Humans have always been fascinated by the unexplained. Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster and, one of the most intriguing unknowns that has captured our imagination for centuries, the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
UFO sightings, crop circles, close encounters with aliens and even abductions have been reported for decades. And until recently, the people making these claims were considered nutjobs. They’d watched too many X-files episodes and had gone bonkers.
But then in 2016, Hillary Clinton went on the Jimmy Kimmel show and told us about UAP’s. Unexplained Aerial Phenomena. Apparently, UAP’s and their potential threat to national security is a topic that’s been discussed behind closed doors for decades. Obama dismissed it as a joke but Clinton pulled the cat out of the bag.
Washington lobbyists Steve Bassett and John Podesta are advocating for the disclosure of government information on unexplained phenomena that could prove the existence of intelligent life outside Earth. This raises the question, what the heck has the government been hiding? Usually, they’re so transparent!
And if the people charged with governing our nations know that UAP’s (who are we kidding…they’re UFO’s) are indeed a threat to national security, it’d be great to know what’s being done about it. We wouldn’t mind knowing if we have distant cousins on another planet or if ET was based on a true story.
Perhaps the nutjobs we wrote off so cavalierly gave UFO’s a bad name. And because it became such a taboo topic, it’s prevented serious scientific study and rational discussion. But surely with technological advances and a bit more openmindedness, we’re at a point now where we’re willing to probe further into the unknown and investigate the few examples of unexplained aerial phenomena that exist.
Things do seem to be changing. Under recent US Navy protocol, navy pilots and sailors will no longer be considered crazy for reporting UAPs. In fact, a recent survey of 62 astronomers found that over 4% of them reported seeing things they could not explain.
And physicist, Enrico Fermi, argued that amongst the 300 billion stars in the galaxy, there could be thousands of intelligent civilisations in the universe.
We’re not alone people. Hillary Clinton told us so.
Perhaps the reason she didn’t get elected was because she promised to release information about Area 51, a secret hub where the US government stores classified information about aliens and UFO’s.
Now if that’s not a killer Hollywood script, we don’t know what is.
SOURCES:
Live Science: Former Head of Pentagon's Secret UFO Program Has Some (Strange) Stories to Tell
New York Times: Hillary Clinton Gives U.F.O. Buffs Hope She Will Open the X-Files
CNN Politics: Clinton campaign chair: ‘The American people can handle the truth’ on UFOs
The Conversation: Are we alone? The question is worthy of serious scientific study
The Conversation: Why is the Pentagon interested in UFOs?
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Will 00:00
What do you reckon? so a bureaucrat comes out and says that deep within the bowels of the American military somewhere in the Indiana Jones locker room, locker room, are some alien spaceships or alien artefacts or alien things. first thing this guy seems credible everyone says he's a credible person and the journalists that he spoke to seems credible you know, it's not some wackadoo place. you know, he hasn't seen them himself. He's
Rod 00:29
no but he knows a bloke who has
Will 00:30
he knows like he has and he's read on file that they exist. What do you reckon?
Rod 00:36
I say, look, it kills me. I want them to so bad I get an itch in places like my toenails itch. That's how bad I want it, but kind of think they don't.
Will 00:50
I kind of I kind of feel. maybe it's too hard to crack like like you bring the boffins in, and you go What's this? And they go well, that's a thing and it's like, and they say Okay, turn it into some cool weapons we can use against I suppose Russia, China, or China, Russia, Eurasialand, anywhere. And they're like, oh, too hard boss. I kind of feel like surely if they've captured some spaceships like the scientists have you will I mean, I would. I'm a frickin sociologist and I'd be putting my hand up on the on the form to say can I have a go?
Rod 01:20
I would even work on weekends. On work after hours, you can quote me.
Will 01:27
So a while ago, long before this story came out, Rod took us through a journey of where we're up to on UFOs or what do they call now?
Rod 01:36
UAP. UPS UAS UAP's. Unidentified phenomenal areas. unidentified aerial phenomena I think UAP. Is that right?
Will 01:46
I think so. But you got it right in the episode so don't worry listener. Have a go now.
Will 02:05
Welcome to the Wholesome show, the would run a Lamington drive for Science Podcast
Rod 02:13
Fuck I love a Lamington drive. Seriously? Can we do one now?
Will 02:18
Greatest fundraising raising method ever.
Rod 02:20
Were you ever part of one?
Will 02:22
course I was, but we would do it for science is what if we would
Rod 02:25
I'd do it for anything?
Deanna 02:27
lamingtons for science all round?
Rod 02:29
I'd do a lamington drive for anything?
Will 02:30
Well, that's good. You would do it for anything. The wholesome show would do it for science. But anyway, this is the Lamington drive podcast for science for people who sit up the back of the classroom
Rod 02:40
in which we ask all the dumb questions so you don't have to.
Will 02:45
That's our service. That's our service to you.
Rod 02:47
And Lamington drives.
Will 02:48
I'm Will Grant.
Rod 02:49
I'm Dr. Roderick. Gryphon Lambert's,
Will 02:52
and we're joined today by
Matthew 02:54
Hello Matthew Fong what's up?
Deanna catoe 02:55
And Deanna Catoe.
Will 02:55
Welcome, guys. I'm joining Matt and D at the back of the classroom. And Ron's gonna learn us somehow
Rod 03:04
you seem worried. you're twitching more than usual. None of this is going to be gross.
Will 03:12
We'll see.
Rod 03:12
I've let myself down. let's get into politics.
Deanna 03:16
Oh, that's scarier.
Rod 03:18
No, this is really good politics. So we're going to talk about why Hillary Clinton really lost the 2016 US election.
Will 03:24
Really, okay. We're on timing for this because it's only a couple of years late. So, ya know,
Rod 03:29
but we've been able to have the people in the lab to actually filter through the emails and all the other stuff
Will 03:34
Finally, finally, we're gonna get the real
Rod 03:37
So in March of 2016, she went on Jimmy Kimmel. And he gave her a nice, long interview with her about all kinds of policy matters, et cetera. And at one point, he asked her about UFOs. And she corrected his terminology. She said, No, no, no, no, there's a new name for that. In fact, they're called unexplained Aerial Phenomena now. UAP. That's the latest nomenclature.
Will 03:58
That's so lame. I'm sorry, but you can't beat UFO.
Rod 04:00
Yeah, I'm a UAP fetishists, whatever it sounds like an organisation. I agree.
Deanna 04:05
It does yeah.
Rod 04:06
But so this surprise people, she immediately and very smoothly corrected his nomenclature. And apparently, she vowed that barring any threats to national security, she would open up government files on UFOs and UAPs. A shift from President Obama who would typically dismiss it as a joke,
Will 04:22
barring any any threats to national security. That's a big gate that you can just say, I'm sorry. These are all threats to national security.
