MAYBE, evidence the US government knows the truth about aliens...

While watching one of the many history channel type alien documentaries, I had a comment from the white haired scientist "Seth" who runs SETI, that drew my attention..

I'm not saying it is definative, but I think it is very interesting...


The Seth guy who runs SETI, said his most commonly asked question is:

"If you do find proof of intelligent extraterrestrial life, who are you supposed to call first?"

Insinuating, the president, CIA, pentagon exc...

His answer?

"No one..."

That's right no one....

Well, no politician/president is going to turn down the oppertunity to be the person who gives the wildly historic "first contact speech." The US government has invested millions of dollars in SETI. Why would they be ignoring that incredibly politically advantageous milestone??!?!?

So imho that means only a couple things...

1) Seth is lying and does have a number he is supposed to call..

2) the government knows SETI is looking in the wrong place, so it will never make contact.


The government can't KNOW SETI won't find anything, unless the government knows what's out there...it's like proving a negative..


So is Seth lying? Or does the government know enough about aliens to know SETI will never find them??


Thoughts?

No one? That doesn't make sense, Seth. Can you imagine Seth (or someone at Seti) sitting at their computer screen and a clear signal pattern pops up on the screen. Their reaction would be to inform no one? What the?

As far as the government knowing anything already, or SETI looking in the wrong place, each day there is the possibility that something unknown will be discovered by SETI.

A. If the government 'thinks' they know there are no ET's, there still might be.
B. If they already know there are ET's, let's assume SETI doesn't know and one day will stumble across a signal.

I find it hard to believe Seth would just go home that night and treat it like just another day at the office...

originally posted by: XP100
No one? That doesn't make sense, Seth. Can you imagine Seth (or someone at Seti) sitting at their computer screen and a clear signal pattern pops up on the screen. Their reaction would be to inform no one? What the?

As far as the government knowing anything already, or SETI looking in the wrong place, each day there is the possibility that something unknown will be discovered by SETI.

A. If the government 'thinks' they know there are no ET's, there still might be.
B. If they already know there are ET's, let's assume SETI doesn't know and one day will stumble across a signal.

I find it hard to believe Seth would just go home that night and treat it like just another day at the office...

When I say "no one"...or he said it lol, I meant there is no government official he is supposed to call. Hypothetically allowing him to give the first contact speech.


Unless the government is in contact with some civilization who knows what is out there..

Say they use lasers or quantum entanglement for their communication. Then a radio satillite wouldn't find them, per say.

Typically scientific discoveries are announced by the discovering scientist/team, not 'the government', so why would this be any different?

He can call me personally.
"Hey, man...we got proof of non-terrestrial intelligence."
Me: "No sh!t Sherlock."

a reply to: XP100

Kind of a big difference between "I'm not telling anybody" which is the slant you put on his comment

And -

"There's nobody I'm SUPPOSED to call first." Which is what he said.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
Typically scientific discoveries are announced by the discovering scientist/team, not 'the government', so why would this be any different?

I don't know how many similar events there have been, but for one example, the moon landing speech.

I just assume that no politician (and the us government put millions of dollars into SETI, hypothetically giving them the right to make such a request) would pass up the chance to give that speech....


You would instantly be a major landmark of history and your legacy would be cemented for all of human history.

IMHO that's a no brainer for any politician..

a reply to: JoshuaCox

This what Shostak has said in discussion, he has no qualms but some colleagues, and Hawkin do.

"And what happens if and when we detect a signal? "My strenuous advice will be that the coordinates of the transmitting entity should be kept confidential, until the world community has had a chance to evaluate what it's dealing with," Davies told the Guardian recently. "We don't want anybody just turning a radio telescope on the sky and sending their own messages to the source."

But his colleague, Shostak, says we should have no such concerns. "You'll have told the astronomical community, that's thousands of people. Are you going to ask them all not to tell anybody where you're pointing your antenna? There's no way you could do that."

