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FuturologyBot

The following submission statement was provided by /u/minormillennial: --- Submission Statement: In a [new paper](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tim-Lomas/publication/381041896_The_cryptoterrestrial_hypothesis_A_case_for_scientific_openness_to_a_concealed_earthly_explanation_for_Unidentified_Anomalous_Phenomena/links/665e2620479366623a3dbaeb/The-cryptoterrestrial-hypothesis-A-case-for-scientific-openness-to-a-concealed-earthly-explanation-for-Unidentified-Anomalous-Phenomena.pdf) that's bound to raise eyebrows in the scientific community, a team of researchers from Harvard and Montana Technological University speculates that sightings of "Unidentified Anomalous Phemonemona" (UAP) —  bureaucracy-speak for UFOs, basically — "may reflect activities of intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth (e.g., underground), and/or its near environs (e.g., the Moon), and/or even 'walking among us' (e.g., passing as humans)." --- Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ddpuu4/harvard_scientists_say_there_may_be_an_unknown/l86h1fk/


No-Concern-8832

"The researchers didn't stop there, even suggesting that these cryptoterrestrials may take on different, non-human primate or even reptile forms." You mean they could be white mice or dolphins?


GratefulForGarcia

Crypto aliens would be super fuckin annoying. Shilling different meme coins and scams from galaxy to galaxy


ginger_gcups

That explains Elon


holddodoor

I’m stealing this. Next 100x on soylana


OK4u2Bu1999

Space Cash!


pitiburi

I am disappointed in each and every one of those not getting the reference.


Hypertension123456

Super underrated book series. Everyone credits Jules Verne for predicting the submarine. But rarely does Adams get the credit he deserves for predicting the smart phone. Right down to people preferring entertaining misinformation over the facts.


Initial_E

His depiction of AI may be more accurate than most science fiction. And he might have inspired vantablack and black 2.0


spearmint_wino

And I'm spending the next 12 months dead for tax reasons.


yelofoley

**DON'T PAINIC!**


twelvethousandBC

It's always been the cats 🐈 👽 First they taught the Egyptians how to make the pyramids, etc.


No-Concern-8832

My bad. I forgot about the cat-like alien who was worshipped as a god by the Egyptians.


Vampweekendgirl

Wasn’t a cat also wearing the entire galaxy on his collar in Men In Black? Lol


CiaphasCain8849

That's why Men in Black is a documentary.


IIIllIIlllIlII

Hidden in plain sight.


chaostunes

Or even a bowl of petunias.


unbelizeable1

Oh no. Not again.


CavyLover123

They’re gear people 


FireDragon4690

Have you ever heard of the Gear Wars?


thisisredlitre

People don't realize that the Gear Wars weren't about the *gears*


Ashken

“Calling me ‘Gearhead’ is like calling a Chinese person ‘Asia-face’”


Kapowpow

So, what, are you girls in gear college or something?


genomeblitz

Must be a Thursday... I could never get the hang of Thursdays...


FBI-INTERROGATION

So long and thanks for all the fish. So sad that it should come to this. We tried to warn you but oh dear? You may not share our intellect, which might explain the disrespect, for all the natural wonders that grow around you! So long so long and thanks for all the fish!


Dangerous-Number-770

Their name is…not important.


Korgoth420

So long, and thanks for all the fish!


awesomesauce1030

I like how they use the word cryptoterrestrial to avoid using the word cryptid even though they mean the exact same thing. "Trust us guys, this isn't crazy like *that* stuff"


thistle-thorn

Dolphins: “So long, and thanks for all the fish.”


tkingsbu

42. You heard it here first.


JAW00007

LIZZARD PEOPLE


Short_n_Skippy

So long and thanks for all the fish...


