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johne1618
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On May 25, 2022 the prominent economist Tyler Cowen wrote an article in Bloomberg titled What are the Chances We've Been Visited by Aliens? in which he gives the alien visitation hypothesis 10% chance of being true.
His opinion must have been partly formed by his Dec 16, 2020 interview of the former CIA director John Brennan in which he asked him about UFOs. Here is a video of the interview cued to start at the UFO section.
Source: https://youtu.be/LdQ7L0ugZJc&t=403s
Transcript
COWEN: So, let's say we take a concrete issue. The Navy has reported that a lot of its pilots have seen unidentified flying objects and if you were tackling that as a CIA director, or someone who works there, what is it that you would sift through and interpret? How would that go?
BRENNAN: Well, I've seen some of those videos from Navy pilots, and I must tell you that they are quite eyebrow-raising when you look at them. You try to ensure that you have as much data as possible in terms of visuals and also different types of maybe technical collection of sensors that you have at the time.
But then you also, I believe, it's important to reach out into other environments and find out, well, were there any type of weather phenomena at that time that might have, in fact, created the appearance of the phenomenon that you're looking at? Were there some things that were happening on the ground, or other types of phenomena that again could help explain what seems to be quite a mystery as far as what it is there?
But I think an important thing for analysts to do is not to go into this type of challenge either discounting certain types of possibilities or believing in advance that it is likely X, Y, or Z. You really have to approach it with an open mind, but get as much data as possible and get as much expertise as possible brought to bear.
COWEN: So, at the end of all that sifting and interpreting, what do you think is the most likely hypothesis?
BRENNAN: [laughs] I don't know. When people talk about it, is there other life besides what's in the States, in the world, the globe? Life is defined in many different ways. I think it's a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there's no other form of life anywhere in the entire Universe. What that might be is subject to a lot of different views.
But I think some of the phenomena we'll be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don't yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life.
COWEN: But being an agnostic you don't think it's something supernatural?
BRENNAN: Well, supernatural is in the eye of the beholder. Again I'm not going to discount things. That's why I'm an agnostic as opposed to an atheist. I just want to leave my mind open as to what something might be. But who knows what these things might be?
My Conclusions
When Brennan says that he's seen some of the Navy UFO videos, and found them quite "eyebrow-raising", I can only assume that he is not referring to the rather indistinct and ambiguous videos that have been made available to the public. Surely he must be talking about classified videos?
Having stated that one must investigate all natural causes he then goes on to emphasize that one must keep an open mind and not discount unusual possibilities.
He makes the statement that it is presumptuous to think we are alone in the Universe. I think the government/military are using statements like this to get us used to the idea of aliens before they give us evidence of alien visitation.
He then uses a purposefully convoluted sentence to say that he thinks we will continue to see unexplained phenomena which might involve alien life. To me this is an important statement showing that he takes the possibility of alien visitation seriously; but obviously tempered to avoid getting into trouble.
Finally Cowen asks him whether he thinks the phenomenon is supernatural. He replies that supernatural is in the "eye of the beholder". This is interesting because the question as to whether one should classify aliens as supernatural or natural is probably a common one. His reply further confirms that he is seriously implying that aliens might be visiting Earth.
His opinion must have been partly formed by his Dec 16, 2020 interview of the former CIA director John Brennan in which he asked him about UFOs. Here is a video of the interview cued to start at the UFO section.
Source: https://youtu.be/LdQ7L0ugZJc&t=403s
Transcript
COWEN: So, let's say we take a concrete issue. The Navy has reported that a lot of its pilots have seen unidentified flying objects and if you were tackling that as a CIA director, or someone who works there, what is it that you would sift through and interpret? How would that go?
BRENNAN: Well, I've seen some of those videos from Navy pilots, and I must tell you that they are quite eyebrow-raising when you look at them. You try to ensure that you have as much data as possible in terms of visuals and also different types of maybe technical collection of sensors that you have at the time.
But then you also, I believe, it's important to reach out into other environments and find out, well, were there any type of weather phenomena at that time that might have, in fact, created the appearance of the phenomenon that you're looking at? Were there some things that were happening on the ground, or other types of phenomena that again could help explain what seems to be quite a mystery as far as what it is there?
But I think an important thing for analysts to do is not to go into this type of challenge either discounting certain types of possibilities or believing in advance that it is likely X, Y, or Z. You really have to approach it with an open mind, but get as much data as possible and get as much expertise as possible brought to bear.
COWEN: So, at the end of all that sifting and interpreting, what do you think is the most likely hypothesis?
BRENNAN: [laughs] I don't know. When people talk about it, is there other life besides what's in the States, in the world, the globe? Life is defined in many different ways. I think it's a bit presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there's no other form of life anywhere in the entire Universe. What that might be is subject to a lot of different views.
But I think some of the phenomena we'll be seeing continues to be unexplained and might, in fact, be some type of phenomenon that is the result of something that we don't yet understand and that could involve some type of activity that some might say constitutes a different form of life.
COWEN: But being an agnostic you don't think it's something supernatural?
BRENNAN: Well, supernatural is in the eye of the beholder. Again I'm not going to discount things. That's why I'm an agnostic as opposed to an atheist. I just want to leave my mind open as to what something might be. But who knows what these things might be?
My Conclusions
When Brennan says that he's seen some of the Navy UFO videos, and found them quite "eyebrow-raising", I can only assume that he is not referring to the rather indistinct and ambiguous videos that have been made available to the public. Surely he must be talking about classified videos?
Having stated that one must investigate all natural causes he then goes on to emphasize that one must keep an open mind and not discount unusual possibilities.
He makes the statement that it is presumptuous to think we are alone in the Universe. I think the government/military are using statements like this to get us used to the idea of aliens before they give us evidence of alien visitation.
He then uses a purposefully convoluted sentence to say that he thinks we will continue to see unexplained phenomena which might involve alien life. To me this is an important statement showing that he takes the possibility of alien visitation seriously; but obviously tempered to avoid getting into trouble.
Finally Cowen asks him whether he thinks the phenomenon is supernatural. He replies that supernatural is in the "eye of the beholder". This is interesting because the question as to whether one should classify aliens as supernatural or natural is probably a common one. His reply further confirms that he is seriously implying that aliens might be visiting Earth.
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