Extra-terrestrials

 An extra-terrestrial is a being  (possibly intelligent) coming to Earth from another planet.  Typically, any “Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence” (SETI) is looking beyond Earth for evidence that there’s a form of intelligent life of which we’re not yet aware.  This in turn involves two questions:  1)  Is there intelligent life beyond Earth? and 2) If so, what is the nature of that intelligence?

The search for intelligent life in the universe is fraught with difficulties.  As Captain Kirk of Star Trek fame observed while on Earth in the Twentieth Century, “Beam me up, Scottie.  There’s no intelligent life down here.”  

     We should be aware that searching for intelligent life is quite a jump, as there is virtually no evidence of any kind of extra-terrestrial life, intelligent or otherwise. 

    Despite this, a clear majority of Americans and/or Europeans believe that yes, there has to be some kind of intelligent life in the universe besides us.

What is the nature of that intelligence?  Many believe that the gods and goddesses of legend are really alien visitors. This being the case we have detailed descriptions from through out the world, including their dysfunctions, archetypal characteristics, and rivalries. 

     Then there are the stories told by the author Zecharia Sitchin in his Earth Chronicles. Purporting to be actual translations of ancient Sumerian records, his stories claim that thousands of years ago extraterrestrials (the Sumerian Anunnaki) spent time on this planet, influencing the development of human beings and in general violating science fiction's  "Prime Directive" to not interfere with less developed planets..Then there are those who accept that there are other species of extraterrestrials communicating with us today -. the Syrians, the Pleiadians, the Orions, the Grey’s, the Reptilians, the Morks.

     Despite all the literature - mostly of a highly questionable nature, we have no facts to support the existence of extraterrestrial intelligent life. 

    UFOs ( “Unidentified Flying Objects”) present a real can of worms Again, there seems precious little evidence to suggest that any UFOs actually seen are operated by extraterrestrials.

     There are also events and on-going experiences throughout the world, which have not been satisfactorily explained by any generally known pehenomena. This makes is easy to assume that someone (possibly extraterrestrial or extradimensional) is operating with something beyond state-of-the art technology (or at least technologies which are not known to Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, or other unclassified sources of information. 

     This is only an assumption. But given the apparent efforts by various governments to write off any hint of the existence of extraterrestrials, it is difficult not to come to the conclusion that there is something going on.  It is said that our government has something known as "Space Law" which forbids contact between humans and extraterrestrials. If true, this raises a number of questions.

   Ultimately, we have only incomplete information and inadequate explanations.