On a May evening back in 1950, Evelyn Trent had just finished feeding her rabbits when, she claims, she looked up and saw a slow-moving, metallic disk-shaped object hovering above her farm.
uncertain
she → finish → farm
Though some dismissed it as a hoax, her account was added to a growing list of unexplained events that sparked America's first UFO craze.
asserted
that → dismiss → craze
At the annual McMenamins UFO Festival in McMinnville, Ore., just a few miles from Evelyn Trent's farm, there are costumes, a parade, and some theories that might be generously described as fringe:
uncertain
that → be → fringe
"Well, based on what I've read, it could be us from the future visiting us from, you know, the past," said one attendee, "and then it could also be trans-dimensional or inter-dimensional beings.
uncertain
it → base → past
Fringe, but definitely something Americans seem interested in.
asserted
Americans → seem → ?
According to a CBS News Poll,
, which has led to an explosion in podcasts and documentaries on the topic.
uncertain
which → accord → topic
Matthew Szydagis, one of the UFO festival's invited speakers, teaches physics at the State University of New York at Albany.
asserted
Szydagis → invite → Albany
He spoke to us about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (or UAPs), or what we used to call UFOs back in the old days
asserted
we → speak → days
: "I think the possibility that at least some small fraction of UFOs or UAPs represent a non-human intelligence," Szydagis said.
asserted
Szydagis → think → intelligence
So, of course that's going to fire people up and get their imaginations going."
asserted
imaginations → go → people
Szydagis would like to believe in aliens, but he also knows that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, especially in the world of "UFOlogy," where the more extreme the claims, the more attention they get.
uncertain
they → like → attention
"We still don't have definitive evidence," Szydagis said.
asserted
Szydagis → have → evidence
"We haven't been provided with a dead alien body, for instance, although claims of the existence have been made.
uncertain
claims → provide → existence
But I think we have enough indirect evidence to say that the existence of non-human intelligence is no longer laughable, that it's not irrational."
asserted
it → think → intelligence
Szydagis is part of a new Scientific Advisory Council, established by the Trump Administration, to study UAPs.
asserted
Szydagis → establish → UAPs
"Now, there are some objects the U.S. government cannot figure out," Loeb said.
asserted
Loeb → be → ?
"I would like to figure them out.
asserted
I → like → them
Because at the very least, as an American citizen, I will be helping the Pentagon and the intelligence community fulfill their mission of, if these are human-made technologies, if they come from adversarial nations, then I can help them identify what they are and where they came from.
asserted
they → help → where
The things Loeb and the other council members are trying to identify are the many sightings over the years of lights and objects and movements in the sky that defy simple explanation.
asserted
that → try → explanation
Someone who's experienced it firsthand?
asserted
who → experience → it
Former U.S. Navy pilot Ryan Graves,
got the nation's attention back in 2023, when he recounted an experience during a training mission ten miles off the coast of Virginia Beach:
asserted
he → get → Beach
"Two F-18 Super Hornets were split by a UAP," Graves said.
asserted
Graves → split → UAP
"The object, described as a dark grey or a black cube inside of a clear sphere, came within 50 feet of the lead aircraft.
asserted
object → describe → aircraft
, seeing no-nonsense U.S. military personnel calmly describing things they'd seen and couldn't explain, along with actual images, made the whole thing seem a lot less crazy.
asserted
thing → see → images
Graves told us, "We were seeing these things, we were nearly hitting them, and yet we're still unwilling to talk about them in our safety briefs and incorporate them into the conversation."
asserted
we → tell → conversation
Graves was also recently added to the Advisory Council, tasked with getting to the bottom of things, and there are a lot of things that have been released in the last eight months: seven tranches of first-person accounts, photographs, and lots of grainy video, more than 155,000 pages of files overall.
asserted
that → add → files
But not enough of the good stuff, says Graves: "What's being released is not satisfactory to me.
asserted
released → say → me
What you are seeing are very short clips from infrared sensors aboard different platforms.
asserted
seeing → see → platforms
And ultimately, these are not the high-end sophisticated tools that are used by pilots in order to make critical decisions about whether [an] object in the air is hostile, whether it's a decoy, whether it is a threat or not.
asserted
it → use → air
And so, I think we're left with more ambiguity."
asserted
we → think → ambiguity
Loeb said, "The mistake that is often made about science is the belief that, 'Oh, the data will come and guide us.'
asserted
data → say → us
But the problem is that to collect the data, you need to put in effort.
asserted
you → collect → effort
And it's often a heroic effort to get the high-quality data."
asserted
it → get → data
Questions linger about what exactly the government knows about UFOs, after former Air Force intelligence officer David Grusch testified to Congress that he was told of the existence of recovered UFOs.
asserted
he → linger → UFOs
When Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) asked whether possession of a crashed craft also meant possession of the bodies of the craft's pilot(s), Grusch replied, "As I have stated publicly already in my News Nation interview, biologics came with some of these recoveries, yeah."
asserted
biologics → ask → recoveries
Of course, evidence for all of this is "classified," leading some ufologists to call Grusch and others making claims about government conspiracies "Trust Me Bros."
uncertain
evidence → classify → Me
Loeb, who's floated
, says the Advisory Council is working to get access to as much information as possible, starting with what's been publicly released.
asserted
what → float → information
"My role is really simple, because it's like a detective," he said.
asserted
he → say → detective
"And the worst that can happen to a detective is that the detective is starved of data.
asserted
detective → happen → data
So, if I don't have data, the quality of my deliberations [is] poor.
asserted
quality → have → deliberations
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
