Why do people think there would be mass panic over UFO's?

[Woodbutcher]

The only panic would be American businessmen scrambling to make a buck out of their technology

[A Monkey Shaved]

I was a really UFO nut as a kid and I would not panic but rejoice if an extraterrestrial craft was authentically verified. So I think it would be more like mass celebration than mass panic.

[FBM]

I was a really UFO nut as a kid and I would not panic but rejoice if an extraterrestrial craft was authentically verified. So I think it would be more like mass celebration than mass panic.

More like


Not sure the masses would celebrate, but people like you and me would.

[A Monkey Shaved]

I was a really UFO nut as a kid and I would not panic but rejoice if an extraterrestrial craft was authentically verified. So I think it would be more like mass celebration than mass panic.

More like


Not sure the masses would celebrate, but people like you and me would.

Like this:

The day peace was declared after WW2

[Robert_S]

Of course we would all panic! Why else would there be a massive cover up?

[Coito ergo sum]

...Obviously, if they wanted to attack us, they have had decades to take us by surprise...

"Take us by surprise"? If beings who have attained the level of technology required to conquer interstellar distances were out there and meant us any harm, they could give us three century's advanced warning of their arrival and we'd still end-up getting our vaporised arses handed to us on a plate.

That was, of course, my point.

[Coito ergo sum]

The only panic would be American businessmen scrambling to make a buck out of their technology

...because....non-Americans don't try to make bucks?

[Toontown]

The only panic would be American businessmen scrambling to make a buck out of their technology

...because....non-Americans don't try to make bucks?

That's right, American sinner. We have been "left behind". All non-Americans have seen the light and have been transformed into legions of perfect angels in white robes with halos floating above their heads - unbeknownst to us blind, evil, materialistic, money-grubbing capitalists, who cannot see the halos and know not what has transpired.

[Toontown]

A single interstellar-capable ship could calculatingly nudge an asteroid, and it's game over for the monkeys. That's why it should be illegal for aliens (or unauthorized humans) to lurk around asteroids. But the enforcement of such interstellar turf laws would require the monkeys to step up a notch or two.

But let's face it. The aliens that perfect the creation and precise aiming of gamma ray bursts, rule. We must bow down before them and beg for our monkey lives. Unless we get there first.

Frankly, the yawning chasms of empty space around us may well have been our greatest saving grace (why we're here). If we had been found by spacefaring nomads, we could easily have been converted to frozen monkey meat. Spacefaring nomads gotta eat, you know.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Spacefaring nomads gotta eat, you know.

How do you know this?

[Toontown]

Spacefaring nomads gotta eat, you know.

How do you know this?

I know it as a probability. If you can't "know' things as probabilities, you can't know shit.

Is it absolutely necessary to absolutely "know" something, or else remain silent on the subject? If that is the case, then you can have nothing to say about the possibility of the sun rising in the east tomorrow.

[sandinista]

Spacefaring nomads gotta eat, you know.

How do you know this?

I know it as a probability. If you can't "know' things as probabilities, you can't know shit.

Is it absolutely necessary to absolutely "know" something, or else remain silent on the subject? If that is the case, then you can have nothing to say about the possibility of the sun rising in the east tomorrow.

first time I've agreed with you TT.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Spacefaring nomads gotta eat, you know.

How do you know this?

I know it as a probability. If you can't "know' things as probabilities, you can't know shit.

Is it absolutely necessary to absolutely "know" something, or else remain silent on the subject? If that is the case, then you can have nothing to say about the possibility of the sun rising in the east tomorrow.

So, a race that has conquered the galaxy is into snacking on aliens? Are you getting this from AM Coast-to-Coast?

[Woodbutcher]

The only panic would be American businessmen scrambling to make a buck out of their technology

...because....non-Americans don't try to make bucks?

No, because it just seems obvious that UFOs would land in the States. Would anybody panic if a UFO landed in Iran, I wonder, and if so, why? What would happen? Think about it.

[Toontown]

Spacefaring nomads gotta eat, you know.

How do you know this?

I know it as a probability. If you can't "know' things as probabilities, you can't know shit.

Is it absolutely necessary to absolutely "know" something, or else remain silent on the subject? If that is the case, then you can have nothing to say about the possibility of the sun rising in the east tomorrow.

So, a race that has conquered the galaxy is into snacking on aliens? Are you getting this from AM Coast-to-Coast?

Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware this thread had suddenly become a serious discussion.

But if you want to get seriously pseudo serious - what do we snack on? Technologically inferior creatures that can't fight back?

But spacefaring nomadic bugs would never do that because _________________(fill in the blank)

The probability of creatures snacking on other creatures is, I'm afraid, well established by direct observation.