Academia and Silicon Valley need to take UFOs as seriously as the Government (Full Version)
By Rizwan Virk
Rizwan Virk is a venture capitalist and entrepreneur, founder of Play Labs @ MIT and author of The Simulation Hypothesis. An earlier, shorter version of this article appeared on NBCNews/THINK
In our era of life-changing innovation, there are typically three major pillars of innovation: government, academia,and industry. Today, there are major breakthroughs that could well come from the serious study of a phenomenon that is too often mocked in these circles: UFOs.
Recently, The government has reversed its official position of publicly ignoring UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomenon, the new trendy name for UFOs) and is starting to tackle the subject openly. But within academia and industry, the topic is still too frequently dismissed with a chuckle accompanied by some trite remark about “extraterrestrials” or “aliens” visiting us.
In February, for instance, one of the biggest innovators of this century, Elon Musk, was asked what he thought about the recent Pentagon acknowledgment that Navy pilots have seen objects flying in our airspace using advanced technology we can’t identify, let alone understand or explain or reproduce. Musk’s answer was, “Honestly, I think I would know…
