Business – UFO / UAP

Big Business – UFO / UAP

UFO as “Unprecedented Financial Opportunity” – Jane Pauley 1997

  • Book Deals / Sales
  • Conferences / Lecture Circuit
  • Military-Industrial Complex Contracts
  • Venture Capitalism

 

 

Funny UFOs-Abducting-Money Images:

 

 

Book Deals / Sales

Accusations of grifting through book deals and book sales.

 

 

Conferences / Lecture Circuit

Accusations of grifting through conferences and the lecture circuit.

 

 

Military-Industrial Complex Contracts

Verifable and concrete examples.

 

 

Venture Capitalism

Possible safe bets as well as extremely shady marketing of certain investment opportunities.

 

 

 

  • The Military-UFO Complex – How a motley crew of saucer hunters got a place at the public trough. By Mick West – From the December 2022 issue – Reason.com

The UFO Gold Rush

When the government starts making appropriations and passing legislation, money descends. The “UAP startup” is now a thing. One such startup, UAPx, initially offered to test UAP detection equipment, then morphed into a kind of UAP tourism. The pandemic made that impractical, so it pivoted to shooting a docuseries with William Shatner.

More recently, Enigma Labs tossed its hat into the ring, aiming to set up a sophisticated database to track UFO sightings and then use A.I. to sort signal from noise. Possibly a preemptive move to establish a presence in the field before potentially lucrative government contracts are available, the group’s source of funds is unclear. One rumor suggests that it’s getting money from the controversial venture capitalist and political financier Peter Thiel, whose name has also been bandied about as a possible secret financier for UFO research at Stanford and Harvard universities. (Thiel did not respond to a request for comment.)

Other companies seem to be betting UAPs are a route to future technologies the military will want. Quantum Generative Materials, whose CEO was a regular on UFO Twitter, hired a former fighter pilot who had briefed Congress on his UFO encounters. He is now the company’s director of business development. The operation hopes its UFO studies will unlock new developments in quantum computers and artificial intelligence.

The UAP Task Force itself took a cycle through the revolving door. In 2022, government contractor Radiance Technologies hired both the task force’s director, John F. Stratton Jr., and its informal chief scientist, Travis S. Taylor, presumably for something at least speculatively government- and UAP-related. Taylor is already very well known in the UFO entertainment industry, playing an excitable scientist on shows like Ancient Aliens and, of course, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch.

Recent government action on UFOs seems mainly driven by three sets of incentives. First there are issues that virtually everyone recognizes as legitimate, such as new aerial technologies (especially drones) that could pose a national security threat when used by a (human) adversary. Another real issue arises when systems, equipment, or personnel fail to identify flying objects. These are genuine problems that need to be investigated and addressed.

The second set of concerns is more esoteric. Government contracts were given to investigate a supposedly supernatural ranch. Government scientists have investigated poltergeists. People who think “nonhuman intelligence” is playing games with us have been briefing politicians. These quirky pursuits are no longer limited to little pork programs like AAWSAP: A creeping weirdness is growing at the Pentagon. Those pushing in this direction may well believe in their mission, but surely we’re better off when government action is based on real scientific evidence.

Then there’s money. All this unsubstantiated strangeness is creating new financial opportunities in the military-UFO complex. And when financial opportunities appear, all sorts of characters will rush to both fill and expand them.

This article originally appeared in print under the headline “The Military-UFO Complex.”

SOURCE: The Military-UFO Complex – How a motley crew of saucer hunters got a place at the public trough. By Mick West – From the December 2022 issue – Reason.com

 

“NBC News UFO TV reports and the TV special, “UFO’s Do You Believe?” from 1974. Hosted by Jane Pauley. “Time & Again” was a retrospective TV series (MSNBC News, 1996-2000). The show covers cases with unique footage like the Pascagoula case 1973, the Coyne Helicopter case 1973 and from astronomer J. Allen Hynek. Note: This VHS was recorded from a screen so the sound is spatial.”