Do Aliens Exist?

Painting by David Huggins

As vast as the universe is, I think it's quite likely some kind of alien organisms exist on another planet. If we want to narrow our criteria down to single-cell organisms, that greatly increases the possibility—some bacteria and archaea can live in very "extreme" or inhospitable environments—so-called extremophiles. These organisms can be found to inhabit the depths of the earth's crust, the deep ocean, extreme levels of acidity and alkalinity, extreme hot and cold environments, toxic waste, etc.

The point being is that unicellular lifeforms can evolve to become highly adaptive to niches that most multicellular organisms could never tolerate. Cyanobacteria in particular can thrive in a diverse range of environments. The same for fungi—including the multicellular variants.

A planet can certainly be too inhospitable for these ecological niches to form in the first place, but it's thought that Mars once had a stronger atmosphere that would have rendered it closer to earth in terms of habitability, and the same could hold true for many a planet. Extremophiles could have formed in the coldest ecologies prior to the planet being unable to support the burgeoning of new life, perhaps even lying dormant in permafrost.

However, I think most people are probably not terribly excited by the prospect of "lower" forms of life being out there; sure, they would be excited if a simple organism were found on mars, but finding any kind of life suggests there is a greater diversity of organisms to be found, perhaps more complex ones. Most people really want to find something humanoid, intelligent, and, most of all, relatable. Why? Probably out of sheer curiosity, some existential itch that needs to be scratched, to understand more about the universe, or to have sex with the aliens... I'm not kidding. "Sexy aliens" are very common in pop culture. Pornography of such encounters would probably be circulated within a blackmarket before casually being uploaded on Pornhub. 

There very well might be aliens of the more intelligent type out there, but so far we can only speak of probability pertaining to a complex topic rather than anything close to certainty. For what it's worth, I think there is the potential for other lifeforms similar to mammals on earth somewhere in the universe—whether they still exist, are now extinct, or will soon (relatively speaking) come to be.

Additionally, some other animals on earth are even quite intelligent, like dolphins, but they evolved in such a fashion that they couldn't manipulate tools or interact with the world in the same way that humans—or even non-human primates—could. 

One critique of the "little gray/green men" that are often depicted as aliens is that they are too similar to humans. Aliens from a different world should have much different selection pressures than earth would, even if they are "earth-like." 

Many of the strange quirks of the depicted aliens—such as the gray alien who is the subject of the Roswell autopsy hoax footage—could even be similar to what you would see from a human with rare chromosomal disorders and combinations of other conditions. If we ever confirmed some kind of living creature resembling what was found in the Roswell autopsy footage, I would immediately assume it was the result of some grotesque experiment on human fetuses, perhaps crossed with the DNA of other animals, long before I would ever think it was a captured alien. There are some researchers who think aliens might look quite similar to humans, though. 

If selection pressures are unlikely to create anything similar to a human, then perhaps some aliens may be bestowed with a form that leaves them unfit for interstellar travel, or even conquering their world, as humans have. 

Dolphins appear to be living a good life. They have no need to build or expand into new frontiers. What more do they need? Their only real problem is that humans have advanced, leading to dolphins being hunted and their territories being polluted. If humans had not come to dominate the world as they did, then the life of dolphins would be as close to perfect as you can get.

Perhaps primates are one of the few lifeforms to have any hope of changing the world so drastically, and regardless of capability, they may be the only one with the drive to do so. There is the possibility of other physiological configurations with the same potential, but we have never witnessed such a creature. Of course, an alien could also have a humanoid form and hands or something hand-like to allow them to manipulate objects. We may never know.

It's also entirely possible planet earth is the only planet with life. Other planets (or even moons or other astronomical bodies) may have been close, but not enough. 

It should be stated that most who are optimistic about alien life tend to omit any information suggesting aliens might not exist or are far less abundant than we would have previously thought.

Update: The above paragraph was written based on my misconception about whether or not astronomers believed most stars were part of a multiple star system. As is explained here, it was widely believed for a long period of time that the majority of stars had companions—as many as 80%!—and single star systems were rare. This belief seems to have held until sometime in the 1990s. In the milky way galaxy, 2/3rds of stars are thought to be single, and 1/3rd are binary or greater.

