Inflation Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation.pdf

Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraerrestrial Visitation

Inflation-Theory Implications for

Extraterrestrial Visitation

J. DEARDORFF 1 , B. HAISCH 2 , B. MACCABEE 3 AND H.E. PUTHOFF 4

1. 1689 S.W. Knollbrook Pl., Corvallis, Oregon 97333, USA.

2. National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), Post Office Box 1535,

Vallejo, California, USA.

3. Fund for UFO Research, Post Office Box 277, Mt Rainier, Maryland, 20712, USA.

4. Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, 4030 W. Braker Ln., Suite 300, Austin, Texas 78759, USA.

Email: puthoff@earthtech.org

It has recently been argued that anthropic reasoning applied to inflation theory reinforces the prediction that

we should find ourselves part of a large, galaxy-sized civilisation, thus strengthening Fermi’s paradox concern-

ing “Where are they?” Furthermore, superstring and M-brane theory allow for the possibility of parallel

universes, some of which in principle could be habitable. In addition, discussion of such exotic transport

concepts as “traversable wormholes” now appears in the rigorous physics literature. As a result, the “We are

alone” solution to Fermi’s paradox, based on the constraints of earlier 20 th century viewpoints, appears today

to be inconsistent with new developments in our best current physics and astrophysics theories. Therefore we

reexamine and reevaluate the present assumption that extraterrestrials or their probes are not in the vicinity of

Earth, and argue instead that some evidence of their presence might be found in certain high-quality UFO

reports. This study follows up on previous arguments that (1) interstellar travel for advanced civilizations is not

a priori ruled out by physical principles and therefore may be practicable, and (2) such advanced civilis a tions

may value the search for knowledge from uncontaminated species more than direct, interspecies communica-

tion, thereby accounting for apparent covertness regarding their presence.

Keywords: Fermi paradox, extraterrestrial hypothesis, extraterrestrial visitation, UFO phenomenon, Condon

Report, SETI

1. Introduction

The ever recurring question of why Earth has seem-

ingly not been visited by extraterrestrials (ETs) has

received considerable discussion under the topic of

‘Fermi’s paradox’. The problem originated as a quip

by Enrico Fermi to colleagues in Los Alamos over

lunch one day in 1950. Whether one assumes the

existence of only one other civilisation or of many

alien civilisations in our Milky Way galaxy, and whether

one assumes colonisation involving interstellar travel

at near-light speed or far below, diffusion modeling

predicts colonisation or at least visitation of all hab-

itable planets in the galaxy on timescales of tens of

millions of years, far less than the approximate 13 x

10 9 year age of the galaxy itself. Thus the paradox:

Where are they [1]?

theory are correct, there could be inhabited universes

separated from our own by minute, orthogonal dis-

tances. Also, anthropic reasoning has recently been

applied to inflation theory, arriving once again at the

conclusion that we should find ourselves within an

enormously larger galactic civilisation [3]. While the

‘We are alone’ solution to Fermi’s paradox was once

a seemingly valid one, this answer is now incompat-

ible with the infinite universe and random self-sam-

pling assumption consistent with inflation theory. We

thus find ourselves in the curious position that cur-

rent cosmological theory predicts that we should be

experiencing extraterrestrial visitation. At the same

time, current physics and astrophysics suggest that

such visitation may not be as impossible as had been

thought.

Theoretical possibilities unknown to Fermi make

the paradox even stronger today. One can now ra-

tionally conjecture about prospects afforded by ad-

jacent M-brane universes [2]. Indeed, if the

multidimensions underlying superstring and M-brane

2. Recent Scientific Advances

In recent astronomical discoveries, over 100

exoplanets have been catalogued, with detection

JBIS, Vol. 58, pp. 43-50, 2005

J. Deardorff, B. Haisch, B. Maccabee and H.E. Puthoff

sensitivity now increased to the point where, in one

instance, a Jupiter-sized planet was deduced to be

in a Jupiter-like orbit around a Sol-like star [4]. In the

field of exobiology, much recent activity suggests

that some of the building blocks for life may originate

in space as well as be transported by meteorites [5-

6]. The possibility of widespread panspermia has

received new impetus [7-8]. These findings and stud-

ies make plausible the hypothesis that there is intelli-

gent life elsewhere in the universe. This is, of course,

the fundamental assumption made by the proponents

of SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

using microwave or optical means of detection.

this would open the possibility of a different type of

metric engineering in which the dielectric properties

of the vacuum might be altered in such a way as to

raise the local propagation velocity of light. In effect

one would be creating a local index of refraction of

less than unity [15].

Finally, there is the conjectured possibility of mak-

ing use of the additional dimensionalities of M-brane

and superstring theory to transfer into adjacent uni-

verses where the speed of light limit may be quite

different and reentering our universe at the desired

location. This is by far the most speculative possibil-

ity.

The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), that intelli-

gent life from ‘elsewhere’ in the universe could be

visiting Earth, has become less implausible through

suggestions that the velocity-of-light constraint—

‘they can’t get here from there’—is not as restricting

as had been assumed previously. This restriction

has its origin in the special theory of relativity, which

we do not question. However, within the context of

general relativity (GR) there are three approaches

which may permit legitimately bypassing this limit,

given sufficiently advanced (perhaps by millions of

years!) knowledge of physics and technology.

Clearly when it comes to engineering warp drive

or wormhole solutions, seemingly insurmountable ob-

stacles emerge, such as unattainable energy require-

ments [16] or the need for exotic matter [17]. Thus, if

success is to be achieved, it must rest on some yet

unforeseen breakthrough about which we can only

speculate, such as a technology to cohere otherwise

random vacuum fluctuations [18]. Nonetheless, the

possibility of reduced-time interstellar travel by ad-

vanced extraterrestrial (ET) civilis a tions is not, as

naive consideration might hold, fundamentally ruled

out by presently known physical principles. ET knowl-

edge of the physical universe may comprise new

principles which allow some form of FTL travel. This

possibility is to be taken seriously, since the average

age of suitable stars within the ‘galactic habitable

zone’, in which the Earth also resides, is found to be

about 10 9 years older than the sun [19] suggesting

the possibility of civilizations extremely advanced

beyond our own.

One approach popularis e d by Thorne and Sagan

concerns the possibility of wormholes, or cosmic

subways, a form of shortcut through the space-time

metric [9]. Using the standard GR as a basis, certain

mathematical requirements for traversable worm-

holes have been derived and published in the scien-

tific literature and it appears that there is the possi-

bility of engineering a wormhole metric, at least in

principle [10].

A second more recent approach published in the

GR literature has been dubbed the ‘Alcubierre Warp

Drive’ [11-12]. Unlike the speed of light limit through

space, there is no limit to the speed at which space

itself might stretch. Faster than light (FTL) relative

motion is part of inflation theory, and presumably the

universe beyond the Hubble distance is receding

from us faster than c . It was shown that a spaceship

contained in a volume of Minkowski space could in

principle make use of FTL expansion of space-time

behind and a similar contraction in front, with the

inconvenience of time dilation and untoward

accelerations being overcome. A related approach

involves constructing a ‘Krasnikov tube’ [13] to con-

nect spatially remote locales. Of course so-called

exotic matter would be required for either case.

There are further reasons why the ‘We are alone’

solution to Fermi’s paradox should perhaps be set

aside in favor of the ETH. A previously preferred

solution, that biogenesis is an exceedingly rare event

in conjunction with both panspermia and interstellar

travel being inoperative [1], is now scarcely tenable

in light of the cosmological considerations already

discussed. The ETH appears to be the most viable

remaining solution, where ‘ET’ is taken in a general

non-Earthly sense that could include extra-dimen-

sional realms, as in M-brane and superstring theory.

Given the highly advanced ET science and technol-

ogy to be expected in considerably older civilisa-

tions, coupled with the many observational reports

since WWII of highly advanced technology seem-

ingly operating at will within Earth’s skies, it is only

logical to search for evidence of ET visitations in at

least a fraction of the ongoing, unexplainable re-

ports popularly referred to as ‘UFO sightings.’ Re-

luctance to do so could result in our failure to realize

If GR itself were to be reinterpreted in terms of a

polarisable vacuum as first proposed by Dicke [14],

Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation

that observations of ‘genuine’ ET visitations have

been occurring. This approach, which we follow here,

explores the likelihood that ‘we actually do belong to

a large civilisation but are unaware of that fact’ [3].

ued investigation probably would not find anything

truly new in the future. The Report recommended

that the Air Force end its investigation project, which

it did in late 1969.

3. U.S. Air Force Response

(1947-1969)

4. The Condon Report (1968)

Reports of unknown objects in the skies, appearing

as some sort of flying craft and exhibiting extraordi-

nary manoeuvres, first became known to the general

public in 1947. The first publicised sighting occurred

on June 24 of that year, after which there were many

hundreds of sightings during the following months.

The phenomenon has been continuing ever since

[20-24].

In the late 1960’s, the U.S. Air Force issued a con-

tract to the University of Colorado to carry out a

scientific study of evidence concerning the UFO phe-

nomenon. The director of the project was Prof.

Edward U. Condon, a distinguished and influential

physicist who made no secret of his opinion even at

the outset that no substantive evidence for extrater-

restrial visitation was liable to result. The study was

relatively brief (2 years) and had a notably low budget

(app. $500K) for a serious scientific study. When the

Condon Report was released in 1968, the American

scientific community accepted its apparently nega-

tive conclusion concerning evidence for extraterres-

trial visitation in a generally uncritical way, and to

some extent even an enthusiastic way since it of-

fered an end to a troublesome situation. An endorse-

ment of the Report by the National Academy of Sci-

ences took place following an unusually rapid review

and the Air Force quickly used the Report as a justifi-

cation to terminate any further public involvement

with the topic.

At first the U.S. Air Force collected the sighting

reports for analysis in its operation Project Sign

(1948-1949). This was succeeded by Project Grudge

(1949-1952) and then Project Blue Book (1952-1969)

[20,25]. Some 20% of Project Blue Book’s sightings

from 1953-1965 were left unexplained, if their ‘insuf-

ficient data’ category is included [22]. The Battelle

Memorial Institute (BMI; Columbus, Ohio) discovered,

in their study of 3,201 reports from 1947 through

1952, that the percentage of unknowns (unexplain-

able sightings) increased with increasing quality of

the sighting information and reliability of the observ-

ers [21]. A surprisingly high percentage, 30%, of the

civilian sightings, and an even more surprising 38%,

of the military sightings rated as excellent in quality

were listed as unknown. On the other hand, only

about 15% of the civilian and 20% of the military

sightings rated as poor were unknown. The increase

in the percentage of unknowns with increasing qual-

ity of the report is an unexpected result if sightings

were all explainable as mistakes (failure to correctly

identify the sighted phenomenon) by either the

observer(s) or the scientists who analysed the

sightings. In this collection of 3,201 sightings none

were listed as hoaxes and only 1.5% were listed as

caused by psychological effects. This result discov-

ered during the several year long BMI study refutes

the claim, made in the Condon Report [22], that UFO

reports are from ‘less well informed individuals,’ who

are ‘not necessarily reliable.’ It is worthy of note that

Condon had access to the results of the BMI study

but there is no reference to it in the Condon Report.

The negative conclusion of the Report is more

apparent than real however, since there is a sub-

stantial discrepancy between the conclusion in the

“Summary of the Study” written by Condon single-

handedly, and the conclusion one could reasonably

draw from the evidence presented in the main body

of the Report. Such a dichotomy was possible be-

cause the study was a project for which the director,

Condon, had sole authority; it was not the work of a

committee whose members would have to reach some

consensus conclusion. An analysis of the Condon

Report by Sturrock [26] details the many disagree-

ments between Condon’s dismissive summary and

the actual data.

Given the thousand-page length of the Report,

one can safely assume that very few in the scientific

community would have devoted the time necessary

to read the entire document. The impact of the Re-

port was thus largely due to Condon’s leveraging his

prestigious scientific reputation into an acceptance

of his own personal views as representing the ap-

parent outcome of a scientific investigation. Indeed,

as Sturrock documents, Condon actually took no part

in the investigations and indicated the conclusion he

intended to draw well before the data were properly

examined, hardly a scientific approach.

Project Blue Book culminated in 1969 with the

government sponsored Condon Report [22]. In the

opening section of the Report its director concluded

that, after years of investigation, the U.S. Air Force

had found nothing truly new—nothing that supported

claims of new physics or the ETH—and that contin-

J. Deardorff, B. Haisch, B. Maccabee and H.E. Puthoff

The portion of the Condon Report that contains its

sighting analyses does not support the “Summary of

the Study” written by Condon [26]. Many of the events

presented within its Case Studies section do fall into

the ‘unidentified’ category of UFOs, for which the

Report’s definition was, in essence: ‘A puzzling stimu-

lus for a report of something seen in the sky or landed

on the earth that could not be identified as having an

ordinary natural origin.’ In a detailed review of this

Report, however, it was noted that ‘The sheer bulk of

the report, much of it “scientific padding”, cannot

conceal from anyone who studies it closely that it

examines only a tiny fraction of the really puzzling

UFO reports, and that its scientific argumentation is

often unsatisfactory. Of roughly ninety cases that it

specifically confronts, more than thirty are conceded

to be unexplained’ [27]. Four of the cases, reanalysed

and reported in detail at the 1969 AAAS Symposium,

disclosed how unscientific the Condon Report’s treat-

ment of them had been; the reanalyses have since

gone unrefuted. Hence we cannot agree with the

Condon Report’s assertion that the phenomenon pro-

vides no new subjects for science to explore, given

that many sightings were left unexplained. Further-

more, in many of the cases that the Report claimed

to have identified, that goal was achieved merely

through assuming that the witnesses had seen some-

thing differing in detail from what they had reported.

Also, a committee of the American Institute of Aero-

nautics and Astronautics in 1971 found ‘it difficult to

ignore the small residue of well-documented but un-

explainable cases that form the hard core of the UFO

controversy’[28]. Clearly, the Condon Report was

left in an unsatisfactory state [20,24-26,29-30].

sightings since then have become available for ex-

amination. Scientists should not feel reluctant to

study these inasmuch as the Report’s executive sum-

mary stated that ‘any scientist with adequate train-

ing and credentials who does come up with a clearly

defined, specific proposal for study [of UFO reports]

should be supported.’

One example of sightings worth studying are those

that occurred on December 31, 1978 off the north-

east coast of South Island, New Zealand. These in-

volved several channels of information recorded on

tape and film during the sightings, correlated visual

air- and ground-radar detections and light phenom-

ena recorded on colour movie film as well as reports

by the eight witnesses who were involved. Analysis

of the recorded data and of the witness testimony

indicates that unknown objects emitting bright light

were detected on radar, filmed and apparently moved

in response to the motions of the airplane carrying

the witnesses. The sightings have defied all mun-

dane explanations [31-32].

Some investigations of unexplainable sightings

have been sponsored by governments outside the

U.S. Since 1977 the French Space Agency has car-

ried out an official investigation of UFO reports with

its project GEPAN, later called SEPRA. In the Bel-

gium sighting wave of 1989-90, civilian and military

officials cooperated in sharing eyewitness, radar and

video-image data of triangular-shaped craft.

5.2 Withheld Information Now Available

The primary conclusion of the Condon panel side-

stepped the main issue, the failure to explain every

sighting, by saying: ‘The evidence presented on Uni-

dentified Flying Objects shows no indication that

these phenomena constitute a direct physical threat

to national security’ [22]. This is not inconsistent,

however, with some fraction of unexplained reports

representing actual ET visitations.

The Condon investigators did not have full access to

the information and analysis compiled previously by

the U.S. Air Force Office of Intelligence (AFOIN) or to

all the information collected by Project Blue Book.

Much of this information has been disclosed in the

years since 1968. The information release has come

about on five fronts. First, the U.S. Air Force released

the complete files of Project Blue Book in 1975. This

release included the previously unavailable files of

the Air Force Office of Special Investigation (AFOSI).

Second, the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, which

went into effect in the mid 1970s, resulted in the

release of relevant information from other agencies

(Federal Bureau of Investigation: FBI, in 1977; Cen-

tral Intelligence Agency: CIA, in 1978; etc.), though

often in a censored form [23-24].

5. Re-Evaluation of the

Phenomenon Needed

5.1 Sightings Since the Condon Report

The self-inconsistency of the Condon Report, along

with the strengthening of Fermi’s paradox through

recent developments in cosmology, physics, as-

tronomy and astrobiology, are but two reasons to

reevaluate the UFO phenomenon. Another reason is

that remarkable sightings did not cease with the pub-

lication of the Condon Report in 1969. Many detailed

A third new source of information is the collection of

previously withheld reports and analyses carried out

by the AFOIN in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This

information has been released in the last 20 years as a

result of standard declassification requirements for

Inflation-Theory Implications for Extraterrestrial Visitation

old documents. It shows that Air Force intelligence

privately concluded that as many as 5% of the sightings

were unexplainable even though they were apparently

accurate reports made by credible observers, thus

contradicting the public statements of the Air Force

that all sightings could be explained. The documents

provide an explanation as to why Air Force intelligence

told the FBI in August and again in October, 1952, that

some top Air Force officials were seriously considering

the ‘interplanetary’ explanation [33].

