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Xeno-x - "Modern Day Mythologies" is a blog posting subject in waiting
The idea is forming in my head right now.
posted by
gomedome
on July 24, 2007 at 1:11 PM
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we are certainly agreed
you are correct.
posted by
Xeno-x
on July 24, 2007 at 12:36 PM
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Xeno-x - I agree that there can be multiple explanations for things we
observe that are out of the ordinary and such as you describe.
My point is that we are developing a bias towards all UFO's being of extraterrestrial origin. It is a bias that has come from a number of inexplicable sightings and experiences but it is also a mentality that is becoming pervasive by feeding off of itself. In that regard it is no different than ancient mythology. A basis of fact, fantasy and fiction is being combined with our human anxieties and willingness to accept these explanations to form a modern day mythology.
posted by
gomedome
on July 24, 2007 at 11:36 AM
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not tongue in cheek
real observance
but there can be multiple explanations for what i observed, as you say.
but i cannot recall any craft of the time that i knew of that would make the imprint.
and there were no tracks as if if rolled into or out of that spot. just the imprint
this is what i recall -- that of course was 53 years ago.
posted by
Xeno-x
on July 24, 2007 at 10:37 AM
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Xeno-x - I agree with most of what you are saying but when you say:
"i think i have observed a "close encounter of the first kind" -- seeing an imprint of an alien craft. I lived across from Lambert Field where McDonnell Douglas built and tested military aircraft. I was about 10 yrs old."
Are you saying this tongue in cheek? If so, I will apologize for what I am about to say but this is an absolutely perfect example of the types of stories that have fostered the UFO/alien visitation phenomena. The first clues as to this experience being not what it appeared are your age at the time (10 years old) . . . where you where at the time (outside of a military test flight center) . . . and what is not stated but can be extrapolated with some degree of confidence in that this took place during the cold war.
Both sides in the cold war were happy to let their respective populaces believe that all experimental aircraft unavoidably seen by those populaces, was of extraterrestrial origins. The very workable engineering concept of saucer shaped aircraft was conceived and designed during the second world war by Germany. The plans were then developed by the Americans, the plans were then stolen and raced into development by the USSR (if our propaganda is to believed, we may have stolen the plans from them) and for 40 years the people of this earth were occasional exposed to two superpowers attempting to one up each other in a race to develop the next generation of aircraft. Stealth technology came from this race as did other innovations but so far jet propulsion has not been superseded by a more efficient system.
posted by
gomedome
on July 21, 2007 at 1:34 PM
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cantey_1975 - that's the million dollar question
Just what would alien visitors think of what they observe of mankind? They may laugh, they may also be tempted to pull out their planet destroying weapons and rid the universe of such an infestation. We can only hope that they have a sense of humor.
posted by
gomedome
on July 21, 2007 at 1:16 PM
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it is highly possible
some reports seem plausible
and the possibility is high
there is organic matter throughout the Universe.
our sun is one of several of the same age and type that came from a supernova, and many of the sun-like stars are within about 20 -30 light years away -- right close in a manner of speaking.
astronomers are finding smaller and smaller planets all the time -- an earthlike planet was discovered this year circling a close star.
<>
given that all these close stars are about the same age as our sun, the possibility of intelligent life on a planet circling one is high.
it's just the transportation problem. how to get here from there.
i think i have observed a "close encounter of the first kind" -- seeing an imprint of an alien craft. I lived across from Lambert Field where McDonnell Douglas built and tested military aircraft. I was about 10 yrs old.
one day, walking along the shoulder of Natural Bridge Road, I noticed that the 12' high grass had an imprint in it. It was an oval, like an egg had set down in the grass, with a tire-like imprint on either side and at one end. I cannot recall any craft (maybe a helicopter -- but those never had a shape like that as far as I know) that would make that kind of imprint. So I have come to assume that it very possibly could have come from an alien craft.
check into the UFO networks (UFON) -- various states -- for Missouri, it's MUFON. check out what people say -- how believable. there's a good source.
posted by
Xeno-x
on July 21, 2007 at 10:28 AM
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If "they" have contacted us
or at least observed us from afar, Im sure they are laughing their bug eyed asses off.
How can any intelligent extraterrestrial species take seriously another supposedly developed species that is so divided amongst themselves?
posted by
calmcantey75
on July 20, 2007 at 11:34 PM
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Antonionioni - that is a good point and something I meant to mention
We have to not only assume, but believe that traversing the vast distances of space at speeds beyond our comprehension can be done. That is the single biggest hurdle for alien visitors. They have to get here somehow.
posted by
gomedome
on July 20, 2007 at 10:00 PM
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Talion - you are describing the basic outline that we have been
subconciously imprinted with from a famous movie.
Seriously, look at a bell curve of reported abductions over a 5 decade chronology and you see a noted spike in that type of abduction outline from the late 70's on. Or right after the theatre run of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The same can be done with the technological advancements of invading spacecraft. After a well known movie comes out, improved spacecraft as seen in those movies somehow works their way into the abduction stories. So much has been built on such tenuous evidence that even the aliens themselves have evolved from slimy, green and perpetually strange to the Greys. The evidence? . . . a woman who's long dead husband who worked at an army base near Roswell, saw a piece of spacecraft. It was made of a complex metallic material that was in his words "not of this Earth"
Shoot, . . . I'm old enough to remember when they said that about velcro.
posted by
gomedome
on July 20, 2007 at 9:54 PM
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Good read, Gome: not sure what else there is to say!
basically whoever visits other planets with intelligent life needs to be so advanced that they can travel faster than light. We are some way from that breakthrough, so it's a lot to ask.
posted by
Antonionioni
on July 20, 2007 at 10:41 AM
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gomedome
Think about the "typical" alien abduction story. Someone is going along minding his/her own business in some isolated area when all of a sudden there's a bright light in the sky followed closely by machinery going haywire, etc. The next thing the poor sucker knows, he/she's in some room strapped/held on a slab getting poked and prodded. Then they're back on earth without anyone else noticing a thing or missing them.
Now think about the nature programs we see where scientists study animals in their natural habitats. Often, the scientists capture a solitary specimen, take it alive back to the lab, poke and prodd it, then release it back to the wild. Sometimes the scientists find the same specimens and study what's happened in its life since the last "visit."
Hmmm. To be aliens, these big-headed, bug-eyed creatures aren't that much different than our terrestrial scientists, are they?
posted by
Talion
on July 20, 2007 at 10:36 AM
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