There are reasons to believe it is difficult to find habitable planets within multiple star systems, so the former arrangement being true greatly strengthens the arguments of those who are skeptical about alien life existing or interacting with our solar system. It appears that the current view actually gives more support to the "believer" than the "skeptic."

There are still astronomers and various astronomy-related sources (for example) that either share my misconception, or this subject is far more contentious within the field of astronomy than is being properly conveyed in popular science articles. It's not clear how many stars in the universe are multiple star systems, but a lot of this information is based on models that may probably turn out to be inaccurate, so I'd suggest taking many of these findings with a grain of salt.

Some astronomers have posited that all stars began as binary star systems, including our own. Astronomy is a very theoretical field, but there is a lot of speculation about how binary (and triplet) star systems form—and whether or not a binary star system can transition into a single star system. Statistical analyses seem to indicate most—if not all—stars began as binary systems. Who knows if it's really more like 50% or 20% or if their models are even accurate. Multiple scientists have had similar results, and to lend credence to the hypothesis, young stars that are found tend to be part of a binary system. If true, this has serious implications for how galaxies and solar systems form.

The stars of Binary star systems are often depicted as being right next to each other, but they can be as far apart as 500-1,000 AU—1 AU is the distance between the sun and the earth—about 93,000,000 miles. Supposedly, about half of binary stars are separated by 1,000 AU or more. You would think with such distance, planets could orbit one of the stars in a stable fashion, but the other stars can affect their orbit quite a bit—either having a more elongated orbit or ejecting them from the system. It really sounds like most binary systems will be too unstable to support life. Yes, the planets can enjoy a comfortable temperature and orbit similar to the earth—but just because it has found the "sweet spot," doesn't mean it won't be disrupted.

Some articles place binary star systems in a more positive light for habitation. [1]

As was mentioned in the update above, multiple star systems are numerous enough to impact the likelihood of alien encounters, but probably not so numerous as to make a huge difference for the formation of life. If it's true that stars start as part of a multiple star system, and these systems tend to be less habitable than a single star system, then these stars would have been delayed from forming viable solar systems. 

However, as can be witnessed from the many contradictions and uncertainties pondered upon in this article alone... we really can't say for sure. Science rapidly changes as we accumulate more information, but astronomy is so speculative that it might as well be science fiction; that's an exaggeration, but people really cling to the words of these astrophysicists and astronomers like the information being presented is more certain than it really is. 

Since multiple star systems are probably (Who knows?) far less abundant than I originally thought they were, it'd be good to touch upon the most abundant star, and its deficiencies for life. Red dwarf stars are the most common kind of star—possibly amounting to as much as 70% of milky way stars. I've also seen estimates of 80% and higher. 

These red dwarf stars have a low mass, and it's thought that the photons will not be strong enough to sustain plant life for quite a few of the ones that appear relatively habitable. Perhaps simpler organisms would be possible, but without much oxygen, more complex lifeforms are unlikely, based on what we know from earth, and the lack of any apparent life on the surfaces of other planets that we've observed.

The universe is supposedly 14 billion years old, and red dwarf stars are thought to survive for as long as 100 billion years. This means that these stars are mostly quite young, and so they have powerful magnetic fields, releasing devastating solar flares and solar winds that can destroy a planet's atmosphere.

Get too close and the planet is bombarded with the intense radiation of solar flares, and too far will mean the dimness of the star will result in a frigid wasteland.

Orbit, spin, and proximity to the star are all a number of factors making determining whether or not a planet will be a good candidate for life far more complex as well.

The majority of locations that appear habitable may only support simple organisms or will be disrupted before any organisms can form at all. The more you look at it, the more you realize how slim the pickings are, and sustaining life is based on sheer luck.

Who is to say a great race couldn't form on a particular planet, with far more potential than humans, only to get snuffed out like a candle—their planet hurtling off into an ice age?

The pessimists on the alien questions have a pretty good case against the optimists. Even if the optimists are right, life seems to be so rare and spread apart, the chances of humans stumbling across another alien life form may be nil.

However... I think all of this speculation is ultimately a moot point and irrelevant to the topic at hand—that is, whether UFOs and other alleged phenomena are related to aliens. There is a lot of postulating about aliens being the source of UFOs, but all we have to assume that would be nothing but fun sci-fi concepts and theoretical physics and astronomy.

