Where are the probes ?

This post contains the following premises and as such is not intended to be a discussion of those, rather a theoretical exercise (as the premises cannot be proven) concerning the conclusions.

The first premise is that there exist sentient extra-terrestrial races.

Secondly that they are of such advanced technological status that they are able to physically travel between galaxies.

The third premise, and perhaps biggest stretch, is that their thought processes are not too far displaced from what we could call human logic.

Now the probe part and apologies if anyone was thinking this would be related to Uranus, I mean machine type probes with sensors able to communicate information. Humankind has used these probes whenever manned missions are either impossible or too dangerous. We have sent them into the sky and under the sea, crashed them into asteroids and left them crawling around other planets and, with Voyager, sent them off to interstellar space.

It seems the logical thing to do, as does then following up anywhere interesting with a physical presence as and when technology allows. We currently sit staring across interstellar space as early humans must have stood at the ocean’s edge, unable to comprehend a method of crossing. We do though have the advantage over our earlier cousins in that we have a combined history of obtaining goals that seemed unachievable when first imagined. Even if necessity doesn’t dictate I believe this knowledge alone will be enough that one day humankind will achieve interstellar space fairing status. A big boost to the effort would be to learn that it is possible from example however I digress, back to the probes.

Is it then too much of an assumption that ET would use probes at some point, no matter how they first became aware of our presence on Earth, and not just for initial study but to keep track of changes. After all this period is surely a pivotal point of development of any civilisation.

So is SETI looking in the wrong direction – should they be searching for unknown signals originating from Earth ?

I can find little or no evidence that is the case. Abduction implants is a possibility but would surely be very limited in terms of information transfer (or maybe not ?). There are various contactee reports of probe like devices and metallic boxes but none that refer to devices being left on a permanent basis. There are UFO sightings that report craft splitting up and are associated with "orbs" but again nothing indicating long term surveillance.

In conclusion then there are no probes because –

1) We are not interesting enough (which bodes well as it means sentient life must be quite common)

2) Leaving something behind is against the rules (which bodes well as it implies a formal structure to contact that is adhered to)

Of course it is possible that such devices are simply very well hidden, or that close observance can be achieved from afar, but ultimately humankind follows up with a physical presence even in the most hostile environments and to gain a fuller understanding embeds itself within that environment / culture / animal species. This leads to the third possible conclusion –

3) ET lives amongst us and observes directly

I’m not sure which is more likely, or that, even given the premises, these conclusions are anywhere near the mark but I would be interested in your thoughts, critical logic and alternatives.

reply to post by chunder


It's quite possible that they, ET, have sent probes and they have gone largely unnoticed. We have a hard enough time locating near-Earth objects such as asteroids, some hundreds of meters wide, let alone an alien probe that could be many times smaller.

reply to post by chunder


When they have UFO ships that can move around with impunity around our planet and have almost magical psi powers, why would they need probes that you want to attribute to them even if they are exactly human?

So the manifold question back to you is why do you not include such obvious "facts" in your wonderings about ETs when the answers that both science and governments avoid and hide are so obvious?

--Oh! You assume that science and governments are right up front with what they do and know about ETs, and that we are kept directly abreast of their positions. Right?

The jokes on you, my friend.

We as humans no longer need probes for much of anything anymore in the realm of finding what temperature/gas composites are of a percieved planetary body. We have satillites which can see in different spectrums of light and thermal imaging that can get a reading on what makes up the atmosphere of a planet millions of miles off.

I have such handheld instruments in my HVAC field, and they can be bought at any Home Depot for a minimal cost.

On the other hand the history of UFO sightings has an abundant amount of "ORBS" being sighted, which could easily be the probes you are looking for. Many around disaster areas like earthquakes/volcanos that are filmed.

reply to post by NonC0nf0rmist


I agree that scientific data can be obtained at a distance but say a probe communicated all of that data and we were able to determine not just that a planet was occupied but at what technological level.

What would the next step be - say we are in a different star system and our Voyager stumbled across Earth, would we not want to physically observe and understand culture and behaviour, from a risk perspective a la monolith if nothing else.

If orbs are probes and they have the capability to absorb behavioural information why then would they need to physically visit natural sites when the data would be available from easier sources. Also if they are real physical devices where do they come from and go - are they launched from something in orbit, are they based somewhere on earth ?

reply to post by IamAbeliever


Agreed but I have difficulty in reconciling UFO sighting reports with the properties a remote probe may have in terms of size compared to capability.

I'm thinking football sized for a probe in relation as a minimum and in order to gain the cultural information without ascribing purely magical powers I'm assuming it would need to interact fairly closely - yet we have nothing to indicate that.

Okay fair enough assesment.

