Documents / Hearing transcript
This is the printed record of a July 29, 1968 symposium on unidentified flying objects held by the Committee on Science and Astronautics of the U.S. House of Representatives, chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. The committee heard statements from six scientists: J. Allen Hynek, James E. McDonald, Carl Sagan, Robert L. Hall, James A. Harder and Robert M. L. Baker. It also printed papers from Donald Menzel, Stanton Friedman, Frank Salisbury and others. Hynek argued that puzzling UFO reports from competent witnesses deserve serious scientific study.
“Nevers”43 pages
134 With respect to "plasma UFO's" Mr. Philip J. Klass (1968b) com- ments that: If conditions—all of the conditions—needed to create plasma-UFO's near high- tension lines or in the wake of jet aircraft occurred readily we should have mil- lions of UFO reports and the mystery would have been solved long ago. But the comparative rarity of legitimate UFO sightings clearly indicates that the ball- lightning related phenomenon is a very rare one. Even if ball lightning is not the primary source of anomalistic data (and I am not at present convinced that it is), any program investi- gating anomalistic observational phenomena would surely shed sig- nificant light on the ball-lightning problem. (4) Astronomy.—I have already noted the possibility of cometary entry, a study of which would be valuable to the astronomer. If as some respected astronomers believe the anomalistic observational phe- nomena (including perhaps, "intelligent" radio signals from inter- stellar space) are the results of an advanced extraterrestrial civiliza- tion, then the study of the phenomena would become a primary con- cern of the entire human race. The implications for astronomy are overwhelming. (5) Psychiatry and psychology.—Since bizarre events have been re- ported, the study of eyewitness credibility, under stressful circum- stances of visual input, if possible. As I will recommend later: if a competent, mobile task force of professionals could be sent into action as soon as anomalistic events are detected, then reliable evaluation of eyewitness reports (soft data) in relation to the actual hard data ob- tained, could be accomplished. Even if the event was only a spectac- ular fireball, or marsh gas,the psychiatric/medical examination of eye- witnesses would still be more informative. (6) Social science.—Although not classified as a physical science, there appears to be a challenge here for the social sciences. It has been my contention throughout this report that it is not a prerequisite to the study of anomalistic observational phenomena to suppose that they result from extraterrestrial intelligence. Nevertheless, it still is an open possibility in my mind. It seems reasonable, therefore, to undertake a few contingency planning studies. In order to extract valuable information from an advanced society, it would seem useful to forecast the approximate characteris- tics of such a superior intelligence—or, if not necessarily superior, an intelligence displayed by an industrial,exploratory culture of substan- tially greater antiquity. There exist dozens of treatises on technologi- cal forecasting one can key estimates of technological advancement to speed of travel, production of energy, productivity, ubiquity of communications, etc. There have been many debates on the technical capabilities or limits on the capabilities of advanced extraterrestrial societies (for example,see Markowitz (1967) and Rosa,et al. (1967)). Often intermixed with these technological capabilities arguments, however, are very dubious comments concerning the psychological motivations, behavioral patterns, and unbased projections of the social motivations of an advanced society. Hypothetical questions are often raised such as," *"if there are flying saucers around, why don't they contact us directly? *"I would if I were investigating an- other civilization." Such comments are made on extremely thin ice, for, to my knowledge, no concerted study has been carried out in the
Hearing transcript, from the govinfo collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is under it. 256 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.