Why bother to come?

OK,

I've just finished plowing through the "Encylcopedia of UFOs" and its raised some interesting ideas/questions.

I've got a question:

Assuming UFOs are extraterrestrial, why would aliens/ETs/EBEs come here, and why now?

Serious thought out answers only please

My outlook is this:

Travelling
It cost an Awful lot of money to put men on the moon. It will cost a lot more to send them as far as Mars let out to interstellar distances, using our current level of technology. You then have to factor in the time it would take to complete such a journey - the nearest star is 4 LY away, thats 4 years at lightspeed with out factoring in acceleration and decleration at each end. As far as we know Einstein hasnt been proved wrong yet.

Assuming that the ETs have proved Einstien wrong and have FTL/wormholes etc, why bother with the Earth? They have the entire universe to explore, whats special about here?

Why now? Why have sightings increased since the 40's? Assuming its connected to our use of atomics then we are surely at a dangerour point of out evolution, and it would seem to be far more sensible from an ETs point of view to keep a low profile and observe from a distance.

If the ETs are friendly and want to welcome us into some universal federation, why all the messing about with close encounters, why not just land outside the UN building or the white house and say "Hi".

If they're out to get us, and can manage to cross interstellar distances then they could surely walk in take over any time they please without all the cloak-and-dagger secret underground bases.

So c'mon people, as Fox Mulder says I want to believe, give me reasons why I should.

One hugely good reason. Defense purposes. Humanity's advances in technology come alongside huge advances in death-dealing technologies. Nuclear weapons more specfically. In just a couple hundred years of industrialization we have already reached out into space. If man somehow does not eradicate itself, then man will surely move to other stars and bring along with it the same violence it has here. These beings are here to ensure containment of this problem is handled before war comes knocking at their door from a group of newbies looking to plant their flag somewhere else.

While they're doing this, they appear to be doing side projects like checking on the general health of the population while attempting to keep our population as ignorant of their existence as possible to keep us complacent. For the most part, I imagine their clandestine journies to this planet are done to ensure that their planets do not wind up as radioactive parking lots for human built intergalactic warships in the future.

[edit on 4-2-2005 by Frith]

There seems to many reasons that people beleive that the ET's have / are visiting us.
1) Scientific research. the old Star Trek Theme
2) The Earth is at some sort of crossroads
3) Like above, the Earth is of some strategic placement
4) They are our ancestors
5) They are afraid of us
and on and on and on.
There are as many throeries out there as there are people who support the subject.
And yes, I do beleive that Et's have been here before and are still visiting.

Good question.

Well, according to the account by the Hills (famous abduction case), they are investigating and studying planetary systems that have a yellow star like our sun, in their neck of the galaxy.

This was back in the 60's, and Betty had drawn a star map that correctly depicted a star configuration (complete with the colors of the stars, some of which were unknown at the time, even by astronomers) that couldn't even be seen from her native hemisphere. This starmap has been confirmed by many astronomers, and is amazing in that even the colors of the stars are depicted, including the travel route between the yellow stars. This even showed their home system, the oft-touted Zeti-Reticuli, though she did not know this at the time...

Since the modern UFO waves began shortly after the atomic bomb was developed and tested, many believe that these waves were a response to the first detonation. The supposition, is that such an explosion minutely warps space/time and that if the aliens use a drive system that alters this, they then detected this, and went to investigate more earnestly, despite a program of sparse observation dating back thousands of years.

It seems that after this event, sightings increased exponentially for a short time, so it seems a logical conclusion. As to their agenda now, who knows?

I've thought about this subject myself, why are they visiting, why be so elusive. But when trying to understand, we tend to come up with reasons we relate to. Being from another planet, we can't expect them to think and reason the way we do, and so their reasons and intentions are hard to fathom. That's why it's a mystery, otherwise if we knew we wouldn't be talking about it.

Interesting points so far

I should have made my own position clear in my first post, I'm NOT a hardened sceptic, and I do believe there is something out there, but I have a hard time accepting some of the more extreme/paranoid theories. I am an avid reader of UFO books and also the harder form of science fiction. I'm not an expert on the subject, but hate not knowing where the wires or mirrors are in magic tricks.

