AstrophysicistNeil deGrasse Tysonhas stepped in to defendBarack Obama's viral 'aliens are real' remark, saying the former president's response was a 'scientifically literate' way of discussing extraterrestrial life. Tyson said Obama was simply reflecting the view held by many scientists, rather than hinting at secret files or hidden crash sites.
Obama's comments came during a rapid-fire round on theNo Liepodcast, hosted by independent journalistBrian Tyler Cohen. When asked outright whether aliens are real, the former president replied: 'They're real, but I haven't seen them.' He added that they were not being kept in Area 51 and that there was no underground facility hiding them, 'unless there's this enormous conspiracy and they hid it from the president of the United States'. The clip quickly went viral and was soon framed by some viewers as a veiled admission of government contact with alien life.
The reaction forced Obama to clarify what he meant. Writing onInstagram, he said he had been playing along with the fast pace and tone of the lightning round and that he had seen no evidence of extraterrestrial contact or any cover up during his eight years in office. What he does believe, he said, is that the odds of life existing somewhere in the universe are high.
That distinction between statistical likelihood and proven contact is exactly what impressed Tyson. Defending Obama's comments, he said the former president 'is citing what any scientist would tell you about the likelihood of life in the universe' and praised him as 'scientifically literate'. In Tyson's view, Obama's off the cuff line was far closer to mainstream astrophysics than science fiction.
Tyson argued that insisting humanity is alone in the cosmos runs against the evidence. 'To suggest that we are alone in the universe, you'd only be thinking that for some philosophical or religious reason, not for any reason based in science. So my answer is yes. There's life,' he said, adding that 'it's highly likely there's life out there in the universe'. His comments echo decades of scientific thinking built on the vast scale of space and the number of stars and planets it contains.
None of this amounts to proof that aliens are visiting Earth. Tyson and Obama have both previously pointed out that the distances between solar systems are so vast that routine travel by extraterrestrial visitors is, in practical terms, highly unlikely. Their position is simple, life elsewhere may be plausible, even probable, but verified sightings of spacecraft in US airspace are a different matter entirely.
If the science behind Obama's remark was fairly standard, the public reaction was anything but. Tyson suggested that people read far more into the line than they would have if it had come from a scientist or television host, simply because it was spoken by a former president.
'Because he was president, people wanted to read into it on levels that were just off the scale and out of control,' Tyson said. As an educator, he described himself as 'intrigued' by the way audiences projected secret knowledge onto Obama's throwaway remark, and said it made him reflect on how he anticipates the way people will react to information. When his predictions are wrong, he added, he has to ask himself how he misjudged their motives or 'brain wiring'.
The overreading was not limited to social media.Donald Trump criticised Obama's replyand accused him of speaking too casually about subjects that could be classified. There is no indication in the material released so far that Obama revealed any sensitive information, and he has been explicit that he did not encounter hard evidence of aliens while in office. Even so, the speculation kept building among viewers already inclined to suspect a cover up.
Tyson's broader point is that any serious conspiracy about alien bodies or crash debris would struggle to survive in the modern information age. Obama has made a similar point with humour, tellingThe Late Showthat if the military were hiding 'little green men', a guard would already have taken a selfie with one to impress his girlfriend. Tyson echoed that logic, noting that in an era of billions of high resolution smartphones, a genuine alien landing would almost certainly have been documented from every angle by now.
Source: International Business Times UK