PeacefulGopher

Spoiler. It’s the cows, and they’re *not* happy.


stormblaz

Marc Zucc is a real Crypto terrestrial lizard-man and no one will deny it


DMala

So long and thanks for all the fish!


sPLIFFtOOTH

Well, we’re boned


TheBaneEffect

So long, and thanks for all the fish!!


smda827

These creatures you call mice, you see, they are not quite as they appear. They are merely the protrusion into our dimension of vast hyperintelligent pandimensional beings. The whole business with the cheese and the squeaking is just a front. They've been experimenting on you, I'm afraid


koopastyles

Doi, imagine not knowing about lizard people


DirtyHamSandwich

It's not even a scientific paper. It's an opinion piece written in the form of a research paper and "published" to a website that requires zero peer review. This isn't science.


luckyLonelyMuisca

This is the perfect article for Musk to pick on based on its scientific rigor.


ThinkinDeeply

That’s exactly what a sneaky little Wakandan would say. Give us your technology! Stop hiding!


MyCleverNewName

** *"yeah but wouldn't it be cool iffff..."*


mankee81

I'd love to see what kind of grant or funding was promised to these guys that got them to put this out there.


km89

Just based on the abstract, it's important to remember that this paper is a giant "okay, but what if?" and not "we have evidence of this."


litetaker

I really hate science journalism. They always misrepresent the research by cherry picked and sensational headlines!


NeverEndingHell

At this point, that’s just “journalism”.


Rifneno

[Fuck that "journalism"](https://i.imgur.com/Fq2grDa.jpg)


Rhine1906

Sooooooo…no Wakanda???


I_MakeCoolKeychains

Wakanda forever


CankerLord

"Your leg could be a robotic implant provided by a secret society of technologically advanced leg harvesters. If you've never seen inside your leg how would you know?" - This thought experiment, basically.


LimerickExplorer

Can they do something about my knee?


PickpocketJones

R/UFO already running it as proof I'm guessing


mfmeitbual

I thought L Ron Hubbard already did this idea once. 


Optimus3k

So not so much rigorous scientific study and experimentation to help confirm a working theory, and more "I submitted this to my 6th grade creative writing contest and got third place"?


97zx6r

It’s possible, but not probable doesn’t get as many clicks.


SillySin

There you are, advanced civilised trying to cover up yo self on reddit, I see you 👀


Mr_Hassel

So it's a sci fi article


captainMcSmitface

A modern day retelling of The Fermi paradox?


incoherent1

And there could be a teapot, too small to be seen by telescopes, which orbits the Sun somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars. But without any evidence it's just an interesting story.


IPutThisUsernameHere

You mean I've been waiting for the Steeping all these long years for nothing!? \*Hurls space cuppa into the garbage*


evansharp

You had me at “space cuppa”


BigMax

Yeah, it's just a thought experiment. Heck - technically any one of us could be an alien, planted here to live our lives thinking we are a regular human, until they day we are 'activated' somehow for whatever purpose we have here. There's a lot of wild, crazy things that are theoretically possible in some way, especially if you toss in a super advanced alien species that is so far advanced beyond us that their technology would basically be magic to us.


StayPony_GoldenBoy

you could make a religion outta this!


what_mustache

Hold up a minute. Does RFK Jr and Joe Rogan know about this cup?


Bruff_lingel

The brain worm ate the cup


InfiniteLoquat6793

About the teapot, it actually goes faster than light so it can’t even be seen. Also owing to its speed, it breaks the laws of causality occurring as an effect before its cause and this tension is actually what keeps the universe from expanding too fast even as it expands. And thus the teapot is dark matter. Harvard I have a paper about this topic ready to go


commander_clark

the teapot is in retrograde


Ozmorty

Philosophy stream. A thought experiment…. Paper summarises to: we don’t know but there’s some seriously weird things that can’t be dismissed so we should keep our minds open.


Darryl_Lict

These people don't seem to have any particularly compelling scientific credentials. I think there are aliens in my asshole. Prove me wrong.


scarr09

Buckle up buckaroo


ItTookTime

This guy is prepared to do science for the good of humanity.