There doesn't appear to be a lot of substantive evidence for faster than light speed travel, worm holes, warp drives... really anything that could allow aliens to traverse the universe quickly, and the universe is massive. Maybe there is an alien rocket (or something more sophisticated) out there that is vastly superior to what we currently have, but we should put that into perspective first.

Proxima Centauri, the closest star outside of our solar system, is 268,770 AU away, which is a very long number in km or mi. Voyager 1 is supposed to be moving at a speed close to 35,000 mph, and is estimated to take 73,714 years to reach the closest star. The Parker Solar Probe is supposed to be able to reach speeds of 430,000 mph, and it would take 6,619 years to reach the same star. Light speed would take about 4 years.

How close we—or lifeforms with similar or superior intelligence—could get to the speed of light is unclear, but no matter how intelligent an organism is, it takes time and trial and error to even get to the point we have reached. Aliens would have to go through similar milestones and beyond, whether they could achieve them faster or not.

Harassing us or flying around to observe us would be impractical unless they have colonized planets along the way, and the closest planets don't have any obvious signs of colonization.

Sure... they could have colonized mars before we had recorded history and cloaked a base or hid it underground, but what's the point? They would clearly have vastly superior technology to be able to do that, so there's no need to be so secretive. And for such sophisticated ships, they sure are alleged to have crashed on earth and had their pilots and ships salvaged by Lockheed Martin or the government quite a damn bit, so I'm not sure if they're competent or incompetent, or that their technology is really so vastly superior after all, to be entirely honest...

I suppose a setup like the Russian sci-fi novel Hard to Be a God by the Strugatsky brothers (interesting book/film and a wonderful concept), where the humans blend in to the society of another planet while having superior technology, and the aliens (who look just like us and are functionally the same) are in a stagnant period equivalent to the middle ages, could be possible, but all of these unlikely assumptions do get tiresome.

Occam's razor, while not always correct, is probably best applied to this situation. The universe is inordinately vast, and aliens simply have not made contact with us humans, therefore, the UFOs are terrestrial—either a hoax, or, if real, some kind of government project or experimental crafts.

I'm not really interested in getting heavily into the Fermi paradox [2] and Drake equation debate, but the former does seem to lead to the reasonable conclusion that if our star is thought to be about 4.5 billion years old, and other stars in the milky way galaxy are believed to be even older—one being at least twice the age of our sun, then an alien race equivalent to our potential or much greater probably would have already arrived or we would see clear evidence of them having been here. 10 billion years is a lot of time for an alien race within our galaxy (and potentially outside of it) to surpass our current potential enough to colonize nearby planets or dock a spaceship relatively close to earth.

The alternative would either be these aliens died out before they could achieve such a feat as to travel to earth, their capabilities are less than that of humans, they haven't developed enough yet, or they're on their way (though if they were on their way, they would probably be detected before they could get sufficiently close). Otherwise, subtracting any possible alternatives I'm forgetting about or haven't thought of, aliens don't exist.

I don't find the Fermi paradox—at least as it's often presented—entirely convincing, but speculating about it like this just strengthens the notion that we most likely haven't made contact with aliens, and we won't in the near future, so any of the peculiar activity we've seen is not alien in origin.

That certainly seems sounder to me than saying the probability of aliens being real is high, and we see strange stuff in the sky that we can't explain, ergo, the strange-stuff-in-the-sky-we-can't-explain is a result of aliens who are far advanced compared to humans, who also regularly harass us semi-surreptitiously. All the while, probing our butts, mutilating our cattle, making cool-looking and sometimes aesthetically pleasing crop circles, and just generally being obnoxious and creepy.

There are thousands of reports of UFOs being spotted every year. 2019 had 5,971 reports alone. That is reported sightings—think of how many are either not reported or are not seen. If even a small amount of these sightings are aliens, just what are they doing every year that they would need to come back to earth so often? Taking soil and feces samples? Maybe they're filming us, and this is just one big macroscopic Truman Show, and they're beaming the footage back to their home planet for other aliens to laugh at.

The whole thing is utterly ridiculous.

In conclusion, aliens might exist, but it's pretty clear that the UFO question is not related to aliens, and the main purpose of this article is to set up my historical and current reviews of the UFO question.

