X-Message-Number: 5961
From: Peter Merel <>
Subject: flying saucers
Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 23:06:39 +1000 (EST)

Thomas Donaldson writes,

>I do not understand at all how what you say in any way conflicts with my 
>comments on such stories. I said that I took OBSERVATIONS much more seriously
>than theories, and would separate the observations, no matter whom they come
>from, from the theories that observer had made about what he or she saw.

Ah, that's fine. My response was only intended to point to something topical.
I agree that the observation that such craft may in fact be feasible does 
nothing to support the theories of "abducteees".

>hang flying saucers onto the neck of the Big Bad CIA. Or some other Malicious
>Intelligence Agency (MIA). 

I agree that the notion that passing extra-terrestrials would operate on
anything like anthropic scales is quite ridiculous. Heck, if the
expectations of the Nanotech pundits for the next century are even 10%
of reasonable, I don't think we can imagine what a true space-faring
civilisation would be like, except that it would be nothing like what we
can imagine.

But I should hasten to point out that the bit about "rectal probes" was
actually an attempt at humour on my part; the New Scientist article only
concerned itself with aerodynamics, not with ufos. Apologies for
omitting smilies and I hope no one else was misled.

Peter Merel.


Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=5961