On this very issue, in 2004, Mac Tonnies told me: “If our own history is any example, technologically robust civilizations inevitably subsume less sophisticated cultures.…”
Area 51 The Revealing Truth of Ufos, Secret Aircraft, Cover-Ups & Conspiracies
On this very issue, in 2004, Mac Tonnies told me: “If our own history is any example, technologically robust civilizations inevitably subsume less sophisticated cultures, not merely by violently dismantling them, but by introducing a virulent strain of apathy. The infamous Brookings report to NASA, recommending that the discovery of extraterrestrial artifacts be covered up for fear of paralyzing research and development enterprises, stands as perhaps the most explicit elucidation of this idea.”
A paper by Donald N. Michael said: “Since intelligent life might be discovered at any time via the radio telescope research presently under way, and since the consequences of such a discovery are presently unpredictable because of our limited knowledge of behavior under even an approximation of such dramatic circumstances, two research areas can be recommended: “Continuing studies to determine emotional and intellectual understanding and attitudes—and successive alterations of them if any—regarding the possibility and consequences of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life. “Historical and empirical studies of the behavior of peoples and their leaders when confronted with dramatic and unfamiliar events or social pressures.
Such studies might help to provide programs for meeting and adjusting to the implications of such a discovery. Questions one might wish to answer by such studies would include: How might such information, under what circumstances, be presented to or withheld from the public for what ends? What might be the role of the discovering scientists and other decision makers regarding release of the fact of discovery?” The questions were many. Granted, they were theoretical, but they provoked raised eyebrows and concerned thoughts within NASA and the U.S. government.
An individual’s reactions to such a radio contact, said Brookings, “would in part depend on his cultural, religious, and social background, as well as on the actions of those he considered authorities and leaders, and their behavior, in turn, would in part depend on their cultural, social, and religious environment.” Also, as the Brookings team noted: “The discovery would certainly be front-page news everywhere; the degree of political or social repercussion would probably depend on leadership’s interpretation of (1) its own role, (2) threats to that role, and (3) national and personal opportunities to take advantage of the disruption or reinforcement of the attitudes and values of others. Since leadership itself might have great need to gauge the direction and intensity of public attitudes, to strengthen its own morale and for decision making purposes, it would be most advantageous to have more to go on than personal opinions about the opinions of the public and other leadership groups.”
Brookings noted an important issue that the confirmation of alien life might have on the human race as a whole: “The knowledge that life existed in other parts of the universe might lead to a greater unity of men on earth, based on the ‘oneness’ of man or on the age-old assumption that any stranger is threatening.
Much would depend on what, if anything, was communicated between man and the other beings.”
One of the most controversial issues that occupied Brookings was that relative to the impact that the existence of alien life would have on the world of religion: “The positions of the major American religious denominations, the Christian sects, and the Eastern religions on the matter of extraterrestrial life need elucidation. Consider the following: ‘The Fundamentalist (and anti- science) sects are growing apace around the world. For them, the discovery of other life—rather than any other space product—would be electrifying. Some scattered studies need to be made both in their home centers and churches and their missions, in relation to attitudes about space activities and extraterrestrial life.
“If plant life or some subhuman intelligence were found on Mars or Venus, for example, there is on the face of it no good reason to suppose these discoveries, after the original novelty had been exploited to the fullest and worn off, would result in substantial changes in perspectives or philosophy in large parts of the American public, at least any more than, let us say, did the discovery of the coelacanth or the panda.” The matter of extraterrestrial existence—specifically, its impact on religion —was still impacting on NASA in the 2000s.
As evidence of this, in November 2009, NASA announced: “This past week in Rome as part of the International Year of Astronomy, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences hosted a Study Week on Astrobiology. Their discussion ranges from what it would mean to the Church if alien life were found, to whether or not science needs religion.” This final sentence, from NASA’s November 2009 press release, is highly significant since it extremely closely echoes the words and recommendations of the Brookings report of 1960.
The human race stood a very good chance of having its collective ego bruised by a close encounter with aliens, Brookings advised NASA: “If super intelligence is discovered, the results become quite unpredictable. It is possible that if the intelligence of these creatures were sufficiently superior to ours, they would choose to have little if any contact with us.
On the face of it, there is no reason to believe that we might learn a great deal from them, especially if their physiology and psychology were substantially different from ours.” Ironically, Brookings noted, those most likely to be “devastated” by the discovery of extraterrestrial life might not be the general public but the scientific community—the very people looking for the aliens. Brookings explained its stance on this matter thus: “It has been speculated that, of all groups, scientists and engineers might be the most devastated by the discovery of relatively superior creatures, since these professions are most clearly associated with the mastery of nature, rather than with the understanding and expression of man.
Advanced understanding of nature might vitiate all our theories at the very least, if not also require a culture and perhaps a brain inaccessible to earth scientists. “It is perhaps interesting to note that when asked what the consequences of the discovery of superior life would be, an audience of Saturday Review readership chose, for the most part, not to answer the question at all, in spite of their detailed answers to many other speculative questions.
“A possible but not completely satisfactory means for making the possibility ‘real’ for many people would be to confront them with present speculations about the I.Q. of the porpoise and to encourage them to expand on the implications of this situation. “Such studies would include historical reactions to hoaxes, psychic manifestations, unidentified flying objects, etc. Hadley Cantril’s study, Invasion from Mars (Princeton University Press, 1940), would provide a useful if limited guide in this area. Fruitful understanding might be gained from a comparative study of factors affecting the responses of primitive societies to exposure to technologically advanced societies. Some thrived, some endured, and some died.”
It is, perhaps, this final sentence that humankind had—and still has—the most to worry about. If extraterrestrials—friendly or hostile—one day show themselves to us en masse, a very good chance exists that, as the Brookings report noted all those decades ago, from a psychological perspective, we might not survive the encounter, at least not intact. This is one of the reasons why Brookings made what turned out to be its most controversial statement of all. It was a statement that said that NASA should think very carefully not about when it should reveal to the public the truth about confirmed alien visitation but if it should do so.
Given that events such as the infamous Roswell UFO crash of July 1947 remain enveloped by a wide and thick cloak of secrecy, one can make a valid argument that the decision to deny the public the truth of Roswell may have been, in part or in whole, influenced by the words, comments, and conclusions of Brookings.
In light of all the above, a good argument can be made that it was the Brookings paper—more than anything else—that influenced the staff at the Nevada Test and Training Range in relation to how best to keep the UFO truth from the public and why.