At the gym, many people listen to music, but I normally listen to podcasts, or audiobooks, as it is a time that allows me to consume in peace, while still doing something that improves my health - or so they say. And tonight, I listened to an episode of Smartless, which was recommended by a friend. The guest was Luis Elizondo and the Spotify is linked below, but it is on YouTube also.
They were talking about UFOs.
Conspiracy theorist?
Luis “Lue” Elizondo is the former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), the secretive Pentagon unit that studied UFOs. As a senior counterintelligence officer for the Department of Defense, he operated throughout Afghanistan, the Middle East and Latin America.
I am not going to go into everything that was covered, even though it was a pretty light interview, as is their style, but the guy was in front of congress under oath a few weeks prior, telling much the same. What I found interesting was the general idea that the governments have a huge amount of information that would "blow our minds", but have deemed us "not ready" to know the truth, but the sentiment seems to be shifting.
The technology that was described was so much further along than anything we could create, that it makes us look ridiculous, like aircraft flying at over 10,000 miles an hour and making right hand and 180-turns. And that means that whatever has created it, is far more advanced than us. It can make things better than us by far, making everything we create as humans, obsolete.
And this creates a problem.
The problem isn't about whether they intend to invade and enslave us, though that is something that could happen. Or even that we will be obsolete. The issue is probably why the government says "they aren't ready" - because having that transparency would force us to acknowledge that we are not just not alone, but we are also pretty stupid. Do you see the issue?
We live in a world where there are millions of people who believe that dinosaurs never existed, and billions of people who believe that we are the chosen ones, or more precisely, that those who believe are the chosen ones. That there is an omnipotent God that has created us and made us more special than everything else it has created, even going as far as "in his image" - as if that were a thing. We also have millions of people who believe the world is flat.
I am obviously not a believer in a God.
At least as religions of all denominations seem to envisage it.
However, this isn't about believing or not believing, because the truth is out there. But, what I am interested in is if there was irrefutable evidence of some kind, what happens to the billions of believers in something quite different. Are we able to make such a monumental shift in our understanding and reconcile who we are as individuals and society? Forget the tech for a moment, what kinds of impacts would this have on how we organise ourselves and communities?
Thousands of years of theological tradition, could just be wiped away.
We are highly adaptable by nature, but we aren't highly accepting of change, and even less so if we are the ones who are going to have to make the shift. Just imagine if a devout Christian was given irrefutable proof that the Koran is word for word the word of God - or vice versa for the Bible. Would everyone just go, "ah okay, I was wrong - time to change".
Unlikely.
I think that we have all seen enough alien invasion movies to be able to predict how we would act as a society - but is that how we would actually behave? Ina dramatized world, perhaps it is, but maybe, we wouldn't fight, we would just fall apart in a steaming pile of existential crisis.
And maybe, it won't be too long until we find out what is already known, and what the speculation on what is not might be, because the governments are under increasing pressure to open up the documents and show their hand. They can cite security concerns for now, but the people are becoming restless. At that point, maybe it will allow us time to adjust, like a soft-launch for what is to come.
Whatever is out there, I believe I want to know.
Even if it is not what I want to hear.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
