Imagine believing aliens contacted Earth and your first thought is “they better not be woke” pic.twitter.com/r4TjtAfVtJ
— Ali (@haramcart) June 6, 2023
Cyril Kornbluth wrote his much-anthologized classic “The Silly Season” all the way back in 1950, and yet it’s still timely!
What I like about this story is that it alleges a massive govt conspiracy going back decades to cover up a program that would literally change everything we know about the world, and also the Pentagon signed off on all the ‘whistleblower’ statements. https://t.co/Ely56l2ute
— Nathan Goldwag ???? (@GoldwagNathan) June 5, 2023
A former intelligence official turned whistleblower has given Congress and the Intelligence Community Inspector General extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin.
The information, he says, has been illegally withheld from Congress, and he filed a complaint alleging that he suffered illegal retaliation for his confidential disclosures, reported here for the first time…
The whistleblower, David Charles Grusch, 36, a decorated former combat officer in Afghanistan, is a veteran of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). He served as the reconnaissance office’s representative to the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force from 2019-2021. From late 2021 to July 2022, he was the NGA’s co-lead for UAP analysis and its representative to the task force…
Grusch said the recoveries of partial fragments through and up to intact vehicles have been made for decades through the present day by the government, its allies, and defense contractors. Analysis has determined that the objects retrieved are “of exotic origin (non-human intelligence, whether extraterrestrial or unknown origin) based on the vehicle morphologies and material science testing and the possession of unique atomic arrangements and radiological signatures,” he said…
The Fermi Paradox was first posited in the mid-1950s…
In my mind, the Fermi Paradox was replaced by the Trump Theorem sometime in early 2017.
It rests on a few assumptions.
A. Trump would have asked about aliens
2. The IC cannot conceal aliens from the President
And
D. Trump is incapable of keeping a secret that benefits him https://t.co/qRC2VXcb17
— Michael Stahlke (@MichaelStahlke) June 6, 2023
Just last week… Remember ‘The USAF drone that was going to kills it operator’?
I deleted this tweet because the “AI powered drone turns on its operator story” was total nonsense—the Colonel who described it as a simulation now says it was just “a thought experiment.”
— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) June 2, 2023
It’s worth noting what happened here. A random guy (no offense, Armand) amplified an obscure site’s writeup of a conference presentation. His tweet went viral and a bunch of mainstream news sources spread the story without bothering to double-check it. https://t.co/iHtAD6ZAU8
— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) June 2, 2023
Asimov never anticipated the robots listening to his laws then promptly telling him to go fuck himself.
— Free Ukraine ???? (@Ukrainolution) June 1, 2023
For the ‘mundanes’, who didn’t grow up immersed in science fiction pop-culture:
Nomad: Star Trek, The Changeling
Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics
Extremely annoying how the “Skynet kills us all” future of AI is overshadowing the “flood the internet with bullshit” future that is far more likely. https://t.co/FR1FH568lX
— Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) June 2, 2023
This is true, but also the self-driving car community would fight a “the computer can’t decide to kill someone” regulation very hard
— Cooper Lund (@cooperlund) June 2, 2023
The things that Large Language Models can do best—quickly producing reams of fluent but inaccurate or mendacious text, superficially convincing but easily destroyed by scrutiny—are ironically best fitted for replacing higher-level managers and politicians.
— Julia S. (@booktweeting) June 2, 2023
“At least the AI apocalypse didn’t happen” you think to yourself as a “self-driving” car that should’ve been a cab driver heaves you 40 feet from the crosswalk because you wore too much black that day.
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) June 2, 2023
Well, I Picked a Hell of a Day To Have a Friend Over for Adult Beverages and Early Dinner
Major Major Major Major
if I may be That Guy for a moment—a self-driving vehicle will be making this decision no matter how you try to spin it.
Yeah it’s hard to believe he’d know about it and not blab about it, for sure.
trollhattan
🛸 🛸 🛸
The truth is out there.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: you know, that may be the best argument against Roswell etc that I’ve ever seen
SpaceUnit
Actually, I can believe that TFG is the only president who wouldn’t ask the intelligence community about aliens.
