Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
We think too highly of our visitors
One of the main characters of the book is Ye Wenjie, an astrophysicist. During the Cultural Revolution, she witnessed her father, a physics professor, beaten to death by Red Guards. Later, through an unusual turn of events, she got to read the book “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson. This book was not readily available in China at that time. After reading Silent Spring, Ye Wenjie thought: “If this was so, then how many other acts of humankind that had seemed normal or even righteous were, in reality, evil?” As a result of these two events, Ye Wenjie lost her faith in humanity.
We think too highly of our visitors. Liu Cixin wrote a postscript to The Three-Body Problem. In this postscript he shares something he considers to be an anomaly:
“There’s a strange contradiction revealed by the naïveté and kindness demonstrated by humanity when faced with the universe. On Earth, humankind can step onto another continent, and without a thought, destroy the kindred civilizations found there through warfare and disease. But when they gaze up at the stars, they turn sentimental and believe that if extraterrestrial intelligences exist, they must be civilizations bound by universal, noble moral constraints, as if cherishing and loving different forms of life are parts of a self-evident universal code of conduct.
I think it should be precisely the opposite. Let’s turn the kindness we show toward the stars to members of the human race on Earth and build up the trust and understanding between the different peoples and civilizations that make up humanity. But for the universe outside the solar system, we should be ever vigilant, and be ready to attribute the worst of intentions to any Others that might exist in space. For a fragile civilization like ours, this is without a doubt the most responsible path.”
Will we take the most responsible path?
We think too highly of our visitors. We confuse advanced technology with advanced spirituality. The Europeans had better technology than the Native Americans and the Aztecs. It didn’t make them better people. Are extraterrestrials spiritually advanced? It ain’t necessarily so. The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
Maybe there are other things we should work on. How about developing our vigilance? How about developing the requirements for freedom (unity, self-sufficiency and discretion)? I’m with Liu Cixin. Let’s turn the kindness we show toward the stars to members of the human race on earth. We think too highly of our visitors.
Sometimes I get tired of declaring what the New Message from God teaches about extraterrestrials. I’m going to try an alternate approach, and ask any reader what they think and how they feel regarding certain questions. I have asked these questions to many people over the past couple of years.
What do you think? How do you feel?
Question 1: Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?
The vast majority of young adults answer “Yes” to this question, as if to say “Of course!” I’m not sure what has convinced them. It could be the explosion in exoplanet discovery, particularly in the past decade. It could also be an influence of popular culture. Older adults are more skeptical. If someone answers “Yes,” I ask the second question.
Question 2: Do you think that intelligent life from other planets is present in our world?
I find much less certainty in the responses to this question. But it is documented that many people have changed their minds on this subject from “No” to “Don’t Know/Not Sure” or “Yes,” and from “Don’t Know/Not Sure” to “Yes.” I believe many people were influenced by the UFO/UAP report of the US government in June of 2021. The US government admitted the existence of numerous objects they could neither identify nor intercept. If such objects exist, then the testimonies of alien abductees might be true. There are still many people who don’t know what to make of this. But if someone answers “Yes,” I ask the third question.
Question 3: Do you think that the intelligent life from other planets, that is present in our world, is here for the benefit of humanity?
A lot of people express bewilderment at the very question, much less have a well-thought-out answer. I sometimes feel that people answer “Yes” as a way of “whistling past the graveyard.” They say “Yes” because if the truth is “No,” humanity is in great peril. Sometimes people answer “Yes” because they know no evidence of belligerent activity. Perhaps they are unaware of the deactivation of nuclear missiles in 1967 associated with UFO sightings. Sometimes when someone says “Yes,” I ask “Why would they be?” There are people who wish to believe that extraterrestrials are spiritually advanced. But again, what evidence would support this?
What do you think? How do you feel? All I know is that there is an extraterrestrial intervention underway, it is not in our interests, and it must be exposed and resisted.
Varginha is a city of roughly 135,000 people in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. The Varginha UFO incident occurred in January of 1996. It is hardly the first UFO sighting to occur in Brazil, as sightings have been reported as early as 1947. But this particular sighting is noteworthy for multiple reasons. First, there is testimony of a UFO crash. Varginha is referred to as “the Roswell of Brazil” because of this. Secondly, there is testimony of encounters with both living and deceased aliens.
Different aspects of the story have varying amounts of evidence and credibility. But the main events of the story took place on January 20, 1996.
