Guess I should have not said "report" and instead said "reliable intelligence" for my scenario. And, if you resided in the scenario and were not told by me the report was not accurate, you would not have known what was true or false. Due to the nature of the scenario it would be prudent to act as if it might be true until you can be certain it was or was not.

Consciousness
 

Good topic and conversation, thank you for the post.

We don’t have a working, scientific theory of human (or even animal) consciousness beyond I exist, therefore I am. It is under constant study though.

I’ve spent a good part of my life working with artificial intelligence so the concept of consciousness occasionally crosses my mind. (See how I did that?) Common sense is essential to AI and is developed in varieties. How an automated car interacts with a cat is different than a tank. Consciousness is something else entirely and, like humans, is sold like snake oil (albeit digital).

I agree with replies to this post saying that more science is welcome and with those for whom spiritually and faith is enough. We’ll know we’ve nailed the theory in either case when we not only understand consciousness in ourselves but recognize and relate to it in other people. AI seamlessly collaborates between digital entities (machines or other programs) using this common sense but that doesn’t happen as easily with conscious human beings largely because we haven’t developed much past “I exist”. It’s incredibly difficult and some even say impossible for a machine (the brain) to reliably study itself without bias that corrupts the output. Common sense is bias.

UFO’s absolutely exist but that doesn’t prove other intelligent species do. By definition, “UFO” is ambiguous to that which it labels. In science, most mathematical guesses presume that if species are capable of intergalactic travel, the odds are we would interact with at least one of them directly given the quantity of the universe. Kind of the opposite of thinking they must exist because the universe is so big.

One thing that seems certain from our existence is that a species capable of the enormous resources required for intergalactic travel are also masters of political science on their own planet. (Charles Krauthammer). That makes me think they’d be less like Predator and more like Captain Kirk.

Oh is it now? And you know this how??

[QUOTE=ThirdOfFive;2127965]Early science had it that there were five planets (six, if you counted the moon). We didn't know that Uranus and Neptune existed--until we did.

Early science had it that the Earth was the center of everthing (I mean, the VISUAL proof was right before your eyes). We didn't know that the Earth was simply one of the planets that rotated around the sun--until we did.

Until quite recently, cutting-edge "science" had it that disease was spread by various things: poisoned wells, or taking too many baths, or by smelling bad smells, etc. etc. We didn't know that microscopic critters that we couldn't see but rode around in various media such as the fur of rats, the guts of mosquitoes or the legs of houseflies and spread often horrific diseases--until we did.


YOU SAID IT....I have a lot of common sense but even more so, the older I get the less I know. With age and additional knowledge/learning you realize there is so much more. You can make choices of what you believe but you still need to keep an open mind.:eclipsee_gold_cup:

Wait! Bigfoot is a "ruse"?

It's common sense! ☺

I am not! I'm just shy. ☺

Given that there are typically hundreds of billions of stars in a galaxy and hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, it is almost assured that intelligent "alien" life exists in at least one more place than earth.
That said, we will never know for certain because of the distances involved. It would take thousands of years, perhaps even tens or hundreds of thousands of years to traverse the distances, assuming life could even survive for so long in such a hostile environment as deep space. Furthermore, by the time the "signs" arrived, the sender would likely have long since gone extinct.
Be careful what you wish for. As Stephen Hawking once said (paraphrasing); "alien" life (i.e. European settlers) was not such a good thing for our Native Americans".

Someday I would love to, but not here. (Security issues still in affect). Breaking security issues is something you can't begin to imagine. That's as far as I can go.

While all this discussion on the existence (or not) of UFOs is of interest, it is a tangent to the originally posted question. The UFOs were just an example, as was Bigfoot and crop circles.

In an attempt to refocus the discussion to the primary objective, I re-posit the OP's sole inquiry:

"Why do we spend so much time trying to fool people into believing something that is not real?"

thanks topgun, my theory was that no one would catch my error, I guess it too was a bad theory, only corrected by facts brought out into the light ...facts work, theories are just excuses for I don't really know

it is amazing that as billions of phone cameras have been purchased, the reported ufo rate has gone down to nil, the jig is up for ufo's,
we can be fooled no longer

Oh, I think we definitely can be fooled. Not all the time, but often enough.

Actually, there have been more credible, unexplanable sightings. I met Betty Hill once; have to admit she seemed a bit looney but something did happen to her and her husband that no one has ever been able to explain.

WHY? Why questions have ALWAYS been difficult to answer. The Area 51 situation may be about MORE than just trying to scare the Soviets. That IS just too simplistic of an answer. The Star Wars defense system may have been about making some US corporations rich and may have produced some usable research - it may have forced the Soviets to build more missiles and bombs and bankrupted the Soviet Union. The GREAT Star Wars defense system is a little bit like the GREAT WALL or China - they both were designed to make people feel more protected and they both now reside on a historical heap of minimal usefulness.

WHY do people INSIST on believing in something that is not real? Well, different people believe different realities and have differing ideas on what is MOST important. Reality is in the eye of the individual realist. It is easy to prove the point about different realities - just look around at the various churches and religions that humans believe in. The churches are REAL in the sense of they exist in brick and mortar. But, 100 % of all humans do NOT believe the ideas contained in the churches give reality to their lives - some do, some don't.

Why believe in something that is NOT real? It may be psychologically comforting. Some are comforted by the idea of life after death. Some are comforted by the idea that humans are NOT alone in the Universe, others are frightened by that concept. Humans have great variability!