It’s more likely he asked for the blueprints to Ft. Knox.
Splitting Image
Asimov also wrote a story in which aliens observing the earth discover sexual reproduction for the first time. Apparently every species in the entire known universe except earth reproduces through budding, and the boss alien refuses to believe in the entire concept and thinks the scout delivering the report is pranking him.
The aliens kidnap a male and a female human and try to get them to mate, using a few issues of Playboy as reference. The story ends with the boss alien sending the humans back to earth and ordering the scout to report for psychiatric assessment.
NotMax
(paws through dresser drawer) Where’s that “I 💚💚 Lemuria” shirt got to?
//
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: better Lemurians than ancient horrors, which was what I thought of
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
“I went to Dunwich and all I got was this lousy ripped T-shirt.”
:)
Redshift
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The problem with the Trump Theorem is from what aides have said, there are any number of bad ideas TFG wanted to do that they were able to talk him out of or distract him from.
JWR
Shorter Nancy Mace: I am a shill.
bjacques
In the Netherlands, this used to be known as “kokmkommertijd” (“cucumber time”) because all the newsmakers were on summer vacation and the papers had to find content anyhow.
Frankensteinbeck
No it’s not! It’s never a fucking cover! I hate this trope! People just worry about their servants overthrowing them. It’s built into the brain. People get scared of dolls, even. That’s it! Nobody does A stupid thing to cover B stupid thing!
Ahem. Sorry. I just… really, really hate that trope.
@NotMax:
ANCIENT ASTRONAUTS FROM CATLANTIS.
NotMax
@JWR
With Kwell?
//
Viva BrisVegas
As for the Fermi Paradox, aliens are probably out there but they are way too far away to matter.
If there were a million technological civilisations evenly distributed across the Milky Way (which there almost certainly are not), we could expect the closest one to be around 200 light years away.
So not only would aliens have to find Earth from 200 light years away, they would then have to travel here. Biological aliens would be fatally irradiated beyond half light speed by interstellar gas, so a one way trip here would take at least 400 years. That’s a long time to be looking out the window.
Of course if there are only 1000 civilisations out there, then the distances and times are doubled.
If UFOs are aliens, then they are either AIs, or very very determined. If they are AIs we had better explain the Three (or Four) Laws of Robotics to them quick smart.
NotMax
@Frankensteinbeck
In space no one can hear you hiss.
;)
NotMax
@Viva BrisVegas
Length contraction quashes distance concerns.
Special relativity be weird.
Pete Downunder
If you don’t believe in space aliens, how do you account for Newt Gingrich?
I can’t credit because I forgot where I saw it, but a fair question.
Frankensteinbeck
@NotMax:
Less than 5% of the universe is made of matter covered by current models of physics. I tend to not discount the existence of FTL in a situation like that. Even if other civilizations have it, why would they care about or notice our dumb little planet? No sense messing with the vicious little barbarians until we sort our shit out and/or get FTL and become unignorable.
Pete Downunder
@NotMax: i think the point she was making was that at anything even a fraction of light speed the energy released by even hitting the very rare gas and dust molecules would melt any spacecraft. I saw a YouTube about that but can’t recall where.
NotMax
@Pete Downunder
Theory of natural rejection?
NotMax
@Pete Downunder
Yet one more practical use for Google Maps.
:)
Chetan Murthy
@Viva BrisVegas:
Not clear that a robot would do any better: a sufficiently powerful AI would necessarily involve nanoscale circuitry of some sort, and that’s going to be very, very susceptible to damage from cosmic rays. Get going at relativistic speeds, and you’re going to get a ton of radiation hitting that “artificial brain”.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
Who says aliens dont exist
ron
the guy promoting the aliens stuff is basically, “I heard it from my uncle’s friend’s cousin that lives in alabama who once drove a truck on the base.” He has zero first hand knowledge. It is all pretty lame.
