SETI’s Seth Shostak has once again weighed in on the Roswell incident, in a new article on Space.com titled “Happy Birthday, Hysterics! The Roswell Incident Turns 60“. Once again, it’s curious to see Shostak take on this subject – surely, with his qualifications and research experience, he could be filling us all in on far more interesting SETI-related topics? Instead, he seems intent on flogging the Roswell dead horse (at least he’s finally realised that serious ufologists themselves actually don’t see Roswell as the major case worthy of investigation (for example).
Shostak calls the case ‘iconic’, and that’s true – but mainly because he and the rest of the mainstream media feel compelled to keep bringing it up. If he’s serious about investigating the UFO mystery, why not print an article on Rendlesham, or any of the other cases listed in Best Evidence? Because it’s all pulp – the masses want to read it, and it’s easy for him to write it. I’ve always been a fan of both Shostak and SETI (despite my reservations about the likely anthropomorphic errors in SETI’s rationale), but I have to say I’ve grown weary lately of both Shostak and SETI’s leap on to the CSICOPian bandwagon.
In his favour though, good to see Shostak take Paul Kimball’s poll on his UFO credibility vs the Easter Bunny’s in good humour (21 votes to 104 respectively)…