NOTES

[1]: For more specificity about different forms of binary star arrangements, this blog post is interesting.

[2]: The Fermi Paradox stems from a question by Enrico Fermi, when he asks, "Where are the aliens?" The Fermi Paradox is a quick shortcut used by those who believe aliens don't exist. But as Fermi conceived the question, the answer may have been more so about interstellar travel being achievable than whether or not aliens can be found in our galaxy or the universe—we hadn't even launched a satellite into space when Fermi had his conversation, and we really haven't made an incredible amount of progress when it comes to interstellar travel. Hart and Tipler's views on the subject aren't particularly persuasive to me and probably are more narrow-minded than what I believe Fermi had ever meant.

For a further look at the subject, here is a publication by Robert H. Gray on the Fermi Paradox. Regardless of where you stand on the Fermi Paradox, it appears to be more so an invention of Michael Hart in the 1970s, using Fermi's question as a framing device, with additions by Frank Tipler in the 1980s.

Does Jean-Claude Juncker Dream of Electric Aliens?

Jean-Claude Juncker 

As part of the articles I'm writing on UFOs and aliens, I've been researching prominent figures in military and politics who appear to be espousing the idea that aliens are among us and we are in contact with them. I felt this segment was unnecessary to include in the main article, so I'm publishing it as a standalone. 

Jean-Claude Juncker was the president of the European Commission—the executive branch of the European Union—from 2014-2019.

In a June 28, 2016 speech Juncker delivered to the plenary session of the European Parliament on the result of the Brexit referendum in the UK, there was a segment where he appeared to be speaking of being in contact with rulers of alien planets.

Transcript: You should know that those who observe us from afar are concerned. I have met and listened to several leaders of other planets. They are very worried because they ask questions about the path the European Union will pursue. We should therefore reassure the Europeans and those who observe us from far away.

Juncker is old, but he was only 61 in 2016 and seemed reasonably competent—certainly more so than Joe Biden, Diane Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, or some other high-profile American politicians, all of whom come across as senile at best and dementia patients at worst. Juncker does have a reputation as an alcoholic, which could contribute to some odd behavior. Otherwise, is it possible he misspoke or had something of a senior moment? 

There aren't really any big publications that commented on the incident. The most recognizable would probably be the Irish Mirror, which is considered a tabloid—a word carrying quite a stigma, but it doesn't mean the reportage can't be true. New York Post and the Daily Mirror have actually published a lot of very accurate stories.

There aren't even a bunch of "debunkers" saying it's fake. There's simply very little information on the event beyond the video.

If the translation is accurate, the EU website editors took the route of mistranslating the passage to obscure what Juncker was saying.

Make no mistake, those who are watching us from afar are concerned. I have met and listened to several leaders. They are very worried because they are wondering about the course the European Union will take. So we must reassure Europeans and those who are watching us from further away.

What left me immediately suspicious of the "alien" speech is the original source of the video's translation appeared to be Mars Moon Space TV/SpaceLinkTv, according to secureteam10, who also uploaded the video—both uploads are from July of 2016. I'm not very familiar with the former, but the latter is a YouTuber, known for rather sensationalistic coverage of UFOs, and he has faked content before.

Of course, that doesn't mean the "less authoritative" source is the wrong one.

The earliest source with a translation for the incident that I could find was from a small channel by the name of Sabeuze on June 29, 2016, just a day after Juncker gave the speech. The translation (I'm not familiar enough with Youtube's closed captions to know whether or not the uploader was responsible for the translation or if it was Youtube's automated captions) is different from Mars Moon Space TV's, but the meaning of the words are exactly the same.

Alleged French speakers on Youtube videos and others sources almost universally claim that the French spoken by Juncker accurately translates into his speech referencing aliens. Unfortunately, I don't speak French.

A French user of The Daily Stormer supplied a French transcript of the passage in question from Juncker's speech next to his own English translation:

Here’s what he said:

Il faut savoir que ceux qui nous observent de loin, sont inquiets. J’ai vue et entendue et écouté plusieurs des dirigeants d’autres planètes. Ils sont très inquiets parce qu’ils s’interrogent sur la voie que l’union européenne vas poursuivre. Donc il faut rassurer et les européens et ceux qui nous observent de plus loin.

