NATO officers: Aliens have tried to de-activate nukes

In theory, the only technological-advantage they would have is their means of propulsion.

With the sole exception of a means of propulsion that could get us to another star in a reasonable period of time, human technology is ALREADY capable of building an interstellar spacecraft (except that it wouldn't go anywhere ). And there's plenty of stuff on paper, just waiting to be tried out in reality as regards propulsion. Personally, I'd be very surprised if a human-build spacecraft of some type hasn't embarked on a journey to another star before the end of this century.

The technology used by aliens visiting Earth may actually be no more than a few decades ahead of ours, in some cases, and more only be equal to ours in others. For example, I'd bet their supposed ability (and intention) to shut down nuclear missiles as reported in the article mentioned above was nothing of the sort: I'd put money on it that there was nothing wrong with the missiles themselves; their (less protected) launch control systems were suffering from electromagnetic interference, which could simply be a by-product of some UFO propulsion system; "they" may simply have been having a look, and affected the systems without even knowing. But, even if there was malicious intent, better EM shielding would likely stop any such interference immediately.

In fact, if you look at the reported history of confrontation between UFOs and humans, it suggests our existing military technology would give us a pretty good fighting chance in any supposed "War of the Worlds"-type attack on us.

Personally, I'll explode with joy the day I can scream "Die, alien scum!" for real.

Maybe they're intergalactic hippy aliens, who only visited our planet to collect marijuana leaves, cigarette papers and Crosby, Stills & Nash CDs. And then just disarmed a few nukes as a "protest gesture".

There IS a theory that that is who they are, and another that they are from a parallel universe. There is even one that says they are in the same plane with us in a kind of balanced reality.

But there ARE two theories as to how the planets keep everything in balance and hum along rather consistently. In either case, the earth is like a cartilage disk in the vertebra of an animal. One out of place may cause NO problem! Eventually, however, it could bring down the largest of animals. Maybe they don't care about us, the environment, or even the planet, but about the disruption that could occur if it is destroyed. And how much work is required to deactivate ONE missile? If I had the power to do so with immunity, and were an unknown foe, I might deactivate a few in the major "think tank" areas to try to get the idea across.

Steve

Sidebar:

One thing to keep in mind when we fantasize about traveling to other worlds is that the human body can withstand 3 G's for only an hour. After that the G forces have to return to a lower level. We can withstand 5 G's for only two minutes.

So to get to any appreciable speed you would need a year or more of constant acceleration to get up to speed. That's a lot of fuel because things like solar wind fade as the distance increases from the source.

The same holds true for deceleration, and because of Newton's First Law of Motion you need fuel to slow the spaceship down (think retro rockets).

The bottom line is the laws of physics present a far greater hurdle than the human imagination and its' need for romantic ideas can surmount. That's not to say progress won't continue to be made from a technical standpoint, only that at some juncture an inevitable point of diminishing returns is reached.

I'm sure the same human ego that has held steadfast to the idea that we are the only life in the universe will someday switch to the idea that we have progressed beyond the laws of physics and the inherent limitations they hold. But that viewpoint may only be as valid as the one that proclaimed the Earth was flat.

If you really want a glimpse into the potential of what the most technologically advanced societies can really accomplish you need look no further than our response to Katrina. That's where the rubber met the road...

~Bill