A 1966 interview with Carl Sagan (Professor of Astronomy, and Director, Laboratory for Planetary Studies, Cornwell University) and Thornton Page (Professor of Astronomy, Wesleyan university, and Research associate, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston). Carl Sagan argues that there is no evidence pointing towards the possibility that some Flying saucers are space vehicles from advanced extraterrestrial civilizations, as there are too many UFO visits per day…rather Psychology and Theology roots and not so much the physics of science…

Three years later (December 1969), a symposium on UFOs, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was held in Boston. Some 16 scientists (among others Frank D. Drake, J. Allen Hynek, Philip Morrison, Walter Sullivan, C. Sagan and T. Page…) participated to the event and contributed their papers to a book that was edited by Sagan and Page and published in 1972.  This book constitutes an excellent historical reading on the topic, from which I would like to quote a statement that has not aged:

“…The idea of benign or hostile super beings from other planets visiting the earth clearly belongs in such a list of emotion-rich ideas. There are two sorts of possible self-deceptions here: Either accepting the idea of extraterrestrial visitation in the face of very meagre evidence because we want it to be true; or rejecting such an idea out of hand, in the absence of sufficient evidence, because we don’t want it to be true. Each of these extremes is a serious impediment to the study of UFO; they affect different categories of people.”

A recent (2008) serious UAP paper and must read, written by Alexander Wendt (Professor of International Security at the Ohio State University) and Raymond Duvall (Morse-Alumni Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota) and published in Political Theory (Sage, http://ptx.sagepub.com/).

It was the first time (if I’m not mistaken..) that an important political science journal had published an article dealing with the UFO topic. Among others points, the author’s argument is that UFO ignorance is political rather than scientific…

Abstract:

Modern sovereignty is anthropocentric, constituted and organized by reference to human beings alone. Although a metaphysical assumption, anthropocentrism is of immense practical import, enabling modern states to command loyalty and resources from their subjects in pursuit of political projects. It has limits, however, which are brought clearly into view by the authoritative taboo on taking UFOs seriously. UFOs have never been systematically investigated by science or the state, because it is assumed to be known that none are extraterrestrial. Yet in fact this is not known, which makes the UFO taboo puzzling given the ET possibility. Drawing on the work of Giorgio Agamben, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, the puzzle is explained by the functional imperatives of anthropocentric sovereignty, which cannot decide a UFO exception to anthropocentrism while preserving the ability to make such a decision. The UFO can be “known” only by not asking what it is.

Download PDF document: Sovereignty and the UFO