In the recent TV series “Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking,” the world-renowned physicist stirred the pot of speculation concerning unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and potential earthly visitations by extraterrestrial (ET) entities, warning it would be best for humankind to avoid contact with them if possible.
Hawking noted such aliens would probably be nomads living in massive spaceships after having exhausted the resources of their own planets and shifting from one interstellar refueling station to the next. “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” Hawking has issued this warning for several years. In a 1996 essay, he said until humans become more sophisticated, they should be “wary of answering” aliens.
In response to Hawking’s warning, The Journal of Cosmology, a scholarly journal of astronomy and astrophysics associated with the Department of Astronomy, Center for Astrophysics, at Harvard-Smithsonian in Cambridge, Mass., published the views of 12 scientists commenting on Hawking’s ET statements. According to the Los Angeles Times, “some criticized Hawking’s use of human behavior to predict what aliens would do, but others said human behavior was a reasonable yardstick. Few, however, questioned the premise of Hawking’s statements — that alien life forms probably exist and we are likely someday to encounter them.”
For those who study of the politics of extraterrestrial contact — the exopolitics community — and many in the UFO research community, Hawking’s statement was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he brought the ET topic front and center. On the other, his statement runs counter to the opinion and claims of numerous exopolitical analysts and hundreds of UFO researchers and highly credentialed witnesses who firmly believe ET/Earth contact has been well-documented and has been a long-term phenomenon.
Among those offended by Hawking’s pronouncement was former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer, who is the longest-serving current member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.
On May 2, Hellyer publicly defended extraterrestrial civilizations, which he strongly believes have not only visited Earth but also have contributed positively to human technological advancement. “The reality is that they’ve been visiting Earth for decades and probably millennia and have contributed to our knowledge,” Hellyer said. “Microchips, for example, fiber-optics, they are just two of the things that allegedly … came from crashed vehicles.”
A May 5 report by Zland Communications Network also added to the UFO/ET discussion. That report said in 1984 beloved astronomer/astrophysicist Carl Sagan revealed to J. Allen Hynek that he, like Hynek, believed UFOs are real. Hynek, a former professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and at Northwestern University, served as civilian scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s seminal UFO study know as Project Blue Book (1952-69).
At the outset, Hynek was a UFO debunker and, as he said, was an “arch-enemy of those flying saucer groups and enthusiasts who very dearly wanted UFOs to be interplanetary.”
But after leaving Project Blue Book, Hynek wrote: “Now, however, documentation which puts the UFO-U.S. government controversy in quite a new light has become available” and shows “that the CIA and NSA protestation of innocence and lack of interest in UFOs are nothing short of prevarication. ... For the government to continue to maintain that UFOs are non-existent in the face of the documents already released and of other cogent evidence ... is puerile and, in a sense, an insult to the American people.”
Sagan’s alleged UFO revelation was cited by Hynek’s former colleague, photojournalist and investigative reporter Paola Leopizzi-Harris.
“My recollection is that Hynek said it was backstage of one of the many Johnny Carson Tonight Shows Sagan did,” Leopizzi-Harris said. “He basically said” to Hynek “in 1984, ‘I know UFOs are real, but I would not risk my research funding, as you do, to talk openly about them in public.’ ” This comment was in stark contrast to many of Sagan’s earlier statements, including one at a 1968 meeting of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics at which he said: “I do not think the evidence is at all persuasive, that UFOs are of intelligent extraterrestrial origin.”
For the past 63 years, many “mainstream scientists” and other academic leaders have paid little attention to the UFO/ET phenomenon. Perhaps the alleged Sagan revelation and the Hawking/Hellyer debate will help a bit to stimulate badly needed scholarly activity regarding that problem.
Bill Wickersham is an adjunct professor of peace studies at the University of Missouri.
Comments
Michael_Williams (anonymous) says...
Move along. Nothing to see here. Just the same ol' rhetoric without substance.........
Source: http://m.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/jun/08/hawkings-warning-opens-debate/
--Please check out my books at www.amazon.com, Dragons of Asgard & UFO Sightings of 2006-2009, by Scott C. Waring or at YouTube and search "TaiwanSCW" to see my personal UFO dicovery videos.