Midnight – NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) contacts their Brazilian counterpart, the CINDACTA (Centro Integrado de Defesa Aerea e Controle de Trafego Aereo or Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control). NORAD warns of an Unidentified Flying Object they detected coming down over the state of Minas Gerais. How do we know this? An anonymous Brazilian Air Force officer leaked this to Vitorio Pacaccini.
Oralina and Eurico de Freitas saw a UFO above their farm
1:15 AM – Eurico de Freitas and Oralina de Freitas lived and worked on a farm on the side of the BR-491 highway, which runs through the city of Varginha. In the early morning of January 20, they spotted a ship about 5 meters from the ground, flying over the pasture and leaving the cattle agitated.
Oralina opened the window and saw the cattle were very agitated and stampeding all over the pasture three hundred to four hundred feet away. Then she saw a cigar-shaped object just above the cattle. There was no moon but the craft gave off a faint light.
Oralina called out to her husband, Eurico, forty, and he rushed to the window. “My God!” he cried. “There’s a submarine above my pasture.”
They could see gray smoke or vapor coming out of the back as it moved slowly, in a sort of rocking motion, only fifteen to twenty feet above the ground.
Neither Eurico nor Oralina ventured outside, but stood at the window watching as the object took forty five minutes to pass ever so slowly out of sight over a ridge about two thousand feet away, heading in the direction of Varginha.
They had the impression that it was having difficulties of some kind because of the very slow way it was moving. If the UFO was making any sound, the bellowing of the cows drowned it out.
All this time the cattle remained panicky and frightened but the couple’s four dogs, although awake, showed no reaction. Eurico and Oralina’s four children, aged twelve to twenty, slept through it all.
Eurico and Oralina have maintained their original account for the past 26 years. They believe we had visitors at Varginha.
1:30 AM – An American civilian was present when the cigar-shaped UFO was loaded aboard a flatbed truck in the early morning of January 20. The only mention of this is in the Brazilian Revista UFO (UFO Magazine).
Artist’s conception of the capture of the alien
Early morning – The Varginha Fire Department receives multiple calls reporting a “strange creature” had been seen in the area of Jardim Andere, a Varginha neighborhood.
The Fire Department personnel in Brazil are part of the Military, and must respond to all calls. What could this be, a couple of pranksters perpetuating a hoax? If so, the group was growing, as several more calls came in also reporting this unusual monster. Firemen followed the civilians’ instructions to the site.
To the utter surprise of the men, they found the source of the strange reports. The entity was seemingly in a dazed condition. Three protrusions stood atop of it’s head, which glowed with red eyes.
It also had long arms, short legs, and big feet. The monster sounded off with a buzz as it was taken into a net approximately 2 and one-half hours after the first call was received. The Fire Deparment reported the fact to the Army Sergeant School Commander in the neighboring city of Tres Coracoes (about 10 miles east of Varginha).
An Army truck was sent to the place and both forces captured the creature using nets and equipment regularly used to capture wild animals. The ET was placed till alive in a box that was then covered by resistant fabric. The box was placed on top of the truck, the vehicle headed to the Army Sergeant School and all personnel involved was ordered not to talk about it with anyone else “It was a Secret Operation” said Lieutenant-Colonel Wanderley, who commanded the operation. After such unusual, confidential report a few other military decided to come forward and speak about the captures as long as their identities were totally kept secret.
The three Varginha alien witnesses in 1996 and now.
3:30 pm – 3 young women named Liliane, Valquiria and Katia observed a strange creature in a field of small bushes a few blocks from where they live. Their ages ranged from 14 to 22. It was Saturday and they were coming back from their jobs when, crossing an empty area their attention was attracted by a strange being a few meters away. The ET was kneeling and looked like it was hurt, suffering some sort of pain. No UFO was ever seen. The girls observed it for a few minutes and ran away, afraid that they had just encountered the devil.
UFO researchers extensively interrogated the three girls, leaving no doubt whatsoever about what happened. They described the ET’s as being a dark brown creature, with a small body of 4 – 5 feet in height, no hair at all, big brown head, small neck. It also seemed to have some greasy, dark oil on its skin. The mother of the girls noticed a strange odor was when she later went to the site. The head of the creature had 2 big red eyes, no pupils, very small mouth and nose and – what is interesting – 3 protuberances in the head. The girls described such protuberances as horns.
