What is the % likelihood that governments are concealing knowledge of ET's from the public?

Question

This includes knowledge of UFO's (crashed or otherwise!), direct contact, or any other undisclosed possibilities. I intend to average out any response percentages to get a feel for public perception, and any comments as to how you come to your figure are welcome.

Answer 1

It's one of the few conspiracy theories that has any traction. You can't accurately assign a number, but I think it's more likely than not that there has been some ET encounters in the past. Certainly, you can't ignore the recent disclosures by early astronauts that they saw UFOs during the first Apollo missions (but kept quiet because they military told them to, and because they didn't want to appear crazy).

EDIT (I despise people who preface their answers with "as a scientist" or "as a historian". Shut up and let your ideas speak for themselves. Few people believe you are what you say you are... and even if you are a scientist or historian, there's still a good chance you're still an idiot.)

Answer 2

Considering the number of stars in our Galaxy alone, the probability of intelligent life in the universe is high.
Space travel (exploration) seems to be an outgrowth of intelligence. So probability of Space Travel over interstellar distance seems probable, say 50%. Probability of them coming to this, an out of the way insignificant star, is low.
Say 1 %.
Would governments cover up contact? Highly probable for following reasons:
Government would want to analyze prior to release of information--probably decades of analysis.
Government would be fearful of letting people know that they aren't the most advanced thing out there--creating depression, fear, and panic.
Government LOVES to classify things as secret, "What they don't know won't hurt them" or "They aren't ready for this" or "I know something you don't know, and I'm not going to tell you."
So, while probability of contact is low, if there was contact, the probability that government would conceal it is high.

Answer 3

0% maybe less.

As a scientist, there are two reasons.

1. The probability of extraterrestrials acheiving interstellar travel to that advance of a degree = almost 0%

2. The probability of the government to actually coverup these things? = almost 0%


It just isn't happening.

Answer 4

The government cant even keep us from finding out the president got his yoo hoo sucked, how are they going to keep aliens from us?

Answer 5

aproximatley 99.99%