Frith
Using the human race as an analogue, our major technological breakthroughs have been during major conflicts, therefore it is reasonable to suppose that ETs have followed a similar path - It requires a need for something to be invented, the rockets that took Buzz and Neil to the Moon are the direct decendents of those the chinese used to hurl at one another. Following on, I would expect that their weapons technology is in advance of our own, and if we posed a serious threat we would have been bombed back to the stoneage by now, or again if we were of only minor concern, it would possibly make more sense to educate us ala the "Contactees" of the 50s and the "Space Brother" theories.

Gazrock
Unless of course you use the "Clever Monkees" theory, which indicates that technological advance is not tied to war, and that a ET civillisation may have be older than us but have advanced more slowly to the point where interstellar travel is possible and now requires heavy weaponry in which case a clandestine contact with our government makes sense from a technology transfer and bio-engineering point of view - breading us to make a race of foot soldiers.

Kenshiro
1. If it was scientific research, why abduct random humans? For observations to be valid it would surely make more sense to stay hidden (say high on orbit or at one of the L-points), or to make contact and share the information.
2&3. I seem to remember that as far as our location goes we are in a galactic backwater, but I could have course be wrong, and from our own recent history there are multiple examples of us using places like Accension Island to stage large military forces.
4. The "lost colony" theory, This is probably my favourite choice, as it explains why most ETs are described as humanoid with similar life-support requirements, there are historical precedents in our own history such as Vikings in the Americas and Dutch shipwreakee's in Australia.
5. Fear is a strong motivator, but IMHO is more likely to provoke an extreme response of the "Fight or Flight" variety. If it was us out there observing a culture at around the same point of us c1930's how would we react? There is a good chance they will have nuclear power in 10-20 years, and spaceflight soon after. Would we Come In Peace, or Blow Them To Pieces.....Look at the political reaction to Iran and N.Korea's nuclear program. Dicking around kidnapping the odd forester in the woods is more likely to provoke us than lead to long term peaceful relations. ET:"Hi we come in peace, by the way we've got a hold full of human/ET hybrids and cow lips." Us:"Get em boys!"
I know what you are saying about the hundreds of theories out there, what I was hoping to do was provoke people into actually thinking them through end-to-end, rather than what seems to be the more normal case of "Ancient Astronauts. Dude!, Cool!"

I've read a lot about the Hills case, as its covered in just about every UFO book and article you lay your hands on these days. I believe it was a school teacher who took something like seven years to find the ZR match using ping-pong balls and string, it has since been proven using astromony software, but on the flip side, it has also been said that given the number of stars in our galaxy its inevitable that a close match would be found eventually.

My major bug-bear with most of the common theories is the shear cost in terms of resources and energy. You have to pay the piper sometime, and even assuming exotic technology like warp gates something is required to power them, although zero-point energy is a possibility.

Some things I try to bear in mind when reading about the various theroies is that:
1. We don't know everything.
2. Keep an open mind.

Why would they search us out? I would think for the same reason that we search for them: curiosity, the discovery of that which is unknown and the answer that we are not alone.

Maybe they read something about a primitive alien civilisation on the galaxiesbeyondtopsecret.ufo and wanted to verify all the stupid claims?

MegaHurts
As mentioned in my posting, there as many reasons for Et's visiting as there are people believing in the visitations.

1. If it was scientific research, why abduct random humans? For observations to be valid it would surely make more sense to stay hidden (say high on orbit or at one of the L-points), or to make contact and share the information.

Yes, the is the observation, as we do today wehnstudying the mountain gorilla, but do not foget the number of specimens that have been sent to various labs for study. To the gorrillas, it would seem to be a rather random abduction. We also do this to Croc's etc. placing tags on them, measuring them etc. then relaesing them back in the wild.

2&3. I seem to remember that as far as our location goes we are in a galactic backwater, but I could have course be wrong, and from our own recent history there are multiple examples of us using places like Accension Island to stage large military forces.
As stated above, there are many theories as to why they may visit. Probably the same amount of people beleive that the Earth is in a backwater area as those who beleive that the Earth is at some sort of nexus.