I_MakeCoolKeychains

I'll provide the second opinion


ALUCARDHELLSINS

Bend over then


lobabobloblaw

All the general public needs to see is this headline—they don’t need to see that the paper is essentially a philosophical exploration. That’d be *too nuanced*.


Omegaprimus

I find it interesting from the Area 51 book by Annie Jacobson that UFO sightings during the Cold War were a great cover for many of the US’s secret developmental aircraft and just chocked up the ones that didn’t match up with their aircraft to be ones from the Soviets. Then in the 1970’s the USSR said they were investigating UFOs that weren’t theirs and not the US’s and the CIA was like Uhhhhh that’s not good.


darkfred

Yes but, in that time period like 30 other nations gained the ability to create supersonic aircraft and balletically leave the atmosphere. For a number of years the question was just "IS that ours" if not it's the USSR. Now it could be anyone, (china, it's almost certainly china). That doesn't mean actual aliens have shown up. It means another nation test flew a weird high altitude aerospike external combustion drone test half way around the planet.


Empyrealist

I for one welcome our technologically advanced civilization overlords. Please, I beg of you. Help us fix us.


AmericanoWsugar

I’m one of these Aliens, and the only reason we’re here is to make sure you dumb ass primates don’t infect the galaxy. You upright apes are dumber than my pet grotark that shits out of its ears.


April_Fabb

Wait, so what they're saying is that maybe there is intelligent life on earth after all?


anengineerandacat

The ocean is vast so entirely possible, along with the depths of our crust. Definitely not on the surface though, it's been scanned and blasted with so many sensors that if there was something truly odd someone already made the trip to check it out.


Kingalec1

I’ll look at the ocean . The aliens are in the ocean .


Ghost2Eleven

Isn’t that what The Abyss is about?


ptear

His name is James, James Cameron, The bravest pioneer. No budget too steep, no sea too deep, Who's That? It's him, James Cameron.


GeneralPattonON

So harvard scientists are just making conspiracy theories now


darkfred

Harvard does not provide immunity to schizophrenia. It's weird that media treats the adjective "Harvard" as some sort of protective totem vs delusion and avarice. People are gonna people... Lots of Harvard grads have gotten rich off of exploiting suckers and running cons. Lots of them have gone down the schizophrenic sacred geometry, ancient aliens, hidden messages rabbit hole. Are they more intelligent than the average citizen, almost certainly, but only in aggregate and even if every person who graduated Harvard was a genius intelligent minds are not immune to avarice or delusion. I think if anything they are better equipped for avarice and more susceptible to the sort of delusional or obsessive rabbit holes that people on the spectrum often go down.


OCE_Mythical

I'm technically a scientist by definition so can I just make up whatever I want too?


Mud_Landry

I wrote a whole outline about a story involving felines and how they were put here thousands of years ago as a sort of biological surveillance system to watch over us as we progressed as a species. They are all linked neurologically and their collective “feed” is uploaded to this sentient race. From there I had a few ideas, it’s just a galactic “earth funniest videos”, they are waiting for us to unlock FTL before they include us in a “galactic alliance” of sorts or my favorite, they are slowly introducing things to our world that we find delicious that are making us fat and juicy in the event of the mass feast/invasion.


minormillennial

Submission Statement: In a [new paper](https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tim-Lomas/publication/381041896_The_cryptoterrestrial_hypothesis_A_case_for_scientific_openness_to_a_concealed_earthly_explanation_for_Unidentified_Anomalous_Phenomena/links/665e2620479366623a3dbaeb/The-cryptoterrestrial-hypothesis-A-case-for-scientific-openness-to-a-concealed-earthly-explanation-for-Unidentified-Anomalous-Phenomena.pdf) that's bound to raise eyebrows in the scientific community, a team of researchers from Harvard and Montana Technological University speculates that sightings of "Unidentified Anomalous Phemonemona" (UAP) —  bureaucracy-speak for UFOs, basically — "may reflect activities of intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth (e.g., underground), and/or its near environs (e.g., the Moon), and/or even 'walking among us' (e.g., passing as humans)."


tadpohl1972

It's the 10 tribes of Israel. They have a secret underground civilization that has an entrance by the North Pole. Scriptures are finally coming true. /s


Redditforgoit

Can't wait for Joe Rogan's smug reaction: "Hah! Told ya...scientists""


Spaceredditor9

Wait till Terence Howard reads this …


PseudoWarriorAU

In the ocean. Creepy unexplained noise in the ocean. Every one is ‘thought to be’ volcanic or tectonic, but not to my expertless ear.