Rod 04:30
She was prepared in early 2016 is about March to start saying, no, no, I'd look into the UFOs and stuff.
Will 04:37
Okay, cool. And you're saying this is why she lost the election.
Rod 04:40
Look, I'm not saying it isn't why she lost the election. And apparently, her specific knowledge to get the UAP correction right got a lot of traction amongst a small but highly committed cohort of voters.
Will 04:50
Are you serious? Here we go. Yeah.
Rod 04:52
And some even declared her the first ET candidate.
Will 04:55
I don't know if that's a good thing.
Rod 04:57
No, it's really not
Will 04:58
Do you want to be the first ET candidate? The first whack job who might live in a trailer and grow a neck beard to understand that the truth is out there. I don't want to be that candidate.
Rod 05:06
What do you have against neck beards?
Will 05:07
look, people living in a trailer that look at unexplained Aerial Phenomena, they grow weird facial hair.
Rod 05:12
well that's because you got to do it at night, and a man's neck gets cold. So Clinton was apparently surprisingly at ease discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial beings. She said, As president, she would release information about area 51. Area 51 Secret hardware, apparently, the government stores classified information about aliens and UFOs. So Clinton said I want to open the files as much as we can. And when she was asked if she believed in UFOs, she said, I don't know. I want to see what the information shows. But she added, there's enough stories out there that I don't think everybody is sitting in their kitchen, just making them up. And when she was asked, if she if we've been visited already, she said, look, I think we may have been but we don't know for sure. So the question was, was this a political stunt? So this is unlikely, because Americans typically talk about you know, in the economy and terrorism, immigrants and stuff
Will 05:58
or elections around the world typically talk about the economy, maybe not terrorism so much, but I gotta go economy and war and security. They might be big issues. UFOs, low, lower lows low down on the agenda. I don't think UFOs would ever make top 10 in an Australian election.
Rod 06:14
God I wish they would though
Deanna 06:15
It'd be more interesting.
Matthew Fong 06:15
Oh that would be amazing. Can you imagine?
Rod 06:19
whether that's a pro or anti science vote is a question, but we don't need to answer that. It's also apparently when an Associated Press poll suggested that 63% of Americans do not believe in UFOs.
Matthew Fong 06:29
It's pretty high
Rod 06:30
fairly high. So it's unlikely it was a political call. But the UAP voters, the passionate small hub of folks got very excited. They got up on social media and they were saying one guy, Joseph G. Bachman, who spent decades calling for government transparency, you saying Hillary has embraced this issue with an absolutely unprecedented level of interest in American politics. I know another guy Steve Bassett, who lobbies the government on extra terrestrial issues.
Will 06:58
The Extra Terrestrial lobbyists, a big industry that I'm just imagining shiny suits over the top of his neck beard, tinfoil hat
Rod 07:07
who pays him to do that? I don't know. Lobbyists often get money. I don't I don't think he does. It zoobles from Jupiter. So he thinks Clinton presidency would be a chance to finally get the US to disclose all it knows about life beyond Earth. Sorry, she lost dude. Since 2014 Bassets organisation has sent roughly two and a half million Twitter messages to presidential candidates.
Will 07:29
That's helpful. It's now two and a half million. Yeah. other elected officials. Yeah, it sounds like a lot of other elected officials were paying a lot of attention to those.
Rod 07:37
No, not really made a difference. Yeah, got Trump elected. The movement viewed Clinton's decision to correct Kimmel's language UFO to UAP as some kind of breakthrough because they said it suggests that she'd been briefed by someone who's not just being flippant.
Will 07:50
Oh, my God. Are we saying that the UFO versus UAP terminology is some sort of marker, it's a marker that you're in the real community
Rod 07:59
right now they think we are too
Will 08:01
Well, now, but we've already killed it. So we're probably not
Rod 08:05
No we'll get serious. So she was obviously briefed by someone who wasn't flippant about it. Let's bring in John Podesta. Do you remember John Podesta
Will 08:18
Clinton's Chief of Staff
Rod 08:19
he was Clinton's Chief of Staff. He was counsel to Obama and he was the chairman of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Okay. On October of 2016, WikiLeaks started to publish all the emails reportedly from his private Gmail account. So that was the whole Hillary Clinton email scandal. So Clinton was probably it seems prepped by Podesta, who is not only well respected in Washington, but a crusader for the disclosure of Government Information on unexplained phenomena that could prove the existence of intelligent life outside Earth. He's even written in a foreword to a book in 2010 called UFOs: Generals, pilots and government officials go on the record. He only wrote the foreword. And he's saying the time to pull back the curtain on this topic is long overdue.
Matthew Fong 09:00
That sounds so ominous
Will 09:04
Hang on. He was in Obama's Council. He was in there. So he didn't have enough leverage then to get Obama to pull back the curtain
Rod 09:13
or did he needs to start telling us son of a bitch.
Matthew Fong 09:16
Maybe Obama was secretly
Will 09:18
I just find it funny though, that people who've been right up in the higher echelons of government still want it revealed, like do they know and they're not allowed to say or do they still not know? Like they didn't get to ask it.
Rod 09:27
this goes really high up and really low down. So on CNN, Jake Tapper grabbed Podesta aside, it was on a show called the lead. Our millions of American listeners will know all about that. He wanted to talk about aliens. And so a question came with a comment rather Podesta said the US government could do a much better job in answering the quite legitimate questions that people have about what's going on with unidentified aerial phenomena. He also asked for some information about some of these things, particularly in area 51 And wasn't getting very far but It's interesting that they say the Clinton presidency like the original William Jefferson, Bill coincided with the hit series The X Files when it was really going off and Independence Day. So all these things were happening at the same time. So Podesta was an X Files fanatic. He ran a fan club for the show out of the Clinton White House.
Matthew Fong 10:18
So in deep right now
Will 10:21
just imagine he's got his daily calendar, and he's making sure he's got 20 minutes of time every day for a little bit of fanclub. Got to update the blog,
Rod 10:30
Fox in 99 had an X Files themed 50th birthday that the Clintons attended, what do you mean? So when John Podesta was asked, if there is evidence of alien life, he says, that's for the public to judge once they've seen all the evidence that the US government has. and when it comes to his own beliefs, he apparently said there are a lot of planets out there and the American people can handle the truth. Okay, so when he finally left the White House, he posted on Twitter Finally, my biggest failure of 2014. Once again, not securing the hashtag disclosure of the UFO files hashtag The truth is still out there. So that was his
Will 11:05
he was a crusader. But he didn't he didn't leak it himself or anything like that.
Rod 11:08
He didn't cruisade that hard.
