Xenology Manifesto

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Last Updated August 20, 1996

Moving Forward.

During the Science and Politics of UFO Research convention in St. Paul Minnesota (Oct-95), much discussion took place regarding what UFO's and alien abductions are. It was almost as if UFOlogy was trying to validate itself. If, during the last 40 years a field is still trying to define and prove that it can actually study a phenomenon, does it have a future Very little talk took place regarding what UFOlogy (the study of UFO's and related phenomenon) could do to improve its image. While there has been sound and concise research, UFOlogy's image is still one of kooks and loons. It becomes instantly apparent why that is when one attends such a convention. The lecturers were perhaps the most sane people I have meet, but the there were people in the audience in attendance for the two day lecture series that seemed to lack any rational ability. I tended to stay in the back, eves dropping on conversations. What I heard wasn't shocking, given that I've been hearing the same schizoid paranoid ramblings ever since I started studying this subject. Luckily most of them have the tendency to open their mouth and as such are quite easy to spot. So it goes without saying that any field that attracts this kind in the numbers that UFOlogy does is in deep need of an overhaul. UFOlogy is a Public Relations nightmare.

During the first night's panel debate, I posed the following question: "Since UFOlogy gets the shaft in the media, do you see the need for reform?"

This was meet with approval across the board, but no one had any definite answers. One suggestion made by Glenn Campbell was "We need a cool name!" I agree.

I hereby submit the name 'Xenology" for review. I like this for a number of reasons: UFOlogy is concerned with alien entities, strange craft in the sky, theoretical physics, applied technology, human psychology and sociology. UFO's are objects in the sky, and thus the name 'UFOlogy' is limiting in scope. However Xenology is concerned with anything alien in nature. Not just strange things in the air, but the technology, the biology, the motivation, the science which is foreign to us. It is also a good starting point to a hierarchical system. Theoretical Xenology, XenoBiology, Applied Xeno Technology, Psychical Xenology....on and on, the entire spectrum falls within a concise heading that can be expanded to encompass different aspects that develop. It also sounds more authoritative or at least has some semblance of being valid as opposed to 'UFOlogy'. And being Latin in origin conforms with the rest of the scientific naming convention.

For the rest of this essay I will replace Xenology for UFOlogy. Let's see how it sounds.

Science, Politics & Ideology

Xenology is a hard concept to grasp as every society has an inherent flaw of maintaining the status quo. There is an interesting little theory running around the Sociology and Psychology departments all over the world known as Schema. The basic concept is that if one can instantly process the information, identify what actions are needed without any cognitive processing, those individuals will survive, while those that are processing the information will loose valuable time and be eaten (or something similar). The problem comes when a totally alien force presents itself for inspection. "What was that?" we ask, and then cycle through our known universe looking for the closest match. The study of UFOs has been riddled with these heuristic associations since it's inception as have every other science, some of which only recently have become mainstream. I am forever amazed when the media touts "New theory will rewrite text books!" Of course it will. Only an idiot knows everything! But this does not instantly validate the UFO. We must first be empirical, study the data, test for variables, and then submit for peer review. Remember, it's OK to have a kooky hypothesis. But a hypothesis does not make a fact.

The field of Xenology has come under attack not only from outside sectors, such as the government, research organizations and noted individuals in the scientific community (and I can't really blame them)but also from the field itself. There are many different attacks coming from all sides and without any real organization, governing body or fundamental regulation, Xenology will continue to fail as it fends off attacks rather than continue research. It is doomed to an existence of fighting for a place in the scientific community, but will never reach that goal because it can't provide the data while fending off attacks. This catch 22 scenario, however has it's roots in the beginning of Xenology.

The basis for the entire field is a simple statement.

"Life exists elsewhere in the universe"

Jack Farmer (NASA) has invented a field called exopalientology, or the study of alien fossils. He's positive that he'll find something on Mars. Not a Lock Ness bone, but rather bacteria fossils or perhaps something a tad more advanced. It hasn't been proven yet, but the hypothesis does have popular support and the opposite ('there is no other life') has yet be proven either. If we stopped here...life might be boring, but we wouldn't offend anyone and we could talk late at night over coffee and cigarettes dreaming of what the future might hold. But we need to explore, and so the lone UFOlogist begins their search for life. Here is where we begin the descent of credibility.

