Reply #18: Rights and Wrongs [View All]

[Dogmudgeon]

True, the public has no right to demand that NASA test every hypothesis they are sent.

The public DOES have the right to offer theories for consideration WITHOUT condescension or ridicule -- even if those theories are privately laughable. And they -- we -- have a right to demand that NASA deal with them seriously.

For one thing, nearly all of the work being done on these theories is conducted by private individuals who have staked their time and resources on ideas that, on the balance, will be disproven -- in the hope that their idea is one of the few that will be verified. NASA does owe such people respect in a public dialog. And NASA has improved greatly over the past couple of years, but it is still dismissive of anything originating outside of NASA, whether it comes from nuts, intelligent laypeople, non-NASA scientists or other space agencies. It's the "NIH" Syndrome: "Not Invented Here".

NASA is accountable to the people that give it money -- the citizens of the USA. The very fact that so many people are offering informed hypotheses is a positive development. NASA need not spend huge amounts of money fielding questions from all comers, but they should be responsive to public interest in space science beyond the usual science-fair public information.

We could be on the brink of several revolutions in science and philosophy. Finding verifiable living beings on Mars (I'm talking about monocells or small multicells here, not Little Green Men) would do the trick. A dismissive attitude isn't going to do anything except eventually make NASA look like the fools, not to mention jeopardize its public support.

--bkl