Letter to Aliens
Should the US Government Be Betting on Exploration of UFOs?
The question of what unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) are has piqued public interest to such an extent that NASA administrator Bill Nelson has stated that his agency will endeavor to provide us an answer. However, two less impassioned questions should be pre-requisites to the dedication of public resources. First, if we tried, would we ever be able to figure out what UAP are in a way that we would understand? And second, so what if we did?
Were scientists merely putting their own time and energy to the question, I would gladly cheer them on. Bravo! After all, who doesn’t root for the underdog? But betting money on the underdog is a different matter, especially when it comes to the wager of other people’s money.
To be clear-eyed, our world’s best scientists are nothing more than underdogs in this endeavor. I would much rather bet on the favorite, the visitors. Ask yourself, which seems more likely, that we suddenly make such advancements in technology due to some government program that we figure out how to communicate with them (one in a gazillion), or that they suddenly decide to communicate with us (one in a mazillion)? Now ask yourself, which bet costs you less, the government program (a bazillion) or waiting (nothing)?
Let me make my case for waiting on the favorite. First, consider the difference in technology between us and a life form from another solar system. They know how to get from there to here. According to our existing science, we believe it is impossible — much less knowable, much-much less achievable — for them to have gotten here. Second, consider the difference in knowledge. They know all about us; we don’t even know whether they exist.
In fairness, it’s also unlikely the favorite is going to come through for me. Consider the difference in interest level. We are convulsed in wonderment, begging for relative crumbs of information. They have arrived and, adding insult to insult, are incommunicado about the whole affair. We’re going to have to face facts: They’re just not that into us. What do we have to teach them? Is it more than our scientists learn from studying bugs? Would a human entomologist call bugs’ dedication of communal resources to communicating with us a good idea?
Maybe you’re not convinced that waiting for the favorite is a likely winning ticket. Ok, let me make my case for sitting out this race. Let’s say you pick a winning horse by throwing a fazillion dollars at the right California laboratory, and we are able to figure out what they are. So now what are you going to do about it? How is our strategic approach to them going to change with that information? If they were hostile, this letter wouldn’t have had time to have been published. If they wanted to communicate, you would be reading their stuff instead of mine. The only meaningful winning outcome to the public investment strategy is that we somehow glean from them information that they have not already decided they want us to have. I don’t even know what to say about that . . . which I believe makes my case.
Waiting isn’t easy. And waiting is not in most politicians’ wheelhouse once the national imagination has been captured. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the space race wasn’t the greatest spectacle in politics. But, dollar for dollar, a better bet would have been focusing on technologies we already knew had potential value, rather than counting on serendipitous returns on investment. And the most efficient means by which to bet on technology is to leave it to the commercial sector, or in our pockets. In other words, when it comes to making First Contact, I’m betting on them; but when it comes to the investment of resources, I’d rather bet on us.
Mike ter Maat
(954) 547–8996
mike@miketermaat.com
Mike has a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering and from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and advanced degrees in business and economics including a PhD from The George Washington University. He has worked as an economist for the White House Office of Management and Budget and as a police officer in Broward County, Florida.
Mike is a candidate for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination. In 2021–22, he campaigned as the LP candidate in the special Congressional election in Florida’s District 20.