Will 11:09
Yeah, he didn't grab the files and leave them in a car parks somewhere
Matthew Fong 11:12
and run and I've got tell the world
Will 11:15
this is worth my job.
Rod 11:16
I mean, I've seen a lot of television about the President and the Chief of Staff has a lot of power. Exactly. On every show. Yeah. So he was chief stuff to Bill. Bill was what stoned and playing the saxophone most of the time
Will 11:27
so he could have just typed in I Bill Clinton in brackets. Not quite. Give me all the files on area 51
Rod 11:33
billish clinton. So Clinton often spoke about her childhood aspirations to be an astronaut. And she's apparently quite sympathetic to Podesta efforts and attitudes. Couple of years earlier, she was photographed visiting Laurance s. Rockefeller, billionaire philanthropist and maniac for all things supernatural. Okay. And under her arm was a copy of are we alone philosophical implications of the discovery of extraterrestrial life by Paul Davies, which is apparently scandalous. Before she had that meeting, though, the Director of the White House's Office of Science Technology Policy, warned Hillary about Rockefeller and said, Look, he spent a lot of years pressuring the government to release the 1947 crash data of Roswell. So you know, Roswell was originally there wasn't a mysterious downed object, called variously a flying disc or a flying saucer, the US Army decided that it was operating over the wok Air Force Base, and they characterise the DeBary as largely consisting of tinfoil and rubber. AKA, a weather balloon. According to this source, that was an obvious Cold War obfuscation. In 1994, possibly in response to Rockefellers lobbying, the Air Force issued a report stating that the down balloon was actually part of Project Mogul, and ultra secretive project monitoring Soundwave generated by Soviet nuclear testing.
Will 12:49
Hey, there you go. It's a Russian accent.
Rod 12:51
Always got a Russian accent. There is no episode that is not complete. So many doubted the story. Go figure. Lots of stories about alien corpses, et cetera, et cetera. at Roswell, some people think there was an actual autopsy filmed, others disagree. So anyway, this is the kind of guy that Hillary was meeting with is what Rockefeller was like. So when she started to talk openly about UFOs, government disclosures, etc. Some of the activists went, well, she's been into this for years. This means she's really into it. She means it.
Will 13:18
She's one of us.
Rod 13:19
Yes, she's one of us. And so her meeting with Rockefeller had all the conspiracy theorists and Hollywood artists and writers going, This is sweet. So Chris Carter, the guy who made the X files said, look, if I have to become a fundraiser to get an invite to her opening up the files, I'll do it. he would pay money to get her elected so he could be there. He knows the truth is and what I want it to be
Will 13:38
I thought he just made TV, but
Rod 13:40
and. you can believe and make TV. Can't make TV without faith, man. So the subset of Americans who are into this sort of stuff, so the government is covering up what it knows about aliens, they are incredibly vocal on social media, as we know, and they just considered Clinton's turn to be, this is sweet, it's all gonna go off now. It didn't bother activists don't care as much about her vowing to open it, but they wanted prominent politicians to seriously acknowledge that humans may not be the only intelligent life in the universe.
Will 14:04
This is a classic mistake of lobbying, though, just just to critique their efforts here.
Rod 14:07
Yes, you shouldn't you should,
Will 14:08
like lobbyists in general are more successful if they put their eggs in multiple baskets. Yes. You'll see for example, lobbyists in many countries will donate to both parties. Yeah, so I just gotta say to the
Rod 14:19
Trump would eat this shit up,
Will 14:21
he would love this shit.
Rod 14:22
Don't waste your time on fucking Clinton when you got Trump sitting there
Matthew Fong 14:28
and you just, he's like, I believe that there are aliens. You just hear him saying that
Rod 14:33
Oh, not only believe like, I'm gonna find the hugest alien files. We're gonna find that we got them behind. We got the best the best. Believe me, believe me, you tell me. So according to Christopher Mellon, who is a former intelligence official at the defence department and on the Senate Intelligence Committee, it shouldn't be a source of embarrassment to discuss these things. We should be humbled in terms of recognising the extreme limits of our own understanding of physics in the universe. So let's get humble. Let's discuss Seriously, okay. says great peace I was reading I enjoyed this very much Kevin Knuth because he's American, he would pronounce all the letters. So it's probably Knut. He's a associate professor of physics at Alberni state uni. And in 2018, he wrote this little piece just before World UFO day, July 2, you all knew that?
Will 15:18
Yeah, July 2nd
Rod 15:19
he just wrote in the lead up to last year's day. For those of you listening in the future, it's 2019 for us. God knows what it is for you, I hope it's beautiful, and you still have a climate. He was saying it's a good time for society to address the unsettling and refreshing fact that we may not be alone. So he's saying I believe we need to face the possibility that some of the strange flying objects that outperform the best aircraft in our inventory, and defy explanation could be indeed visitors from afar. And there's plenty of evidence to support sightings. And he starts off by citing the Fermi Paradox. We've all heard of this. It's basically have Enrico Fermi is a physicist. He said, Look, there's 300 billion stars in the galaxy, let's say many of them billions of years older than the sun.
Will 15:58
So just just in the galaxy, so there's lots of other galaxies
Rod 16:01
the Galaxy Yep, billions of years older than the sun. In many cases, a large percentage of them probably host has puppet, auditable. Hubbard also habitable planet. Just hobbits. hobbits can live under any conditions, resilient beings are fake. Even if intelligent life built on a small percentage of them, that would still be a buttload of intelligent civilizations, depending on the time and distance that could be 1000s of them. If they've had millions of years develop the technology, they should have visitors by now at least a little bit.
Will 16:28
Or we should just hear from them. We should have got TV. Presumably, as civilizations get closer and closer to perfection than, well Netflix is on the internet. You can't get that but TV that's broadcasting
Rod 16:41
you can broadcast the internet.
Will 16:44
That's the flaw. You know,
Rod 16:45
can't you broadcast the internet?
Will 16:46
No, it's in cables. The Internet mostly is in cables.
Rod 16:49
But what about satellites?
Will 16:50
Okay, yeah, fair enough. But broadcast towers, they're they're the powerful ones. That's when civilization has achieved perfection. Right? You're sending colour images of Hitler out into space?
Matthew Fong 16:59
How about this, right? Yeah, maybe we're looking at it from the wrong angle. Maybe it's not that the other societies aren't advanced enough is that we so far behind them, they drive past us and they like all stay away from wind the window up because. Yeah, maybe we're the dumbest by far.
Will 17:18
I get I get that. But there's got to be someone else that's roughly as dumb as us.
Matthew Fong 17:22
I don't think so. I think everyone else is hella smart.
Rod 17:24
Or they're all dumber than us and we're the only ones left. Isn't that uplifting and refreshing.
