Neil deGrasse Tyson on UFOs and more.

[Pyrrho]

Here is a video of Neil deGrasse Tyson reacting to a question about UFOs and aliens, followed by excerpts from other discussions.  It is long, but quite interesting.

[Minimalist]

Amazing how easily religious bullshit could be used in place of UFOs in his argument.

Great stuff.

[ReptilianPeon]

Lovely video. Thanks for sharing! That point about Abdus Salaam was brilliant. But according to the Muhammadan standards, he's not a Muhammadan because he's Ahmadiyya. Then again, they might be hypocrites because he won a Nobel Prize as they want to be associated with him.

[AFTT47]

This guy is SO good at what he does.

It's a shame that science popularizers (is that a word?) are somewhat looked down upon in the scientific community. People like Tyson are vitally important because the common mass of people (<Blazing Saddles>you know, morons</Blazing Saddles>) are who have the voting power. Explaining science in a way that the common person can understand it is very valuable to us all. If they have a fucking clue, they'll know they shouldn't vote for George W Bush.

Carl Sagan would be proud of Tyson.

[Iroscato]

Having been way too young to watch the original Cosmos, I found Tyson's version to be an absolutely fascinating and beautifully made series. It also felt so fresh, and taught me a hell of a lot more about science. Even taught me a few new things about evolution, which is always welcome
A slight tangent, as I was going to make a new thread based entirely on this subject, but figured this one should suffice; has anyone on this board ever seen a UFO or had an experience with the extra-terrestrial? I mean anything from seeing something in the sky to a full on probing session with Thor and the rest of his Asgaard homies

[Quatermass]

I like it. I like DeGrasse Tyson a lot. 

I think a lot of people are sincere when they think they've seen aliens, though. But sincerity doesn't equate to accuracy. For example there's certain conditions when part of an aircraft - like the wing - can be reflected on a cloud at an offset position from the plane itself. Now if you don't know that, the result of this phenomena can look very strange - even look like a UFO or a flying ship of some kind. And people may sincerely believe that's what they've seen, but are not necessarily describing accurate events.

As for whether aliens have been to earth? When I was a little kid I was enchanted by the idea that they had. I was fascinated by the stories of Roswell and Rendlesham Forest. But as I grew up and investigated incidents such as alien abduction more, and as my scientific literacy grew, the less and less these stories seemed to indicate a superior intelligence at work.

For a start, I don't think an advanced species would need to enter earth's atmosphere to find out about us. There's a scientific theory whose name I can never remember that basically says anything we have, aliens will have better. On the basis that we have telescopes that can see other galaxies and so on, so too aliens must have even more advanced telescopes that would enable them to observe us from remote distances to learn about us. They can even pick up a general idea of what we're like from our transmissions.

Secondly this means that any medical knowledge and tools we possess, aliens will possess better. So I don't find the idea that people are experimented on without anaesthesia using cutting tools and invasive procedures to correlate with the idea of a technologically advanced species. We had 3D/4D imaging devices to look at the human body, so aliens would probably have something even more advanced than that with which to investigate organisms and suchlike.

[robvalue]

I just realized the phrase, "That looks like a UFO" is a bit of a contradiction.

[Pyrrho]

I just realized the phrase, "That looks like a UFO" is a bit of a contradiction.

That looks like an unidentified flying object.

At the very least, it is a strange sentence.  Many people seem to forget what "UFO" stands for, and imagine it means "aliens" or some other thing that it does not mean.

If I throw a brick and it passes by your head, and you go, "whoa, what was that?", that is an unidentified flying object (UFO).  Unidentified by you, regardless of my awareness that it was a brick that I threw.

[robvalue]

Yeah, you're right. People seem to equate UFO with alien spacecraft, like there can't possibly be any other explanation.