[Jevon23]

Not sure why you’re getting downvoted. This really is a story that should have more visibility.

If aliens don’t exist, why are defense contractors trying so hard to shut down a bill that simply says “show us what you know about aliens”?

[filoleg]

> If aliens don’t exist, why are defense contractors trying so hard to shut down a bill that simply says “show us what you know about aliens”?

By the same logic, then “why would OpenAI and a bunch of big tech companies lobby so hard for AI ‘safety’ legislation, if AGI wasn’t close to existing [or already existed]? It means that we are close to AGI!”

As you can see, that type of reasoning doesn’t tend to lead to reasonable answers. And with the AI “safety” legislation, there have been plenty discussions on HN already, with the consensus being “they are doing it to secure their position at the top through regulatory capture, inflate their perception of importance [aka drive more money their way], and choke out new entrants.”

I don’t see it being that much different of a scenario with “alien bills”.

[monkeydreams]

> If aliens don’t exist, why are defense contractors trying so hard to shut down a bill that simply says “show us what you know about aliens”?

Convince me that you have told me everything that you know about aliens. If not, i will force you to open up your IP for scrutiny and, possibly, any passing Russian ambassadors.

[bsder]

> If aliens don’t exist, why are defense contractors trying so hard to shut down a bill that simply says “show us what you know about aliens”?

Because if they say "Nothing" will you shut up and believe them?

Of course not.

You can't prove a negative like this.

And there are lots of things that would be "alien adjacent" and would give away what military abilities we have to detect things.

At this point, the military has less ability than the people on this axis. We have billions of people with phones in multiple countries that can record with video everywhere. If aliens existed in anything that was more than a super-ultra-rare one-off, supressing the evidence in this day and age would be beyond impossible.

As for the contractors: it's almost certainly because the government isn't providing any funding in the amendment. The contractors would happily charge lots of money to compile a multi-thousand page report that effectively says "Nothing" if you paid them to. That's their whole bloody business model, for crying out loud.

[Sirizarry]

Money? I guess money. Show that they know nothing about aliens and suddenly a few billion are wiped because a few projects had to close down? Idk I’m honestly just speculating