# Real alien spacecraft observed- what would happen?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [December 17, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480 "2011-12-17T00:27:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ctaylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctaylor)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/1 "2011-12-17T00:27:02Z")
Something I’ve always wondered about and I’d love to hear the opinions of the brilliant members of this board: what if a piece of obviously alien technology was observed by so many people that there was no doubt it was not of human make? And, instead of a million-year old monolith on the moon or something, what if it was a city-sized spaceship that orbited the earth for a few days or hovered over Sao Paolo or Delhi for a day and then left? No aliens or contact or Jeff Goldblum, just a sudden arrival and departure.
Say there was plenty of time for video and telescopic observations to be recorded, images broadcast all over the world, measurements taken, etc. What would happen? A world-wide media circus that would be studied by scientists for centuries but mostly forgotten by the public? Would world economies and governments collapse with the fear of impending invasion? Riots and religious fervor? Something else?
Apologies if this is inappropriate for GQ- I think informed speculation could get close to a factual answer of some possible scenarios.
---
### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/2 "2011-12-17T01:24:55Z")
I’ve moved this speculative OP to Great Debates. You can still get factual answers there.
**samclem** , Moderator
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/3 "2011-12-17T02:28:34Z")
For the most part people would continue to live their lives as normal. I bet NASA would get a shot in the arm budget wise. I think people wold take a keen interest in space exploration on a scale greater than the space race during the cold war.
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### Author:  [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/4 "2011-12-17T02:56:37Z")
The budgets of NASA and the Pentagon would be switched.
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### Author:  [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/5 "2011-12-17T03:34:49Z")
Factual answer: I have personally made numerous UFO sightings, and I have
even been abducted too, but I can’t seem to get anyone interested in what
I have to tell, even when I tell them about how the last abductors were
females who looked better than any porn star you ever imagined!
I have talked to the local media and local law enforcement, and the science
departments at all three of the institutes of higher learning in the city where
I live. Then I went national to the networks, the FBI and the Smithsonian. If you
think there would be somebody who didn’t treat me like I was crazy just on
the basis of the laws of chance you would be wrong. _All_ of them treat me like
I am crazy. I am beginning to think there’s a kind of bias against honest folk such
as me, and scientists want to hog the glory and be the first ones to find UFOs and
aliens and stuff on Mars or the other new planets that keep popping up all over the place.
That’s really dumb because everyone knows Einstein worked in the Post Office
all his life, and Darwin ran a kennel club for scent hounds, I think, so you don’t
really need to be a real scientist to do scientific stuff, or at least see it happening.
So any way, I hope OP has more luck than I have had when the next scenarios
make an appearance, as they surely will, for no, we are _not_ alone!
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/6 "2011-12-17T03:48:03Z")
Oh boy, if I take your words seriously… ok I don’t.
But it is not just what Carl Sagan said:
> **[Carl Sagan on Alien Abduction](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/sagan-alien-abduction/)**
>
> In this interview, the renowned astronomer speculates on why belief in alien abduction persists.
> [@](#):
>
> _Could you please comment on the part of the quality of the evidence that is put forward by these so-called “abduction proponents.”_
>
> Well, it’s almost entirely anecdote. Someone says something happened to them, and people can say anything. The fact that someone says something doesn’t mean it’s true. Doesn’t mean they’re lying, but it doesn’t mean it’s true.
>
> To be taken seriously, you need physical evidence that can be examined at leisure by skeptical scientists: a scraping of the whole ship, and the discovery that it contains isotopic ratios that aren’t present on Earth, chemical elements from the so-called island of stability, very heavy elements that don’t exist on Earth. Or material of absolutely bizarre properties of many sorts—electrical conductivity or ductility. There are many things like that that would instantly give serious credence to an account.
>
> But there’s no scrapings, no interior photographs, no filched page from the captain’s log book. All there are are stories. There are instances of disturbed soil, but I can disturb soil with a shovel. There are instances of people claiming to flash lights at UFOs and the UFOs flash back. But, pilots of airplanes can also flash back, especially if they think it would be a good joke to play on the UFO enthusiast. So, that does not constitute good evidence.
