"Alien invasion"

Dear readers

At the weekend, Adelaide experienced a very unusual Summer severe thunderstorm, with torrential rain.

Today's post:

The other day, a most unusual book turned up at my local library. Titled "Alien Invasion: How to Defend Earth" it is written by Travis S Taylor ( click here) and Bob Boan (click here)  and  published by Baen Books of Riverdale, NY. 2011. ISBN 978-1-4391-3442-9. (See Amazon click here.)

It is a serious look at the likelihood of an alien attack on Earth; their possible motivation in doing so, and the likely end results. The discussion is laced with calculations and deeply thought out debate.

Section 5.1, titled "How we Handled ET in the Past" was of interest to me. "The reactions of the Earth's governments to reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or "flying saucers," may give us an indication of how those governments would respond to the reconnaissance phase of an invasion from space..." (p.141.)

The authors pose three questions:

"1.Was it reasonable to think that the report had 'defence significance' (to use a favourite term of the British Ministry of Defence)?

2. If so, did the military and government authorities in possession of the report recognize this significance?

3. If they did, did they take appropriate action?" (p.142.)

The authors conclude:

"...we gave examples from Projects Sign, Grudge, Blue Book, and others as to how not to handle such things. The known public information about the UFO investigation programs conducted by the US government in the past were not motivated by a best response to the potential ET threat rather than some sort of public appeasement agenda. Whatever the agenda of those programs, they were not handled in a way that seems best for a real alien threat." (pp.153-154.)

Comment:

If you have never given serious thought to the possibility of alien invasion, then this book is guaranteed to get you thinking.