This is the direct translation:

You should know that those who observe us from afar, are worried. I have seen and heard and listened to several leaders of other planets. They are very worried because they’re wondering which way the European Union is going. So we have to reassure both the Europeans and those who observe us from further away.

I listened carefully to Juncker's actual words, and the French transcript is accurate. When machine translated in Google Translate, my results were identical in meaning:

You should know that those who observe us from afar are worried. I have seen and heard and listened to many of the rulers of other planets. They are very worried because they are wondering what path the European Union will pursue. So we have to reassure both Europeans and those who are watching us from further afield.

While I would love to be able to confirm the accuracy myself with my own French or consult a French speaker I trust, I think it's safe to say, based on a majority of French speakers saying it is accurate, as well as multiple translations from various sources, that Juncker did mention speaking with several leaders from other planets. Plus, the media either kept mum or accepted that Juncker said this without the slightest kerfuffle—the only minor point of dispute is the EU website's translation, which is inaccurate. 

Then the question remains as to whether Juncker meant what he said, misspoke, or meant what he said and misspoke.

What he said seemed far too dry and humorless to be a joke, and he was speaking in an atmosphere of deadly seriousness.

If Juncker had made the alien comment in recent years, I would think he's probably being genuine, but he said that in 2016. Senator Marco Rubio somewhat jokingly entertained the possibility of aliens being smarter than us if they had the wherewithal to get here while we can't get to wherever they live (to be clear, I don't believe Rubio necessarily thinks aliens are responsible for the UFO incidents). Haim Eshed, a retired Israeli military general claimed last year that Tel Aviv and Washington had made contact with a "Galactic Federation" of extraterrestrials. Both of those comments came well after Juncker's comments, so he's not "in the moment," like these other two figures. Juncker was also not being interviewed about aliens and the passage concerning aliens was quite short and seems somewhat off the cuff or ineptly improvised.

The jokey nature of Rubio about aliens—and other figures taking the issue of UFOs seriously—compared to Eshed indicates that UFOs are getting recognition by world governments, especially the U.S., but leading figures are mostly hesitant to talk about aliens definitely being the source of the UFOs just yet. Eshed is retired and 87 years old, so there really aren't any repercussions for him.

Taking a soft approach to aliens being the source of UFOs or hinting at the possibility has become more common, even with high-profile figures, however, including former President Barack Obama and former CIA Chief John Brennan. Though none that I've seen have taken on the upfront hardcore approach of Eshed. 

But UFOs are indeed being mainstreamed. The U.S. government's usual stance was to avoid acknowledging much of what was going on to the public, other than various reports on the Roswell incident. That's now changing with the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) having been founded in 2020 to investigate UFOs. This time with some degree of transparency, unlike previous projects with similar goals. 

Juncker's statement is actually somewhat reminiscent of Eshed's, however. Since the speech was about the UK attempting to leave the EU, there's this idea of not only world leaders but also alien leaders being dismayed by what is happening. One should probably be asking why the hell aliens would care if the UK leaves the EU. That's a good question... 

There is speculation that the government could hoax the existence of aliens, so these "superior beings" can have a moderating influence on the public. An example would be Project Blue Beam—in Serge Monast's Project Blue Beam (NASA), he proposed that NASA would collude with the rest of the U.S. government and the United Nations to use holographic projections to start a new age religion to usher in the Antichrist and a New World Order (NWO). Monast went beyond just proposing this might be done and claimed he had proof of a conspiracy of this nature, but he never presented any proof, so he wasn't credible, but the idea of hoaxing an event like this for an NWO does seem plausible.

It needn't be the Antichrist or something that is a true inversion of Christ, but aliens could easily be used to supplant Christ or the Antichrist (maybe there's not really a difference...).

On June 3, 2021, former President Barack Obama made several statements about aliens:

Speaking with Ezra Klein on The Ezra Klein Show, the 44th president was confronted with a potential scenario in which humans had verified that alien life was probing the earth, but as of yet had no way of making contact with the mysterious beings.

Mr Obama replied that his overall political viewpoints would likely not differ, while predicting that many people around the world would see their own philosophies challenged and a whole host of new discussions would arise.