“It was squatting, with the long arms between its legs”, recalls Liliane. “At first I saw the eyes, enormous and red.” Frightened, Liliane turned her back to the creature, while her sister Valquiria and her friend Katia continued to observe. “It was not animal or human, it was a horrible thing”, says Katia. “It looked dumb, didn’t make any noise”, adds Valquiria. The creature, however, appeared to move slightly with the head and the three girls ran away.
The testimony of the three girls appeared in the Wall Street Journal five months later. Liliane, Valquiria and Katia have maintained their account for the past 26 years. They believe we had visitors at Varginha. There is a great deal of documentation of the efforts made to bury this story by the Brazilian military. It is well documented that many high-level military officials gathered in this region at this time. This Brazilian video on the subject was recommended to me.
Another reason this incident caught my attention is that a documentary on the subject will be available on October 18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE7hVSlk7Zw
I realize that some readers will find these accounts to be impossible. But if you do, what do you think about the witnesses maintaining their accounts for 26 years? What do they have to gain by this? Why do you find these accounts to be impossible? What do you think actually happened? What if we had visitors at Varginha?
The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
I realize these ideas are considered improbable at this time. But at this point, I’m recalling the words of Sherlock Holmes: “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
The poll is the Gallup Poll. The first time the poll was taken was in August of 2019. The second time the poll was taken was in July of 2021. The question asked was “Which comes closer to your view – some UFOs have been alien spacecraft visiting Earth from other planets or galaxies (or) all UFO sightings can be explained by human activity on Earth or natural phenomenon? The percentage of people expressing the possibility that UFOs have been alien spacecraft jumped from 33% to 41% in two years. The “human activity/natural phenomenon” group declined from 60% to 50%. If this is a representative sample of American adults, it means that millions of American changed their minds on this subject.
There were multiple subgroups that had significant increases over two years. College graduates, people with some college, men, and middle-aged adults (34 to 55) all showed significant increases. I consider the Gallup Poll to have downplayed the significance of these changes. The headline of their article read “Larger Minority in U.S. Says Some UFOs Are Alien Spacecraft.” It didn’t say how much larger (about 20 million Americans). And it didn’t give the time period over which this change took place (a mere 23 months). A lot more people think we might have visitors.
What inspired so many people to change their minds?
I consider the US government UFO/UAP report of June 2021 to have had a substantial impact on this change in public opinion. The UFO/UAP report confirmed a belief that there were many more UFO sightings taking place than what the government was reporting. The reports of unusual movement patterns were confirmed. The report debunked beliefs that these movement patterns were instrument malfunctions or pilot hallucinations. The confession of ignorance by the US government sparked a certain degree of wondering in the American public.
Are the visitors here for our benefit?
There have been two recent public opinion polls asking if UFO’s constitute a military threat. There have been many polls on the existence of intelligent life on other planets. A growing number of polls ask if intelligent life from other planets is present in our world. There is a question I would ask that no pollster has asked yet. The question is “If intelligent life from other planets is present in our world, are they here for the benefit of humanity?” What do you think?
The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
This extraterrestrial intervention relies upon secrecy and human acquiescence. Nobody is going to resist something that they think doesn’t exist. But a lot more people think we have visitors.
There has been a good deal of news recently regarding UFOs. This photo is one of the news items. It is said to have been “leaked” or unofficially released. The website The Debrief has done a good deal of work in investigating the context of this photo. They have spoken to members of the US Department of Defense, and members of the US Intelligence Community.
I see an unidentified standing still object
An enlarged portion of the 2018 photo
Anonymous sources tell us that someone took this photograph in 2018. The backseat weapons systems operator of an F/A-18 fighter jet took this picture with a cell phone camera. The fighter jet was somewhere off the east coast of the United States. This photo was part of a 2018 report from the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF). The pilots reported this object to be perfectly motionless, unlike a GPS dropsonde used in weather research. This photo has been widely distributed among the US Intelligence Community.
I see an unidentified standing still object. The UAPTF was only first mentioned in a 2020 New York Times article. But apparently it has been operating under that name as early as 2018. I infer from the wide distribution of the photo that the Intelligence Community is taking the UAPTF report seriously. The Department of Defense took roughly three years to confirm the leaked UFO videos of 2017 as genuine and complete. Will this photo be confirmed in three years? We’ll find out soon enough.
I see an unidentified standing still object. The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
People in my world are giving this article a great deal of scrutiny for multiple reasons.
First, the AATIP is now the Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force. Maybe the very words “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon” is an attempt to avoid the saying of “UFO.”
