Aliens are real, but we’ll probably never meet them for two big reasons, according to a UFO expert. People have always wondered about life beyond our planet, with discussions on extraterrestrials moving into mainstream discourse at a governmental level in the United States after whistleblowers disclosed their experiences.
Despite the hard work of NASA and insistence from conspiracy theorists that they exist, no one has officially confirmed meeting aliens yet. But that doesn’t stop people from wondering what may or may not exist beyond the stars.
Earlier this month, UFO experts told the Metro that aliens are either dead, don’t exist, or are too far away for us to meet. However, Dr Malcolm Schofield who was interviewed by the Daily Star, disagrees with part of that.
He thinks humanity hasn’t met aliens yet because of two simple factors: space and time.
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Dr Schofield, who teaches Psychology at the University of Derby’s School of Psychology, said: «That they don’t exist would imply that we are the first intelligent life form out there; this, to me, is unlikely. Or they are all dead; this is the idea that every civilisation eventually destroys itself, and the chances of two civilisations overlapping are remote. Also, not very likely.
«That they are too far away seems to be the most likely candidate, given the sheer number of planets, but given the nature of space and time, this encompasses the other two. However, the distance issue presupposes ‘traditional’ travel from other planets, but if it was dimensional travel, that might be different.
«It appears that the odds are against us having an encounter with intelligent life from another planet in our lifetimes.»
Unofficial US documents released last year suggest there’s more out there than we know but nothing’s been confirmed. Dr Schofield, a psychology expert, explained why we keep searching. He compared it to hoping to win the lottery.
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«As humans, we are bad ‘probabilistic reasoners’,» he said. «This doesn’t mean that people who believe in aliens or think they are going to win the lottery are stupid; it means that prior experiences and beliefs skew our thinking regarding low-probability events.
«Given the sheer number of galaxies in the observable universe (around two trillion), surely the odds are more in favour, and we should have bumped into somebody by now. But if that is the case, as (physicist Enrico) Fermi said, ‘Where is everybody?’ Even if we don’t have a confirmed encounter, I think it would be a shame if we stopped looking.»
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