The current state of Ufology
Ufology is a discipline which, uniquely, tries to study a subject in an atmosphere of adversity and where information about the subject is restricted. All it can do is make broad assertions based on the best available evidence. Research is complicated by the fact that there are many bad actors in the field exploiting public fascination with hoaxes and fakes, some of which have probably made millions of dollars, pounds, euros, yen and so forth.
Disclosure
The current buzz word in Ufology is disclosure, a term popularised by Dr Steven Greer, the retired medical doctor who has made it his retirement’s work to try and bring about government disclosure of UFO information. He is doing this by building a coalition of respected voices in the field of science, journalism, defence and government itself. His efforts are well publicised by videos and internet material, but appear to have made only limited impact on mainstream politics and media. It is from the mainstream that wider change happens, but governments, scientific sceptics and indifferent media giants have succeeded in forcing Ufology into the ‘alternative’ zone alongside ghosts, Bigfoot and other ‘alt’ subjects. This is a zone often inhabited by cranks.
One looming consequence of what many see as government disinformation on UFOs and other things is that cranks themselves are going mainstream. Websites such as Infowars feed the public's distrust of government, mainstream media and mainstream politics. This especially seems to be the case in the USA where a few people who would have been considered cranks three decades ago are now state governors, or even presidential candidates who call for the 'temporary' suspension of the constitution.
The public and digital media
Around the world millions of people have increasingly powerful smartphones able to capture high definition digital images and videos. Therefore more and more sightings of UFOs are being captured; indeed the internet is awash with such imagery. From Australian farmers to Finish housewives, it seems that everyone is seeing and recording UFOs and even their assumed pilots - the creatures which occasionally appear nearby.
The pattern of both craft and beings is very often the same: disc-shaped craft and small 3.5 foot beings with oversized heads and large eyes. We see this over and over again.
These patterns of UFO sightings will trickle into our culture and already has. Popular films, TV shows and advertising campaigns now feature the small beings with large heads and large dark eyes shaped like tilted almonds. Perhaps this is the purpose of the visiting beings - to slowly seep into our consciousness until we accept their presence?
The changed reputation of aliens
Legendary British science fiction writer H.G Wells gave aliens a bad press with his novel 'War of the Worlds' which fed imperialist nightmares about invasion with a new scenario of invasion from beyond planet Earth. Interestingly the Martian invaders described by Wells invaded Earth for the same reasons as eighteenth century European powers invaded swathes of India, Africa, Asia and the Americas and other regions - a quest for resources.
Later in the 1950s and 60s aliens in their flying saucers poured onto Earth to wreak havoc, kill senselessly and kidnap attractive leading ladies.
Since the 1970s aliens have enjoyed a rehabilitation beginning especially with Steven Spielberg's smash hit films 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'. True, the 'Alien' franchise of films, with exploding eggs and parasitic larvae, did something to counter Spielberg's harmless little fellows, but overall the Spielbergian vision seems to have won out.
It may be that when UFOs became 'a thing' in the late 1940s the HG Wells view of them was prevalent in government circles. Not to mention memories of the recently deceased Hitler and the still very much alive Stalin and their respective totalitarian states. Alien commie dictatorship anyone? Ridiculous though it may sound this is what may have gone through the minds of President Truman and his advisors when in 1947, as Ufologists claim, they became the first statesmen to have to suddenly consider this matter.
In the twenty first century there seems to have been a softening of views. This is helped by the fact that from all of the thousands and thousands of catalogued UFO and alien sightings, there has been virtually no harm inflicted on human beings. Therefore it may be that in a more peaceful world the rehabilitated reputation of alien visitors might persuade governments - if they are covering up the facts - to reconsider public disclosure.
Space telescopes
There have been several launches of powerful space telescopes in recent decades. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 and its rich colourful images have astonished people around the world. The James Webb Telescope was launched in 2021 and promises to continue Hubble's great work.
These telescopes and others are finding more and more planets around nearby stars. So it is evident that we have answered one of the great astronomical questions from my childhood - are planets incredibly rare? It seems not. Also there appear to be 60 inhabitable planets in the 'Goldilocks zone' which are neither too hot nor too cold to support life and its biochemical processes of metabolism. It looks as if temperate planets might be incredibly common in the universe, in which case life might also be incredibly common.
Science has also proved that at least some of the chemical building blocks of RNA can be found in space on asteroids. All living things on Earth have RNA in their tissues and on Earth RNA is thought to have evolved into DNA, which facilitates the evolution of complex and specialised organisms.
Therefore there is every reason to believe that in our vast universe, made up of the same basic elements, life might be common. Since evolution on Earth has steadily favoured creatures with larger and larger brains, and hence able to solve the problems of survival and competition, it follows that the same processes would apply on other worlds. Where there is life we could reasonably expect it to become intelligent in time.
Conclusion
The long term outlook for Ufology is actually quite good in my opinion. We know that there are inhabitable planets out there. We know that imperial conflict need not be the way of life of advanced beings like ourselves. Our leaders may come to realise, as the generations pass, that beings from other worlds might present us with opportunities rather than threats. It will then be easier for them to come to terms with the possibility that the rest of us should be allowed to know whatever there is to know about UFOs and aliens.