Second, Congress directs this task force to release at least some of its findings to the public. When? Six months after the passage of the Intelligence Authorization Act for 2021. We know this because of a report from the Senate Select Intelligence Committee on this legislation. Don’t ask me how the New York Times obtained this report, or knew to look here. The Senate is considering this legislation. The House of Representatives hasn’t considered it yet. This provision, like many provisions, may not survive the legislative process.
Third, there are three paragraphs devoted to a recap of the 2017 AATIP article. The Department of Defense declared that the funding for the AATIP had lapsed in 2012. In the article, that statement was exposed as untrue. I take great curiosity that basic facts regarding this story are still in dispute. Particularly the role of Luis Elizondo, (pictured above) whom this article mentions. Elizondo and others claim that he ran the AATIP. The Pentagon claims Elizondo had “no assigned duties” in the Defense Intelligence Agency. Furthermore, he was not associated with the AATIP at all. Who should we believe? Elizondo was a source in the 2017 AATIP article. Therefore, I believe the New York Times believes him. Given that the report of the AATIP’s non-existence was a lie, maybe I should believe him. The case against Elizondo is made here. Day by day the evidence grows.
Fourth, there is a great deal of interest in the testimony of Dr. Eric Davis. In this article, Davis asserts regarding certain materials, “We couldn’t make it ourselves.” Davis said he gave a classified briefing to a Defense Department agency. This briefing was about retrievals from “off-world vehicles not made on this earth.” These words have been rocketing around the internet over the past four days. Should I believe them? Do I have a good reason not to? I know very little about Eric Davis. I know he has a Ph.D in physics. You can find out more about him here, here and here. Day by day the evidence grows.
Day by day the evidence grows. The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
I realize some people consider this not only false, but impossible. But many things once thought to be impossible have turned out to be so. This is a passage from the revelation “The Great Challenge Awaiting Humanity.” It is one of the chapters of the recently released book “Preparing for the Greater Community.”
“Day by day the evidence grows. Day by day more people are becoming aware. But there is still tremendous ignorance and denial. There is still tremendous manipulation of the evidence. It is very hard for people to gain any reliable information now.
The governments of the world will not tell you what they know. The religious institutions of the world cannot help you. People are filled with superstition. They are filled with hope. They are filled with wild expectancy. But who can see clearly? Whose thoughts are clear and unaffected by the prevailing attitudes and beliefs of society?”
It takes a certain intellectual and emotional preparation to see clearly. I do not claim to think clearly. I claim to be working on seeing clearly.
Something happened on Monday, April 27, 2020 that received less attention than it deserved. The US Department of Defense confirmed that three videos that have been public since 2017 are both genuine and complete. Who took these videos? Pilots for the US Navy, while in flight training missions. What is in these videos? Flying objects moving at remarkable speeds and accelerations. Flying objects which could be neither identified nor intercepted. When did the pilots take these videos? In 2004 and 2015. Where did the pilots take these videos? The 2004 video is from off the coast of San Diego, California, USA. The 2015 video is from off the east coast of the United States. (I have written about this here.) Why did the pilots take these videos? The pilots took these videos because the pilots weren’t expecting to see these objects.
This may be all the disclosure we get
Chad Underwood, US Navy pilot recording 2004 “TicTac” UFO video
The Department of Defense confirmed that the flying objects in the videos remain unidentified to this day. No natural phenomenon has demonstrated this speed and acceleration. They are not known to be the military assets of any nation on Earth. They answered one question, only to leave a much larger question unanswered. Many people have contended that the videos were fake or edited. Between 2017 and the present, these videos have undergone intense scrutiny by interested parties. Many hoped to find evidence of fakery or inauthenticity. I imagine the April 27 confirmation disappointed them.
An admission against interest?
This may be all the disclosure we get. I wish to explore another aspect of this event. Can you imagine that the Department of Defense wishes to say that the flying objects in the videos remain unidentified? Would any military on Earth say “We do not know what this is” without significant motivation? I make no claim to know what this motivation might be. However, I consider the very existence of this confirmation to be evidence of its truth. This is known in legal proceedings as an “admission against interest.” The Department of Defense has a lack of incentive to make an embarrassing or damaging statement about itself. This is an indication of the statement’s reliability.
What consequences follow?
