To wonder why more people aren't speculating more on the possibility of extraterrestrial beings?

[Cozytoesandtoast00]

The headline today on the BBC regarding the object shot down by US military is very interesting.
The US Military Commander has stated that they "have not ruled out that the objects were extra-terrestrial"

Right.

Apologies for my grammar! My phone is being annoying.

I think that’s code for ‘China has jumped ahead technologically and we haven’t a fucking clue how these things are even in the air’.

It would be a funny old coincidence wouldn't it. "Weather" balloons from china one day and alien life forms the next.

Extraterrestrial doesn’t have to mean life, just an object not from Earth.

Is that you, Mulder?

Not just the phone.

China has said that they are weather balloons. Whatever they are they are Chinese. Not exactly a million miles away, so not extra-terrestrial.

The haven't ruled out they are bananas, a whisky bottle, a pie dish, a unicorn, a flying train either

They also haven't ruled out Donald Trump is not an alien so you never know

I think it's code for "we need a justification to shoot these down that doesn't allow china to retaliate"

If they were extra terrestrial it would be a bit of a co incidence they were all over or near USA.

"Extra terrestrial" just means not from Earth. There was a comet over the channel yesterday - it was extra terrestrial.

There is no suggestion of other "beings" - quite categorically not being suggested, just people misunderstanding the phrase "extra terrestrial"

Most things in the sky are extra terrestrial!

Having not ruled it out doesn't mean they actually think it's at all possible. They haven't ruled out that I sent them, they haven't ruled out that you sent them. They haven't ruled out that they're actually angels sent by God himself or that they time-travelled from 1405. They haven't ruled out they're actually a new type of bird, they haven't ruled out that everyone's on acid and have imagined the whole thing. Many things that they "haven't ruled out", haven't been ruled out because they were never considered in the first place.

They rule things out in order of likelihood. Until they've ruled out the most likely options (like that they're Chinese surveillance), they won't start considering or ruling out less likely options.

Honestly it was my phone! I was unable to re-read to edit.

Weather balloons/spy balloons have been around a really long time. I don’t think China has shot ahead technologically.

As there are about 100 stars in our galaxy for every grain of sand on Earth’s beaches it is suggested the chances of life on another planet not existing must be staggeringly low. But will we ever have definitive proof? Probably not because advanced human civilisation is likely to last for only a flicker of the time it takes a star system to consume its planets. Two overlapping periods will be very long odds.

The last objects were apparently different. I’ll go read again.

The chance of alien life in the Milky Way is reasonably high. The chance of intelligent life fairly high and the chance of intelligent life evolving in a similar time frame to us is less likely. The Drake equation can be used to get a more likely estimate. Within the universe as a whole, the numbers must be unimaginable.

However, if an alien species came to earth, their technology would be so much more advanced than us (to quote Arthur C Clarke) 'as to be indistinguishable from magic' and our weapons and defences would be useless. If aliens did visit, why would they be hostile? For a civilisation to become so technologically advanced to travel the vast distances required to get here - they couldn't be hostile as they would annihilate themselves well before they developed enough to get here.

That said, I did once see something that was unexplainable- but I remain open minded about what it was.

Because we would like a 1 year break before another apocalyptic shit hits the fan!

I don’t think they are of alien origin. At least I hope not. Shooting down visitors from another planet isn’t a great start, is it?

Apparently, unknown objects in the sky and underwater too!

I was thinking of this quote ‘VanMerck said the air force is are still unsure how the three objects were staying aloft, as they currently have unknown propulsion systems. He added: 'We're calling them objects, not balloons, for a reason.'’.

it seems as though they’ve slowed down the radar system after the weather balloons were spotted and suddenly there are lots of unidentified objects in the sky! UFO hunters are shouting ‘this is what we’ve been saying all along!!!!’ So right now it seems there’s a lot of shit that’s been going on for ages under their noses and only now do they realise it.

I have nothing useful to add, but this tickled me.

The military guy was asked "could these objects be extra-terrestrial" and replied "nothing is ruled out at present." Basically just stating that until they know what the objects are they don't know what they are, therefore it's impossible to entirely rule out that it's aliens.

This is standard practice when investigating something. You might have a theory but until you know the truth another theory might be correct.

Surprised at these responses. Generally they do rule it out to avoid panic. It is surprising they haven’t this time. And they are clear that they don’t remotely resemble the Chinese balloon. They aren’t even calling them balloons. Cylindrical and shatter when shot

In this case we all think it's more Chinese shenanigans.

In general, because there is never much progress towards an answer. For a hundred years people have been talking about alien life, and all we have is some frozen water that could, possibly, support amoebae. People will be very interested when there is something interesting to see.