Which Conspiracy Theories Do You Believe In and Why?

[Free Northman Reborn]

41 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

You are misconstruing the "Fermi Paradox".  When the word "encounter" is used it doesn't mean "visited Earth".  It means that we on Earth perceive some sort of remnant or signal from those civilizations like electro-magnetic signals.  We (human civilization) have been sending Electro-Magnetic signals into space ever since we started using Radio, and potentially, ever since we started using the Telegraph (really not sure on that one).  That means we have a shell of EM emissions that have gone out from Earth to approximately 100 light years (or more).  Fermi asks why haven't we perceived similar signals that are obviously not of natural origin.  

That said the Fermi Paradox does rely upon the assumption that other intelligent life will use the EM spectrum to communicate over long distances.  I wonder if, perhaps, other species don't use some other means of long distance communication that we haven't thought of. 

No Scott, I am not. You are missing the point. Read what I said.

The Fermi paradox (again, misnamed according to some, as Fermi apparently never actually defined it as a paradox, but that's beside the point for present purposes), asks why we have not encountered evidence of  alien intelligence if the universe is full of life, as is assumed.

I did not say that the Fermi paradox requires UFO's to be aliens. But, since E.T. visitations to Earth would be one possible sign of E.T.'s existence, it certainly is ONE solution to the Fermi paradox.

That's all I was saying with regard to the UFO phenomenon. No more, no less. Should UFO's prove to be aliens, it solves the Fermi paradox. In fact, one of the myriad potential solutions to Fermi's question, is the one titled; "They are already here".

Some of the others are "They are all dead", "We are in a zoo", and my personal favourite: "We are the first"

But I keep an open mind.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

3 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

No Scott, I am not. You are missing the point. Read what I said.

The Fermi paradox (again, misnamed according to some, as Fermi apparently never actually defined it as a paradox, but that's beside the point for present purposes), asks why we have not encountered evidence of  alien intelligence if the universe is full of life, as is assumed.

I did not say that the Fermi paradox requires UFO's to be aliens. But, since E.T. visitations to Earth would be one possible sign of E.T.'s existence, it certainly is ONE solution to the Fermi paradox.

That's all I was saying with regard to the UFO phenomenon. No more, no less. Should UFO's prove to be aliens, it solves the Fermi paradox. In fact, one of the myriad of potential solutions to Fermi's question, is the one titled; "They are already here".

Some of the others are "They are all dead", "We are in a zoo", and my personal favourite: "We are the first"

But I keep an open mind.

Fair enough.  The "We are the first" would be quite a surprise.

[Spockydog]

9 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I'm skeptical of the Phoenix lights.  

Here's Kurt Russell talking about them.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

7 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Here's Kurt Russell talking about them.

I appreciate what he's saying.  Again.  We have no evidence of anything but the lights.  If we had video, or clear photos of the alleged ship projecting the lights, I'd be more interested.  We have what people believe they saw... nothing more.

The other thing that is interesting about the Russell interview is that all he saw was "lights" he didn't see a V shaped body projecting the lights.  

 

[Free Northman Reborn]

8 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Fair enough.  The "We are the first" would be quite a surprise.

Yeah well, it is linked to the Rare Earth Hypothesis, which sort of opposes the Mediocrity principle. I tend to like the Rare Earth Hypothesis.

[Darzin]

Here is another discussion of the Phoenix lights. The video we have mimics the behavior of flares. The airforce says they dropped flare at that time. Of the hundreds of videos e do have none showed a triangle of lights. And even if they did a triangle of lights is usually an airplane. I'm just not seeing the mystery here. 

That object that went through our solar system recently might be something it has a really odd ratio for an asteriond but it looks like we'll never know now. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

11 minutes ago, Darzin said:

Here is another discussion of the Phoenix lights. The video we have mimics the behavior of flares. The airforce says they dropped flare at that time. Of the hundreds of videos e do have none showed a triangle of lights. And even if they did a triangle of lights is usually an airplane. I'm just not seeing the mystery here. 

That object that went through our solar system recently might be something it has a really odd ratio for an asteriond but it looks like we'll never know now. 

The interstellar asteroid is really interesting.  In the Rocket launch thread someone mentioned that SpaceX thinks they can launch a probe that could rendevous with the asteroid in 22 years time.   

Here's SpaceChampion's post:
 

Quote

Bringing this around back to SpaceX, someone imagined how we could go chasing after the alien vessel...  ahem, I mean interstellar asteroid... with a probe launched by SpaceX's BFR:

Project Lyra: Sending a Spacecraft to 1I/’Oumuamua (former A/2017 U1), the Interstellar Asteroid. On page seven of the article, the authors suggest (among other ideas) sending a BFR/BFS craft using a Jupiter flyby followed by a close solar flyby to achieve the necessary hyperbolic excess velocity of 30km/s to intercept the object at a range of approximately 85 AU in 2039, following a launch in 2025.

Note: Pluto varies between 30-40 AU, so the rendezvous point is way way out there.

[Free Northman Reborn]

20 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

The interstellar asteroid is really interesting.  In the Rocket launch thread someone mentioned that SpaceX thinks they can launch a probe that could rendevous with the asteroid in 50 years time (or some such very high number).   

