I wrote:
> I think there is no likelihood aliens would need help from us, and no > likelihood they crashed or their equipment failed. A technology capable of > crossing interstellar space with devices as large as this would be > "indistinguishable from magic" (Clarke) and it would be hundreds or > thousands of years ahead of anything we could understand -- or make. It > would be so reliable there is no chance it would fail catastrophically. > Having said that, let me add that I have no earthly idea what might be causing these UFO reports. I have no hypothesis. I think I can rule out some hypotheses. It seems unlikely that a civilization can send macroscopic, controlled vehicles across interstellar space, yet these vehicles might crash on earth. I suppose I cannot rule it out, but it is like suggesting that a modern desktop computer which performs 3 billion operations per second might slow down and take 10 minutes to add 2 + 2 = 4. Or that a pickax might shatter when you use it to make a hole in a styrofoam block. Technology does not fail that drastically. Things are more reliable than that. I am not interested in UFOs because as far as I know, there is not enough data to form a reasonable hypothesis. We'll just have to wait until we know more, which may be never. I am not interested in questions with no near-term potential answers. I don't care about the so-called Big Questions such as "how did the universe begin?" Honestly, I am not much interested in any question that is not likely to lead to making money soon, or making life better, or fixing problems such as pollution, global warming, or cheap access to outer space, or better food. I admit I am a philistine!