I was just trying to respond to the topic of the forum as to Why bother.
I personaly believe that yes there is other (intelligent" life out there. Have they visited..... well, maybe. In my earlier post I said yes to that, but, I should have qualified the response a bit. The "visits" that people have clained throughout history, I have a different slant as to their origions that i am presently putting together for a later posting.
The "Life out there, I have to side with Carl Sagan's "Contact" theory.
Just my thoughts

My major bug-bear with most of the common theories is the shear cost in terms of resources and energy. You have to pay the piper sometime, and even assuming exotic technology like warp gates something is required to power them, although zero-point energy is a possibility.
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Well, that is assuming that "cost" is even an issue to these beings. I mean, let's say they have no monetary value system, that would mean there is nothing to "pay" for when it comes to space travel. It could be said that the entire species goal is exploration, and that using any and all resources to do so is just commonplace. Also, aside from raw materials (which thier planet may be well stocked in), if they harnessed zero point energy then the "costs" wouldn't be that much of an issue either. I would have to think that if thier culture is anything similiar to ours, the costs would be worth it in any case to travel across galaxies in pursuit of knowledge. I mean, I really don't see mankind ending with Mars, or even this solar system. We will continue furthering our reach, via space travel, until we can go no further (which theoretically won't ever happen). It's just the natural progression of things with us. Why wouldn't it be the same with them?

Good question. If they would come I would say they would come for the reason we are looking for them. Maybe they want to see if there are other living beings out there. They might just want to explore and find us by chance. The whole world of stars and black holes is HUGE.

I would have to think that if thier culture is anything similiar to ours, the costs would be worth it in any case to travel across galaxies in pursuit of knowledge.

I agree the benefits would outway the costs in the event of a Contact, even more so if the other civillisation is close to us/them in terms of technology. But why the policy of abduction and cattle multilation etc? From history where we have had first contact with other civillisations it has been mostly open in the form of either trade or conflict. In anthropological terms it would be difficult for a group of ETs to "live amongst us" like we have done with tribes in say the amazon especially if they were the architypical Grey, yet the act of abductions once the society as a whole is aware of it changes the nature of that society so the observation becomes meaningless.

It would make more sense to "bootstrap" us up to a point where trade/meaningful interaction becomes possible, and this is something that I believe may be happening. in the 60 years since the Arnold sightings we have increased our scientific knowledge exponentially. One of my pet theories is that we are approaching what the cybernetist Vernor Vinge calls a Singularity where we will evolve to another level of conciousness. A thead a couple of weeks back asked if we thought that aliens used to internet, I suggested then that the internet is a wonderful method for ETs to pass advanced knowledge onto us, but thats a topic for a different thread

I think that ``aliens`` are travelling in the universe for the same reason as us, to find another form of life than their own and to prove that life can exist outside their planet...

Is it too simple or what?

But why the policy of abduction and cattle multilation etc?

The only thing I can come up with for this is the idea that thier moral convictions as far as death and pain and torture do not meet eye to eye with thiers. If they advance thier knowledge via those things, which may seem cruel and unusual to us, they may not feel that they are in the "wrong".

I just had a thought about why aliens may be visiting. What if they are not here to check on us, but maybe checking that other alien species aren't messing with us. It's pretty clear we are being visited by more than one species. Maybe we are just pawns in some galactic struggle. The UFO's may not even be the aliens themselves, and just probes. As I said before, we may not be able to understand why, but I bet if we ever found out, it would be for reasons we haven't thought of.

I do not think it is a question of "why now" I think they have been here from the beginning. I think they took an already evolving animal an manipulated it genetically. This is why we will not find that elusive "missing link". MO here folks

My best guess: they are our cosmic neighbors, and they want to prevent our destruction at our own hands, because they are the good neighbor, unlike the jerk on the other side of the yard...

ET's are everywhere watching us because we are at a critical moment in earth history...we are the dumb stupid blond in the galaxie hehehe and they want to know how we are going to manage the changes to come. We are like an experiment....

On another way, the planet earth is plenty of usefull ressources for them, and OUR genetic is something they want. The Hybrid programm to make a human with special powers. The greys are here for that, in caves and in spaceships, And for the reptilians, they are part of the enslavement project of humanity. These are Et's of a low frenquecy with a collective consciouness, without any emotions...the government is very very aware of all that, the NWO project has to do with it and we (population) are like ants in a colony....who knows NOTHING about what is going on in our back and they sureley don't want us to find out, it will brake the power they have over us...
the "ashtar command" is watching us too but they want a piece of the cake, they are not 100% beigns of light. They seems nice but it's like a mask, they are not tottally "good"....

What you have to do is follow the light and your deep spirituality of unconditional love, that is the weapon to fight any thing like that

Ameliaxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx