Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

Spoofing and Secrecy
clarified, and I did not hear from Spiro T. Agnew.)
A 1969 study by the National Academy of Sciences, while
recognizing that there are reports 'not easily explained', concluded
that 'the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis
of extraterrestrial visitations by intelligent beings'. Think of how
many other 'explanations' there might be: time travellers; demons
from witchland; tourists from another dimension - like Mr
Mxyztplk (or was it Mxyzptlk? I always forget) from the land of
Zrfff in the Fifth Dimension in the old Superman comic books; the
souls of the dead; or a 'noncartesian' phenomenon that doesn't
obey the rules of science or even of logic. Each of these 'explanations'
has in fact been seriously proffered. 'Least likely' is really
saying something. This rhetorical excess is an index of how
distasteful the whole subject has become to many scientists.
It's telling that emotions can run so high on a matter about
which we really know so little. This is especially true of the more
recent flurry of alien abduction reports. After all, if true, either
hypothesis - invasion by sexually manipulative extraterrestrials or
an epidemic of hallucinations - teaches us something we certainly
ought to know about. Maybe the reason for strong feelings is that
both alternatives have such unpleasant implications.
Aurora
The number of reports and their consistency suggest that
there may be some basis for these sightings other than
hallucinogenic drugs.
Mystery Aircraft
report, Federation of American Scientists
20 August, 1992
Aurora is a high-altitude, extremely secret American
reconnaissance aircraft, a successor to the U-2 and the
SR-71 Blackbird. It either exists or it doesn't. By 1993, there
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