I keep hearing how we’re ready to hear the truth. We already know life exists in our universe (we exist) and NASA has found a number of earth-like planets, so very likely there is life out there. So the government should just come out with the truth if we are being visited.

However, I don’t think we’re ready to hear there are intelligent beings from other worlds with super-advanced technology visiting us.

A hugely significant portion of the world is still religious and/or have some kind of woo-woo belief (psychics, astrology, etc). It’s going to completely shatter the worldview of some of these people and that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It could be hugely traumatic for them.

Even I, as an atheist who does not believe in anything supernatural, get anxiety thinking about this topic. I’ve always found this topic fascinating yet massively anxiety provoking. There’s some kind of primal fear that gets triggered when I imagine there are intelligent beings flying around in their super advanced craft, hiding under the ocean, etc. We have no idea what they’re like, what they want and if they’re friendly or hostile. Then even if these ones are friendly, if they are coming here it makes you more aware of the fact that hostile ones could eventually come here too. There is literally nothing we can do to stop them. This isn’t Hollywood where we can defeat them by hacking their computers while Will Smith flies around in one of their ships. Or they’ll have a water allergy or die from catching the cold.

I can’t even watch anything about alien abductions, it petrifies me.

There’s also been cases, such as Brazil’s “Operação Prato”, where UFOs were allegedly attacking people with microwaves and some of the investigators allegedly had nervous breakdowns and one ended in suicide. It’s not hard to see how the existence of ETs could potentially trigger mental illness in some people. It’s such a dramatic shift in worldview that some people just wouldn’t be able to handle it.

As much as I love this topic, I and I’m sure a significant number or other people am not ready to hear the truth and get why the government might be afraid of the public’s reaction to such an event.

I'm a believer in the UFO phenomenon, but I struggle to with the idea that UFOs have crash landed on the planet. Think about it - how would a higher intelligence or alien race that is capable of interstellar/ inter dimensional travel come all this way in super-advanced craft only to have them malfunction and crash whilst whizzing round earth? I think that the chances of that are so unbelievably low.

I also call bullshit on the idea of alien materials being left behind, too. A craft operating with such precision and flight capabilities of something like the Nimitz Tic Tacs would not accidentally leave trace behind.

Anyone had similar thoughts on this?

I just posted this in another thread, but ended up putting in more effort than I initially anticipated. I've been meaning to share my own philosophical musings on the UFO subject for some time now, so here are the basics. I'd love to hear alternatives to my speculations! This post is not a complete illustration of my thoughts on the UFO phenomenon, but it captures my general perspective. What issues am I leaving out? Which aspects of ufology do you find most obstructive to believing in ET visitation? Why does the UFO phenomenon manifest as it does, with such obscurity?

I'm a philosopher, so I tend to approach the UFO phenomenon foremost in terms of reason and probability. After establishing some basic principles pertaining to the nature of life/evolution in the cosmos, I proceed to consider the evidence for ET visitation and revise or extrapolate accordingly.

As much as I want to believe Lazar and Greer, I highly doubt that any UFOs have crash-landed on Earth. An interstellar species would be far more advanced than ourselves. When you consider how rare it is for trained human pilots to crash a plane, the notion that more advanced lifeforms might crash into our planet seems incredibly unlikely. A species hundreds, thousands, or millions of years ahead of us capable of traversing interplanetary distances probably wouldn't be so reckless as to crash on an alien world; this becomes especially apparent when you consider how sensitive a visitation of Earth would be. They'd likely operate with incredible care and precaution. That said, if any of you have a theory as to why/how such crashes could occur, please share!

The fact that we're still debating the existence of ETs suggests that if they are indeed here, they don't seem to want us to know of their existence with absolute certainty. I suspect ETs would be able to observe us without detection fairly easily if they wanted to. As such, it's reasonable to assume that humanity's conception of UFOs probably conforms to epistemic parameters set by the ETs themselves. The evidence suggests that these entities seem to be avoiding absolute disclosure of their existence to humanity, yet for some reason, they aren't hiding their presence completely. It's as if they've been providing humanity with just enough data to suspect that they might be here without being able to confirm that they are here. I suspect that this "partial disclosure" is fully intentional on their part.

For whatever reason, ETs seems to want the reality of their existence to be controversial, even mythical, to the human population. But why? Why obscure themselves? Of course, it's possible that certain individuals (likely in government) are fully aware of an extraterrestrial presence. Perhaps the ETs are respecting the decisions of humanity's governments, or perhaps they are coordinating with our governments to control public opinion about their existence. The obscured presence of ETs may also be predicated on certain ethical and/or philosophical guidelines they follow.