Hawking noted such aliens would probably be nomads living in massive spaceships after having exhausted the resources of their own planets and shifting from one interstellar refueling station to the next. “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.” Hawking has issued this warning for several years. In a 1996 essay, he said until humans become more sophisticated, they should be “wary of answering” aliens.
In response to Hawking’s warning, The Journal of Cosmology, a scholarly journal of astronomy and astrophysics associated with the Department of Astronomy, Center for Astrophysics, at Harvard-Smithsonian in Cambridge, Mass., published the views of 12 scientists commenting on Hawking’s ET statements. According to the Los Angeles Times, “some criticized Hawking’s use of human behavior to predict what aliens would do, but others said human behavior was a reasonable yardstick. Few, however, questioned the premise of Hawking’s statements — that alien life forms probably exist and we are likely someday to encounter them.”
For those who study of the politics of extraterrestrial contact — the exopolitics community — and many in the UFO research community, Hawking’s statement was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, he brought the ET topic front and center. On the other, his statement runs counter to the opinion and claims of numerous exopolitical analysts and hundreds of UFO researchers and highly credentialed witnesses who firmly believe ET/Earth contact has been well-documented and has been a long-term phenomenon.
Among those offended by Hawking’s pronouncement was former Canadian Defense Minister Paul Hellyer, who is the longest-serving current member of the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada.
On May 2, Hellyer publicly defended extraterrestrial civilizations, which he strongly believes have not only visited Earth but also have contributed positively to human technological advancement. “The reality is that they’ve been visiting Earth for decades and probably millennia and have contributed to our knowledge,” Hellyer said. “Microchips, for example, fiber-optics, they are just two of the things that allegedly … came from crashed vehicles.”
A May 5 report by Zland Communications Network also added to the UFO/ET discussion. That report said in 1984 beloved astronomer/astrophysicist Carl Sagan revealed to J. Allen Hynek that he, like Hynek, believed UFOs are real. Hynek, a former professor of astronomy at Ohio State University and at Northwestern University, served as civilian scientific consultant to the U.S. Air Force’s seminal UFO study know as Project Blue Book (1952-69).
At the outset, Hynek was a UFO debunker and, as he said, was an “arch-enemy of those flying saucer groups and enthusiasts who very dearly wanted UFOs to be interplanetary.”
But after leaving Project Blue Book, Hynek wrote: “Now, however, documentation which puts the UFO-U.S. government controversy in quite a new light has become available” and shows “that the CIA and NSA protestation of innocence and lack of interest in UFOs are nothing short of prevarication. ... For the government to continue to maintain that UFOs are non-existent in the face of the documents already released and of other cogent evidence ... is puerile and, in a sense, an insult to the American people.”
Sagan’s alleged UFO revelation was cited by Hynek’s former colleague, photojournalist and investigative reporter Paola Leopizzi-Harris.
“My recollection is that Hynek said it was backstage of one of the many Johnny Carson Tonight Shows Sagan did,” Leopizzi-Harris said. “He basically said” to Hynek “in 1984, ‘I know UFOs are real, but I would not risk my research funding, as you do, to talk openly about them in public.’ ” This comment was in stark contrast to many of Sagan’s earlier statements, including one at a 1968 meeting of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Astronautics at which he said: “I do not think the evidence is at all persuasive, that UFOs are of intelligent extraterrestrial origin.”
For the past 63 years, many “mainstream scientists” and other academic leaders have paid little attention to the UFO/ET phenomenon. Perhaps the alleged Sagan revelation and the Hawking/Hellyer debate will help a bit to stimulate badly needed scholarly activity regarding that problem.
Bill Wickersham is an adjunct professor of peace studies at the University of Missouri.
Comments
Michael_Williams (anonymous) says...
Move along. Nothing to see here. Just the same ol' rhetoric without substance.........
Source: http://m.columbiatribune.com/news/2010/jun/08/hawkings-warning-opens-debate/
--Please check out my books at www.amazon.com, Dragons of Asgard & UFO Sightings of 2006-2009, by Scott C. Waring or at YouTube and search "TaiwanSCW" to see my personal UFO dicovery videos.
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