Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World
THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD trying to find missions that justify its existence - particularly a good reason for humans in space. If the Earth were being visited daily by hostile aliens, wouldn't NASA leap on this opportunity to augment its funding? And if an alien invasion were in progress, why would the Air Force, traditionally led by pilots, step back from manned spaceflight and launch all its payloads on unmanned boosters? Consider the former Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, in charge of 'Star Wars'. It's fallen on hard times now, particularly its objective of basing defences in space. Its name and perspective have been demoted. It's the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization these days. It no longer even reports directly to the Secretary of Defense. The inability of such technology to protect the United States against a massive attack by nuclear-armed missiles is manifest. But wouldn't we want at least to attempt deployment of defences in space if we were facing an alien invasion? The Department of Defense, like similar ministries in every nation, thrives on enemies, real or imagined. It is implausible in the extreme that the existence of such an adversary would be suppressed by the very organization that would most benefit from its presence. The entire post-Cold War posture of the military and civilian space programmes of the United States (and other nations) speaks powerfully against the idea that there are aliens among us - unless, of course, the news is also being kept from those who plan the national defence. Just as there are those who accept every UFO report at face value, there are also those who dismiss the idea of alien visitation out of hand and with great passion. It is, they say, unnecessary to examine the evidence, and 'unscientific' even to contemplate the issue. I once helped to organize a public debate at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science between proponent and opponent scientists of the proposition that some UFOs were spaceships; whereupon a distinguished physicist, whose judgement in many other matters I respected, threatened to set the Vice President of the United States on me if I persisted in this madness. (Nevertheless, the debate was held and published, the issues were a little better 90
Spoofing and Secrecy clarified, and I did not hear from Spiro T. Agnew.) A 1969 study by the National Academy of Sciences, while recognizing that there are reports 'not easily explained', concluded that 'the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings'. Think of how many other 'explanations' there might be: time travellers; demons from witchland; tourists from another dimension - like Mr Mxyztplk (or was it Mxyzptlk? I always forget) from the land of Zrfff in the Fifth Dimension in the old Superman comic books; the souls of the dead; or a 'noncartesian' phenomenon that doesn't obey the rules of science or even of logic. Each of these 'explanations' has in fact been seriously proffered. 'Least likely' is really saying something. This rhetorical excess is an index of how distasteful the whole subject has become to many scientists. It's telling that emotions can run so high on a matter about which we really know so little. This is especially true of the more recent flurry of alien abduction reports. After all, if true, either hypothesis - invasion by sexually manipulative extraterrestrials or an epidemic of hallucinations - teaches us something we certainly ought to know about. Maybe the reason for strong feelings is that both alternatives have such unpleasant implications. Aurora The number of reports and their consistency suggest that there may be some basis for these sightings other than hallucinogenic drugs. Mystery Aircraft report, Federation of American Scientists 20 August, 1992 Aurora is a high-altitude, extremely secret American reconnaissance aircraft, a successor to the U-2 and the SR-71 Blackbird. It either exists or it doesn't. By 1993, there 91
- Page 51 and 52: Science and Hope Examples of this s
- Page 53 and 54: Science and Hope • Despite plenti
- Page 55 and 56: 3 The Man in the Moon and the Face
- Page 57 and 58: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 59 and 60: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 61 and 62: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 63 and 64: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 65 and 66: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 67 and 68: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 69 and 70: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 71 and 72: The Man in the Moon and the Face on
- Page 73 and 74: 4 Aliens 'Truly, that which makes m
- Page 75 and 76: Aliens question of whether responde
- Page 77 and 78: Aliens 1690, 'is not entertaining a
- Page 79 and 80: Aliens suck diseases out of the hum
- Page 81 and 82: Aliens accompanied by flashing ligh
- Page 83 and 84: Aliens sleight of hand, switched ge
- Page 85 and 86: Aliens A hoax? Impossible, almost e
- Page 87 and 88: Aliens following meticulous diagram
- Page 89 and 90: 5 Spoofing and Secrecy Trust a witn
- Page 91 and 92: Spoofing and Secrecy erosion of con
- Page 93 and 94: Spoofing and Secrecy radio receiver
- Page 95 and 96: Spoofing and Secrecy aircraft to mi
- Page 97 and 98: Spoofing and Secrecy other communic
- Page 99 and 100: Spoofing and Secrecy doing their co
- Page 101: Spoofing and Secrecy Renaissance. A
- Page 105 and 106: 6 Hallucinations [A]s children trem
- Page 107 and 108: Hallucinations Theorem. So I write
- Page 109 and 110: Hallucinations with uniformed figur
- Page 111 and 112: Hallucinations hearing a voice, usu
- Page 113 and 114: Hallucinations outside, however, im
- Page 115 and 116: Hallucinations broken by a multi-co
- Page 117 and 118: Hallucinations maybe longer, you're
- Page 119 and 120: Hallucinations our planet, or abduc
- Page 121 and 122: The Demon-Haunted World God has no
- Page 123 and 124: The Demon-Haunted World and philoso
- Page 125 and 126: The Demon-Haunted World of God in v
- Page 127 and 128: The Demon-Haunted World In the witc
- Page 129 and 130: The Demon-Haunted World publish his
- Page 131 and 132: The Demon-Haunted World been father
- Page 133 and 134: The Demon-Haunted World It was thei
- Page 135 and 136: The Demon-Haunted World that UFO oc
- Page 137 and 138: The Demon-Haunted World encounter t
- Page 139 and 140: The Demon-Haunted World Long before
- Page 141 and 142: 8 On the Distinction between True a
- Page 143 and 144: On the Distinction between True and
- Page 145 and 146: On the Distinction between True and
- Page 147 and 148: On the Distinction between True and
- Page 149 and 150: On the Distinction between True and
- Page 151 and 152: On the Distinction between True and
Spoofing and Secrecy<br />
clarified, and I did not hear from Spiro T. Agnew.)<br />
A 1969 study by the National Academy of Sciences, while<br />
recognizing that there are reports 'not easily explained', concluded<br />
that 'the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis<br />
of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings'. Think of how<br />
many other 'explanations' there might be: time travellers; demons<br />
from witchland; tourists from another dimension - like Mr<br />
Mxyztplk (or was it Mxyzptlk? I always forget) from the land of<br />
Zrfff in the Fifth Dimension in the old Superman comic books; the<br />
souls of the dead; or a 'noncartesian' phenomenon that doesn't<br />
obey the rules of science or even of logic. Each of these 'explanations'<br />
has in fact been seriously proffered. 'Least likely' is really<br />
saying something. This rhetorical excess is an index of how<br />
distasteful the whole subject has become to many scientists.<br />
It's telling that emotions can run so high on a matter about<br />
which we really know so little. This is especially true of the more<br />
recent flurry of alien abduction reports. After all, if true, either<br />
hypothesis - invasion by sexually manipulative extraterrestrials or<br />
an epidemic of hallucinations - teaches us something we certainly<br />
ought to know about. Maybe the reason for strong feelings is that<br />
both alternatives have such unpleasant implications.<br />
Aurora<br />
The number of reports and their consistency suggest that<br />
there may be some basis for these sightings other than<br />
hallucinogenic drugs.<br />
Mystery Aircraft<br />
report, Federation of American Scientists<br />
20 August, 1992<br />
Aurora is a high-altitude, extremely secret American<br />
reconnaissance aircraft, a successor to the U-2 and the<br />
SR-71 Blackbird. It either exists or it doesn't. By 1993, there<br />
91