UFOs and Civilized Behavior

SPACE.com has a feature it calls the "SETI Channel" that presents articles or essays concerned with some aspect of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It's a good feature. If I ran a cable science network, I'd make it a regular documentary series. Often, the writer of the articles is Dr. Seth Shostak, senior astronomer of the SETI Institute. This week, for example, Dr. Shostak discusses the abuse he regularly takes from UFO investigators and believers.

As noted in this blog, Larry King's talk show ran a series of programs focusing on UFOs in July. Dr. Shostak played the skeptic on at least two of the programs. In his SETI Channel article, he complains about how he and Bill Nye were treated on the show, and about how he gets abusive emails from the UFO community. He has a point. The King shows did degenerate into personal remarks against Shostak and Nye at times. However, that has become the nature of such shows. When several people are trying to be heard at once, you'll likely get frustrated people saying things they shouldn't. That's what passes for good television these days. That's why Mr. King didn't try too terribly hard to cut the potshots. TV people, seemingly, crave confluct as vampires need warm blood. If Shostak and Nye don't understand that, perhaps they should limit their appearances to more controlled situations.

Dr. Shostak also notes in his article that he can understand the frustrations of UFO investigators who feel their work is not taken seriously by reputable scientists. Mainstream science points out that sixty years after Roswell no physical evidence has ever been brought forward by ufologists. That is true, but it's also true that we don't know what might be turned up if more scientists put more time, energy, and resources into trying to settle this matter once and for all. Ufologists say they have some strong cases. Start there. See what happens.