Come On Down!

A segment on CBS's 60 Minutes last Sunday explored recent evidence of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), including an interview with a former investigator for a Pentagon program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or "AATIP." These unknown phenomena are now known as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), for bureaucratic update reasons. 

Also interviewed were several former Navy pilots who encountered the mysterious craft. It was a surprise, not something I would have expected from 60 Minutes.

I wasn't surprised, though, that our government is taking the evidence of UFOs seriously. I have believed that beings from outside the Earth's known  atmosphere exist for decades. With a difference time makes. I believe any civilization capable of the flight technology described in the 60 Minutes segment can only be here for benign purposes. The former investigator, Luis Elizondo, believes they are a national security threat, as do his former colleagues at the Pentagon. He also said that we need to "defend" ourselves against this threat. 

Duh. What threat? And what "defense?" If they were a threat they would have done something threatening by now. And more. This isn't War of the Worlds. We don't know who the beings are who operate these vehicles, or even if there is anyone in them. One clear indication that they are superior beings, though, is that, unlike us, they don't seem to think of anyone other than themselves as "enemies" to "defend" against. Which, need I mention, is to attack.

They are likely more than casual observers. The only purpose I can see them having is to keep us humans from destroying ourselves, and the planet in the process - the track we are now on at breakneck speed. They couldn't make the lives of people in the Mideast any worse, such as in Palestine, Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Afghanistan in the crossroads of Central and South Asia. These countries and regions are all suffering in unbelievable fashion as a result of "U.S." sponsorship, invasions and weapons grants and sales. Except Syria, maybe. They have suffered more from osmosis from our various invasions and proxy sponsorship in Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and to some degree Jordan. The lives of the Uyghurs in China couldn't be made any worse off by extraterrestrial invaders. Nor the Rohingya people of Myanmar, or really, most nonmilitary people in Myanmar. Nor millions of others around the globe who are dispossessed, living on the streets, oppressed, starving and dying of preventable disease.

I could go on. Suffice it to say that the "national security threat" from outer space is welcome in my view. They can only be an improvement. To coin a phrase, come on down!

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An interview with Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb.

Here's some more background on interstellar visitors.