Cool. Aliens-walking-among-us conspiracy theories on the front page of HN. You used to have to go to Reddit for this kind of trash. Welcome to yet another new low.
Unfortunately, Hacker News has been degenerating into crankery and conspiracy theory for a while now. It's an irreversible intellectual rot but least it makes things entertaining.
I'm a skeptic but I still find the article really interesting (currently on page 10 of 43) and a highly entertaining read. Mind you, the paper does not argue that the cryptoterrestial hypothesis is true or even that it's likely. The argument is that it should be considered instead of being outright dismissed like you just did. So far they make a pretty good case IMO.
Also worth noting, higher levels of education tend to correlate with lower belief in conspiracy theories. I've encountered a large number of self-proclaimed autodidacts here on HN, so that could help explain it, too.
What a fun and interesting paper. I suggest those that scoff at content like this to re-evaluate what it has to offer. At a minimum, it is fascinating piece of cultural anthropology. More charitably, it is excellent world building, and a good example of structured writing. Even the authors admit it is far fetched.
If people find this to be "trash", I wonder what they are looking for, "chill out", and have some fun.
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[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 37.1 ms ] threadI'm assuming this is not AI submitted, but it is garbage.
I'm not even sure it's legitimate enough to qualify as pseudo-science. Maybe junk-science?
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09637214177182...
Also worth noting, higher levels of education tend to correlate with lower belief in conspiracy theories. I've encountered a large number of self-proclaimed autodidacts here on HN, so that could help explain it, too.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5248629/
If people find this to be "trash", I wonder what they are looking for, "chill out", and have some fun.