Would seem the ideal article for opening the exploration of such a topic. It also touches on the "positive" aspects of how the social phenomenon and its interpretative tendencies for observations/data provide opportunities for demonstrating how science and critical examination operate.
Any further items, or even traumatic personal experiences to add, etc? I'm not exactly a magnet for events that could be construed as _X_, or in directly encountering either ardent adherents/chasers or fluent detractors of the culture, in everyday life.
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How UFOS almost killed the search for life in the universe
https://aeon.co/essays/how-ufos-almost-killed-the-search-for-life-in-the-universe
EXCERPTS (Adam Frank): . . . At the time, I was reading both hard-science books (Sagan) and speculative works about UFO-related topics. ... The experience of that stark difference ended my own interest in UFOs and visiting aliens of any historical epoch.
If it hadn’t made me so angry, it might have made me laugh – and it’s that giggle factor that has been so harmful to the establishment of the true scientific study of astrobiology that I work in now. When it comes to SETI, at least, UFOs made the nascent field an easy target for scorn...
[...] Though the field was nascent, astrobiology researchers made slow but steady progress in mapping out how to rigorously gather and evaluate data that would be relevant to the very open question of how life beyond our world might make its appearance...
[...] Then the politics and the UFOs showed up. William Proxmire was a senator from Wisconsin who liked to think of himself as a fiscal hawk. He took it upon himself to bestow his Golden Fleece Award on anything he considered a waste of US tax dollars...
[...] In the wake of these very public whippings, NASA learned the lesson that SETI was political poison...
[...] Choking off SETI funding had important consequences for the search for life in the Universe because, basically, it meant there was no search for life in the Universe [...] It’s impossible to deny the role UFOs had in the development of this history...
[...] Then, in the mid-1990s, everything changed. ... All these new discoveries and new methods are transforming what we think of as SETI too...
[...] With the giggle factor receding for the scientific search for life, where does that leave UFOs and UAPs? There, the waters remain muddied. It is a good thing that pilots feel they can report sightings without fear of reprisal as a matter of air safety and national defence. And an open, transparent and agnostic investigation of UAPs could offer a masterclass in how science goes about its business of knowing rather than just believing...
[...] We’re going all in on the search for life in the Universe because we finally have the capabilities to search for life in the Universe. The giggle factor is finally history... (MORE - missing details)
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Any further items, or even traumatic personal experiences to add, etc? I'm not exactly a magnet for events that could be construed as _X_, or in directly encountering either ardent adherents/chasers or fluent detractors of the culture, in everyday life.
- - - - - - - -
How UFOS almost killed the search for life in the universe
https://aeon.co/essays/how-ufos-almost-killed-the-search-for-life-in-the-universe
EXCERPTS (Adam Frank): . . . At the time, I was reading both hard-science books (Sagan) and speculative works about UFO-related topics. ... The experience of that stark difference ended my own interest in UFOs and visiting aliens of any historical epoch.
If it hadn’t made me so angry, it might have made me laugh – and it’s that giggle factor that has been so harmful to the establishment of the true scientific study of astrobiology that I work in now. When it comes to SETI, at least, UFOs made the nascent field an easy target for scorn...
[...] Though the field was nascent, astrobiology researchers made slow but steady progress in mapping out how to rigorously gather and evaluate data that would be relevant to the very open question of how life beyond our world might make its appearance...
[...] Then the politics and the UFOs showed up. William Proxmire was a senator from Wisconsin who liked to think of himself as a fiscal hawk. He took it upon himself to bestow his Golden Fleece Award on anything he considered a waste of US tax dollars...
[...] In the wake of these very public whippings, NASA learned the lesson that SETI was political poison...
[...] Choking off SETI funding had important consequences for the search for life in the Universe because, basically, it meant there was no search for life in the Universe [...] It’s impossible to deny the role UFOs had in the development of this history...
[...] Then, in the mid-1990s, everything changed. ... All these new discoveries and new methods are transforming what we think of as SETI too...
[...] With the giggle factor receding for the scientific search for life, where does that leave UFOs and UAPs? There, the waters remain muddied. It is a good thing that pilots feel they can report sightings without fear of reprisal as a matter of air safety and national defence. And an open, transparent and agnostic investigation of UAPs could offer a masterclass in how science goes about its business of knowing rather than just believing...
[...] We’re going all in on the search for life in the Universe because we finally have the capabilities to search for life in the Universe. The giggle factor is finally history... (MORE - missing details)
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