> [@](#):
>
> _According to Hopkins and others, the main evidence for these stories—in the absence of other evidence—is the similarity of details. In your opinion, what other explanations might account for the similarity and the details of the stories or hallucinations of these abductees?_
>
> The culture contaminates. Movies, television programs, books, haunting pages of aliens, and television interviews with passionate abductees—all communicate to the widest possible community the alien abduction paradigm. So, it’s not as if each abductee has been hermetically sealed from the outside world and has no input about what others are saying. It’s all cross contaminated, and it has been for decades. I think that’s the clearest evidence for it not being good evidence—that many people tell the same story.
> \*
> If you could speak directly to the multitudes of people who believe they’re going to bed and perhaps being abducted by aliens, what is it you would like to say to them?\*
>
> If I were speaking to a group of abductees, I think the first thing I would do would be to tell them that I’m sure to many of them the pain that is expressed is genuine, that they’re not just making this up. And it’s very important to be compassionate. At the same time, I would stress that hallucinations are a human common place, and not a sign that you are crazy. And that absolutely clear hallucinations have occured to normal people, and it has a compelling feeling of reality, but it’s generated in the head.
It is that the issue at hand is not about abductions. But what to do with a total and public dismissal from beings from other planets.
“Ignore me!” - Grand Galactic Inquisitor. 🙂
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### Author:  [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/7 "2011-12-17T04:07:35Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> Oh boy, if I take your words seriously… ok I don’t.
>
> But it is not just what Carl Sagan said:
>
> [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/sagan-alien-abduction.html](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/sagan-alien-abduction.html)
>
> It is that the issue at hand is not about abductions. But what to do with a total and public dismissal from beings from other planets.
>
> “Ignore me!” - Grand Galactic Inquisitor. 🙂
Well now you and that Sagan guy can correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t an abduction
a sort of observation, unless those ETIs suprise you and blindfold you, or something like that?
Anyway it’s happened to me so many times I’m thinking it’s bound to happen again,
at least the sighting part, even if I don’t go the extreme of being abducted.
Therefore I have taken to carrying my i-Berry with me at all times so as to be able
to text and audio and video to the rest of the word with immediacy. You and Sagan
can laugh all you want now, but it’s me who will be laughing all the way to the bank
with tons and tons of royalties.
---
### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/8 "2011-12-17T04:18:52Z")
> [@colonial](#):
>
> Well now you and that Sagan guy can correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t an abduction
> a sort of observation, unless those ETIs suprise you and blindfold you, or something like that?
>
> Anyway it’s happened to me so many times I’m thinking it’s bound to happen again,
> at least the sighting part, even if I don’t go the extreme of being abducted.
>
> Therefore I have taken to carrying my i-Berry with me at all times so as to be able
> to text and audio and video to the rest of the word with immediacy. You and Sagan
> can laugh all you want now, but it’s me who will be laughing all the way to the bank
> with tons and tons of royalties.
Suuuuure you will. I’m still waiting for ten years for word from a Moon Hoaxer that claimed that the alien crafts hidden on the NASA moon images would be revealed by now and taught as fact in the classrooms of America, also by now.
Getting back on track, I do think that just with the few days the city size craft would be observed, there would be enough to get some evidence of their technology, like what are the most likely power sources and clues of their technology. IIUC just by spectrographic analysis of the surfaces or whatever they vented or disturbed on their approach and their departure from our neck of the woods.
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### Author:  [@colonial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colonial)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/9 "2011-12-17T04:29:58Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> Suuuuure you will. I’m still waiting for ten years from a Moon Hoaxer that claimed that the alien crafts hidden on the NASA moon images would be revealed by now and taught as fact in the classrooms of America, also by now.
I have my doubts about that NASA moon stuff too, but it has nothing to do
with UFOs, so let’s not derail the tread, OK?
> [@GIGObuster](#):
>
> Getting back on track, I do think that just with the few days the city size craft would be observed, there would be enough to get some evidence of their technology, like what are the most likely power sources and clues of their technology. IIUC just by spectrographic analysis of the surfaces or whatever they vented or disturbed on their approach and their departure from our neck of the woods.
All this would have been taken care of already if I had just had my i-Berry
with me just one of those times I experienced. It now dawns on me that
I might have to share royalites if anyone else gets any pictures which would
piss me off since I assuredly had the most recent sighting and deserve it all,
but what can you do?
---
### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/10 "2011-12-17T04:39:35Z")
You should also carry a mouth-organ. For protection, of course.
