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Do people still make claims about alien abduction? Or has that been made extinct by the ubiquity of smartphones?

ceilingcorner 5y ago
If the aliens can travel across space and kidnap people, surely they can figure out how to disable a smartphone for a few seconds.
vlunkr 5y ago
I don't understand what smartphones have to do with alien abduction.
- mehphp 5y ago
  Basically, the prevalence of smartphones means we can record pretty much anything at anytime. Therefore, if abductions happen with any regularity, surely at least one would be captured on camera.
  - soylentcola 5y ago
    Hell...you don't even need to snap a photo. Just take a look at your GPS or cell triangulation data for the time you think you may have been abducted.
- bufferoverflow 5y ago
  As the quality and the number of cameras radically increased in the last decades, the quality and the number of UFO videos didn't increase. The only exception I saw were the videos released by the government agencies, they are actually interesting.
- smhenderson 5y ago
  My understanding of that statement is that, with the advent of ubiquitous smart phones with cameras, there's not much room to believe someone's claim of alien abduction these days. If they have no picture or video to prove it then it's likely not true. Sure, some people may get abducted without their phone, but the possibility of no one ever having a phone to record such an event is statistically improbable. So, with too few people able to suspend belief and buy into claims of alien abduction without proof from their phone, no one really makes that claim anymore. Maybe that's not what the GP was getting at but that's how I read it...
  - seriousquestion 5y ago
    Yes, exactly. Fundamentally it's a way to attract attention. If the claim is getting less attention, you would expect it to die out.
    - smhenderson 5y ago
      Apparently we touched someone's nerve - why we are being downvoted is beyond my comprehension. Guess we weren't serious 'nuff for the HN crowd. As I said in a comment a few days ago, sometimes I really miss /.
monkeynotes 5y ago
We've had HD cameras and excellent optical glass for a long time, and yet blips on poor quality video are abound. Anything high def is (in my experience) always CGI.
- earthboundkid 5y ago
  I liked that plot point in Girl Ghostbusters: they post their videos of ghosts to YouTube and the comments section says "FAAAKKKEEEE."
- throwaway316943 5y ago
  Every time I try to get a good picture of an eagle with my iPhone it turns out blurry and that’s in the daytime with them flying slowly overhead. It’s been a while since I tried the same with a plane but I imagine the results are similar. I don’t think the “cameras are so good now all blurry photos must be fake” argument holds water.

If the aliens can travel across space and kidnap people, surely they can figure out how to disable a smartphone for a few seconds.

vlunkr 5y ago

I don't understand what smartphones have to do with alien abduction.

mehphp 5y ago
Basically, the prevalence of smartphones means we can record pretty much anything at anytime. Therefore, if abductions happen with any regularity, surely at least one would be captured on camera.
- soylentcola 5y ago
  Hell...you don't even need to snap a photo. Just take a look at your GPS or cell triangulation data for the time you think you may have been abducted.
bufferoverflow 5y ago
As the quality and the number of cameras radically increased in the last decades, the quality and the number of UFO videos didn't increase. The only exception I saw were the videos released by the government agencies, they are actually interesting.
smhenderson 5y ago
My understanding of that statement is that, with the advent of ubiquitous smart phones with cameras, there's not much room to believe someone's claim of alien abduction these days. If they have no picture or video to prove it then it's likely not true. Sure, some people may get abducted without their phone, but the possibility of no one ever having a phone to record such an event is statistically improbable. So, with too few people able to suspend belief and buy into claims of alien abduction without proof from their phone, no one really makes that claim anymore. Maybe that's not what the GP was getting at but that's how I read it...
- seriousquestion 5y ago
  Yes, exactly. Fundamentally it's a way to attract attention. If the claim is getting less attention, you would expect it to die out.
  - smhenderson 5y ago
    Apparently we touched someone's nerve - why we are being downvoted is beyond my comprehension. Guess we weren't serious 'nuff for the HN crowd. As I said in a comment a few days ago, sometimes I really miss /.

monkeynotes 5y ago

We've had HD cameras and excellent optical glass for a long time, and yet blips on poor quality video are abound. Anything high def is (in my experience) always CGI.

earthboundkid 5y ago
I liked that plot point in Girl Ghostbusters: they post their videos of ghosts to YouTube and the comments section says "FAAAKKKEEEE."
throwaway316943 5y ago
Every time I try to get a good picture of an eagle with my iPhone it turns out blurry and that’s in the daytime with them flying slowly overhead. It’s been a while since I tried the same with a plane but I imagine the results are similar. I don’t think the “cameras are so good now all blurry photos must be fake” argument holds water.