From: mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu (Robert McGrath)
Subject: Re: UFOs and abductions
Reply-To: mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept of Computer Science
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 17:38:59 GMT

In article <1992Aug12.183223.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu>, jtulli@eagle.wesleyan.edu writes:
|> In article <1992Aug12.215131.24898@m.cs.uiuc.edu>, mcgrath@cs.uiuc.edu (Robert 
|> McGrath) writes:
|>  
|> > "Cover up" ALL physical traces, on ALL wavelengths?  And be able to
|> > selectively blot out human memories at will?  Able to sneak about 
|> > human society snarfing up and returning people with noone ever 
|> > seeing them?  Etc.  Very remarkable indeed!
|> 
|> they wouldn't have to cover up all traces on all wavelengths; only those which
|> humans are capable of perceiving.
Humans, with the aid of instruments, can detect an awfully wide range of
wavelegnths!  The point is not that there might be somethings not
detectable, but that we can routinely detect so much that it would
be a chore to avoid sensors.  E.g., almost all physical processes
produce waste heat which lingers quite a while.  It is very difficult
to prevent such emissions--note the elaborate and expensive "stealth"
technology which reduces but hardly eliminates such emissions.

|> > Sure.  Lots of people have considered this possibility.  Science
|> > fiction has been full of interesting speculations along these lines
|> > for more than half a century.  Those of us who have given it 
|> > SERIOUS consideration realize the difficulty of the proposed
|> > abilities.
|> 
|> i'll bite.  why are they so difficult?
To take my examples above:

1.  To avoid detection on all wavelengths that humans routinely scan
requires two things:  
    a) Some method of preventing radiation from bouncing off an object,
    to prevent creating both a reflection and a shadow.
    b)  Some method of preventing the emission of all matter and
    energy.

b is hard, a is almost inconceivable!

2.  Inducing selective amnesia.   Amnesia just doesn't work the way
most "abduction" stories would have it.  Human memory is not like
a video tape, where you can just clip out 18 minutes without disturbing
anything else.  REAL amnesia is a tangled mess, because humans normally
can detect a lost memory, or sometimes will unconsciously "fill-in"
missing details, distort other recollections to be consistent with
the missing data.  And so on.

3.  Snatching people without being noticed.  Whether or not the aliens
can be "invisible", the people they snatch were DEFINITELY not.  Just 
how could you snatch people without anyone noticing?  Very few people
are so isolated that noone would notice their abduction.  Many
reported cases are difficult to swallow--just how could people be
snatched from their own home without their family noticing they 
were gone?

|> > The question is, of course, not whether such things are conceivable, but
|> > whether such things have actually happenned!
|> 
|> yes, but i am simply using a hypothetical (or is it?) situation to make the
|> point that just because there is no "concrete" evidence of such alien activity,
|> that does not necessarily mean that said activity is not going on.
|> 
|> > Has anyone out there ever considered that humans capable of lying-
|> > to-their-parents-about-where-they-were-last-night when they were
|> > teenagers might also be able to think up abductions about aliens 
|> > that somehow were able to leave no traces at all?
|> 
|> yes, but what would be their motivation?  to allege alien abduction is to risk
|> being ostracized.  yes, maybe it would sell a few books but i've found that
|> human nature is to tell the truth unless one feels backed into a corner.
You must be dealing with an entirely different species of humans than
I am! :-)  People fib all the time, usually for reasons that make little
sense to anyone but themselves.

There are lots of possibilities:
  -for the sheer pleasure of telling stories
  -to feel part of a larger pattern
  -to get attention
  -to fit in with or please friends
  -to cover up or explain something else, e.g., a personally painful 
   experience, perhaps even a REAL rape
  -to explain some confusing or apparently inexplicable experience,
   such as an out-of-body experience, or vivid dream or vision
  -to show those stupid scientists/scoffers/skeptics like that Bob McGrath
   guy that they aren't so smart

If you really want to consider these questions, I suggest you read
up on remote-sensing and related topics, and learn something about
normal and abnormal psychology.  And read some science fiction!