"I'm afraid if I dig any deeper no one is going to like what I find" - Harison Ford as Jack Ryan in the 1994 film Clear and present Danger.
You can't rule out extraterrestrial visitations.
It has recently been argued that anthropic reasoning applied to inflation theory reinforces the prediction that we should find ourselves part of a large, galaxy-sized civilisation, thereby strengthening Fermi's paradox concerning 'Where are they?' Furthermore, superstring and M-brane theory allow for the possibility of parallel universes, some of which could be habitable. In addition, discussion of such exotic transport concepts as 'traversable wormholes' now appears in the rigorous physics literature. As a result, the 'We are alone' solution to Fermi's paradox, based on the constraints of earlier 20 century viewpoints, appears today to be inconsistent with the new developments in our best current physics and astrophysics theories.
Therefore by reexamining and reevaluating the present assumptions that extraterrestrials or their probes are not in the vicinity of Earth, we should instead seek evidence of their presence in certain high quality UFO reports.
This follows I believe, previous outdated SETI arguments (which are based on SETI incrementalism of a civilization like ours). Interstellar travel for advanced civilizations is not ruled out by the physical principles and therefore may be practicable. Such advanced civilizations may value the search for knowledge from uncontaminated species more than direct, interspecies communication, thereby accounting for apparent covertness regarding their presence.
Despite the UFO phenomenon having continued now for over two generations, the huge technological head start of the presumed ETs would still come as a great shock to many scientists as well as citizenry. It could be so great as to seriously challenge our consensual reality, a not insignificant danger. The implication that we would be powerless relative to their presumed capabilities and evolutionary advantage may be most unwelcome, with it being no surprise that science would have difficulty coming to terms with the situation. The reality of the phenomenon and of our having long since been discovered by advanced ETs now may be more probable than that Fermi's paradox is to be resolved through either the non-existence of advanced ETs or their inability to explore or colonise the galaxy. Progress can come about by open scientific research on the subject with special attention to high quality UFO reports exhibiting apparent indications that ET intelligence and strategy are involved.
There has been scientific instrumented UFO research in the past. For example 'Project Starlight International' was a $1m project coordinated by Ray Stanford in Texas. Stanfords team used optical, radio, radar, magnetometers, gravimeters and applied triangulation methodologies. Magnetometers were distributed in a matrix over a 400 square mile area. They discovered that UFOs had a strong infrared component. Project Identification covered a 6 year programme by the Physics Dept of University of Missouri in the late 1970s. It was coordinated by Dr Harley Rutledge. Both projects got intriguing data that warrented further investigations. In particular they discovered that UFOs were more dominent in the infrared bands of the EM spectrum. However, further funding was not available. Recent times the EMBLA Missions to Hessdalen for the period 2000 to 2003 organised by Norwegian and Italian scientists. Dr Massimo Teodorani (Institute for Radio Astronomy, Medicini, Italy) coordinated the 3 explorative expeditions to Hessdalen. The behaviour of the phenomenon was monitored with optical, radio and radar techniques. The global picture of the phenomenon obtained so far shows that the phenomenon radiant power varies, reaching values up to 19 kW. These changes are caused by sudden surface variations of the illuminated area owing to the appearance of clusters of light balls that behave in a thermally self regulated way. Apparent characteristics are consistent with a solid are strongly suspected from the study of distributions of radiant power. Other anomalious characteristics include the capability to eject smaller light balls, some unidentified frequency shift in the VLF range, and possible depostion of metallic particles. Teodorani could not find a self consistent definitive theory of the phenomenon's nature and origin in all its aspects.
(See Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 18, No 2, pp. 217-251, 2004)
Eamonn A
  