This week on The Gralien Report Podcast… we were bound to hear about it sooner or later. Billy, one of our listeners in Germany, sent along a troubling video from 2008 that features acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking, who touches on the potential existence of alien life elsewhere in the universe. But at one point, Hawking notes that he excludes UFO reports in his determinations, because UFO witnesses only tend to be “cranks or weirdos.” Why does Micah find this to be one of the most troubling (and ignorant) statements of the otherwise very knowledgeable scientist’s career? Tune in and find out…
The Gralien Report Podcast for June 25, 2012
We also look at a few other past statements Hawking has made, such as his belief that the failures of SETI programs might constitute evidence that humans have never been in direct contact with extraterrestrials, as well as the notion that “philosophy is dead.” And to aid in digestion, we also include a healthy dose of weird news, stories for which we’ve included for you below in this week’s show notes…
Scientists attempt to hack into Stephen Hawking’s brain
Creationists say Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution
New Evidence Supports Cosmic Impact Theory
Why do so many cultures have a Bigfoot?
“Wow” signal getting Twitter response
Image by The Fixer via Flickr.
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To be fair, after we criticized Hawking quite a bit for his rather unfortunate commentary, and even though I tried to joke about it by stating that only cranks & weirdos are the ones REPORTING their sightings, because the other witnesses know better as to risk their career or reputation by going on the record on such a ridiculed field, I realize that my own jest is heavily biased.
No doubt someone like Stanton Friedman would be able to quote by heart all the polls and statistics which indicate that the majority of UFO reports in the United States come from areas where there’s a higher level of education. In other words this would seem to support the idea that folks with a college degree are more likely to report a UFO than, say farmers (to put an example).
But on the other hand, that incidence might just be the result of a difference in life-style, since we do know most UFOs are seen during night time, and perhaps lawyers or engineers can afford to stay up later than hard-working farmers, whose activities remain heavily governed by natural light cycles.
One thing we can be sure of though, is that for every person who has the inclination to publicize their UFO encounter, there are dozens (if not more) of anonymous witness who prefer to relegate their amazing experiences to their most intimate social circle.
Perhaps someone close to Hawking has had a sighting of their own, and he doesn’t even know it.
This was one of my favourite editions yet. I’m all for spontaneity, and that rant near the end had me laughing throughout.