Will 17:34
So the paradox then is where are they?
Rod 17:37
Where the hell are they? Yep. But of course, the problem is there's not been a single well documented UFO encounter that would qualify like as the smoking gun for them existing. Unless you're a conspiracy theorist in which case they're everywhere. We just haven't seen them. So the situation is exacerbated by the fact apparently that governments cover up stuff. He reckons this author there are enough scraps of evidence to suggest we need to do proper scientific study at least what's going on. And part of the problem then of course, is UFO is a taboo for professional scientists. Do we get up there you imagine now you're at the illustrious Australian National University, as we all are, and you go to a physics professor and say, Dude, I wonder UFOs and shit for my honours degree?
Will 18:12
Yeah naaah.
Rod 18:14
Aren't you adorable? They'd say why don't you go to alien civilization studies, it's down the road.
Will 18:23
A lot of there's a lot of crickets on it.
Rod 18:27
Um, so the saying that you can't really test it with the scientific method because you can't really sort of, you know, set up hypotheses and very useful in phosphite, blah, blah, blah. But in his view, the real problem is it's just generically taboo. So this author says UFOs off limits to serious scientific study and rational discussion.
Will 18:42
It's like ghosts, you know, you can't put them up either.
Rod 18:45
No, you're not. You're not allowed to
Will 18:47
have been constrained by big anti ghosts who won't let us study ghosts.
Rod 18:55
Big sheet doesn't want us to know. So it gets relegated to the realm fringe scientists, pseudo scientists, you know, blah, blah, blah. So he thinks that science basically said all UFO sightings or weather phenomena or human actions
Will 19:11
is true though, like, a lot of topics are laughed off stage before people actually go and look at them.
Rod 19:17
We've had a chuckle ourselves.
Will 19:19
Indeed, indeed. We're talking jokes here straightaway that if anyone came to me and said, I want to do UFOs for my career
Rod 19:26
I would say yes, immediately finally a PhD student I fucking want to work with
Deanna 19:30
with his Rods pitch out to the world. If you want to do your PhD on UAP, contact Roderick Lambert
Rod 19:38
I am your Huckleberry
Will 19:40
everyone around finally someone who's happy to throw away their life to go and
Rod 19:47
trash a career that you don't really have. In my defence, what do you give them? What is it man who is nothing something broken? That's what I'll take. I'm about to go on leave me and my views very grim. So he reckons scepticism about UFOs has become pretty much like religious zeal, the scepticism that people are so excited about. They can't really even imagine a world where it's not possible where it is possible. So scientists should do more. He also says, Look, we do science a disservice by not deciding to look into the few examples that exist that haven't been explained,
Will 20:18
I'm done with that. I'm fine for other scientists to go and do that. But not me. There's a lot of science that I would like to read rather than actually do. So.
Rod 20:29
I'd totally do UFOs. He also blames the media for amplifying scepticism publishing information when it's exciting, but not when it's actually
Will 20:36
God damn media
Matthew Fong 20:37
always blamed the media,
Rod 20:39
always have a mocking tone. You know, but he says, but they're credible witnesses and encounters.
Deanna 20:45
examples?
Rod 20:46
Six
Will 20:47
is this really six?
Rod 20:50
Like, we're gonna get to a few. So one of the questions he says, well, one and astronomers see UFOs given they look at space all the time,
Will 20:56
and UFOs that's where there are, like, in the place around us, in space. but this is the unexplained aerial phenomena. Aren't there any like unexplained dirt phenomena? Or, or ocean phenomena that aliens
Rod 21:13
No
Matthew Fong 21:13
There's got to be some in the ocean,
Rod 21:15
everything on the world is explained. Everything. the ocean is completely understood.
Deanna 21:20
squid and stuff
Will 21:21
is crazy. Yeah. Tasty. Not alien, though. It's just,
Deanna 21:26
I mean, have you seen the headlines? Like squids are out of this world? You know, alien DNA?
Matthew Fong 21:31
Here's my question right.
Will 21:33
You don't know the big problem with squid. The big problem is, is they found they found the squid that was called and it was enormous as the colossal squid. But then they found a bigger one. They went to the giant squid. Yeah the giant squid is bigger than the colossal squid.
Rod 21:49
science is shit.
Will 21:51
You know, I'm gonna go back to the squid board and complain about that.
Rod 21:56
No you heard it here. First we are against taxonomy because dumb.
Will 21:59
Sorry, Matt.
Matthew Fong 22:00
That's okay. Listen, I'm just saying. If you were like, say you just, you know, had never seen squid before. And you're like, Okay, I know what a human looks like. This is what it looks like. And you saw squid. Tell me that's not
Rod 22:12
What's the squid doing?
Matthew Fong 22:14
Just in the water and all of a sudden, squid
Rod 22:19
like is it reading? Is it waving a device at me?
Matthew Fong 22:21
I don't know. Just look at a squid and tell me doesn't look alien.
Will 22:25
I'm down with that. Squid is the most alien looking.
Deanna 22:27
Well if it looks like an alien, therefore it must be an alien
Rod 22:30
well duh.
Deanna 22:31
Clearly, isn't that how science works?
Rod 22:32
Yes, so apparently,
Will 22:35
odd number of limbs which is wrong? Yeah. How old? Is it as an uneven number like we have? We have four limbs. Octopuses have eight limbs. Spider spiders have eight limbs. Ants have six.
Rod 22:47
millipedes have 20
Will 22:49
squids have nine.
Rod 22:50
No,
Will 22:50
I think it's nine. I was hoping someone would get get the number before you
Rod 22:54
technically kangaroos are considered five trapezoidal or three, no five, three limbed
Will 23:01
Yeah, yeah. That's just a big ass tail. And they just they just thought
Rod 23:05
they use it like a limb man
Will 23:06
Okay, fair enough. But but it is very rare to have an odd number of limbs.
Rod 23:10
Yeah, aliens were ops
Will 23:12
see stars see stars, there you go
Rod 23:13
so anyway, why don't astronomers see UFOs apparently some have. So there's a study in to be fair, 1977
Will 23:24
everyone cast your mind back. Everyone's got a mullet and a moe, even the ladies have a mullet and a moe
Rod 23:29
I had a mullet I was only 10. Peter stearic is a professor of space science and astrophysics at Stanford mailed out 2,500 questionnaires to the American Astronomical Society. He got nearly 1,500 back which is phenomenal in the olden days and on paper. 62 Astronomers so nearly four and a half and a bit percent reported seeing things that could not explain inexplicable aerial phenomena. IAP's I know right? Obviously, aliens.
