Another characteristic in interviewing the witnesses is the tendency for the UFO witness to turn first not to the hypothesis that he is looking at a spaceship, but rather it must be an ambulance out there with a blinking red light or that it is a helicopter up there. There is a conventional interpretation considered first; only then does the witness get out of the car or patrol car and realize the thing is stopped in midair and is going backwards and has six bright lights, or something like that. Only after an economical first hypothesis does the witness, in these impressive cases, go further in his hypotheses, and finally realize he is looking at something he has never seen before.

Originally posted by Zakaris
Interesting video. Kept me entertained while mining in Eve Online. The crowd did seem almost all atheist and almost belligerently so. Not really a believer, but I don't begrudge others their beliefs as long as they don't force it on others like I've seen both religious and atheist people do.

...prime example of the type of person who is highly educated in a particular field of study and seems to assumes that it allows him to proclaim authoritatively on any topic...

Originally posted by Orkojoker
reply to post by miniatus

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Tyson - or should I say Degrasse Tyson? Just Tyson, I think - is a prime example of the type of person who is highly educated in a particular field of study and seems to assumes that it allows him to proclaim authoritatively on any topic whatsoever.

He implies (in another bit on UFOs, and I'm assuming in this one too, though I haven't watched it yet) that UFOs can be chalked up to people seeing something unusual in the sky and immediately jumping to the conclusion that they are looking at an alien spaceship. He totally ignores the fact that, according to people who have actually studied UFO reports first hand and interviewed the witnesses in many unexplained cases, this is not the case at all.

Here's Dr. James E. McDonald on the matter:

Another characteristic in interviewing the witnesses is the tendency for the UFO witness to turn first not to the hypothesis that he is looking at a spaceship, but rather it must be an ambulance out there with a blinking red light or that it is a helicopter up there. There is a conventional interpretation considered first; only then does the witness get out of the car or patrol car and realize the thing is stopped in midair and is going backwards and has six bright lights, or something like that. Only after an economical first hypothesis does the witness, in these impressive cases, go further in his hypotheses, and finally realize he is looking at something he has never seen before.

McDonald's testimony before the U.S. House Subcommittee on Science and Astronautics

This indicates to me that Tyson is woefully unfamiliar with the serious literature on the subject.

Stephen Hawking stuck his foot in his mouth in the same manner when he was quoted in an interview remarking that UFOs are only seen by "cranks and weirdos".

Science is not always what scientists do, according to J. Allen Hynek - a man who DOES have some worthwhile things to say about the UFO phenomenon and the experience to back it up.