# Obama says aliens are real---Huh? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 15, 2026, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684 "2026-02-15T16:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/41 "2026-02-16T02:00:24Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > Fox news is reporting Obama’s open border policies extended to extraterrestrial aliens. Of course they are. 🙄 ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/42 "2026-02-16T02:02:35Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Nothing at all wrong with what Obama said. He’s thinking of the Drake Equation - the estimate of intelligent technological life in the Universe, for which he has no doubt plugged in his own numbers and done the math Again, there are many variables in the Drake equation that are completely unknown. Anyone can plug in their own numbers and come up with their own conclusions… that doesn’t make them right. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/43 "2026-02-16T02:05:44Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > There are plenty of scientist and astrophysicists who think we might be alone. Regardless, they, Obama or you don’t know what the chance of life arising spontaneously are. Until we do, the vastness of the universe is meaningless About 33% think that we are alone in the universe, so Obama and myself are with the majority of experts in the field. You may choose to disagree, but that doesnt make you right and us wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/44 "2026-02-16T02:42:17Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > About 33% think that we are alone in the universe, so Obama and myself are with the majority of experts in the field. You may choose to disagree, but that doesnt make you right and us wrong. I’m not saying I’m right. I was addressing this: > [@Babale](#): > > Obama’s comment wasn’t stupid; it’s entirely correct and logical. We have zero proof of other life in the universe, therefore Obama was not “entirely correct”. You may be “in the majority”, but humans have a long and sorted history of being in the majority, and being wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/45 "2026-02-16T02:49:34Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > “Real in the fictional sense” is an amazing turn of phrase. Sounds like something Jordan Peterson would say ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/46 "2026-02-16T06:00:32Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > They’re real, and they’re spectacular Thank you, thank you, thank you for the best laugh I’ve had in a long, long time! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/47 "2026-02-16T12:32:06Z")
Folks … If anyone wants to get into a Drake equation / is there life out there debate, this other thread is a great one to read and add to. It got started almost 4 years ago and has had several good runs of thoughtful posts since, including one batch just a couple months ago. > [@Have we reached the point when it is kooky to not believe in massive amounts of intelligent life having evolved throughout the universe?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-we-reached-the-point-when-it-is-kooky-to-not-believe-in-massive-amounts-of-intelligent-life-having-evolved-throughout-the-universe/969972): > > Pre-Webb, We estimated there were hundreds of billions of visible galaxies out there, with each galaxy being made of hundreds of billions of stars and possibly trillions of wet rocks like our little planet earth here. To put such mind-boggling numbers into context: If we named planets after each of the 7 billion living humans today, you and me would each get several trillion solar systems bearing our name. Thousands of galaxies per person. exploding_head Since those numbers are still incompre… ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/48 "2026-02-16T13:34:55Z")
This is made more confusing because people are conflating “aliens” with “extraterrestrials”. An extraterrestrial only becomes an alien by being someplace outside of their home. Our broad understanding of the universe is that it is infinite, including an infinity of planets, and the probability of life existing on a given planet is greater than zero (because we exist), and so there is an infinity of life out there. I think there has to be. Though, this is counting on us knowing the relevant things. But when my grandfather was little, electrons were unknown, so it’s hard to claim no future surprises will change this. As to extraterrestrials having come to Earth, well, that’s quite another thing. Obama generally speaks accurately and carefully. Not sure what to make of this apparent conflation. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/49 "2026-02-16T14:29:54Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Obama generally speaks accurately and carefully. Not sure what to make of this apparent conflation. If any one of 8 billion other people currently on Earth answered the question “Do aliens exist?” With “Sure, but they aren’t here.” the meaning would be perfectly obvious. People are trying to read more into that clear answer because they assume as the former president he had secret information. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/50 "2026-02-16T14:56:36Z")
Even when he explicitly states, in the same quote, that he doesn’t have any secret information on the topic. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/51 "2026-02-16T15:10:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Even when he explicitly states, in the same quote, that he doesn’t have any secret information on the topic. Strictly speaking, he doesn’t actually say that: he merely says that he hasn’t seen them, and that they aren’t at Area 51. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/52 "2026-02-16T17:58:09Z")
The existence of aliens is a statistical certainty the same way extrasolar planets were before any were actually detected. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/53 "2026-02-16T18:01:11Z")
And if opinions were facts… ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/54 "2026-02-16T18:50:57Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > The existence of aliens is a statistical certainty the same way extrasolar planets were before any were actually detected. I realize that there is a divide among people on this issue, but I’m not sure this logic holds. We know there was a Big Bang and that as the universe cooled, energy converted into matter (protons, neutrons, electrons). We know that gravity clumped matter together. These are natural processes that we can easily observe in action. But so far we have only one example of life spontaneously jumping into existence from inorganic matter. There may well be lots of life out there, I certainly hope so, but I don’t think we can say we can predict alien life in the same way we predicted exo-planets. Other than ourselves, there is no precedence for it. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/55 "2026-02-16T18:52:50Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > This is made more confusing because people are conflating “aliens” with “extraterrestrials”. An extraterrestrial only becomes an alien by being someplace outside of their home. I think an extraterrestrial is alien _to us_ even if it stays home. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/56 "2026-02-16T18:54:39Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > But so far we have only one example of life spontaneously jumping into existence from inorganic matter. But we know that on a geologic time scale it happened basically as soon as conditions were appropriate here on Earth, strongly implying that it isn’t all that unlikely. And I wouldn’t say that there is _no_ evidence of alien life. There are now a number of things we’ve found on Mars that we are _pretty sure_ were life, we just haven’t eliminated every other possibility to a sufficient extent that we can completely confidently say so. No _conclusive_ evidence is not the same as no evidence at all. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/57 "2026-02-16T19:05:27Z")
800 million years may seem like a short time compared to the age of the earth but it’s still a long time. And if it was that easy you would have thought all of the people trying to create it would have done so by now. Personally, I’m on the fence about it. It just _seems_ like there should be life out there. But that doesn’t make it so. Evidence strongly suggests that conditions on early Mars, roughly 4 billion years ago, were once right for life, featuring a thicker atmosphere, warmer temperatures, and flowing liquid water. Again, if abiogenesis was was easy, I would expect stronger evidence of it (fossils) on Mars. I hope your examples prove to be true, but as of now there is no real evidence of extra-terrestrial life anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/58 "2026-02-16T19:07:54Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Yes, the interviewer was stupid, too…How can you not ask a follow up question after that? Respect the lightning round! ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/59 "2026-02-16T19:11:29Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > 800 million years may seem like a short time compared to the age of the earth but it’s still a long time. Most of the time between the formation of the Earth and the first evidence of life is taken up by periods when the surface of the Earth was covered in molten rock or was constantly being bombarded by the sorts of asteroids that wiped out the dinosaurs. I wouldn’t start counting until the surface is actually remotely habitable. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684/60 "2026-02-16T19:14:45Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > Again, if abiogenesis was was easy, I would expect stronger evidence of it (fossils) on Mars. We have only fairly closely examined around 0.0000001% of the surface of Mars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-says-aliens-are-real-huh/1027684.md?page=4)