Will 24:00
surely surely science is always looking for things that they can't explain. That's the point of science. Can I so I just want to slow everyone down. If astronomers are only looking at things they can explain. Yeah, like that's pretty good. The moon again, I got to
Rod 24:15
write it down.
Will 24:18
Gary, let's do the sun again.
Rod 24:21
Which sun, ours great. So much closer we can take samples
Will 24:25
sciences is about the unexplained
Rod 24:27
but 80% of these all the people who returned surveys were willing to study UFO phenomenon if there was a way to do so. Okay, okay. More than half of them thought the topic deserved to be studied, but 20% of them said no screw that. Also, amazingly, younger scientists were more likely to support UFO studies than older ones. All right. I mean, it doesn't surprise me at all. There's evidence from government and military officials apparently so in. According to this guy, some of the most convincing observations have come from government officials. 1997 The Chilean government formed an organisation to study UFOs. they released footage in 2017 of helicopter mounted webcam with a UFO in it with a camera in the footage, ah came from helicopters, technology. I know right, allegedly Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Russia, Sweden and the United Kingdom have been declassifying the UFO file since 2008.
Will 25:28
I noticed Australia was not in that list
Rod 25:29
not at all. So all these countries have been releasing and declassifying files. The French committee for in depth studies the committee for in depth studies there
Matthew Fong 25:38
is there non in depth study?
Rod 25:51
So they had an unofficial UFO study group, comprising of high ranking scientists and military officials and a summary of their findings in the 1990s concluded 5% of the encounters were reliable yet inexplicable. The best hypothesis available was the the observed craft were extraterrestrial. Now I can test that but that's what they said. They also accuse the United States of covering up evidence of UFOs. Iran have been concerned about spherical UFOs observed near nuclear power facilities. They call them CIA drones, but they're apparently about 30 feet around and can get up to speed of Mark 10 and leave the atmosphere
Matthew Fong 26:25
well that's fast. that's a hell of a drone. Crazy.
Rod 26:27
Yeah. Mark 10 and atmospheric lever
Rod 26:29
spherical, as well?
Rod 26:31
Yeah. Well, that's not fair. They're probably disk, the diameter.
Will 26:35
They're moving fast. You can't always see
Will 26:37
Yeah, Mark 10 and leaving the atmosphere is impressive,
Matthew Fong 26:41
very impressive.
Rod 26:42
It's gonna get better. December 2017, New York Times broke a story about the classified advanced aviation threat identification programme. $22 million programme run by former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo, which is aimed at studying UFOs. they reported UFO is travelling at more than five times the speed of sound, but without any sonic booms.
Matthew Fong 27:05
Oh, okay.
Will 27:07
So moving very fast but not actually not generating any evidence of it. so it was kind of just
Deanna 27:14
and they recorded it too
Will 27:16
Maybe they weren't actually there. I'm just poking some holes
Rod 27:22
How dare you. you used to be cool man.
Deanna 27:25
He's almost 40.
Deanna 27:26
Cool cool cool. get it out of your system. UFOs are unexpectedly mobile. They travelled so fast, they would have to experience gravitational forces, or G forces that far exceed the limits of human endurance and our aircraft. Apparently, these things were observed pulling 400 to 500 G's. To be clear, the top end fighting machines fighting planes of the US Air Force would get to 16 or 18 Gs
Will 27:52
So is that like acceleration or turns or something.
Rod 27:56
Human body can stand about nine before passing out or you know, turning into goo. shitting yourself first, so four to 500 G's they're claiming human body limit nine.
Will 28:05
So the aliens have an awesome sphincter they can hold it in up to
Rod 28:08
I think they're all sphincters they're pretty much covered.
Matthew Fong 28:10
I got my in theory, listening to it. Listen, listen, right. There's, like human base, human organisms and human organs. They're all carbon based, right? Everything. What if
Rod 28:22
silica?
Matthew Fong 28:23
Maybe? What if
Rod 28:25
diamond?
Rod 28:25
Maybe
Will 28:26
let him finish. You never know.
Matthew Fong 28:29
Imagine if, because there are a multitude of other planets that have different environments, different ways of, you know, putting together their atoms, I think like, Mercury has an atmosphere full of nitrogen or something like that. One of the planets, they'd have crazy stuff, but who's to say that aliens developed in the same way that we did. maybe these aliens that are going like 400 500 Gs eat slime
Will 28:53
and they grew up on a dwarf star or something like that
Rod 28:56
They start as goo, they stay as goo. I have no beef with that. I hope it's true.
Will 29:01
I just think I just think the overlap between slime and making a spaceship.
Rod 29:11
haven't you watched the Orville?
Matthew Fong 29:15
Haven't you watched science?
Will 29:17
It's not science. It's TV.
Rod 29:19
It's half. half of it is science. It's science fiction. It's half science. Half of it is science. The other half is fiction. The slime guys probably the science part. So Elizondo resigned from the programme of protesting extreme secrecy and the lack of funding and support. There was a History Channel documentary that I haven't got to see it but I'd love to where he did not reveal that UFOs were actually alien spacecraft all along, which is a bit like, you know, finally I'm going to open the curtain near they're not. But he said, delving into long hidden accounts of UFO investigations will hopefully encourage people and authorities in particular to overcome long standing stigmas talk more openly about the mysterious aircraft, some of which may pose a bigger threat than we realise. Threat time.
Matthew Fong 30:07
So Independence Day is what you say
Rod 30:09
yes or other. We'll get to that. So a lot of the UFO sightings from reported to this committee sorry, programme the AATP were eventually resolved. They were aerial drones, test firings of new types of missiles, blah, blah, blah, from unusual angles. But many astonishing UFO still defied explanation. And there simply isn't enough evidence, however, to suggest that they belong to extraterrestrials. So he's kind of trying to be.
Will 30:36
So he's saying there's stuff we don't know about. But jumping to the conclusion that it's coming from another part of the galaxy? That's a big call
Rod 30:43
Because the more unsettling prospect is that it's not an alien invasion. It's a foreign adversary with developed technologies that are way beyond ours.
Matthew Fong 30:51
so that's the scary part of this
Rod 30:52
apparently. The American military mind, man, what if it's other non white men with fast ships that are scary?
Will 31:03
In fairness, if it's super fast and threatening, does it matter if it's coming from Mars or from Iran?
Matthew Fong 31:10
No, it doesn't. No, it doesn't. Terrifying either way.
Rod 31:12
Yeah. So he thinks the government officials do not take the threat seriously enough. As a quick aside, there's great when reading through the story, some of the comments I really enjoyed I'm just gonna call that one now because you know, we need a brief breather. So according to this comment, I actually obviously UFOs cover for time travellers.