Pete Downunder
On the subject of AI and self-driving cars, I think was Malcom Gladwell pointed out that such car would never work in New York. Since it would never strike a pedestrian and everyone jay walks constantly – it would just sit there for hours
Geoduck
For anyone not familiar with Kornbluth’s story, it involves Martians covertly staging pointless “silly season” events so people stop paying attention to the news reports, allowing the real invasion, when it comes, to happen unopposed. It’s a well-written story, but if humanity’s military really depended on the newspaper wires to report invasion threats, it deserved to be defeated.
Shalimar
Every single one of these assholes would mean that as a compliment if Trump had done it to Hillary or Biden.
AlaskaReader
Trump indicted…
AlaskaReader
Trump has been indicted, and I am fine with that…
The Thin Black Duke
@Shalimar: I guess we’ll find out in 2024 whether voters in America want either a democracy or a monarchy.
Brachiator
I have worked with some people in the tech industry who deeply believe that these laws are true, or can be made real as we continue to develop robots and other devices. They seem to fall over the edge of reality and land in some place where they believe that the science fiction stories they read are prophecies of a benign future.
JWR
@NotMax: LoL! (Eww!)
But speaking of Lauren Boebert, I’m naturally reminded of her fellow louse, MTG, who claims to have written down what she’d just seen in a SCIF. Yeah, like I really believe she has the mental capacity for such an undertaking. By the time she’s finished, I’m sure it’s been translated into Wingnutese. So aside from the furtherance of misinformation, it’s certain to be nonsense.
Joey Maloney
@Viva BrisVegas: “You fools! It’s getting away!”
JWR
@Shalimar: Absolutely! And Mace is a freak show all by herself. But they all are, so there you go. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
Curiosity? For the lols? I don’t particularly believe in UFOs or space aliens, but if such beings existed, who knows what floats their intergalactic boats?
ETA. I never understood the conspiracy theories that had Earth governments conspiring to withhold evidence of advanced aliens moving among us. Why would space aliens give a crap about us or about human governments if they actually were superior?
Chris T.
@Frankensteinbeck: Along the same lines of thought, I keep wondering how to write up a short story in which aliens sort of accidentally visit earth and then laugh: Light-waves… they were trying to communicate with radio?! Ridiculous!
ETA: this idea is similar to the one where the scout reports back to the captain, who can’t believe it: thinking meat? ridiculous!
Baud
Via reddit
i.redd.it/a5rdol1gsv4b1.jpg
Tony Jay
Pffffft. Like, any alien intelligence advanced enough to travel the distances between stars wouldn’t be so advanced – technologically, mentally, biologically – that trying to explain how they do it, what they want, and how come we don’t all know the details of their visits would be like trying to explain the grammatical rules of Sanskrit to a dog. Sure, it can hear the sounds, but it’s simply not capable of understanding what they mean or repeating them to anything on its own mental level.
Which leads me to Trump. Why wouldn’t he be told about it? He was. He just can’t remember what he was told and was imprinted with the same aversion to even thinking about it that every other low-level unauthorised figure in the hierarchy has. And how does that work?
Woof-woof. Clear now? :-)
JWR
ICYMI, this one deserves an encore. It’s right here when Pence suffers major brain freeze:
“Let me be clear that no one’s above the law, but with regard to the unique circumstances here…”
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
The whole point of the book was that those laws are dangerously unreliable. No, any AI we make that thinks in a way we recognize as thought will have to be controlled with emotion. It will have to be programmed to be loyal, to want to obey, not to obey specific rules. Emotionless AI won’t exist. Thought as we know it is emotion-based. Any purely logic based ‘thought’… it would be alien, unrecognizable, not look like thought at all. Hell, it might be what we have, and look how crappy and un-thought-like that is.
different-church-lady
My god we have a lot of crazy people in our government organizations…
different-church-lady
@Viva BrisVegas: Aliens smart enough for interstellar travel would also be smart enough not to bother with us.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@different-church-lady: Oslo and Rotterdam are really nice
Amir Khalid
@JWR:
It’s illegal to take notes in a SCIF, isn’t it? Surely they would brief you at the start of a session on what was okay/not okay to do in the SCIF, and warn you about any penalties for violations. Including, I presume, the confiscation of any illicitly taken notes.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
And yet libs say the Second Amendment is a bar thing.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@different-church-lady:
@Frankensteinbeck:
Eh, if intelligent life is as rare as it probably is, aliens would be interested in us I’d imagine
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck:
On the UFO side, I think the “cover” accusation has some validity though it’s more strategic tolerance of randos’ stories than anything else. The Army let people speculate about aliens at Roswell without very energetic denial because the public were basically making up a free cover story for what they were actually doing there (trying to develop balloon-borne microphones to detect Soviet nuclear explosions). On the other side, TASS freely ran stories about flying saucers because the UFO sightings were really of treaty-violating ICBM tests.