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/11 "2011-12-17T05:01:41Z")
> [@colonial](#):
>
> I have my doubts about that NASA moon stuff too, but it has nothing to do
> with UFOs, so let’s not derail the tread, OK?
Derail the thread? Now who started this derailment I wonder."? 🙂
And “alien crafts” are UFOs as per your definition, so deal with the reality that others have proposed tests and timelines to reveal evidence that have spectacularly failed to pan out regarding UFOs.
> [@colonial](#):
>
> All this would have been taken care of already if I had just had my i-Berry
> with me just one of those times I experienced. It now dawns on me that
> I might have to share royalites if anyone else gets any pictures which would
> piss me off since I assuredly had the most recent sighting and deserve it all,
> but what can you do?
Funny thing you mention digital photography, I have plenty of experience on it and to begin with, the previous discussion was relevant to the reliability of digital still images, the conclusion was that there is very little to rely on as anyone with experience with Photoshop could tell you.
What is needed, and the OP hypothetical implies, **is different views from the craft from all over the world** and besides, all people can not miss that huge craft in the sky what the OP is talking about.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/12 "2011-12-17T19:24:59Z")
I thought post #5 was certainly Poe’s Law in action, but then I read posts #7 & #9, and now I’m not so sure…
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 17, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/13 "2011-12-17T21:31:31Z")
[insert your own anal-probe joke here]
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### Author:  [@ctaylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctaylor)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/14 "2011-12-19T20:01:33Z")
Thanks everybody for taking time to give your input, but I wasn’t talking about abductions and anal probes at all.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2011, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/15 "2011-12-19T20:24:29Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> I thought post #5 was certainly Poe’s Law in action, but then I read posts #7 & #9, and now I’m not so sure…
Please tell me someone picked up on my TZ reference. Crickets?
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### Author:  [@Comicenbe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Comicenbe)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2011, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/16 "2011-12-20T00:20:20Z")
> [@Mosier](#):
>
> The budgets of NASA and the Pentagon would be switched.
Heh, that’d be pretty awesome in my opinion.
---
### Author:  [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/17 "2011-12-20T00:52:05Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> [insert your own anal-probe joke here]
Huh huh. He said insert and anal probe.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/18 "2011-12-20T01:37:26Z")
> [@ctaylor](#):
>
> Something I’ve always wondered about and I’d love to hear the opinions of the brilliant members of this board: what if a piece of obviously alien technology was observed by so many people that there was no doubt it was not of human make? And, instead of a million-year old monolith on the moon or something, what if it was a city-sized spaceship that orbited the earth for a few days or hovered over Sao Paolo or Delhi for a day and then left? No aliens or contact or Jeff Goldblum, just a sudden arrival and departure.
>
> Say there was plenty of time for video and telescopic observations to be recorded, images broadcast all over the world, measurements taken, etc. What would happen? A world-wide media circus that would be studied by scientists for centuries but mostly forgotten by the public? Would world economies and governments collapse with the fear of impending invasion? Riots and religious fervor? Something else?
Certainly several religious cults would emerge, some claiming to be in communication with the ETs. Other sects would identify the ETs with demons.
---
### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/19 "2011-12-20T04:18:39Z")
> [@ctaylor](#):
>
> Something I’ve always wondered about and I’d love to hear the opinions of the brilliant members of this board: what if a piece of obviously alien technology was observed by so many people that there was no doubt it was not of human make? And, instead of a million-year old monolith on the moon or something, what if it was a city-sized spaceship that orbited the earth for a few days or hovered over Sao Paolo or Delhi for a day and then left? No aliens or contact or Jeff Goldblum, just a sudden arrival and departure.
We’d probably be dumb enough to shoot at it.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2011, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-alien-spacecraft-observed-what-would-happen/606480/20 "2011-12-20T08:31:46Z")
> [@colonial](#):
>
> Factual answer: I have personally made numerous UFO sightings, and I have
> even been abducted too, but I can’t seem to get anyone interested in what
> I have to tell…
Because in spite of having an extraordinary claim, you don’t seem to have any evidence, even though for the sort of claims you’re making, you _really should_ have evidence.
You shouldn’t be at all surprised nobody takes you seriously (and I mean that in the most impassionate sense possible)
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