Here's SpaceChampion's post:
 

 

This particular case is actually less interesting, once you delve into it a bit. At least from a "potential alien spaceship" point of view. The chance that the first such interstellar object that we are able to observe happens to be an artificial object, would be miniscule. Unless there are millions of these spaceships crossing the interstellar void on a continuous basis.

After all, since it is predicted that a multitude of interstellar objects must enter our Solar System over the ages, but this is the first one we have the technology and luck to observe, it casts serious doubt on the theory that out of all the thousands of natural objects, our very first observation happens to be the lone artificial one.

It is likely just a weirdly shaped rock.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

What do you guys make of all the paintings that are hundreds of years old and look like they are depicting UFOs?

[Mlle. Zabzie]

23 hours ago, Elder Sister said:

I have so many conspiracy theories that I enjoy - 

• Knights of the Golden Circle
• Putin is dead and has been replaced by a body double
• Aliens are real and our govt. has been in communication with them for years
• Amelia Earhart was taken prisoner by the Japanese and was actually a spy

I could go on for days.  I'm not sure I actually believe any of them, but I don't totally rule them out, either.  I'm very cynical and distrusting of the world in general, and don't normally share my pet theories.  But I like you people.

 

Avril Lavigne?  That's another one that floats around

[Week]

7 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

What do you guys make of all the paintings that are hundreds of years old and look like they are depicting UFOs?

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/158/326/9148130.jpg

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

23 minutes ago, Free Northman Reborn said:

This particular case is actually less interesting, once you delve into it a bit. At least from a "potential alien spaceship" point of view. The chance that the first such interstellar object that we are able to observe happens to be an artificial object, would be miniscule. Unless there are millions of these spaceships crossing the interstellar void on a continuous basis.

After all, since it is predicted that a multitude of interstellar objects must enter our Solar System over the ages, but this is the first one we have the technology and luck to observe, casts serious doubt on the theory that out of all the thousands of natural objects, our very first observation happens to be the lone artificial one.

It is likely just a weirdly shaped rock.

Likely, that is correct.  However the strange shape of the object and its use of Sol for a Hyperbolic speed boost and course change do make it somewhat more interesting than usual.  

 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

8 minutes ago, Week said:

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/158/326/9148130.jpg

That guy is a Centauri.  See the resemblance:

http://persephonemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Peter-Jurasik-as-Cetauri-Ambassador-Londo-Molarri-thewb.com_.jpg

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

12 minutes ago, Week said:

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/158/326/9148130.jpg

They need to create a back hand slapping emoji, because that’s what I’m sending your way Week.

Break a leg, Brady.

Hey, there’s a great conspiracy theory. Is Brady using some steroids or all the steroids?

[Week]

8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

They need to create a back hand slapping emoji, because that’s what I’m sending your way Week.

Break a leg, Brady.

Hey, there’s a great conspiracy theory. Is Brady using some steroids or all the steroids?

HGH - get it right, puh-leez!

[S John]

56 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

What do you guys make of all the paintings that are hundreds of years old and look like they are depicting UFOs?

Here's an article about that: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ufos-in-renaissance-art_us_5679991de4b014efe0d7044b

I agree with the conclusion for the most part, they are artistic or religious symbolism from another time (celestial bodies i.e. sun and moon, holy spirit, etc).

[Elder Sister]

6 hours ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

Avril Lavigne?  That's another one that floats around

I had heard that one, but since she's not a world leader, and I don't know anything she sings, I don't really care. 

[Lordsteve666]

I have friend at work who literally thinks EVERY conspiracy theory you can name is real. I actually genuinely do worry hat he cannot tell reality from his own fictional world of Info-wars and lizard people, but he's good fun to spar with.

Thing with stuff like those Phoenix lights though is that they are not really a conspiracy, they are just something that is hard to explain based on the evidence. Just because something looks a big weird doesn't make it some massive alien conspiracy.

I enjoy reading about this sort of stuff but some people are off the chart in terms of crazee.

My personal favorites are the Flat Earth guys (they have believers all around the globe!), and Chem-trail idiots. The chem-trail guys are really fun to argue with as they clearly have no idea of basic atmospheric physics or how aircraft even work, yet they still persist. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

6 hours ago, S John said:

Here's an article about that: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ufos-in-renaissance-art_us_5679991de4b014efe0d7044b

I agree with the conclusion for the most part, they are artistic or religious symbolism from another time (celestial bodies i.e. sun and moon, holy spirit, etc).

Kill joy

20 minutes ago, Lordsteve666 said:

I have friend at work who literally thinks EVERY conspiracy theory you can name is real. I actually genuinely do worry hat he cannot tell reality from his own fictional world of Info-wars and lizard people, but he's good fun to spar with.

Same, that's how I learned about so many different conspiracy theories. The funny thing is that he's a legitimate genius. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. 

[maarsen]

9 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

Likely, that is correct.  However the strange shape of the object and its use of Sol for a Hyperbolic speed boost and course change do make it somewhat more interesting than usual.  

 

Any object traveling at a high enough velocity will follow a hyperbolic orbit around the sun once it falls into the sun's gravity well. Think about the old carnival game of throwing a basketball into a bushel basket.You can't through it slow enough to do anything but bounce out. Same with the asteroid. The only orbit it could follow was the one it did.