However heres a theory for 'ya, what if the "orbs" and "discs" are the probes. They are doing the probing from the air with whatever technology they may have to do so. However "orbs" seem more likely because they are obviously unmanned and would probally be the same as a drone that we use...Just a theory though.

-SAP-

Here is what I believe to be some kind of probe.



That photo was taken by me last summer and this orb was hovering by a tree in my back garden.

That was twice I saw a metallic orb in the space of 2 weeks, and a week or so before that I saw a bonafide black disc hovering above mine and my neighbors gardens in broad daylight.

Im slightly worried because they were either watching the birds or watching me!! lol

Heres the rest of the pick in case anyone is interested in the perspective of it.



Notice theres an orb in the distance too, the top object highlighted is a plane, as there were at least 12 jets out that day, the black markings are me trying to show me mom where they were lol. I had loads of strange sightings last summer, I hope this summer is just as eventfull.

reply to post by SloAnPainful


Could be, certainly there doesn't seem to be any reports of occupants in smaller orbs or the chevron shaped discs however plenty in the top hat shaped variety.

I wonder if there is a logical progression between probes, manned craft and then contact. Also how the logistics are actually carried out - are probes atmosphere launched and returned, do they come from discs and are these then transported in large motherships - kind of Independence Day scenario.

reply to post by Sinny


Very interesting thanks for sharing - from your perspective what size was the orb and did you observe it arrive and depart ?

Great pics too.

Nice thing is you got about three in one photo, which is rare. Even more rare the one is pretty visable. You may have the real deal there. Never seen a photo of a silver orb either, very cool.

-SAP-

reply to post by chunder


I did not sorry. Actually I didn't see it at all until I viewed the photos. I was trying to capture the orb in the distance, that seemed to be following/or being followed by jets. Its a shame I haven't got any decent tech because i could see the orbs much better with my own eyes.

Its the exact same thing I did see a week before tho. The silver orb came floating out of a cloud and stayed near by it for about 1 minute. Then it disappeared, with a big flash of light to left and above it, followed by a flash of light a few more meters left. After about another minute a very thin cylindrical contrail appeared.

Sorry I was just lazy in my previous post and couldn't be bothered to say that lol.

Its wasn't very large at all, I'd say no bigger than a football.

I already posted the picks once before, no one was very interested lol they best they came up with was that it was a bird

There have been reports of metallic orbs or spheres coming close to people. Look on ufocasebook for a couple of accounts. If flying saucers are for real they are most likely a type of AI device anyway, I don't believe for a second there are any green or gray men flying around in these things. They are alive in their own right!

There are many ways to think about this. As another poster said remote sensing might mean close contact with the probing device (ouch@!) is not neccessary.
Any civilisation that is monitoring ours may have already passed through the stage where they use devices that could be recognisable as such by us or in any way detectable by us. Nanotechnology could have a part to play there. It's possible they have designed tiny devices that disintegrate as soon as we try to interact with them or get close. I think we could figure out that the function of these devices if we analysed them because they have to solve some basic physical problems..absorb energy, process information and transfer information...so they need a physical structure to do this.

I agree that sentient intelligent devices or lifeforms should be common in the universe. So it is a mystery to me to as to why we don't see them or detect them yet. They should be here. And why are they hiding if they are here? My best guess is they are hiding. If you look at the age of the universe along with the way evolution would encourage intelligent lifeforms to spread rapidly into new habitats, it doesn't make a lot of sense that we cannot detect any other lifeforms with advanced technology yet other than they are using their tecnhnical advantage to hide from us or else base themselves far away.

But why hide?

reply to post by ManInAsia


Excellent thoughts - rather than devices that need to avoid contact why not "disguise" as a human. After all it is what we do when trying to closely observe certain animal species, try to blend in as much as possible.

As far as why hide IMO I think it is a combination of personal safety and a very strong policy of non-interference.

I think there may be more to it than that. Imagine that there is a diversity of life forms, as we know from Earth and the study of evolution there will be conflicts within species and between species. Some life forms may have evolved to be extremely 'shy', just like prey animals on Earth. We are no threat to them but maybe other advanced life forms are.

Some reports I have read about UFOs have indicated a play like aspect to their performance. It just makes me feel that some may be operating in some type of small groups or family units sometimes, not neccessarily a civilisation as most would imagine.

Evolution is the most powerful force in the universe, driven mainly by survival of the fittest and exhausted habitats intelligent entities should have spread into every corner of our galaxy by now, even at speeds far less than the speed of light. What's interesting though is they would keep evolving as they spread, meaning the life forms will be different in different parts of the galaxy.

It is possible there is some type of non interference system at work. Logically that seems to be the case as otherwise surely more advanced intelligent entities would just take easy access to our resources on Earth, but it doesn't appear that they are doing that.