If some UAP are nonhuman technology, they might belong to an autonomous system stationed near Earth long ago. It would need no repeated interstellar trips; its creators could be distant, absent, or extinct. SETI research offers precedents, but an observer would not by itself prove an ancient factory, a protective mission, or an ability to influence consciousness. 1. A presence that outlives its creators The Sentinel Probe Hypothesis proposes that a nonhuman system reached our solar system and...

Suppose there are other planets where life began and that it followed something like a Darwinian evolution (which needen’t be the case). Even then, it’s highly unlikely that the progression of intelligence and technology would happen at exactly the same pace as on Earth. If it lagged significantly behind, then that planet would plainly reveal no evidence of extraterrestrial life to our radio telescopes. But around a star older than the Sun, life could have had a head start of a billion years...

If some UAP represent nonhuman technology, they might be equipment belonging to an autonomous system stationed near Earth long ago. A persistent observer could deploy vehicles, maintain itself, and respond to changes in the biosphere without biological crews repeatedly crossing interstellar space. Published SETI research supplies precedents for this architecture. Local factories, ancient residence, defensive intervention, and neural interfaces require separate evidence. The test is whether ob...

[Retweeted] Durham University professor and the Chair in Global Law and SETI Policy Michael Bohlander joins Dr. Peter Skafish of the Sol Foundation for a wide-ranging discussion of the legal questions surrounding UAP. They examine why classified claims remain so difficult to verify publicly, how secrecy can create constitutional and evidentiary problems, and why courts offer a different framework for evaluating witness testimony than the natural sciences. Most interestingly, Bohlander shares...

The next major search for extraterrestrial intelligence might involve putting Moon dust under a microscope rather than pointing a radio telescope toward the stars. A new study led by SETI Institute Affiliate Scientist Lewis Pinault proposes searching lunar regolith for microscopic particles that could represent the surviving debris of extraterrestrial technology. Such material might have drifted between stars for millions or billions of years before eventually reaching the Moon. submitted by...

Official Study: Micron-Scale Technosignatures: How a Cubic Metre of Lunar Regolith May Begin to Constrain the Number of Past Technological Civilisations in the Galaxy “The Moon has been quietly accumulating material from space for billions of years, much of it likely billions of years older than the Moon itself,” Dr. Pinault said. “We’re asking whether that ancient collection might contain microscopic traces of technologies that existed long before humans ever looked up at the sky.” “Unlike E...

RT @MaxDerakhshani: When one of SETI Institute's scientists proposes there could be alien debris on the Moon, @nytimes laps it up. But when…

RT @MaxDerakhshani: When one of SETI Institute's scientists proposes there could be alien debris on the Moon, @nytimes laps it up. But when…