Will 31:32
Sure
Deanna 31:33
now this is a, I can get behind this
Will 31:36
You're down with time travel? time travel is my number five with a bullet on my YouTube lists of Weird Science Fiction? It's growing very fast.
Rod 31:45
No, no, no, this is obviously true, this commenter knows it's impossible, because I've impossible flight characteristics and an uncanny ability to remain undetected and leave no solid evidence. So he's saying if I were visiting from the future, I'd set up something like Roswell, etc, because that'd be my first course of action, because then all future sightings would be conveniently explained away as some kind of alien, because that'd be ridiculous
Will 32:05
Look just sit back. I mean, one of the one of the core tenants of explanation of phenomena is Archons razor that we should take the simplest explanation for phenomena. So if there's something you there's really weird, let's find out a simple explanation for a complex one.
Rod 32:20
So was Aliens simple or complex?
Will 32:23
No, what I'm going to say is, if we're going through the lists of simple things, which is actually more implausible - time traveller, or visitor from a distant star?
Rod 32:32
time travel
Will 32:33
they're both a long way out there. And there's, you know,
Rod 32:37
time traveller because we're pretty sure about physics, comparatively.
Will 32:40
Both of these are physics.
Rod 32:41
So both of these are physics
Will 32:42
aliens aren't physics, man. There's flying, we put it under physics. So which one do you think is the least plausible?
Will 32:49
I think they're both similarly implausible,
Deanna 32:52
which is why they should go together.
Rod 32:54
time travelling aliens
Will 32:57
from the year 3000,
Rod 32:59
So he's saying basically, all these comments it says it doesn't matter. The fact that there's entrenched secrecy, shrouding UFO investigations reinforces the association of UFOs with tinfoil hats and dumb stories. So that's his ultimate concern, because you're associated with whack jobs. You can actually look into the properly. Flash forward a year and people are. Okay, 2019, It turns out official people have started to take this sort of UFO stuff seriously, but for boring reasons.
Will 33:34
So that's the only reason that efficient people can take things seriously. I've found a bland reason that they can't take them seriously for fun reasons. Doesn't work.
Rod 33:43
Yeah, like the whole you get to the panel of funders and say, wouldn't it be cool? Like that's it? Yeah, that's all I got.
Will 33:49
You got an F off.
Rod 33:50
So Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Union Michigan in Boyd. He says, US Navy pilots and sailors won't be considered crazy for reporting Unidentified Flying Objects anymore under new rules, which is meant to encourage them to track them. This is going on
Will 34:04
they've got they've got rules to say they weren't considered crazy.
Rod 34:07
Yeah, you're not allowed to consider them crazy. We legislate against your opinion.
Matthew Fong 34:11
That sounds dangerous. That's that's the start of Independence Day.
Will 34:15
You're loving Independence Day
Matthew Fong 34:16
telling me I'm lying.
Rod 34:19
I dont think you're lying. I think you believe everything you're saying, man? Yeah, that's important. Yeah. Listen,
Will 34:24
so what are the new rules say?
Rod 34:25
They say report it. Why have they changed that because they this is remember this is only a few years after that programme we just talked about got shut down. So the author says is it because if they change it because the US military is finally coming around to the idea that alien spacecraft are visiting our planet? The answer to that question is almost certainly no. Humans misinterpretation of observations of natural phenomena are something we do all the time and have done for years. Driftwood looks like the Loch Ness Monster manatees, look at mermaids, blah, blah, blah. SpaceX rockets have been confused with weird alien creatures as well, because of luminescent chem trails.
Will 35:00
space driftwood
Rod 35:03
But this guy used to be a science adviser to the Air Force. And he says, I believe that the Pentagon wants to avoid this type of confusion. So I need to better understand flying objects it can't identify. So during a military mission, whether in peace or war, if a pilot or soldier can't identify an object, they have a serious problem. How should they react without knowing if it's neutral,
Will 35:22
shoot it down, shoot it down, shoot it down
Rod 35:24
kill the fucker. Fortunately, the military can use advanced technology to try and identify things. So he wants to take the U out of UFO,
Will 35:29
the shoot it down technology,
Rod 35:31
he wants to keep that. he doesn't want to shoot down things he shouldn't shoot down. So it turns into the military strategies, basically saying a UFO represents a gap in situational awareness, the military term for having a complete understanding of the environment in which you're operating. So he's reframed it, basically. And apparently, we're not only he's reporting on a reframing of this. So now when a Navy pilot sees something strange, all they could do, up until now is ask other pilots and air traffic controllers. You see that shit tpo? anything else you can report on it? But apparently, the UFO reports have a peaking at around 8000 a year at the moment. And even the most heavily documented ones end up unresolved in with dozens of witnesses, lots of reviews of documents.
Matthew Fong 36:15
1000 a year, that's higher than I thought
Rod 36:17
it's a buttload. I know I was a bit surprised myself. And so basically what he's done is say look, not knowing what they are, should not translate into a bunch of whack jobs that should translate into what are they?
Will 36:28
let's just document stuff.
Rod 36:29
Yeah, what the hell's going on. So he says UFOs represent an opportunity for the military to improve the way it identify shit. It's training, because you know, Humvees, battleships, aeroplane satellites, etc, covered in sensors. They're not all passive. So there's radar, sonar, LiDAR, things that actually go out there and try and identify they don't just take pictures, military vehicles really alone, they travel in convoys, or in groups, or sale in fleets, etc. And there's always satellites around them. So maybe they can use military vehicles to get a more complete picture.
Will 36:59
Okay, smart.
Rod 37:01
Yeah, it's just not as exciting. They're not saying looking for aliens, but they're looking for aliens for sure
Deanna 37:05
There's an underlying message. Yeah, it's totally that
Rod 37:08
we just don't talk about it. So with all the data they're saying in basically in a triangulate all this stuff, the military is stepping up working on autonomy and artificial intelligence algorithms, etc. To try and identify what's going on. Sweet. So bringing the robots to find the aliens.
Matthew Fong 37:23
That's gonna end well.
Deanna 37:25
This doesn't sound like any of those like dystopian science fiction movies, or anything, no
Rod 37:29
don't know what you're talking about. It sounds great. I think it sounds great. It sounds like a warm dinner on a cold day. It's so relaxing.
Will 37:37
unsettling and refreshing. I'm not refreshed by robots hunting for aliens.
Rod 37:46
I'm not refreshed by the footage of robots anymore. Like look do you see the one where people were bashing this robot pushing it over to watch it get back up again? Are they throwing it boxes that catches the box?
Will 37:55
I just don't like that. I think that's a bad trajectory. Let's not be mean to robots.
Matthew Fong 38:00
Guys that was that was a joke. That whole video was a joke. So the the video that I think you're describing is it's you know Boston Dynamics, right?