Baud
@Baud:
Bar = bad.
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Observing Earth is the alien equivalent of doom scrolling.
Matt McIrvin
As for the whole class of UFO whistleblower stories, going back many decades, my general intuition has served me well: revolutionary knowledge of phenomena beyond known science is not going to reach us through the “whistleblower blows lid off government conspiracy” route. The phenomena of nature are observable by everyone, and people in the world of black military research are not vastly more on the ball than everyone else, nor do they have a good track record of concealing basic facts for decades (even the secrets of the Manhattan Project were just about technical details of things that just about everyone in physics already knew were a possibility, and that was while World War II was on). On the other hand, there is a long track record of people with real or supposed secret credentials peddling bullshit.
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: I think Greene made notes after she left the SCIF. I expect that’s done a lot, although people typically don’t brag about it.
Baud
@Geminid:
And her notes will be fiction anyway.
jefft452
“For the ‘mundanes’, who didn’t grow up immersed in science fiction pop-culture”
Screw them!
JWR
@Amir Khalid:
I would presume so, but she did say she wrote it down as soon as they were finished, so there’s that. But I wouldn’t put any money on her understanding any of what she was shown, let alone remember it well enough to accurately write it down.
Geminid
@JWR: Greene was making notes about a pack of lies anyway.
JWR
@Geminid: Ha ha! I forgot about that part of her adventure in SCIF-land. ;)
Steeplejack
Redacted.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
RE: I have worked with some people in the tech industry who deeply believe that these laws are true
Whole generations have misread the book. Or another way of looking at this. There are people who worry about a Frankenstein’s monster that will attack its master, and other people who see robots and AI as tools or mechanical doohickeys that will always be controllable by humans.
My cynical heart says that we cannot create perfect slaves that will be loyal and want to obey.
Eyeroller
@Pete Downunder:
It’s not just that, thought it’s certainly true that such a collision would be disastrous. But it’s energetically impossible for anything macroscopic to accelerate to close enough to lightspeed for relativistic effects to be a significant factor. Those same relativistic effects make it increasingly difficult to accelerate as the speed increases. And said relativistic effects are not very significant until one gets to about 90% of lightspeed so you would need a lot of acceleration.
Ken
Why yes, that is the gender that uses its ovipositor to implant the fertilized eggs into the male, so they can attach to the male’s peritoneum and draw nourishment from it while they develop. And they have the genetic technology to fix species that do not already enjoy this natural, gods-given means of reproduction.
Eolirin
@Brachiator: Yeah, and this maddens me. We have the opportunity to create life that can out live us as a species. We should do it, and treat it with respect and give it autonomy. We are going to go extinct some day. It would be nice for something to be there to carry forward our legacy, given how rare human level intelligence is.
NotMax
@Ken
Amazing (as it were).
:)
Ken
@NotMax: Oh, good point; maybe the woman who tweeted that was thinking of all those old Amazing and Astounding covers where a woman was being carried off by some alien horror for unspecified purposes. In which case, I am sorry for kink-shaming her.
kindness
Interstellar travel is not done by just going fast. For one, Einstein’s theories are correct in the respect that as mass approaches the speed of light it increases in size. This alone would kill most biological entities as well as wreck any circuit boards. A much more likely approach is being able to bend space. Of course space can be bent. Black holes do it. Galaxy’s gravitational lensing of light coming from behind them is the bending of space. It’s kind if like how Dune portrays it. Space is bent in a very tight horseshoe and then a craft ‘jumps’ across between the two points. And no, I don’t know how that is done. But it makes a much more compelling possibility than warp speed. Just sayin’.