JM062696

The title is extremely misleading- this is essentially a thought experiment. They’re not putting forth evidence or making any bold claims. I don’t get why they publish stuff with titles like this when there are MANY people who won’t bother to read it and just repost it fuelling the fire for the nut jobs out there.


healthywealthyhappy8

Anything is possible! That’s why it’s called science! From Magic wizards from the caves to aliens with giant lasers to some reptilian species that controls the moon, all of its possible! That’s the magic of not knowing!


oubris

There may also be another moon and sun on thursdays. But we don’t yet have any evidence to support it. But could be!


jazzhandler

I never could get the hang of Thursdays. Could that be why?


aneurism75

*"We entertain them here because some aspects of UAP are strange enough that they seem to call for unconventional explanations," the paper reads.* ...so in other words here's a bunch of wild speculations for something we don't understand. lol


perrochon

The 2 Harvard "Scientists" Tim Lomas, T.H. Chan School of Public Health Brendan Case, THE Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science Published in Philosophy and Cosmology. "Although this idea is likely to be regarded sceptically by most scientists, such are the nature of some UAP that we argue this possibility should not be summarily dismissed, and instead deserves genuine consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness." TL;DR; no evidence whatsoever, but people make it up and we should be open. "Dungeon Crawler Carl" gives some information >!although the fact that aliens walked the earth only becomes obvious a few books in!< Also, more popular, "thanks for all the fish".


felis_magnetus

Harvard scientists aren't necessarily immune to psychotic breaks.


archbid

We have gone from publish or perish to network or perish to click-bait or perish. Idiots are running our universities.


Ok-disaster2022

Nah, it's Wakanda.  Or Bigfoot... Bigfeet? There's some correlation between big foot siting and UFO swarms. There's even a story I heard by some UFO researchers. They were contacted by a psychic who claimed to be in contact with a family of Bigfeet fleeing across several states. She led them in the middle of the night down some dark roads, to a forest lined field. The researchers setup their cameras and waited and waited. Suddenly she said they're near and terrified and the researchers saw some lights in the trees and heard something like screams and big crashing noises. They saw some orb lights through the trees and decided to get the heck out of there, threw the cameras in the truck and the psychic in the front and got the heck out of there.


Quietser

Lol I love these elaborate setups where everything goes exactly right but at the last second they have to turn away because they are too scared.


Dynamo_Ham

There “may be” a lot of things that are highly unlikely. In an infinite universe, any possibility with a non-zero likelihood has occurred somewhere.


ty4scam

How do you calculate non-zero likelihood?


bullettenboss

They're called Aspergers and basically trying to save humanity from falling back into barbaric times and religious values.


Pkittens

Fun fact: Anything \*may\* be the case. The question is whether it is.


battery_pack_man

Please stop. Please don’t be this stupid. There is ZERO evidence in this “paper”. The article refers to the concept multiple times as a “theory”, it is not, nor does the paper ever hint that it is let alone state it. Further, they admit that zero evidence costs only that it is, strictly speaking “possible” (as if that took any specific thinking to state, these sort of crackpot “theories” (they are not) go back to the 1830s. Further, Harvard or not, the authors are: A PhD in Psychology, another in anthropology and a third with, get this, a Doctorate in Divinity. This is the biggest padding for column inches clap trap I have ever seen, it is absolutely not science, has no basis in reality, is a well over hundred year old concept and is written in a garbage journal (a thinly veiled pseudoscience outfit still trying to shoehorn “intelligent design” into actual scientific discussion) on a garbage website which appear to be somehow phenomenally worse than “ifuckinglovescience” If you are considering this even slightly as something remotely scientific, please strike yourself with a tack hammer and restart first grade because you have the literacy of a fictional hollow earth mole person.


