'UFO Hacker' Tells What He Found
www.wired.com
The search for proof of the existence of UFOs landed Gary McKinnon in a world of trouble. After allegedly hacking into NASA websites — where he says he found images of what looked like extraterrestrial spaceships — the 40-year-old Briton faces extradition to the United States from his North London home. If convicted, McKinnon could […]
    • Spaceape@lemmy.nrsk.noOPEnglish
      32·
      1 year ago

      Would you like to argue for your point of view and maybe change some minds or do you just want to let everybody know you don’t believe his story?

      Unless you were there and can confirm it didn’t happen, but then you shouldn’t tell us - You should sell your story to the media. You’d probably make a pretty penny!

      • paraphrand@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Sadly at best he was disconnected before accessing/loading any proof. Directory names are not enough.

        In recent years, he’s worked to make a whole public online personality out of this event.

        • Spaceape@lemmy.nrsk.noOPEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          Directory names are not enough.

          I agree, yet the years-long extradition attempt by the US supports the idea that he did something beyond accidentally gain access through an unsecured system.

          In recent years, he’s worked to make a whole public online personality out of this event.

          That’s not my impression, but perhaps you could give some examples and maybe I’ll change my mind?

          • paraphrand@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            He has a YouTube channel and the handle is @GaryMcKinnonUFO.

            I guess when skimming the videos, it is all over the place with lots of random personal stuff. Along with usual YouTube fare.

            I think I overstated things there.

            • Spaceape@lemmy.nrsk.noOPEnglish
              1·
              1 year ago

              IIRC one of the reasons why the US extradition was denied was because McKinnon has Aspergers Syndrome. He’s a self-professed UFO “nut” so I’m not surprised he’s posting about the subject, but if it shifts into money grifting I’d suspect someone is pushing the idea onto him. Only assumptions though.

            • Spaceape@lemmy.nrsk.noOPEnglish
              11·
              1 year ago

              Yes. That’s how it works.

              I don’t agree.

              Concluding that the absence of evidence constitutes evidence of absence sounds like the logical fallacy of argument out of ignorance to me. It’s not an accusation of someone being ignorant, but a term used in the field of logic.

              The lack of (what would generally be accepted as) evidence doesn’t prove anything beyond that we’ve found no evidence. But that absolutely impacts what assumptions we should make about a question that so far have no evidence either for or against.

              Claim a thing, prove a thing- or be dismissed.

              Everybody’s free to chose who they dismiss and not and what parts of testimonies. We seemingly subscribe to two different methods of looking at the topic, I’m happy using mine until something better comes along.

              Is it that anyone can say something and it’s true for you regardless of evidence?

              You’re always free to try to claim something and see how I react. From our interactions so far I’d say I rather try to analyze claims through the intellectual tools humanity have refined over hundreds of years to the best of my ability, and more often than not I find claims insufficiently substantiated. Like your claim of lack of proof being proof that nothing happened.

              I hope I’ve shown you a different way of analyzing unknowns, and if not - We’ll know for sure either when we meet little green men for the first time or humanity have searched every nook and cranny of the universe and found nothing.