Watch the skies!

I was asked at a men’s group recently if I believed in UFO’s. I tend to be literal and fairly honest in my interactions with others so I answered “Yes”. I was immediately asked if I believed in little green men.

Realising that my interlocutor was just having a bit of fun at my expense I became a little irritable. I pointed out that UFO stood for unidentified flying objects and that I believed that some objects seen flying had never been identified. He then asked if I believed in flying saucers. Here I was on safer ground and I told him about lenticular clouds which surprised him.

However, not to be outdone he asked me if I believed we had been visited by aliens. By this time a small crowd had gathered (he had a rather loud voice). My response was that the only planet in our solar system which could possibly give rise to intelligent life was Mars. However, the atmosphere and solar radiation precluded life above ground.

Any life below ground would not have the impetus to advance much because of the lack of motivation – no sun, sky, moons or stars visible. The other alternative was interstellar but because of the limitation of speed to that of light, that was also out of the question.

My answers appeared to intrigue him and he determined to keep the conversation going. He put forward the idea of parallel universes. This is a concept accepted by a growing number of cosmologists and which I find intriguing even though my grasp of the fundamentals is severely limited by my education.

There have been occurrences where people have appeared from seemingly nowhere, speaking an unknown language and being confused as to how they had arrived – the pied piper of Hamelin being an example. We now get into the area of science fiction where anything goes.

However, what interested me in that exchange was the following general discussion which revealed that a number of seemingly intelligent, relatively well educated men believed that we had been visited by alien life-forms. Not only that but that these life-forms were interested in our wellbeing and that of the planet.

The history of humanity is one of constant striving for knowledge and superiority. This tends to produce a race which tends to focus on itself and, because of of its limitations, a small proportion of itself. This means that we are constantly vying for leadership, hence squabbling and outright war. It is very difficult to imaging an advanced race which could have the enhancement of humanity as a priority.

If there are parallel universes it would be unlikely that the various planets would touch in such a way as to enable lifeforms to travel from one to another. The idea that the atmosphere, gravity, food and water would be compatible is, surely a bit far fetched.

The concept of life developing elsewhere is more than reasonable bearing in mind the number of suns and the logical number of planets associated with them. However, the idea of any of these lifeforms meeting is, surely a bit far-fetched. Maybe it is all a political conspiracy.