Image from the movie “Fire in the Sky”
This may be all the disclosure we get. I realize some people will be greatly disappointed in this. I believe historians will note that in 2019 and 2020, unidentified flying objects (UFOs) took a great step forward in credibility. The United States government has admitted that these objects exist. They have confirmed they are something other than instrument errors or pilot hallucinations. What does this say about the 6,000 UFO reports in the United States in 2019? Are those camera errors or mass insanity? What does this say about the testimonies of people being taken against their will? Are they some kind of cultural delusion? Perhaps we need to reconsider some things we previously rejected.
Have your thoughts and feelings changed?
This may be all the disclosure we get. The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
I realize some people consider this not only false, but impossible. But many things once thought to be impossible have turned out to be so. Therefore a belief in the impossibility of something carries little weight with me. Could the April 27 confirmation make this a little less impossible for you?
Ralph Blumenthal was a reporter for the New York Times from 1964 to 2009, most notably for investigative crime reporting. I consider his contribution to these two articles to be a sign that the New York Times is taking this subject seriously.
On the other hand, when this article appeared in the New York Times, it appeared on Page A14, roughly halfway between the front page and the editorial page. Media commentator Glenn Reynolds wrote “What does it say about the news environment that the U.S. government admitted UFOs were real earlier this week, and it was like the fifteenth biggest story?” Which it was.
The US Navy destigmatized UFOs
How do you feel about not being alone? On April 23, 2019, Politico magazine published an article with the headline, “U.S. Navy drafting new guidelines for reporting UFOs.” The May 26 New York Times article described UFO sightings by US Navy pilots in 2014 and 2015. I consider these sightings to have contributed to the new guidelines described in the Politico article.
What do these sightings mean?
Lieutenant Ryan Graves reported numerous UFO sightings in 2014 and 2015
How do you feel about not being alone? No one in my world disputed the testimonies of Lt. Ryan Graves and Lt. Danny Accoin. Graves and Accoin are the two Navy fighter pilots who spoke publicly and on the record to the New York Times.
A Navy veteran I spoke with mentioned that at one time, reporting a UFO was hazardous to a pilot’s military career. Furthermore, it was hazardous to a post-military career as a commercial pilot as well. Besides Graves and Accoin, there were three other pilots who only spoke to the New York Times on conditions of anonymity. It takes a great deal of time, effort and resources to take a person from a pilot trainee to a pilot. I surmise that there have been many UFO sightings by many Navy pilots. Enough to make it unprofitable to consider a UFO sighting as a sign of mental instability.
Plenty of people in my world offered opinions regarding the significance of these sightings. One person suggested that some party was developing the capability of projecting illusions to the radar of military aircraft. Another person suggested that the objects sighted by the pilots were advanced military craft. Still another person suggested that it was impossible for these objects to be of extraterrestrial origin, because of the vast distances between stars.
At this point, history helps
How do you feel about not being alone? I know someone is reading this and thinking “Well, what about you, Douglas? What do you think and how do you feel about these things?” Like everyone else in my world, I accept the testimonies of Ryan Graves and Danny Accoin. I believe they saw what they said they saw. I believe they saw objects capable of both hypersonic speed and hovering in one spot. I believe they didn’t see what they said they didn’t see. I believe Danny Accoin didn’t see the object that his radar detected.
The pilots of that squadron considered it unlikely that the US military would introduce advanced craft into a training mission. In recent history, when the US military has obtained a superior weapon, it has used it. The US used an atomic bomb in World War II. The US has used cruise missiles (developed in the 1970s) and drone warfare (developed in the 1990s) in the 21st Century. Therefore, if the US military had a craft that could both travel at hypersonic speeds and hover in one spot, I believe it would use it. The only exception I know of is the hydrogen bomb.
What if it’s…not American?
When other nations have developed superior weapons, they have used them. Germany used the V-2 missile in World War II. Therefore, if the military of another nation on Earth had a craft that do these things, I believe it would use it. If a military force had the capability of projecting illusions to military aircraft, I believe it would use it.
Humans have considered the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life for a very long time. It took centuries to confirm the intuition that the sun is a star. It took centuries to confirm the intuition that there were planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Therefore, the fact that human intuition about intelligent extraterrestrial life has not yet been confirmed, carries little weight with me.
I realize this is improbable
How do you feel about not being alone? The New Message from God teaches what is currently a minority viewpoint on the subject of extraterrestrials.
I realize these ideas are considered improbable at this time. But at this point, I’m recalling the words of Sherlock Holmes: “How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”
I still have something to say about the Marist Poll of February 12. This was a public opinion poll of American adults asking for opinions regarding extraterrestrials. I have written about this poll here and here.