Our first step is a subjective one. We hypothesis that life exists elsewhere. Easy and we can continue on this track searching for some validation. Somewhere there has to be data proving or disproving our theory. But it is also easy to loose sight of the goal and become entranced by our subjective beliefs.

As you can see, we haven't provided a shred of evidence since our hypothesis. But we have reached a conclusion without any supporting arguments. Behold the subjective fallacy.

Next is the polling process to determine the beliefs of others on the subject. It is also the next fallacy. The appeal to majority.

No different from the subjective fallacy in it's lack of supporting arguments. Several other fallacies equally lacking are the appeal to emotion and appeal to force. All persuade the conclusion without actually supporting it.

If we manage to actually make it past this step with out falling flat on our faces, we begin with our research and start reviewing the previous literature on the subject. And here we fall into another trap. The appeal to authority.

While X may be an expert on the subject of P, there are no supporting arguments for the conclusion. P might very well be true, but it has yet to be proven.

Now we can begin the counter attack. If X is arguing against our hypothesis, we can commit the most vile fallacy; the Ad Hominem. We attack the speaker's credibility by show a negative trait they posses.

X may very well be a twitchy, gun storing revolutionary postal clerk, but we haven't argued against X's statements. I particularly enjoy

The sixties were a complete reversal of the total trust we had in the previous decades. Now the government was responsible for everything we could pin on it. There are many examples that do prove the government lied to the public in the interest of 'national security'. But that's what we pay them to do. And there is evidence that the government's knowledge of ET's are being covered up in a similar manner. But it does not prove that ET's exists. Only that someone is lying and has lied previously in similar situations. But the argument is used to prove the existence of intelligent life. No actual proof has ever been offered in the statement above. Then we circle back to the appeal to majority and state that most Americans believe the government lies and further our fallious statements. I should mention that once the governments evidence has been corrupted, or tainted with lies in one aspect, it is possible to believe that all the evidence is corrupted and they (the governmentt) are lying about other things as well. But this is not proof. This is doubt of truth. Correctly Stated it would look like:

Notice this is not a statement in the true sence of the word. We are making a proposition that based on A, B's validity is now up for questioning. We must now prove that B is in fact untrue via some other argument. We are allowed to doubt B, but we are not allowed to make a statement regarding the quality of B.

Deepening our spiral descent further we 'Beg the question', commonly known as the circular question. Is much like the original subjective fallacy.

No argument here. Just a conclusion.

I have been hit with this so many times it's depressing. Every argument I start winning always brings the opposition to "But isn't it possible.." or " Don't you think that...". The key point here is that opinions are cheaper then air and weigh about as much. You can't prove anything with a hypothetical situation, you can only demonstrate.

Next is the Post Hoc. We begin with a truth. A happened. And then another truth. B happened. But because A happened before B we now conclude that B was caused by A. And we now have the ever famous

Sure, it could have happened...but you can't prove it with this argument. (notice I don't beg the question )

But wait, there's more. Our trusty UFOlogist is open to speculation on other causes. He/she invites alternate theories from others.

A might very well be caused by D. but by ignoring B and C we state a false alternative or more simply, we ignore other reasons to prove our point. It's data only if I think it's data.

Above all of the fallacies present, my absolute favorite is the 'Appeal to ignorance' or quaintly put:

Remember back in the beginning? We state that life might exists elsewhere... Now that we have looked and realized that we can't turn every stone.. It must be true. I have seen the argument used elsewhere as well.

I can't argue with that logic or any of the other examples and this is but one reason why Xenology is in trouble; Its own propensity for fallious conclusions in the void of data. There is a large amount of good data that can be analyzed and even more work to be done in the reproduction of findings. Xenology will never gain credibility unless it can decide on a specific set of goals and carefully work through the scientific process. But most researchers are private individuals who won't reveal their finds until after they publish a book or get a movie deal. And even then getting two UFOlogist to agree on any single theory is akin to two magnets. Both posses the same attraction but when facing each other...they repel with force.

The problem is that many of our peers are quite satisfied with their own subjective reality and are guilty of the same mistakes they accuse us of. It happens everywhere, all the time and will continue to do so. But those who make it through the mud and are able to stand on their data will be remembered for eternity. Being a rebel isn't easy, and we must remember that everything has its price.

Monopolies and Marxism

If we are to direct Xenology into the next century with the hopes of actually finding something, we must maintain a the actions within the field.. An example of a similar situation began in the 1850's. A certain popular medical procedure was being performed by people with minimal training and getting all the work because they were much cheaper then "Formal Doctors". The educated doctors were aghast at this practice and agree that if they combined forces, they could push the amateurs out of the industry and take over the business. What is now the American Medical Association began as an effort to control abortions.

