the rum soaked fist: internal martial arts forum

WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find.

Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.

For years, the program investigated reports of unidentified flying objects, according to Defense Department officials, interviews with program participants and records obtained by The New York Times. It was run by a military intelligence official, Luis Elizondo, on the fifth floor of the Pentagon’s C Ring, deep within the building’s maze.

The Defense Department has never before acknowledged the existence of the program, which it says it shut down in 2012.

Steve James wrote: And, imo, it's more likely that we'll treat aliens no better than immigrants or domestic animals. I think it'd be better for everyone if we don't meet for a long time.

Peacedog wrote:Frankly this is the kind of thing that I see government, and I say this rarely, is probably the best choice for funding.

The free market works and is the reason why the West has had a superior standard of living against the rest of the world since about 1100 AD.

If no viable path exists to pay for a line of research then it doesn't happen.

This is the kind of thing that might be handled via a prize system, i.e. we'll pay you $100 million if you find proof of extra-terrestrial life, but that generally works best for technology that is "not quite ready for primetime."

The UFO thing is so far out of the box that it probably wouldn't work in that context.

So, a very modest government expenditure to make sure we are not caught off guard by a remotely possible event is well worth doing.

RobP3 wrote: What if they offer us advanced technology such as free energy?

Trick wrote:

RobP3 wrote: What if they offer us advanced technology such as free energy?

Our rulers wouldn't like that, find those aliens quick enslave them or eliminate them

Steve James wrote:

Trick wrote:

RobP3 wrote: What if they offer us advanced technology such as free energy?

Our rulers wouldn't like that, find those aliens quick enslave them or eliminate them

Sure. Think it through, knowing what we know. For ex., if ets came, and it was possible for us to communicate with them, who would we delegate to talk to them? What if they could only communicate with people who spoke some obscure language in the "third world"? What if they had advanced materials or technology, and suppose they wanted to share, but they didn't have enough? Who would we allow to have it? Would we take it? Suppose we had something they wanted, but it was only in Djibouti or Ireland?

Well, imo, an intelligent life form with extraterrestrial capabilities would take a long hard look at any other life forms they discovered. They'd be the ones deciding who they'd contact and when. If they've taken people and anal-probed them, it means they're smart enough to maintain a safe distance. We know that whatever advanced technology they'd have would not be shared by humans --at least at this point in our history. The only positive result of meeting extraterrestrials would be the emergence of a sense of our being "terrestrials" as opposed to "nationals."

Meh, I'm more a "Day the Earth Stood Still" than a "War of the Worlds" kind of guy. The Keanu version sucked except for when he said "Yourplanet?" to the president.