Has the UFO/alien mythos changed since the 1970s?

An interesting feature of the Unidentifed Flying Object and alien meme is that it has changed over time. Long ago, when people reported strange flying craft they reported them as dirigible shaped; then the “flying saucer” idea gained prominence. The appearance of the supposed aliens has also evolved. Now a cartoon cliche’ “little green men” was one of the early descriptions, along with silver-suited beings. Then variations on the big-headed, large dark-eyed aliens of various forms (“greys”, “browns”, etc.) Along with their supposed purposes: tentative contact establishment, biological sampling, etc.

Now any number of reports were doubtless hoaxes that were based on the science-fiction tropes of the day, which in turn fed into popular perceptions, which in turn influenced further reports. My question is, has the UFO/alien “mythos” updated or modernized significantly since the 1970s? Are the reported craft or aliens different from what was reported in the past; or are the same old greys still flying around in their same old saucers, performing the same old experiments on abductees?

Well, as astronomers have built better telescopes and looked farther and farther out into space (especially farther out in our own solar system) and found no obvious aliens there, the aliens of the mythos had to start coming from farther and farther away.

Used to be, traveling to Mars was all the sci-fi rage (there were TV shows like “To Mars and Beyond”) and aliens visiting us came from Mars (or sometimes Venus). Now we have to reach our imaginations way beyond our own solar systems to find where those aliens come from.

ETA: On second reading, I note this goes back earlier than the 1970’s era that OP is asking about. Aliens from Mars were so 1950’s and earlier. Aliens from the Star Trek TOS era in the mid-60’s were found much further afield, but I don’t recall any particular episodes where they came to us. It was always Kirk and crew heading out to them. ETA-2: And they all spoke English too!

From what I remember of it, there was a lot of talk about spaceships and the Air Force’s Project Blue Book, and what the government was supposedly keeping from us. There was occasional talk of aliens with almond shaped eyes, but they weren’t called Grays and Browns and who knows what like they are now. Abduction stories were fewer. I don’t remember anal probes ever being mentioned and it certainly wasn’t a meme like it is now. I don’t recall any mention of reptilian aliens taking human form and controlling our government and that sort of thing.

At the time, there was a lot less trust in the government than there is now. Richard Nixon was Tricky Dick, protesting was the norm, hippies were everywhere, and Hare Krishnas were dancing in the streets and handing out flowers in airports. And everyone hated Yoko Ono. It was definitely a different world. People didn’t believe government spokespeople on things that you could see with your own eyes, so UFOs being a cover-up was just another government lie, like Watergate and heck, you protest against Tricky Dick and he’ll just send out the troops to kill you. Look at Kent State, man.

So yeah, people were more than willing to believe that the government was lying about UFOs.

Jimmy Carter believed in UFOs and claimed to have seen one himself in the late 60s. Some folks laughed at him for it, but others took it as yet another sign that he wasn’t part of the old corrupt politicians like Nixon. Carter promised that if he were elected president, he would open investigations into things like UFOs and would be much more forthcoming about any information found than his predecessors. After he was elected, he didn’t really follow through on it, though.

And after the Killer Rabbit, nobody cared much what Carter thought anymore anyway.

ETA: “Cigar shaped” spaceships were commonly sighted in the 70s.

I think back in the 70’s people actually thought there were strange craft flying around using yet unknown methods of propulsion.

But over time as science has looked more into this and debunked any flying saucer theory I think the whole UFO thing has turned into a kind of pseudo religion. Thats why when you go to a bookstore and look for books on UFO’s they are in the new age section. Plus its now looked as some big ripoff by people trying to sell you books and such.

Sure unidentified things are reported and even documented. But the last thing people are thinking now is little green men from Mars.

Penn and Teller did a good episode on this.

Whitley Strieber invented the Rectal Probe in 1987, so there’s that.

Don’t you understand?? Once he saw the true secret files, and what they contained, he KNEW that information could never be released. He understood then why it was being kept secret. There are some things the general population could never know. Carter not releasing the files is absolute PROOF that UFOs are real! The truth is in there!

On a serious note, it seems that now that everyone has phones that can take video, there should be a corresponding rise in UFO recordings. But there isn’t.

I find it interesting that the “UFO mythos” does change over time. In times long gone, demons and angels visited us. Crept into our rooms at night and had their way with us. Then, when demons fell out of fashion, it was ghosts. Different night prowler, same result. Then is the jet age, it was aliens with their rectal probes and “I had an alien baby!” What will the future hold? Who knows?

Settled

There are plenty of blurry camera phone videos of supposed UFOs. If anything, all the cell phone cameras allowed people to search for, claim, and identify things that simply weren’t there. Instead of being able to better debunk it to Joe blow, all the footage simply raised more doubt.

SDMB taught me about confirmation bias, and UFO sightings are a perfect example. People will see what they want to see, and no camera, from a million cell phones to the friggin Hubble Space Telescope will prove them otherwise.

Some UFO sightings could be Fata Morgana, like this example. It’s actually a reflection of a ship on water, and the eye mistakes the water level for the horizon.

The really scary thing is that I’ve heard people say pretty much exactly that before, only they were serious.

Wasn’t it the invention and development of RADAR that first gave rise to the UFO myth?

Early RADAR was very inexact and all kinds of strange things came up on the screen. Perfectly sensible people were reporting genuine (and literal) Unidentified Flying Objects. It was the sensational press that turned them into flying saucers.

There seems to be a lot of reports of lights in the sky these days as opposed to saucers or cigar shaped objects.

Crop Circles were around in the 70s, but didn’t get really popular until the 90s.

This really overstates Carter’s view on UFOs. Filed a report? Yes. Believed in UFOs? Not so much.

A lot of this is due to the widespread use of fire lanterns, which are cheap to buy and easy to fly; some of the other reports are caused by hobbyist drones or even illuminated kites. There are lots of light sources in the sky that aren’t aeroplanes these days - but they aren’t extra-terrestrial spacecraft either.

I think everyone agrees that UFO’s exist. Meaning we see or photograph things in the sky even an expert cannot figure out. It simply means its unidentified.

But what does that mean? Could it be a Russian aircraft? Yes, a possibility since the Russians do have aircraft. However its doubtful they would be flying over central Kansas.

Could we say its a spaceship being flown by aliens? No. Because its never been proven they exist. That’s why saying UFO’s MUST be from another planet makes it some sort of fringe pseudo-religious belief.

A person who pursues logic needs to focus on logical possibilities and forget any fringe stuff.

Cigar shaped flying objects were sighted in the 1890s. Charles Fort had a lot of entries on them, none on the saucer type. But the 1890s cigar shaped flying machines were associated with some close encounters of the third kind, where the pilot was an inventor from New England. So, no aliens involved, unless you’re from the South I suppose. :slight_smile:

I suspect the popularity of the saucer configuration came from the fact that the sighting in the Northwest that started the craze in the late 1940s was of saucers.

Wiki is actually quite good on the Carter UFO incident.

In the 19th century, W.C. Minor, the “madman” of The Professor and the Madman, believed that children were climbing through his walls to attack him at night. After the invention of the airplane, he started believing that they were coming down from the sky in airplanes to attack him.

A couple of good books that cover this subject are Passport to Magonia: From Folklore to Flying Saucers by Jacques Vallee and Angels and Aliens by Keith Thompson.
Martin Kottmeyer has written a lot about how popular culture influences UFO/alien reports.
http://debunker.com/texts/unpredis.html