Xenology is just as controversial, but look at what could happen if the factions joined forces. I'll give you a working example. The internet or 'the net', that strange ethereal entity commonly referred to as 'Cyber-Space' holds about 30 million people from all over the world. I've heard 60 million but no one really knows. It is hyped up to such an enormous degree because of what it represents. Knowledge-pure and unedited, ready for consumption available at the press of a button, costing apparently nothing. It's like paying $1 to get into a library with millions of little rooms, each designed especially for a single interest. Not interested? There's a room for people who aren't interested. Got a question? Ask me! I may not know the answer but I know someone that does and they're two doors down. There are even some entrances that cost nothing, that come with living in a certain community. It is a brave new world.

But in this mass of knowledge comes confusion, anarchy, destruction, abuse and corruption. To combat this, and attempt to provide the Cyber-citizen with a concise guide, several young men with an interest in UFOs each created a room on the net. All total there were about 100 other people with rooms each dealing with a subset of UFO's. Realizing that they might be covering the same areas, three of these geeky little youths decided to team up and merge their data. Each one dealt with a specific topic while all agreed to adhere to a standard format. Everything would be peer reviewed, and the majority ruled. Each was left to their own topics, but each knew what the other was doing so no over lap occurred. Within the first week myself and the two other gentlemen (Dean P. Kanipe and David Schmitz) had managed to create the most popular area on the internet for information regarding UFOs. We averaged 30,000 hits a month with more on specific pages. Our media page which houses news articles hot off the wire (fed by hundreds of loyal readers) received over 10,000 access hits a week. How many of you can say that you get those number day in and day out?

We took on the roles of Librarians; archiving everything we could get or hands on and categorizing it so the average person could find exactly what they were looking for. We played the educator, showing the public quality data (we still question that ) pointing out flaws, helping them with their search for knowledge. What happened next was unexpected. Offers starting poring in from individuals wanting to help. Reports went out to other locations on the net that we had the best data, questions were posed in public forums as to why there was nothing else that equaled the Internet UFO Group. We applied technology to solve problems. Kent Jeffrey's Roswell Declaration became digitized and a program developed for accepting signatures electronically. 2,000 signatures came in during the first four months and I only spent I day writing the program to do it. We worked with other researchers and published their findings, newsletters and updates. No other UFO related site has been able to equal our stature or receive the accolades we have.

Marx had some grand ideas as do we. We bit off more than we could chew and so did he. But one specific statement of his stands out.

I think Glenn put it succinctly when he said "If it ain't on the net, it's lost forever."

The internet is the next free press. Data for everyone by everyone. Instant news, instant access, unlimited capability. You, the Xenlogist, need to be there making sure people can hear your story, can get the data without struggling through the hordes of loons. The masses aren't interested in your methods. They want your conclusions. And they will take any that come to them. You have a responsibility to your own validity to make sure everyone can get the reality we all desire. If no one can hear you-shout louder and carry a bigger stick. Klass doesn't have a site on the net. We do.

Capitalism and Research

At this point I will stray into the speculative future. I would like to offer a theoretical model for the future of organized Xenology. It should go without saying that one must stick with a Marxist view point regarding data. Only that which can be opening and freely inspected is fit for public consumption. But working for the good of society doesn't mean you can't make a buck and support your research. If Xenology is able to coalesce into a coherent entity, it should be able to call the shots regarding it's future. None of us doubt that alien contact will take place. The only problem is that none of us will be actively working on the subject anymore when that happens. We all have real jobs and the label of UFOlogy won't get you through the door at NASA. To ensure that Xenology can continue to exist and flourish in all times, it must first be created. At that point it can obtain funding for its research. If our theories are correct, then the military has a jump on the civilian population regarding Xenology. I believe that private investors would be quite willing to pay for the data that the military has collected. But since that isn't going to happen, we can fill the niche. We could be the civilian version or our secret government counterparts. Our goal: Contact and acquisition. (hey...I'm dreaming here but it's a good dream) Once done we feed our investors the results of our findings. I think the public still has a right to the information, and all data should be declassified one year later. That gives the business community enough time to get a jumpstart on their competitors. Remember, NASA began as a civilian authority on aeronautics.