Will 38:10
make a lot of awesome robots.
Rod 38:12
Basically the Cyberdyne systems of reality here.
Matthew Fong 38:15
So they're parodied it. The group called Corridor Digital. And they parodied it saying boss town dynamics and they put someone in a green suit to pretend to be the robot and then
Rod 38:27
they beat it up and threw things at it.
Matthew Fong 38:28
Exactly.
Deanna 38:29
I think you're ruining Rod's story
Rod 38:31
no, no, no.
Will 38:33
Because I'm just worried about setting the wrong mood with these robots that one day will be our overlords. I want to start off on the right.
Rod 38:40
So now I feel just refreshed and not unsettled. So thank you. I'm glad. Very glad.
Matthew Fong 38:45
Thank you, it's all good. Don't worry
Rod 38:46
I'm glad it's back.
Rod 38:46
Again, don't kick a robot.
Deanna 38:48
I'm so worried about what Will said. robot overlords.
Will 38:52
I know that's coming. Don't Don't worry. We've got to play our cards right over the next three years to make sure that the robot overlord is nice and not
Deanna 39:00
I love robots. I love robots. I'm just gonna put it out there.
Matthew Fong 39:06
Do you know something we don't know? are you from the future?
Will 39:08
I am just. No, I'm just flagging to you all that if Rocco's Vassilis comes into being cannot you just make sure it's the good one. All right.
Rod 39:19
He loves that. We did a thing years ago. So they want to try and move towards AI to identify things or at least look at anomalies, but he's saying we still need people at the moment.
Will 39:29
Unfortunately, we don't. We don't have a lot of training data for in AI you need training data of you know, if you're identifying dogs or cats in photos of dog, dog, dog, cat, cat, dog, dog, dog, cat cat, you can't really work on unexplained phenomena, or aliens. Look,
Rod 39:45
that's not a dog or a cat. that should be an alien
Will 39:47
I don't think we don't have any positive ID's yet.
Rod 39:49
Or even cites an example from a Google experiment where they tried to get an image recognition algorithm to tell the difference between a panda and a gibbon and if you change a few pixels, it doesn't know anymore
Will 40:02
it's an alien
Rod 40:02
anyway. But he thinks on the Navy's new approach is a good first step, the fact that they're trying to identify and see what's going on. That's great. It might eventually lead to a fully comprehensive system. So with any luck, they'll be get there. And that means there'll be fewer UFOs in the sky, because they won't be U anymore. As in unidentified, they just be FO's. Let's just take a breather and get into the comment stream on this article, because I enjoyed that. It's really only 2.5 People that 85 comments, and they closed it. And basically, the one of the earliest ones is this is so misleading and so misguided, it makes me want to scream. The fact is, if it says the fact you know, it's going to be good. The fact is that the military knows all about extraterrestrial visitors and has even been working in cooperation with them since the 1940s. There are dozens of former military personnel, including officers that are testifying in public about their contact with these beings while working in classified projects. He lists a bunch of names and then says, there's this guy, Steven Greer, and the Disclosure Project has collected 100 former military eyewitnesses who are willing to testify in front of Congress under oath that ETs are here and the military knows about it.
Rod 41:18
Then the so this guy kind of chimes around in the background, then another guy kicks off, the writer of this article may be a professor of aerospace engineering, but that doesn't automatically make him knowledgeable on the UFO phenomena. In fact, he's clearly just a novice. And then they basically fight like they fight with each other through the rest of the comment stream, with the first guy occasionally chiming in and out. which is good fun, I'd love to get three of them on stage, like just get through them and just push the go button and watch them fly. It'd be awesome. But they're probably not using real names. So if we get back to serious boy back to the invalid, the professor who wrote it, he says, Look, this is a topic worthy of serious study. There's a great deal of evidence that a small percentage of UFO sightings are unidentified structured craft, exhibiting flight capabilities beyond any known human technology. So he's not saying et or anything, he's just saying, We don't know anything about shit that can do this. Okay? Yes, there's no single case, no single smoking gun that would stand up to scientific rigour. Yeah, but there are cases with simultaneous observations by multiple reliable witnesses, even with radar returns and photographic evidence, revealing patterns of activity that are compelling. So he reckons declassifying information from the studies would be interesting, but it's not scientifically helpful. We need to open it up more to actually study it, get more information, et cetera. There's a scientific consensus based on evidence rather than prior expectation and belief. If we do this, if there are extra terrestrial extra testicle crafter, so visiting Earth, it'd be great to know more about them, which is fair, but also not only the universe stuff, but also again, if it is out in the means, you know, that evil people who want us middle aged white men with too much money. So basically, I mean, there's pros and cons to this. The upside is it's not over and people started taking more seriously, the downside is why they might be taken seriously or how. I figured this the 2020 US presidential candidate or Joe Biden should get onto this shit is a vote winner.
Will 43:10
I wouldn't, if I was running for President, I would sort of steer clear just Hillary Clinton's a good example.
Rod 43:18
Why though, but why don't you look at what you're up against. You're up against Trump now, right? So if you just get up and go, You know what? UFOs extraterrestrials and you just keep yelling that down the microphone.
Will 43:26
Look, I get it. I probably get a third of the I'm a believer in transparency and opening things up might be might be good, but I don't think this is a vote winner.
Matthew Fong 43:33
So here's my question. You get a call. Hey, come to Area 51. You going?
Matthew Fong 43:40
Yep. 100%
Will 43:42
Oh, 1,000%. Of course,
Matthew Fong 43:49
imagine if you just go there, if you join and it's just a bunch of files. And that's it? No, but there's not like
Will 43:54
so is this that you get a call and you get to see everything or you get a call and you get the press tour?
Matthew Fong 43:59
who knows? Who knows?
Rod 44:00
Our cafeteria if you want to take a shower, it's down the corridor on the left.
Will 44:04
Look, governments governments have been secretive forever. What like Like, like, the middle
Rod 44:10
Do you have evidence?
Will 44:14
the Middle Ages equivalent of area 51 is the secret Vatican you know, underneath the Vatican is reams of
Rod 44:21
actually the Middle Ages equivalent is a book.
Will 44:28
that's the internet. That's the internet but under, but we've been we've been imagining nefarious and secretive intent on behalf of governments for ever.
Rod 44:38
And the real question is, why is it such a strong, enduring imagination? Because it's true
Will 44:45
No, you know why it's true. It's because it's apolitical. The reason this pops up in the 1990s. All of a sudden people can go okay, we can we can believe the government has this thing against us. But there's no political leaning like governments left, left or right you can go governments are concealing aliens and it's like, oh, there's there's there's no there's no left wing thing right wing think about this we can all think governments are concealing aliens.