tic phrases like ‘little green men’ and ‘UFO buffs’,

then gradually weaned themselves away from the

topic—reporters, editors and corporate owners fear

ridicule, whether just or unjust, as much as do scien-

tists and politicians. The refusal of the U.S. Air Force

in the 1950s and 1960s to release sighting data it

had collected only added to the problem, since evi-

dence collected by the government was not avail-

able to support the witnesses [33].

Fourth, governments of countries other than the

United States, over the last 25 years, have released

relevant information collected by their armed services

and police. Not only has the French government, through

GEPAN and SEPRA, released sighting documents but

also England’s Ministry of Defense recently released a

number of documents. The governments of Spain and

Canada also released documents in the 1970s and

1980s. Moreover, some governments besides that of

France have official investigative groups on this topic.

In 1997, in response to civilian and military sightings

over the previous years, the Chilean Air Force formed

the Committee for the Study of Anomalous Phenomena

(acronym, CEFAA in Spanish) directed by a former Air

Force general and headquartered in the Technical

School of Aeronautics in Santiago. One of us

(Maccabee) was invited to Chile in 1999 to lecture at a

symposium sponsored by the CEFAA and to discuss

the sightings. The Peruvian Air Force set up a similar

group in 2001. Brazil and Uruguay also have compara-

ble investigative groups.

The first director of the CIA assessed the situa-

tion in 1960 as follows: ‘Behind the scenes, high-

ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned

about UFOs. But, through official secrecy and ridi-

cule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown

flying objects are nonsense… to hide the facts, the

Air Force has silenced its personnel’ [35]. The Condon

Report also added to the problem, since it demon-

strated that men of science could simply allege that

witnesses are mistaken or dishonest and they would

be believed by most of their colleagues even though

they had no evidence to back up their allegations.

This in turn led to greater reluctance on the part of

witnesses to come forward. As a result, ‘the most

credible UFO witnesses are often those most reluc-

tant to come forward with a report of the event they

have witnessed’ [27]. This ridicule factor has pre-

vented many serious investigators from even attempt-

ing to report their findings within the journals pre-

ferred by most scientists. Therefore, one of the rec-

ommendations made by the moderator of a 1997

panel of scientists is that journal editors should

change their policy of refusing to even seriously con-

sider publishing articles related to the UFO phenom-

enon, so that this difficulty may be alleviated [36].

A fifth new source of information not available or

utilised by the Condon group consists of the many

witnesses to events in the 1940-1960 decades who

had worked for the government or the military and

after reaching retirement age, have come forward to

divulge their first-hand knowledge [34]. They have

felt it was more important for the citizens to know

what has been taking place than to continue to obey

instructions to maintain silence about it. A reluc-

tance to report UFO events arose because of a cur-

tain of ridicule which, since the 1950s, had settled

over the subject. It was induced in part by the CIA ’s

1953 Robertson panel that recommended a debunk-

ing programme against the reality of the phenom-

enon [20,22-23].

6. Inferring an ET Strategy

If one allows that at least some unexplainable

sightings may be manifestations of extraterrestrial

intelligence, then there is yet another reason for

reevaluation: a growing recognition over the past

two decades that a large part of the behavior mani-

fested can be viewed as being quite rational. The

topic of ET behavior has received considerable dis-

cussion in connection with SETI in the past three

decades. SETI has proceeded on the assumption

that Fermi’s paradox is to be solved through contin-

ued and enhanced searching of the sky for electro-

magnetic signals indicative of ET communications

[37]. Several possible reasons for lack of success to

date have been proposed [1,37-38].

The debunking is most often implemented by an

authority figure asserting, at his own volition and

without interviewing the witnesses, that whatever

was observed and reported as extraordinary was

instead the misidentification of something mundane.

This is demeaning to sincere, credible witnesses.

The major news media quickly picked up on sarcas-

Since the 1970s advocates of a covert ET pres-

ence in our vicinity have also been advancing their

hypotheses or scenarios. They reject as improbable

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