The failure of SETI also suggests that ETs are hiding themselves. That said, most signals from space would be encrypted anyway (ours would) - we'd have to tune in on a civilization during its early years of technological development, before encryption. Tuning in at such a specific time would be highly improbable, even if some civilizations go 100 years without encrypting their radio signals. In a universe billions of years old, 100 years is merely a blink - it would be akin to finding a needle in a haystack (a haystack of time, haha)

Drake's Equation suggests that life should be relatively abundant in the cosmos. The main source of contention is how commonly life develops advanced intelligence. In my opinion, the development of advanced intelligence is likely inevitable if life is given enough time to evolve (i.e., avoids devastating extinction events). My assumption is based on a few principles derived from what I've observed on Earth (and my limited understanding of biology):

1. Life increases in complexity over time, and the human brain is one of the most complex products of life (perhaps the most advanced - I'm no biologist). Although advanced, human-like intelligence is extremely rare (with only a handful of species displaying vaguely human-like cognition), basic brains/minds/intelligence are extremely common on Earth. Life on Earth clearly has a propensity to evolve from single-celled, brainless organisms to multi-cellular animals with brains and cognition. At a minimum, it's reasonable to postulate that life inevitably evolves various forms of cognition in hospitable, Earth-like environments. The human brain is, in many ways, the pinnacle of organic complexity.
2. Advanced intelligence is the only evolutionary adaptation that permits life to survive the death of its planet's sun (not to mention other cosmic threats). Without intelligence, all life would be doomed to die alongside its planet's sun. Advanced cognition is the only adaptation that allows a species to survive cosmic threats, as technology seems to be the only way a species could leave its home planet or protect itself against other cosmic dangers.
3. Genetic mutations that result in heightened intelligence are likely to be retained, as intelligence generally increases an organism's chance of survival and reproduction. The first principle is a testament to this. Consequently, one would expect to see a general accumulation of intelligence among life on any given Earth-like planet.

So yes, I think advanced intelligence is an inevitable outcome of evolution, assuming there's enough time of relative environmental stability to sustain the development of life. Also, while the prevalence of extinction events is a significant factor, humanity itself arose from the ashes of such an event. Extinction events conceivably may even contribute to the development of advanced intelligence, as species who survive such an event would likely be more intelligent and resourceful than their extinct neighbors. Of course, resilience is another important factor to consider; from what little I know, the most resilient species often seem to be the least intelligent. Therefore, one could argue that resilience takes precedence over intelligence in evolution.

Here's a little more food for thought. If humanity were to gain the capacity for interstellar travel, how would we approach primitive extraterrestrial life, particularly life in the early stages of advanced intelligence and technological development? Surely we'd observe them. My own ethical compass would compel me to aid such a species in its development; not directly, but indirectly using preventative measures. I suspect most others share this sentiment. Would we stop such a civilization from destroying itself? Would we ensure its survival?

Surely we can all agree that humanity is at risk of destroying itself. Such a risk may be commonplace, even universal, among technological civilizations. Most of us seem to value intelligent life immensely, so I expect we would take measures to prevent other intelligent species from destroying themselves. It's just a theory, but if we're being visited, I suspect our visitors are playing a similar role - intervening in our affairs just enough to prevent complete self-annihilation, but not enough to drastically alter our autonomous development.

1. Why do so many alien craft crash? Seems odd that so many would crash, especially with their advanced technology.

2. Why do they illuminate the night sky the same way lights on a conventional aircraft do? Do we assume they use the same kind of lights to steer/navigate/show their position as a normal earth aircraft? Are they not even attempting to hide themselves?

3. If Ancient Alien theory is correct, why would they have interacted with humans so freely in the past but now keep themselves hidden?

Wouldn't that be the wise thing to do? Strobes like on an airplane? Or are they wanting us to notice them?

There's been documented instances of UFO activity near nuclear test sites, and contact with military aircraft - possibly to diffuse any triggers of another world war.
But what if they are here not to just protect us from ourselves-
what if another reason they are here is to protect us from another huge meteor that would wipe out life on earth as we know it?
It's happened before tens of millions of years ago.
Space is infinite and it's bound to happen again...
So, what if another major reason they are here is to protect us from another meteor?
That would make sense of the "ufo bases" on the dark side of the moon. According to theorists, there's a lot of UFO activity outside our atmosphere. They would detect meteors coming from light years away and, presumably, have technology and advanced weapons that could eliminate these meteor threats.
Just a thought.