Rod 45:07
So it brings us together. conspiracies anonymous
Will 45:10
you know, in some ways it's the friendly conspiracy where you can be you can join any neighbour and you can you know how you know whinging about the weather. You can talk to anyone about that. Like that's, that's, that's something you can run
Rod 45:21
oh the government control the weather
Will 45:22
in the same way. We can all be insane about aliens, like in the way that you can't do that with the
Matthew Fong 45:29
No, no, I get what you're saying. I understand. It's a great uniter.
Will 45:34
for crazies.
Rod 45:36
ignorance does bring us together. It's true.
Deanna 45:38
Can we say that UAP could stand for like uniting all people
Will 45:42
uniting all? Oh my god. Even you can throw on out like that they don't have to end this podcast. Like, that's just that's
Deanna 45:50
Sorry, I'm actually an alien. And you guys talking too much about this?
Will 45:57
There is something actually interesting as well. Why did why did he know alien fascination boom in the 1990s
Rod 46:05
because of the X Files? No, because Bill Clinton No, because the Rockefellers or the aliens
Will 46:10
like I remember this early period in the internet, where, where I remember, people were hunting around for the blue book. And it's like the Internet
Rod 46:16
Project Blue Book was a real project by the Air Force in the 60s. And they made a TV show that I watched as a kid and I loved it.
Will 46:20
There you go. The blue book was a listing of all of the all of the UFO sightings of by the Air Force. And it was it was a very classified book. And it was all it was all him. And so they mentioned a bit in the X Files. But but the the interesting thing is early
Rod 46:35
it's allegedly real at some level
Will 46:37
early public internet. So in the 90s 1995, 96, same period as the X Files. And so a lot of people there's you're getting nascent connections in a network that now is far more established
Rod 46:48
people who have never found eachother before
Will 46:49
you kind of feeling you're kind of feeling oh, I can talk to that person over there. And we can share little bits of knowledge. And then there's this belief that somewhere there might be a computer connected to the internet that has the blue book on it, and there's all lit and so there's this this starting of a belief that we can we can break down the system. This is the early tarian internet.
Rod 47:07
It's real.
Will 47:10
Yeah, I'm sure it's real.
Rod 47:11
I'm sure the internet's real to man. It's not a conspiracy.
Will 47:14
I'm gonna go back to your question before like about would you be interested in UFO. I'm fascinated to read about this stuff. Yeah, but I think I think it's a great place to be sceptical because just it's it's
Rod 47:28
like vaccines
Will 47:34
like, it's a great fun read, but But does it matter? have shown it show me a spot where aliens are actually affecting our society?
Deanna 47:45
Okay. I was gonna say, Well, if there is a threat, then that would be the motive. Yeah, there. So I guess the like, the possibility.
Will 47:55
Yeah, sure. But that but they're not. I mean, if you if you're in a
Deanna 47:57
how do you know that?
Will 47:58
Okay, maybe I'm gonna go little bit Bjorn Lumberg on this,
Rod 48:09
Oh then you're gonna be reasonable.
Will 48:10
Let's not waste our time on these things. Like it's fun as a hobby. Like, I totally get the extra
Rod 48:15
we got other problems. We can solve the other problems. First. I'm not saying we shouldn't expore them, I'm saying
Will 48:19
it's fun as a hobby. But I think I look I think Air Force pilots, whatever, writing down and documenting this, that's a sensible thing to do. That's a sensible scientific approach to say, let's get all the information we can. But let's not spend a lot more time, energy, money on this than we need.
Rod 48:36
Counterpoint. Let's spend a lot more time energy and money on this because it's cool.
Will 48:40
It's cool is not enough
Matthew Fong 48:42
counterpoint. Elon Musk is an alien from the future. He came back. He's trapped on Earth
Will 48:47
to call people paedophiles?
Matthew Fong 48:49
Maybe.
Rod 48:50
Oh he's gotta use our shitty technology to get home
Matthew Fong 48:52
He's trying to give us the technology so we can perfect it so you can go home. Elon Musk is an alien.
Deanna 48:57
That's why he get so frustrated with people. Yeah
Matthew Fong 49:00
he just understand he's like, Oh, my God, these these people still stupid. You're still burning coal? What do you mean? I gave him?
Will 49:08
I do I do have one. One thing that I think is interesting is the work that has been done or hasn't been done to identify protocols for how we would talk to aliens
Rod 49:20
You know a former Deputy Vice Chancellor of this August institution was on the International Committee to work out what do we do if they land?
Will 49:27
Yeah, but he was an astronomer and I've big problem with astronomers being on that committee because you know, the number thing the number one thing that astronomers do they look at stars. That's, that's awesome. I love astronomers. They're some of my favourite people.
Rod 49:41
But how many do you know? Name some
Will 49:43
I know a bunch. I'm not gonna name them here.
Rod 49:49
I'm not against astronomers, some of my best friends are astronomers
Rod 49:51
What I'm gonna say is that the interactions with a brand new group of potentially friendly, potentially hostile intelligent species? Yeah, what sorts of people would you want?
Deanna 50:05
I mean, that's why the linguist wasn't on that list.
Will 50:10
So here's the thing I would take, you know, this is what you want you want you want linguists, you probably want military people, you want people who have to have historical understanding of colonial encounters. And people that might be looking at the politics of this and how you might deal with. I just think this idea that people that focus on the physics of it, that's the wrong question.
Rod 50:30
To be fair, I don't think he was the only person I just think there was another guy.
Will 50:35
Here's me diving in with opinions on a place that I think what, who cares about anyone's opinion?
Rod 50:39
I think you do care.
Deanna 50:41
You seem to care a lot because he jumps in a lot, doesn't he?
Rod 50:45
this is actually of the nine half 1000 episodes we've done. This the most excited you've been at the end of any of them. You are welcome.
Will 50:53
Maybe I care
Rod 50:54
I care too, because I want it to be real. And I want aliens because humans are dominating see more interesting, and I want to leave the planet in a way that's safe and comfy and fast.
Will 51:03
Do you want to be a real Dee?
Deanna 51:04
Sure.
Rod 51:05
She knows it's real. Yeah.
Deanna 51:07
Already said before. Weren't you paying attention?
Rod 51:10
Full disclosure, I'm not from around here.
Deanna 51:13
Wink wink, nudge, nudge interpret that as you will.
Will 51:16
The wholesome show is with great regret brought to you by the Australian National Centre for the public awareness of science and not for the public awareness of aliens. But you know, it's a scientific project
Rod 51:28
future PhD students. I'm waiting for you here.
Will 51:31
I've been will grant
Deanna 51:32
Dianna catoe.
Matthew Fong 51:33
Matthew Fong
Rod 51:34
I'm also will grant
