Examples?
"does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"
"No, sir."
"It does not?"
"Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly."
There's many, many more.
Games within games. Insiders playing credible dupes.
I love the optimism in assuming that being a crackpot and having a career in intelligence are incompatible!
Consider this hypothetical: A person in intelligence knows something you would rather didn't get out, but you suspect there's a chance they will leak it. Maybe they have a personality that leads you to believe they can't in good conscience keep that secret, or maybe you're just callous and paranoid, doesn't really make a difference.
One thing you could do is convince them of something completely ridiculous that no one will take seriously. Even easier if there is a large existing community of nutters that already believe that (possibly you manufactured that too, just for such an occasion). Put on some little shows, make sure they see some documents they "weren't supposed to", and when they've bought into it enough have someone all but confirm it to them in person.
Then, if they're in a leaking mood, they'll discredit themselves for you.
Some real conspiracies are revealed, but they're mixed in with so much super psycho that everything gets discredited...
I can't remember where I read/heard this, but sure it is on the internet somewhere.
What if it was against his will? What I mean is what if he has served his purpose and the government did something to make him slip into borderline insanity?
Not saying that I even remotely believe this, then again. . . It's not like the US government hasn't carried out horrible, immoral, and unethical experiments before.
Seriously though, it' one of those fun Black Mirror-like plots that pop in my head occasionally. Since everyone is throwing out all kinds of what-ifs I thought I'd try to have some fun too.
a) An alien civilization has overcome the massive problems of interstellar travel and is visiting us right now.
or
b) The people making these claims are wrong.
While a) isn't impossible, b) seems so much more likely.
Also if they have the technology to cross interstellar space, surely they have the technology not to be detected by us?
You make a lot of assumptions how difficult it wouldv be to visit and even why they would be here.
based on your knowledge of known physics. We're still adding to the periodic table...
That doesn't violate known physics in any way.
Right, and for exactly that reason, it enjoys the advantage over competing theories.
If somebody is aware of groups actively working to synthesize above 119 please let me know.
Seriously people underestimate the ludicrous energies involved in near-c travel. Even with engines off at those speeds the interstellar dust undergoing nuclear fusion off your hull will give you away
That's a massive difference from 0.99c travel
Humans as we know them today will never visit other galaxies, but our AI descendants almost certainly will.
Right, they could have ridden dragon-unicorn hybrids through a magic portal made from the dust of black hole centers.
That's what you mean when you say "literally everything is on the table."
Or, start drawing lines for me if you disagree.
Counterpoint: biology is a machine in itself.
Our machines of metal and microchips are incredibly primitive compared to where they'll be in 100, 500, 1000, 10K+ years from now - and when a machine has the ability to to self-replicate, have autonomy, and to protect itself from microscopic threats, then it sure looks a lot like life-as-we-know it.
Even at non-relativistic speeds self replicating robots could have visited every star system in the galaxy within a few tens of millions of years. We haven't seen any evidence.
Everyone has the most advanced cameras in history in their phones and there's exactly zero indisputable pictures of UFOs, ghosts, fairies, chupacabras, Nessie, Bigfoots, Yetis, and so on.
If aliens can travel even a light year, they almost certainly also have the technology to not crash.
This is key in why I was much more optimistic of finding any of those paranormal items than I was 10 years ago. I hope I'm wrong.
One theory is that these bogeys have been here as long as we have and are basically automated tests, sort-of like the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey. It's ridiculous, but less ridiculous than a). The more I think about it, flying octopuses from Europa is less ridiculous than a).
The whistleblower clearly is implying that we are being spied on.
As if humanity's knowledge circa 2023 is the end-all of things!
After listing to people who research this area like Martin Rees, Sabine Hossenfelder, Matt O'Dowd of PBS Spacetime, it just seems unlikely to me that the logistics of such travel--especially in a small craft that would just carry several beings--seems like it is just too hard to do and will remain so difficult for many, many generations to come.
I personally don't have the education to state a theory with confidence, but I like the idea the physicists saw galaxies rotating in a way which seemed to break the rules of physics they knew and so they said, "our rules can't be wrong, there must be something there we can't see or measure or prove what it is." When it is possible (emphasis on possible) that maybe the laws of physics as related to motion and acceleration are different at scales that include multiple galaxies. Maybe they are rotating at the precise rate they are supposed to and there are undiscovered laws of physics at great scale. They are different rules at the quantum level and we haven't found quantum gravity yet. Is it possible the rules of gravity could be not as concrete at the largest levels of existence? Einstein said large masses bend space and time and we see that as gravity. Could the unexpected rotation of galaxies that is now explained as proving dark matter exists actually be caused by galaxy sized massed bending space and time at a different proportion. I dunno, but wouldn't it be fun if the explanation was so revolutionary and simple?
Disclaimer because this is the internet: I have no clue is this theory could be real, and it is mostly based on other theories by actual, real physicists--which I am not.
If those mechanics are known I'd love to hear them.
...
"It reads just like so many claims like we have heard in the past"
I mean.... come on people, try harder.
One simple explanation is that Grusch's story is mostly true.
eg: There is a secret project, they have been doing reverse engineering, and they did keep it from congress for a very long time.
This is all the stuff that Grusch can probably prove himself without second hand reporting.
https://thedebrief.org/fact-check-q-a-with-debrief-co-founde...
I'm warming up, and I'm not naive enough to claim what a civilization a million years now advanced than us with bigger and more efficient brains(or ai) could accomplish in large enough time scales.
This is definitely the just trustworthy source to date, perhaps, but still the evidence isn't enough to blindly just say, yes it's definitely aliens.
With all the absurdly crazy complexity that has arisen in our universe, and the tiny primate brain you were born with, and the mere 10k years of civilization in our multi-billion year old universe which may be one of a near infinitude stretching back for eternity, you've figured out with high likelihood what is and is not possible. Right.
If we survive for long enough as a species, either we'll meet races in this manner or we'll be the ones doing it.
For the record I still only assign a fairly low probability that this is what is happening, it's more likely that UAPs are craft from terrestrial origin.
It reads just like so many claims like we have heard in the past, but this time people think the guy is more reliable.
It is pretty funny that the one of the people often quoted who backs up Grusch's claims is Jonathan Grey. (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2241801/)
I'd love to think that alien contact is possible, but as I attempt to learn more and more about physics, travel approaching the speed of light, the mechanics that transformed us from a basic life form to a life form with a consciousness, it just seem incredibly unlikely sadly.