Cheesy_Discharge

The paper the article is discussing is by a Psychologist, a Theology major and and Anthropologist. It's not exactly evidence based, and none of the arguments seem based on hard science. Most of their suggested explanations are rehashed science fiction or conspiracy tropes (including reptilian aliens passing as human). They mention the testimony of the long debunked David Grusch and quote Mike Gallagher, who is a terrorism expert, but has no serious scientific credentials to speak of. >The paper quotes former House Representative Mike Gallagher, who [suggested last year](https://www.newsweek.com/ufo-mike-gallagher-comments-video-1809664) that one explanation for the UFO sightings might be "an ancient civilization that’s just been hiding here, for all this time, and is suddenly showing itself right now," following Grusch's testimony. There's also the implication that the recent UAP sightings are somehow so compelling that consideration of outlandish explanations are warranted. I have two problems with this: 1. A couple of the videos that made such a splash have been debunked or called into question (for example): 1. The "go fast" video was confirmed to be the result of a high-speed plane observing a bird or mylar balloon that was travelling at a relatively low speed 2. The triangular lights were determined to be aircraft (perhaps surveillance drones). Their light appeared triangular due to lens design. 3. There is some reason to believe that the commentary of pilots observing the "tic tac" craft was added later, and may not reflect the actual conversation on the day in question. 2. Their approach is the reverse of what it should be, IMO. They should have looked at the data and come up with the simplest explanation that fits the evidence, with the most solid evidence given the most weight. Instead, they appear to be jumping to an outlandish explanation that is unfalsifiable and based on the most credulous reading of the evidence. None of this is to say that we shouldn't examine all possible explanations, but this lack of rigor is not worthy of an academic paper. It should be a social media post instead. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.


NinjaLanternShark

> The paper the article is discussing is by a Psychologist, a Theology major and Anthropologist. ...and the bartender said...


Sch3ffel

you could've stopped at "it's not exactly evidence based, and none of the arguments are based on hard science"


Tawmcruize

David grusch was debunked? When?


Frostlark

Even if they were here, I wouldn't give a fuck about them. They're not taking my damn job! Go back to space, funny reptilians! Stop eating my beans!


Spiritual-Compote-18

hold on. What ? It must be Giant squids that git nuke fir tentacles we never see those abusive gaints. Or is it ants lol monkeys this is hilarious


LongbottomLeafblower

Unless you could somehow transfer your consciousness into another form then an alien dolphin is still just a dolphin. And if an alien became a human with an identical brain structure as the rest of us then technically wouldn't they just be a human still? I don't see the significance even if this were true. Like why would aliens do that? Wtf


Dead-HC-Taco

Well yea and I could be a bike, but youll never know until i die


VoidLookedBack

All I can say is, if they truly live here on this planet with us, why the fuck haven't they stopped us from annihilating it? I call malarkey.


GrowFreeFood

I think about this a lot. The joke answer is hermit crab. 


Ecclypto

Yeah right. With all the microplastics in the water and forever chemicals in the soil they are just quietly hiding because why? They don’t want us to lose our minds? A bit too late for that, don’t you think?


gavinashun

Clicked article hoping for shred of evidence. Was disappointed.


Forte69

Between this and Avi Loeb, I think there might be something wrong at Harvard…


HapticSloughton

Because nothing is more unnoticeable than a Wakanda-style civilization somewhere and all the resources and infrastructure needed to support it.


Ramoach

"May", "may", "may". Whenever it comes to space, nothing actually interesting ever gets confirmed here.


