Recent revelations about UFOs*cough*UAPs from the military

[weirdspecter]

UAP/UFO sightings by the military are always very fun.

And, God DAMN it, the photos are as grainy and ambiguous as ever.  These planes are carrying optical cameras literally thousands of times better than the ones available a generation ago, and we still can't get a decent photo.  I think this is an enormous tell, indicating that this whole thing is somehow a fake.  This is 2021.  That camera is military hardware that can take an image of a whole city, sharp enough to identify every pedestrian crossing at the intersections if the angle allows their faces to be seen. There is absolutely no excuse for grainy, fuzzy, out-of-focus, ambiguous photos.  

While I can't speak to the specifics of Bear's claim here RE: cameras imaging whole cities at once, I do know that with previous releases of footage the claim was that these objects were being imaged through infrared cameras, producing less clear imagery. Not sure if that's the case with this newest slew of releases as I haven't actually taken the time to dig into them yet, but it is worth noting. Not to say that Bear's wrong -- one would hope that the Pentagon would start including at least 2006-flip-phone-quality footage in these releases, but still.

I like to keep an open mind about these sorts of things. I find it hard to believe that *large aircraft capable of the feats usually attributed to UAPs/UFOs* could have been developed by any given world power and not led to that power's supremacy. If these are vessels comparable to jets making the sorts of maneuvers claimed, I find it hard to believe that:

a) whoever could build such aircraft couldn't militarily dominate other nations, and;

b) whoever could build such aircraft couldn't find an incredibly lucrative application for the tech breakthroughs behind their performance to revolutionise their economy.

So, IF these UAPs/UFOs are really doing the things claimed of them and aren't, say, the product of sensor error, disinformation or the testing of misidentified military drones, then I'd find it hard to believe any earthbound nation could be behind their production. IF these are aircraft capable of 700gee acceleration, well... whoever can field those has such an overwhelming military and economic advantage that it makes no sense to me that they'd still be playing the diplomacy game. Which I guess could lend itself to these being aliens, or at least the autonomous drones of aliens. It does occur to me that this performance envelope is on par with OA's reactionless drives, so maybe we've got a cheeky S4 or 5 poking around.

All that being said, while I'm the one who checked the "Bracewell Probes" option in the poll (because who wouldn't? it's fun) I'm of the opinion that UAPs/UFOs are overwhelmingly more likely to be some sort of combat drone or else natural phenomena (something optical like ball lightning, perhaps) than alien intervention. There does seem to be genuine confusion among quite senior military figures about the nature of UAPs/UFOs, but it's hardly a shock that the left hand wouldn't know what the right hand was doing when it comes to the US military. And if you're going to test combat drones on anybody, well... doing it on your own ships might be sensible. I'm not sure.

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Of course, as Steve says, there is a vocal contingent of the US government who are very much in favour of the aliens narrative. I've seen for myself interviews with the pilots who reportedly shot some of the older footage of these UAPs which sounds very convincing -- but ultimately that means very little, from an evidentiary perspective.

Still, maybe that's what they WANT you to think! +tinfoil hat intensifies+

Anyway, I'm glad this thread is staying open for the time being. I do always love watching serious-minded, science-oriented folks discuss this sort of thing.

Regards,

Lilly