenomenon that has UAPs as off-world spaceships is almost the least interesting interpretation other than "weather balloon." I'd rather they be a kind of animal who dwells in the etheric realms right on the border of physical reality which has been venturing across the frontier more often of late, or time-travelers, or the astral projections of dreaming human beings, or interdimensional beings from a reality richer and more mysterious than we had admitted before.

Angels are aesthetically more appealing, who can only be encountered if one has contact with a plane of _depth_ and _value_, but these UAPs are poised to make the nightly news and impinge on reality in a concrete and undeniable way, even on the flat surface of things. Curious.

I am a little put out that the framing of the story around UAPs has the government and the military as central players. As much as I respect our folks in uniform, the State, with its secrecy and power and investment in maintaining control, are the last people I’d want mediating contact with a new horizon of reality. A UFO cult that bowed down and worshiped these as gods wouldn’t be the answer either, but I frankly hope that the phenomenon reaches a point where it is at once undeniable, highly strange, and inexplicable, and not a cat that anyone can keep in the bag, because that might just force epistemic humility on the human race. We should learn to live with mystery again.

Unless these really are just jerks from another solar system who are here to exploit the earth, and the only thing buying us time is realpolitik and the ethical gray areas that the government has been willing to explore while making deals with these beings. “You can abduct a certain number of human beings and use them in your hybrid breeding program, in exchange for advanced technology and not blowing up the White House.”

But imagine these are just the plague of etheric locusts that are going to consume the tired old trappings of post-industrial reality and force Pharaoh to let us go and be human beings again before God and nature.

I know this comment sounds loony, but I'm ok with that.

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I have a couple of problems on the UFO stuff.

First, classic physics doesn't allow for some of the reported phenomena. Meaning standard Newtonian stuff, nothing fancy. Yeah, maybe we got it all wrong, but that seems unlikely given that stuff hasn't changed in a couple hundred years. Maybe it's the OTHER sightings that are real and the ones violating physical laws are the accidents.

Second, "why"? You've traveled a few billion parsecs in your FTL thingie, and now you're gonna play duck duck goose in the clouds with a bunch of cave-folk? Why would you do that? You've got AI, right? Send a probe to insert itself into orbit and report back infinitely detailed, all spectrum information you can watch in the comfort of your living room at home until WWE (or the local equivalent), comes on.

I mean, Earth tech for using aircraft to watch the ground still exists (the U-2 is still flying), but that's arguably only because satellites are in fixed orbital positions. UFOs posit civilizations with huge tech advantages, and yup, it's duck duck goose in the clouds and running away if the cave-folk get too close. It just makes no sense.

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