Typically, the US government has shrouded Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) incidents in secrecy or buried them. Investigations tend to come and go, usually the latter, relegated to a thick fog of irrelevancy which smothers any potential embarrassment.

If we encounter guided objects in or beyond our atmosphere that are beyond human capabilities, their presence seems to strain credulity.

Again, such was the case regarding incidents in November of 2004 until New York Times reporters dug up footage of that Navy F/A-18 encounter with an unknown object.

The very fact that UFO sightings cannot be explained and are thus unidentified flying objects would suggest a technology we have not yet achieved. Yet we insist on judging their very existence based upon performances within our current technical achievements.

If your senses, even your instruments, document going beyond these standards, this is considered reason to judge your perception to be faulty in some manner.

Probably the most important feature of any investigation is a scientist with openness to new ideas and the ability to project the most advanced concepts forward rather than relying on the limitations of current standards of propulsion, gravity, speed and maneuverability.

The case in question involved Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier crews and F18 pilots both documenting many such occurrences beyond our aircraft capabilities.

The data and analysis of these sightings point to a number of un-alterable truths, truths our current technology cannot explain. The UFO craft flew in excess of 13,000 MPH in our atmosphere; it periodically evaded radar; it was able to fly through air, water and possible space. It had no obvious signs of propulsion. In addition, it had no seen control surfaces.

Even more mind-boggling, UFOs seemed to defy natural effects of gravity at 28,000 feet with a non-altitude-sustaining speed of 100 knots.

What if the craft is a threat from an Earthly source like China or Russia with a break-through technology we didn’t dream they could have? Due to the risk of possible ridicule, we bury the sightings?

Besides, even if no Earthly nation has this technology, exercise a little curiosity about what it is and how we can someday achieve it.

We are immersed in a classical world that deals with objects, including ourselves, that are collections of atoms. We know how that body, that collection of atoms is supposed to work. Accordingly, our physics deals with Newtonian mechanics, thermodynamics, and Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism. It is bodies, motion, and forces.

We mostly consider the quantum world of quarks and atoms as unreal.

But let’s start with our ignorance.

We don’t really know how that quantum state is transferred into a classical state. Perhaps intelligent life which sends these UFOs — admitting they exist — knows this secret and can switch back and forth – themselves and their evasive craft — rendering them invisible, massless, or whatever. Then it wouldn’t be magic, mystery or voodoo, would it?

One principle of quantum physics we do know is quantum entanglement, in which the quantum states of two or more objects have to be described with reference to each other, even though the individual objects may be spatially separated; technically the separation could occur in more than one solar system.

Quantum entanglement has been demonstrated experimentally with photons, neutrinos, electrons, molecules as large as buckyballs and even small diamonds. It is a considered a transportation of information but not matter. But could matter actually be transported miles away instantaneously, which could explain observed UFO disappearances? It seems too magical in light of our limited knowledge of the quantum world.

Transferring the quantum to a classical state seems far-fetched in our physically predictable world. But consider, most of us can’t even visualize the vibrating movement of subatomic electrons surging through electric fields to power our lights.

In their young adult years, your grandparents could not imagine squeezing enough power out of a lithium battery to drive emission-free hundreds of miles in a Tesla, liberated electrons shuttling anode to cathode, or see on a TV screen what’s happening a few seconds ago on the other side of the globe while lounging in your recliner.

Is switching worlds (quantum to classical) as far-fetched as transmitting voice, video and telemetry across thousands of miles through a thread-thin strand of optical fiber was for some of our parents when children. It’s now done routinely, a medium of light becomes voices over a telephone receiver, internet browser displays, and news events continents away on your TV screen, at the speed of light.

Even Shakespeare, many centuries ago, cited the need to even imagine solutions to mysteries in his own narrow universe: “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

One can’t even dream of achieving the seemingly impossible if such mysterious phenomena as UFOs are rejected and not given over to study by experts, this for fear of ridicule.

Did the recent study by American intelligence officials sound like it had been turned over by Intelligence Officials for definitive analysis by scientific experts from many fields of study?

This was from the first paragraph of a report of the study, this by Julian Barnes and Helene Cooper on the staff of the New York Times:

American intelligence officials have found no evidence that aerial phenomena witnessed by Navy pilots in recent years are alien spacecraft, but they still cannot explain the unusual movements that have mystified scientists and the military, according to senior administration officials briefed on the findings of a highly anticipated government report.

Does this tend to satisfy our curiosity, help to find answers about the nature of the visitors or their technology. Of course, you’ll find no evidence of alien spacecraft when you bury your head in the conventional Earthly sand. And there will be no prospects for achieving their technology, at least for the United States.

Perhaps just as important, does it set out to mitigate any potential threat such a presence might pose to our national security?

I think none of the above.