LA TIMES: Calling occupants of interplanetary craft

According to the New York Times, a much-anticipated Pentagon report on UFOs concludes ... well, not a lot. It will reportedly say UFO sightings by credible witnesses, including military pilots and ship crews, are of unknown origin. They might be optical illusions of sun, sky and other natural factors. Or tricks cameras can play on us. The latter two are why the trendier term for UFO is UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) because they might not be objects at all. Or, for that matter, flying.

It still seems the biggest argument against extraterrestrial visitation is that these intelligent beings never want to get in touch with us. All that travel and no sushi or fried chicken or meeting Uncle Joe. The other possible explanation being floated is that China or Russia, or both, have developed hypersonic technology far beyond what the US has managed. Hypersonic aircraft are capable of travelling at five times the speed of sound and follow highly erratic flight paths. Both foreign powers have spent heavily on that technology.

It was Isaac Asimov who perhaps gave us the best explanation of why any theoretical aliens might not want to make contact with us. During the Cold War, he wrote a short story about an interplanetary governing body that is just about to enter the people of Earth into its ledger of mature planets because they have achieved atomic power. But when the keeper of the ledger learns that they are testing nuclear power on their own planet, he crosses them off.

If Asimov were here now, he might tweak that story a bit. The aliens might take measure of our rising sea levels, recurring droughts and wildfires, the existential threat to our species from climate change and wonder at a form of life that would destroy its own home in this way. Why bother trying to reason with such creatures? The wise keeper of the ledger would probably cross us off again, muttering the title of the original story: “Silly Asses.” /Los Angeles, June 22

LA Times