"Just because I do not perceive it, does not mean that it does not exist"
This was a watchword of faith in my family, while I was growing up. It pertained to many many issues: politics, religion, the possibility of alien life, complexities beyond our comprehension, vis-à-vis the physical world, and people‘s personalities and motivations.
A number of years ago, I detailed the observations of family members of unidentified, flying objects one afternoon in Northeast Philadelphia. The response here was expected, and typical: a number of people were intrigued and impressed, a few people were skeptical, but still fascinated by the narrative, and of course, a fair number of people negated the experience in toto.
This follows the somewhat skewed Bell curve involving things which cannot be demonstrated clearly and objectively in the physical world. For many it is a safety mechanism so that they do not have more to fear than they already do. This is completely understandable and an integral part of human nature. For others who wish to believe in higher order science and realities, it helps sustain their belief that there is much more to this universe than meets the eye, and for them science fiction matters because it is a predictor of that which is to come.
People make predictions all the time: I and many others here have been discussing the health of the man who occupies the White House at the present time, postulating, what may or may not be wrong with him and how much time he may or may not have left. As Patrick Swayze retorted to a villain/hater who denigrated him verbally in the film Road House, “opinions vary“. People feel free to predict, guess, diagnose, hope for, and pray for outcomes.. It’s what we do.
Many of us have been reading about this 3I/ATLAS object which has entered our solar system. Some legitimate scientists associated with major universities and observatories posit that it may be an alien spacecraft, and of course that has met with mixed responses. This object, whether a spacecraft or not is legitimate news and worthy of some discussion and discussion in a certain context, which I feel is important.
Since I’m in my early 70s, I have been around long enough to have been a watcher of the evolution of Science Fiction, film, novels, and pulp writing. Interestingly, since the 1947 Roswell incident, one can trace the evolution in Hollywood of film, which deals with flying saucers, alien encounters, and predictions of things to come. The Day the Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, the television show Men in Space, and many many other examples in the 1950s began to inculcate the public that there was a possibility of life on other planets, including beings who were far superior to us and our civilization. One of the acknowledged greatest films of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey implies that man’s evolution arose from the interceding by advanced alien civilizations Close Encounters of the Third Kind explored the notions held by many that there was more to these visions than swamp gas or weather balloons, and that the government knew that, even though it publicly dismissed such sightings. E.T. brought the alien directly into the home of an family living in suburbia, and films such as Event Horizon demonstrated that there are forces and physics in the Universe of which we have almost no comprehension at our stage of mental development.
I am of the sincere opinion, and I know some of you are going to feel or say that it is absurd, that this is the way they are getting us ready for acceptance of the revelation that we are not the only sentient beings in the universe. If this is the case, it will be the single greatest moment in the history of mankind bar none. Recent discoveries in quantum physics are beginning to demonstrate that the limitations which we felt were inviolate may be circumvented by hitherto unknown processes which these civilizations have utilized for explorationand
The hearings in Congress on UFOs, the revelation by the armed forces that they have been tracking and pursuing objects which demonstrate heretofore impossible speed and non-ballistic motion, the allowance of scientists and military personnel of rank who had worked in classified establishments, to speak frankly and fascinatingly upon what they know to be the truth, is indicative of a sea change in the official position of the government . It is quite possible that within the next few months or years we are going to have a revelation.
Then again, perhaps we will not, and all this speculation will be for naught. I just hope I live long enough to find out some measure of truth one way or the other.
Postscript:
= new reply since forum marked as read
I would even say shocked. 
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