I just searched google for "proof of aliens" and all it returned is web pages from crackpots.

Aliens don't exist.

they're out there, somewhere. and if they're smart they'll stay the fuck away from us.

I hope the aliens would continue to post in my forum

I hope the anal probing continues..

Wouldn't the consequences of the world finding out that the govt. was hiding such an important thing be worse? Do you realize the revolt against the govt. that would happen?  It wouldn't be pretty.  It would be in their best interest not to lie about such a thing.

It depends entirely on the circumstances.

Let's pretend something really crashed at Roswell (I don't believe it, but it's a thought game).

It's 1947.  The military responds, finds this alien ship.  There are few enough people around that they think they can effectively cover up what happened and there's the advantage of being able to try to reverse engineer whatever technology they find.  If they come clean, it's a big deal in the international community because everyone is going to think they have a right to have a peek at this alien shit.  But who wants to play nice with the commies?  And Americans might freak out.  The country's recovering from the war, things are starting to look up on the American century.  So however the conversation goes, the president and his advisors decide it's best kept a secret.

Time passes.  Eisenhower's in office.  Scientists aren't done trying to reverse engineer stuff.  Can't let the cat out of the bag and share if they're not done with it, right?  So he says nothing.

Kennedy's in office.  There's Vietnam, more problems with the Cuban missile crisis, the bay of pigs, civil rights marches, etc.  He's certainly not risking civil unrest and more confrontation with the international community.

Now it's LBJ's turn.  It's been over 10 years since the UFO crashed.  He's got the same problems Kennedy had and they're intensifying as revolutionary groups begin to become more serious, plus a president was just assasinated.  He's certainly not telling the American people the government has been keeping this big secret.

And it just keeps going on.  The political cost of coming clean becomes even bigger every step of the way.  So while it might've seemed like a good idea to keep it under wraps when it happened, the political cost of revealing the truth becomes so prohibitive that no one would ever come clean until something forced their hand.


I don't really believe any of that, as I said, but I could definitely see that happening because of an initial, short-sighted decision.  Governments are generally horrible at long term planning and forseeing the future costs of their actions (or at least properly estimating the probabilities and costs of various outcomes).

Don't worry about a revolt Danzy Wanzy.

You're already revolting.

And Americans might freak out.

This comes up so often and I think it's total bullshit. This is one of the biggest problems I had with Lost, incidentally - so there's a hatch on the island... how does that make *anybody* freak out?

Back to real life: there have been a lot of things that surprised the shit out of your average American. Let's use 9-11 as a prime example. We were completely caught off balance on that one. It came out of the blue and was such an outlandish story when we first heard it that it sounded like a hoax. The whole day the majority of people kept thinking "Can this be real? The twin-towers, the pentagon, and an attempt at the white house? Am I hallucinating?"

But it's important to note that the resulting freakout (and there was something you could call a freakout) was pretty slow-building and minor. There were a lot of words spoken and a lot of words published, but people didn't take to the street with torches to burn down the local mosques. Yes there were isolated incidents, but for the most part our society is content to sit on our couch gaping at the TV and saying "Oh mah gaw!" to their fat friends. If anything, the government's response to 9-11 was the biggest freakout in terms of actual consequences.

If aliens did come to earth, though, what form would the resulting freakout take? I assume there would be an increase in government spending on science, communications, and air-defense. The end. The populace would be interested, sure. I mean it would be one of the biggest scientific discoveries since medicine. But I'm 100% sure they'd be totally content to sit next to their fat families with mouths agape before the glowing warmth of their television sets and say "Oh mah gaw!" as the president ruffled and preened his feathers before them. Nobody would take to the streets. Nobody would start any riots.

I mean I can't even imagine where this idea came from. The concept is so foreign to everything I've ever observed. Nobody but governments freak out any more than verbally about anything. What gets me, though, is that rather than dismissing the idea of massive societal mayhem and the possible collapse of the social order, most people agree with it. "Oh yeah! Society would be fucked if proof of alien organisms ever came to light. Fucked!" ... I just don't see it. Am I missing something?

@Phaed - True enough. We'd probably try to communicate, though.

Okay, get ready to freak out. I found proof.

And Americans might freak out.

This comes up so often and I think it's total bullshit. This is one of the biggest problems I had with Lost, incidentally - so there's a hatch on the island... how does that make *anybody* freak out?

It doesn't matter, really, whether people would actually freak out.  The only relevant point is if the government would use that as a justification in some sort of internal debate for lying about something/keeping something secret. 

I think they would.

Okay, get ready to freak out. I found proof.

Dahahahahaha!   But that's another homo point I'm afraid...

I should have read this thread from the beginning.

Unless they're Christian aliens....

That, right there, would be proof enough for me. I'd convert instantly. Likewise if they spoke of a messiah named David Koresh, I'd immediately become a Davidian. If they spoke of Xenu, I'd become a card-carrying scientologist. The chances are zero that they'd have come up with the same deity accidentally. Actually I've thought about this before and I think a very nice universal religion (or at least a code of morals) can be developed by looking at overlap between religions. An alien religion would be even more fascinating than our human ones.

Proof of extraterrestrial life would refute Genesis and therefore the rest of the scriptures.

Dogma. If reality conflicts with religion, the religious ignore reality. That's the definition of religious belief. The religious don't want the truth. They already have their truth laid out before them in a static and unalterable text. Any reality that gets in the way of that truth must at all costs be ignored.

I think they would.

You're probably right since this idea is so wide-spread. It's craziness though. Imagine if they hid all scientific discoveries from us for fear we'd shit our pants if the Higgs boson were discovered or that we'd take to the streets if the existence of the Giant Mariana Trench Trilobite ever came to light. It's silly. My first though upon hearing that we'd made contact with another intelligent form of life would be "Wow!" and not "Where my gun is at?!" Oh well. Maybe the fact that this concept of people freaking out is so widespread just means that people are more cynical than I am about the excited brutishness of their fellow man.

ha, alien STDs.

cancer!

This thread is sorta reminiscent of Contact. Except not as good.

ugh i would rather read this thread til my eyes fell out than watch that POS ever again.

but SARAH, it fell STRAIGHT THROUGH.

This thread is sorta reminiscent of Contact. Except not as good.

No, its isnt. It hasnt got nearly enough Jodie Foster in this thread.

We live in a world where reality is Benicio del Toro getting to play Moe Howard. I now believe in ghosts, extraterrestrials, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and Jesus Christ as a black martyr.

after some introspection...

We live in a world where reality is Benicio del Toro getting to play Moe Howard. I now believe in ghosts, extraterrestrials, the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot and Jesus Christ as a black martyr.

ugh i would rather read this thread til my eyes fell out than watch that POS ever again.

Movie adaptation was crap, huh? I never saw it. The book was really good though.

Carl Sagan was awesome.

Oh hello?

more like What the fuck do you want, you green bug eyed freak?

Or according to the proof above,

what the fuck do you and your alien looking baby want, nigga?