Contact isn’t personal, it’s strictly commercial
There are some remarkable things about this poll that I wish to repeat:
68% of American adults answered “Yes” to the question “Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?”
In May of 2005, only 52% of American adults answered “Yes” to that question.
The Marist Poll asked 68% a second follow-up question. The question was “Do you think they [the intelligent life on other planets] will find us before we find them?”
A supermajority of the 68% believe we will be found first, or that intelligent life from other worlds has already found us. I do not find this particularly shocking. After all, 46% of them responded that intelligent life from other planets were more advanced than humanity.
It might have something to do with the presence of craft in our skies that can neither be identified nor intercepted.
It might have something to do with the fact that humanity has been broadcasting radio and television signals into space for the past 70 years. It might have something to do with the fact that we are reckless blabbermouths. The image below was made roughly ten years ago. This means the signals have gone ten light-years further.
But none of the questions in this poll ask people to consider the intentions of extraterrestrials toward humanity. This is where the New Message from God comes in.
This is the first two paragraphs from the revelation “The Enemies of Humanity.” It was received by Marshall Vian Summers in May of 2014. It is one of the chapters of the book “The Greater Community.”
“Humanity has enemies in the universe. They are not opposed to you, but they seek what you have. They seek to take what you have from you without the use of undue force, relying upon the powers of persuasion and sowing the seeds of division amongst a contentious humanity.
They seek this world for themselves. They do not seek to destroy you, but to use you as a workforce for them. It is something very subtle in its application, but very real in its effect.”
The European explorers of the 1400’s and 1500’s were not motivated by mere curiosity. They made big investments of time and money. They were searching for resources, and ways to move those resources more efficiently. The extraterrestrial explorers of today have similar motivations. However, they consider you and me as resources to exploit. Contact isn’t personal, it’s strictly commercial.
In this earlier post, I elaborated on a recent Marist Poll on the existence of intelligent life on other planets. They conducted this poll in both May of 2005 and February of 2018. They asked American adults, “Do you think there is intelligent life on other planets?” In May of 2005, 52% responded “Yes.” In February of 2018, 68% responded “Yes.” They asked the people who responded “Yes” to this question, a follow-up question. I wish to examine that response.
We might be an utterly average world
I believe that some people looked at the response to the first question and had a thought. The thought was, “It must have been a particular subgroup that raised the Yes response from 52% to 68%.” I surmise from the following image that this is not the case.
The age, ethnicity or gender of the respondents doesn’t seem to matter. There is no one particularly credulous subgroup, except possibly young adults aged 18-29. There is no one particularly skeptical subgroup, except possibly those who identify as Republicans. For better or for worse, the idea that there is intelligent life on other planets has been embraced by American adults.
We might be an utterly average world. The follow-up question was, “Do you think life on other planets is more, less, or about as intelligent as human life on earth?” I confess to not liking this question very much. The word “intelligent” has multiple connotations. I sometimes think of intelligence as adaptability, the power to respond to challenges and take advantage of opportunities. I consider the question to mean “advanced” when the word “intelligent” is used. It could mean “possessing a richer history and body of experience.”
There is a significant plurality who think there are more advanced civilizations in the universe. I don’t consider this to be particularly shocking. Roughly fifty years ago, the crew of the Enterprise on Star Trek encountered more advanced races. They encountered the Metrons (TOS episode “Arena”) and the Organians (TOS episode “Errand of Mercy”). I am unclear as to the worldview of those who answered “Less.” Do they consider Earth to be the pinnacle of intelligent life in the universe?
The 52% who answered yes in 2005, offered an opinion as to the level of advancement of intelligent life. Forty million American adults changed their minds about intelligent extraterrestrials between May of 2005 and February of 2018. They considered Earth’s place in the universe as roughly the same as the 52% from 2005. I’m not sure what to make of this. I think it says we are open to the possibility that we might be an utterly average world.
“Humanity is not alone in the universe, for the universe you will encounter is full of intelligent life. Living in a well-inhabited and long-established region of space, your world will find itself in a greater neighborhood.
“Within this neighborhood are many powerful nations that have created vast networks of trade and commerce that are tightly governed. And most nations in this region of space are dependent upon these networks for the essential resources they need to support their technology and, in some cases, essential resources just to provide the basic requirements of life.”
In the image at the top, 10 members of the Blackfoot Confederacy visited New York City in 1913. I wonder how they would have answered the questions of this poll. I don’t know what they experienced in New York City. All I know is that before too long, the people of Earth will have a similar experience.
