Bloom: Out There

From Scienticity

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Howard Bloom, Out There : The Government's Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials. New York : Simon and Schuster, 1990. 300 pages, appendices: "The MJ-R12 Documents", "List of Abbreviations and Acronyms", "A Note on Sources".

This book's purpose is to examine the "evidence" for UFOs and whether UFOs represent extraterrestrial visits. Topics include SETI (the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) and how it got started; the Drake Equations (which tries to estimate the likelihood that other intelligent life-forms exist in the universe); and the Air Force's notorious Project Blue Book (the Air Force was given the project because they were the only organization who could conceivably correlate UFO events with possibly secret flights of aircraft).

There's also an in-depth look at the Majestic-12 documents. In 1987 the US Government started a working group to investigate a memo related to the infamous Rockwell incident. The memo was dated 1947 and appeared to originate from a "Majestic Twelve Group", consisting of high-level government officials, all of whom were dead by the time of the investigation in 1987. The FBI made inquiries of all government agencies and, when none claimed ownership, declared the memo a hoax. The author considers the case in some depth. (Note that the publication date of the book is close on the heels of the working-group investigation.)

But let's face it: UFOs are a subject that attracts a lot of squirrely people—as this book makes clear—and that easily obscures possible truths. On the other hand, the book makes good sense of the crazy people who whip up things and it captures the human nature of non-critical thinking and mass hysteria. Unfortunately, this book doesn't settle the question of whether we've been visited.

The style of the book is creative nonfiction with simultaneous plots, which I found irritating when straightforward exposition could have plumbed greater depths. The author's analysis is weak. This style is not the approach for definitive analysis, but merely pop journalism.

However, at the time it was written, this was the best discussion of UFO reports available. It may still be that, despite its many shortcomings, it's the best book reference on the subject. People with an interest in UFOs should read this book; others can move on to more interesting titles.

-- Notes by RRT