One problem I see with all of these stories is that the distances involved make alien visitations very unlikely. The closest star, and there is no guarantee that even the closest star contains planets that support not only life but also an advanced civilization, is about 4 light years away. The vastness and distances within just the Milky Way Galaxy, one of just 100 billion known galaxies, is almost unimaginable. The level of technology required to obtain velocities that are even a small percentage of the speed of light is significant and I doubt it is going to be encapsulated in a metallic flying disk. I don't think anyone has any idea how such technology will ultimately manifest itself (yes, there are lots of ideas on how to travel faster in space). If you could obtain 10% of the speed of light then the trip would take 40 years from the closest star. A civilization that has the technology to move across the extreme distances of space in a "reasonable" amount of time would be as far above us technologically as we are above a mouse. One problem we face is that science fiction has brainwashed us into thinking that faster than the speed of light travel is inevitable. Also, we have only been announcing our presence to the rest of the universe via electromagnetic energy for about 100 years so only civilizations within 100 light years would know of our existence by listening for transmissions (as we do via projects such as SETI). So, following Occam's Razor, which is more likely: a civilization(s) exists with extremely advanced technology (by our standards) and they choose not to openly reveal themselves to us or people over the years have been seeing weather balloons, atmospheric phenomenon, and experimental aircraft?
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Originally Posted by Lottoguy
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