We could look at it this way:

The government already knows plenty about aliens and they don't want anyone else to know that they know. For that reason, they don't even want SETI to think that they are interested in the least.
If SETI were to find something, the government will instantly discredit and make fools of them.... maybe even plant a little child porn on their computers at home.

originally posted by: AdmireTheDistance
Typically scientific discoveries are announced by the discovering scientist/team, not 'the government'

Sorry folks, nothing to announce yet

I call things like NASA and SETI and the like "In the budget distractions" They fund them to make it look like their right there with us trying to solve the mystery when they already know the answers. When the manned mission to Mars rolls around, it'll be interesting to see how much better they've gotten with their fake footage since the moon shot.

3) The government started SETI to absorb the info people submit and keep it all under wraps including hiding the places we should be looking.

Any of them is possible, but why should the gov be concerned if we found signs of life on a world hundreds of light years away that at present might be already gone?

Makes sense. Looking for ET is like looking for a cure for cancer. Once you find it, you're unemployed.

a reply to: JoshuaCox

Seth is lying. A few years back he was in a documentary I think for the BBC and was asked about the protocol for first contact and after all the usual claptrap he said something along the lines of:

"It starts with us contacting another group to check and recheck our signal. Then once that's done we contact the President of the United Nations and the UN has their first contact system which has a single person who would be the face for the human race and she/he would be put on camera to make the announcement to the world"

He also said on Coast to Coast with Art Bell a year before Art retired the first time:

"If it were up to me, I'd be in front of the camera telling the world, then I'd run down the street and stop everyone and tell them shaking their hands and passing a glass of very cheap champagne but sadly there is a system in place with the US and UN power groups that would ensure an American face would be first to release the information to the public."

So either he has a terrible memory or he is bull face lying.

It's partially already happened. Any of you want to search out the answer because I'm too ars"y to look.
A few years ago seti had the WOW signal, what did they do then.
As for "if they find any signal from a distant source don't try to contact them", I'm afraid it's a bit too late for that as we've been sending them signals for the past 100 years so that's BS.

a reply to: JoshuaCox
The regular Government has no access to Alien secrets, only the secret Military
and to me using radio waves to listen to ET is like some alien in Mars using smoke signals to contact us.

originally posted by: Dwoodward85
a reply to: JoshuaCox

Seth is lying. A few years back he was in a documentary I think for the BBC and was asked about the protocol for first contact and after all the usual claptrap he said something along the lines of:

"It starts with us contacting another group to check and recheck our signal. Then once that's done we contact the President of the United Nations and the UN has their first contact system which has a single person who would be the face for the human race and she/he would be put on camera to make the announcement to the world"

He also said on Coast to Coast with Art Bell a year before Art retired the first time:

"If it were up to me, I'd be in front of the camera telling the world, then I'd run down the street and stop everyone and tell them shaking their hands and passing a glass of very cheap champagne but sadly there is a system in place with the US and UN power groups that would ensure an American face would be first to release the information to the public."

So either he has a terrible memory or he is bull face lying.

To be fair the universe type documentay I saw was oldish..

I remember them announcing the "UN first contact council"just a couple years back. Might be that now they have protocol, where they didn't before....


Still don't see why the politicians that originally funded it, wouldn't have "called dibs..." On the announcement..

Makes me wonder if they know, but know SETI isn't even in the correct wavelength, per day.

or maybe he meant he`s not suppose to call and tell anyone about it, as in he`s suppose to keep it secret.
if he isn`t suppose to call and tell anyone in the government about it, that can only mean that the government already knows so there would be no point in having him call someone in the government and telling them about it.

originally posted by: Tardacus
or maybe he meant he`s not suppose to call and tell anyone about it, as in he`s suppose to keep it secret.
if he isn`t suppose to call and tell anyone in the government about it, that can only mean that the government already knows so there would be no point in having him call someone in the government and telling them about it.

Nah he went into detail...

I don't know..it just jumped out at me.