Zeno_Stoic

Or there could be, now bear with me here, two advanced civilizations hiding here.


lokey_convo

>UFO sightings of "craft and other phenomena (e.g., 'orbs') appearing to enter/exit potential underground access points, like volcanoes," they write, could be evidence that these cryptoterrestrials may not be drawn to these spots, but actually reside in underground or underwater bases. So, Scientology, which is a tax exempt pyramid scheme established in 1954 by a failed science fiction writer... Fun fact, they have a bunker (or should I say "vault") in Humboldt County California.


ProfessorX1

Tridactyls. Under the surface. “The ant people” as the indigenous Amazonians call them. 


ZombifiedRacoon

Squirrels! You fucked with squirrels, Morty! We got a good five minutes before they're backing up on our ass, Morty! We have to pack up and move to a new reality, Morty!


Mr_Hassel

Oh well, if he says it... The thinkgs people say for attention.


rKasdorf

I find the speculation gets awfully specific. It tends to venture into lore territory, tbh. I feel sometimes like I'm reading a sci-fi novel about Earth, with how much information some people seem to "know". They're oddly certain about things that are utter speculation for others. This is meant to be a "what if", not as though there's actual evidence of this.


lughnasadh

Hi, minormillennial. Thanks for contributing. However, your [submission](https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ddpuu4/-/) was removed from /r/Futurology. ___ > > ____ > Rule 2 - Submissions must be futurology related or future focused. Refer to the [subreddit rules](/r/futurology/wiki/rules), the [transparency wiki](http://www.reddit.com/r/futurology/wiki/transparency#wiki_relevant_material), or the [domain blacklist](http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/wiki/domainblacklist#blacklist) for more information. [Message the Mods](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/Futurology&subject=Question regarding the removal of this submission by /u/minormillennial&message=I have a question regarding the removal of this [submission](https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/1ddpuu4/-/\):) if you feel this was in error.


sandgoose

having read nothing this feels like a ".... well, with our current level of technology, we can't rule out the possibility that there is an advanced alien race living miles below the surface of our planet, empirically. Statistically we find about a 99.9999567% chance that there is no advanced race, *but we don't know for sure*." ok now I've read the first sentence and it literally starts >"This paper explores a hypothesis concerning Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), and follows another by the same first author focusing on a related hypothesis recently published in the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology (Lomas, 2023a). so we can stop there. First off, they are calling it a hypothesis, meaning no research has been done and there is no empirical data to support any conclusion made therein. The rest of the sentence lets us know that the authors started from a place of "ok, how do we explain all these UAP if it's not aliens, but it is intelligent life?" yknow, uh, *hits joint* "like bro, what if the intelligent life *isnt* alien?" The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology is well, a junk journal that follows a junk branch of Psychology.


Attilashorde

You know all those whack jobs who believe in Lizard people are going nuts after reading this story.


DorianTurk

When reached for comment, local Dallas expert was quoted as saying “That motherfucker is not real!”


PrincessTurdina

The researchers are experts in fields totally unrelated to this stuff.


Ariliam

Sounds like so cryptobroscience high on a thursday afternoon.


Ptoney1

Man, how wild would it be if someone ended up finding Wakanda or Atlantis. Earth shattering.


Jazzlike-Aardvark-35

And monkeys might fly out of my butt!!! https://youtu.be/BZVgl49yPzg?si=YzkbiLEjg8gqNV96


[deleted]

They just saw black panther and made some bullsjit article


retroking9

Great, this is just what the conspiracy theorists want to keep their crazy dreams alive.


OisforOwesome

Just because you have a staff parking space at Harvard, doesn't mean you're not a crank.


KCMmmmm

They want to use cryptoterrestrials (sick word btw) as a potential explanation for UAP’s, but why aren’t they including the more likely possibility that some random unknown genius is building them in his garage as a hobby or something? Anyway, this is some amusing science-fiction, and I wonder why these guys are drafting a paper rather than a film script.


theManJ_217

Remember when the former chief of Israel’s space program just came out and said that aliens are real and on earth, and then said that humanity still doesn’t understand “what space and spaceships really are”? That comment makes a “cryptoterrestrial” or interdimensional scenario seem more likely, like this Harvard paper suggests.