“It’s interesting. It wouldn’t change my politics at all. Because my entire politics is premised on the fact that we are these tiny organisms on this little speck floating in the middle of space,” said Mr Obama.

“But no doubt there would be immediate arguments about like, well, we need to spend a lot more money on weapons systems to defend ourselves. New religions would pop up,” the former president continued. “And who knows what kind of arguments we get into. We’re good at manufacturing arguments for each other.”

Obama is suggesting the threat presented by UFOs—perhaps with or without aliens and alien technology—could lead to the ramping up of the military-industrial complex. No surprise there, but the notion of new religions forming is the far more insidious one. What does Obama mean? Openly, he's probably suggesting random people will form cults or religious groups centered around aliens, yet these could just as easily be a government-backed. 

The government already funds terrorist outfits in the Middle East through proxies, and the CIA backed the Falun Gong and Dalai Lama.  These people will back virtually anything if it conforms to their interests.

Atheism and science already take on a religious quality at times.

 

Science is so often dictated by the elite donor class and politics and has been perverted from once noble intentions into a sort of secular religion known as Scientism—it's as dogmatic as any religion, only bereft of anything good, true, or beautiful. 

Scientism is woke, ultra-liberal, atheist, anti-traditional, responsible for propping up bad science on a regular basis, and suppressing science that goes against the orthodoxy of the elite.  

With the aid of the media, Scientism has become quite strong, and, perhaps, one could say Anthony Fauci was a sort of "Technopriest" before his emails were leaked to the public. Though I imagine he will weather the storm, either way.

Even many people who aren't religious feel like there is something lacking in our society, though "trusting the science" might provide them with some superficial meaning. For example, the ridiculous mask-wearing and other rituals that began with the so-called Covid-19 pandemic. Even with close to half the country vaccinated and mask mandates variably being lifted, there are vaccinated liberals who STILL opt to wear their mask to virtue signal and show they're not knuckle-dragging conservatives. 

The Covid-19 vaccines are being compared to the mark of the beast, and... it makes a lot of sense. For those wanting to mock such a reference because it comes from an ancient text that can't be verified, it really doesn't matter if the bible is correct or has predictive power—life often imitates art. While I doubt many of these influencers are true satanists in the Aquino or LaVey mold, satanic imagery and references have become pervasive in pop culture. Christianity became demeaned and watered down in the U.S., and the satanic posturing that arose was meant as an affront to any shred of tradition remaining. 

Wokeness and scientism reign supreme, and satanism will be employed to mock anyone so bold as to still be Christian. The old religion is out, and the new one is in. The new religion is materialistic—there is nothing spiritual about it, so why not worship super-intelligent aliens who will unite us into an NWO? 

Of course, that's all hypothetical. I think it's entirely possible that the ruling elites will find aliens are too hokey, and they will stick to using alleged or actual UFOs to create false flags and blame the attacks on Russia or China, but utilizing aliens remains a distinct possibility. 

Back to Juncker. It appears he did talk about aliens in his speech, but did he misspeak? 

A Youtube commenter said, "So he mixed up the words. Big deal. Try speaking four languages without making a mistake, especially bearing so much responsibility. Most people would freeze being exposed to speaking at a crowd." 

Yeah, fair enough. 

I personally think he just misspoke and the alcohol isn't doing him any favors. His reference is also not well-timed and was covered up by the EU, so it wasn't meant for public consumption; this is not to say that they altered the text because the information was accurate and not meant to be leaked—the most likely reality is the EU was simply embarrassed by the gaffe. In conclusion, It's an interesting segment from a high-profile bureaucrat, but, unfortunately, I don't think there's any real substance here.

To conclude, I will reiterate what should be seen as the primary potentialities resulting from the UFO/alien question:

• UFOs will be used as false flags to blame China, Russia or whoever else.
• UFOs and/or the suggestion of alien technology will be used to further the aims of the military-indestrial complex.
• An alien hoax will be implemented as part of a cult/religion and the establishment of an NWO for the management of the herd.

All or none of these points may result from the UFO/alien question. There is a very strong possibility that the second point will be accurate. The first also seems likely, and it would coincide well with foreign policy ambitions. The third would be the most complicated to pull off, so if it happens, it will probably be many years or decades from now.