I’m truly not sure what to say… This is a big deal I think.

  • kilgore@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    Sounds like the same evidence-lacking claims that crop up once a year or so and lead precisely no where. Are we really calling this “news”?

    • Pigeon@beehaw.org
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      2 years ago

      Aye. If it’s a U.S. official this time… So?

      If we’ve learned anything lately, it’s that plenty of U.S. officials are corrupt or idiots or both.

      Shenanigans and/or misapprehensions VASTLY more likely than alien visitors, in this scenario as in all others.

      I believe aliens are very likely existant, maybe even common, given the huge numbers of potentially habitable exoplanets that have been identified. But who knows how often intelligent life, and with also the needed access to the necessary tools and resources for spaceflight, arises. And the distances involved are huge.

      So. Super advanced aliens develope space flight tech, send a ship or unmanned probe on a really really really unfathomably long journey, only for it to crash in a conveniently mostly unnoticed and unobserved fashion on a teeny tiny little planet full of cell phone cameras and radio receivers and surrounded by a cloud of satellites (none of which it hit)? Which would mean either it was aimed at us, and hit the target despite how exceedingly difficult it is to aim even across ‘short’ space distances like from the Earth to the moon, but something else went wrong at the end of that unfathomably huge and expensive engineering feat, or it hit us by coincidence, which given the sheer size of outer space vs Earth is again ludicrous. All without generating radio or other signals we can detect?

      And now the astounding new evidence presented so far is… hearsay, once again (but official hearsay! Pfft).

      I don’t buy it.

      If ever I am proven wrong, and the astoundingly unlikely turns out to be true, I will be beyond delighted and will gladly eat my hat.

      But yeah, no, much as I wish I could get confirmation of alien life in my lifetime, I expect the best I can hope for is microbes under the ice in Europa, or maaaaaaaybe a little fish thing there, if wildly lucky. Or maybe some microbes in the clouds of Venus. Even just someghing like that alone would mean a lot, though, honestly, because it would confirm life is likely rather than rare, and it’d be fascinating to see what did or didn’t differ from Earth life.

      Edit: and if there is a genuine vehicle, HOW could anyone even feasibly diagnose technology as “not of Earth/human origin”? Vs just… Another nation has secretly built a really damn cool and complicated spy plane? Unfamiliar tech never automatically means aliens.

  • Hirom@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    How reliable is “The Debrief”?

    A quick look show UAPs is one of their focus, but they also claim to be science based and rigorous. Their homepage features multiples articles on UAP. Their mission statement include a section about “Mysteries in the Skies”.

    It’s not clear if this is just speculation and coverage of random UAP claims, or if there’s actually something there.

    • SpacemanSpiff@kbin.social
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      2 years ago

      I was wondering the same thing. What has me intrigued is that a few congressmen tweeted about this source being “credible”. And the fact that this whistleblower apparently testified for over 11 hours in a closed-door congressional hearing has me wondering if this is actually something.

      • Hirom@beehaw.org
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        2 years ago

        Right, the author quotes various people speculating recovered materials have non-human origin, and technically isn’t speculating himself.

        It wouldn’t be the first time people cry wolf aliens and claim there is proof, then fall short when times come to make the data public.

        It’s an extraordinary claim, with lots of talk, but little evidence shown. I assume claims and evidence (or lack thereof) will be investigated since there’s a whistleblower complain. But I’m not holding my breath.

    • cavemeat@beehaw.org
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      2 years ago

      You’ve already given them more credit than I would, but I’ve always been very skeptical of this sort of thing. I’m not sure if I would call this news, its more like speculation.

  • Rick@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    I’m skeptical but hoping more information comes out. Could be huge if true.

  • Gork@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    Big if true.

    If this can be corroborated, then we can possibly be closer to answering the question of whether or not UFOs have an extraterrestrial origin. I highly doubt though that claimed physical evidence will be forthcoming.

    Still, hashtag I want to believe.

  • NataliePortland@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    Shwaaa???!! I want to know so much more! What does it look like? How is it powered? Was there anything living inside? Pics of family taped to the dashboard? This is so exciting

  • Rentlar@beehaw.org
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    2 years ago

    I saw the article from elsewhere and I’m actually kind of shocked at the news. It seems entirely unbelievable to the point I have a little trouble comprehending it. I’m skeptical but I won’t outright accept or reject the claims until more information is made public. On the surface level the article’s claims appear credible, but this is what I would look like trying to dissect or explain it to anyone…

    New York Intelligencer Magazine’s version of the Debrief article

    Debrief article interview “fact-checking” the writer of the OP article

    Being of a curious mind, I’m willing to suspend some automatic disbelief for the potential evidence of alien life. We have no information on the nature of what was discovered but kept secret, the size of the vehicles or vehicle fragments, estimations of when said vehicles might have arrived from outer space. The only thing that seems plausible to me at this point, if such vessels were a size that would cause them to burn up completely through our atmosphere, from the ground would look like a meteor, but with sufficient analysis in the sky might determine that they are an “anomalous machine of extra-terrestrial origin” which than was recovered in secret by the military. For all we know now the vehicles/vehicle fragments could just be funny-shaped meteorites. Overall, my expectations aren’t high, but it does open up a large number of imaginable possibilities. This might go nowhere, but whatever, it’s interesting!

    • naeap@sopuli.xyz
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      2 years ago

      maybe it’s just deception. was really kinda a wave of news for such statements. but maybe I’m being pessimistic here