Subject: Saudi Global Leaders Conference
On Jan 18, 2011, at 3:12 PM, Stanton T. Friedman wrote to me (Jack Sarfatti) and others:
"Arabia & UFOs. Jan. 12, 2011  Stanton T. Friedman  Column
When I first heard of the comments from the Vatican Observatory Director, Astronomer (Reverend)  Jose Gabriel Funes)in May 2008 and then Pope Benedict XVI about God could have made our brethen in space as well as us, I was quite surprised. I had years ago heard pro UFO comments from Father Balducci who worked at the Vatican. But the Pope? My first thought was what did he know that we didn’t? He doesn’t need to answer any questions he doesn’t want to answer.  Was he trying to prepare the world’s 1.13 billion Catholics for an upcoming announcement of the reality of alien visitation? Islam’s leaders and other groups already believe there is intelligent life out there. This was quite a contrast with the views of fundamentalist preachers Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell, who have loudly proclaimed that Earthlings are the only intelligent life in the Universe and that the UFO stuff is a reflection of demonic activity. (Surely the Lord can do better than Earthlings?)
I was similarly surprised to be invited to be a participant in the fifth annual Global Competitiveness Forum to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in January, 2011. I don’t know how my contact had heard of me. But it certainly took courage to have a panel on “Innovation and UFOs”. He seemed to be pleased that, in my response expressing interest, I noted that my mantra is that technological progress comes from doing things differently in an unpredictable way and that the future, technologically speaking, is not an extrapolation of the past. We have to change how we do things. Lasers aren’t just better light bulbs. The nuclear rockets I worked on are not just better chemical rockets. Computer chips aren’t just better vacuum tubes. In all these cases, entirely different physics is required for the new than was required for the old technique. Think computers versus slide rules.
Turns out this will be the 5th annual GCF. A major speaker at the first one was Bill Gates. Last year British prime MinisterTony Blair was a speaker. He is also speaking this year. This year I will be one of three Canadians. The others are Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Canadian Senator Marie Poulin.The objective was for me to be a member of a 5 man panel on Innovations and UFOs. The other panelists are to be Nick Pope of England, Dr. Jacques Vallee, who, besides being an outstanding ufologist,  is involved in selecting new business ventures for support by venture capitalists, as well as Dr. Micho Kaku an astrophysicist who has spoken enthusiastically about the possibility of aliens out there, and Dr. Zaghloul El Naggar an Egyptian scholar and a member of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs.
The panel will last 75 minutes. The newest title is “Contact: Learning from Outer Space”. I intend to stress that aliens have taken innovative approaches to interstellar travel, travel in the atmosphere, examination of earthlings. So far as I know I am the only one of the 5 who has strongly stated a conviction that SOME UFOs are of alien origin. The others indicate that something of interest is happening, but they are unwilling to admit to the conclusion that aliens are visiting as opposed to merely being out there. I have appeared on Michio’s radio show a couple of times. Nick and I have a bet that earthlings will first find out flying saucer reality from UFOLOGY (my view) as opposed to from the SETI movement. (Silly Effort To  Investigate.) Nick’s. Michio has certainly shown much more courage than most academic theoretical astrophysicists. He came across well on that sad Peter Jennings mockumentary  “UFOs: Seeing is Believing” on ABC-TV on February 24, 2005, noting that physics may well permit interstellar travel.  They cut my interview from an hour to 20 seconds and called me a promoter twice. They also didn’t bother to note that Dr. Jesse Marcel  Jr. was a medical Doctor, a Flight surgeon, a helicopter pilot, who was then serving (by  government request at age 68) in Iraq . He got in 225 combat hours as a helicopter pilot. One would have thought that these factors would have lent credibility to his comments as would have my scientific background, also not mentioned. Of course Dr. Marcel had also handled wreckage from Roswell. Michio also appeared on a Larry King show which was reacting to Stephen Hawking’s strange comments about don’t let aliens know we are here because of what happened to the natives who encountered  Christopher Columbus. He also suggested that if aliens were visiting we would have heard from them.I have pointed out that we don’t know that there hasn’t been contact and that Columbus after all didn’t send smoke signals.
Preliminary estimates are that there will be about 800 attendees per day for the three day event and about 120  panelists and speakers. I was quite impressed with the positions held by various speakers. Corporate and government managers prevail. The Early Registration admissions fee is only $4000. Technically it is sponsored by the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority.  And it is a very long way. I must say it will certainly be warmer in Riyadh than in Fredericton in January. Interestingly while there had been initial comments about signing my books , books will no longer be available as the Forum will be will be an e-forum, a first for me and them, too. Supposedly I will be provided with an I-Pad.
Here is the actual description of my panel as given in the program which is on the web:
“Psychological and socio-cultural assumptions and preconceptions constrain us to a large extent, and shape our views of the universe so that we are inclined to find what we are looking  for and to fail to see what we are not. Using knowledge gained from research in the fields of Ufology and the search for extraterrestrial life, what might we possibly learn about hindrances to innovation in other areas of Inquiry? Subtitles: Innovation and anthropomorphism, ethnocentrism and ego.-Falsification and the evidence of absence—What Giordano Bruno would say.”
The above could have been part of a preface for the 2010 book “Science Was Wrong: Startling Truths about Cures, Theories, and Inventions “They” Declared Impossible” by  Kathleen Marden and myself.
I, and all the other panelists and speakers  were asked to submit a 250 word summary . Here is mine
Summary for Riyadh Panel . Innovation and UFOs       Stanton T. Friedman, Nuclear Physicist, Canada
After 52 years of study and investigation I have concluded that the evidence is overwhelming that Earth is being visited by intelligently controlled Extraterrestrial spacecraft. In other words, SOME UFOs are alien vehicles. I am also convinced, after working for many major corporations as a nuclear physicist, that technological progress comes from doing things differently in an unpredictable way. The future is not an extrapolation of the past. Microcircuits are not just small vacuum tubes; lasers are not just better light bulbs, nuclear reactors are not just better chemical combustion chambers. All involve “new” physics. Reviewing the UFO evidence forces us to examine our assumptions as to how things work. Clearly chemical rockets cannot get us to the stars. Winged vehicles using propellers, jet engines, or rocket engines cannot provide silent high speed, highly maneuverable craft able to hover, make right angle turns and land and take off from sites not much larger than themselves.
Searching for new techniques, we find that nuclear fusion propulsion systems can on their way to the stars eject particles having 10 million times as much energy per particle as in a chemical rocket. Magnetoaerodynamic techniques seem able to control lift, drag, heating, sonic boom production.Shortening the duration of the acceleration increases the G-loads people can withstand. We find that mother Nature can be used to provide a lot of cosmic freeloading. Being smart is as important as being powerful.
Some of the other panel titles are “Innovation as a Means of Competitiveness”; “Innovation in Health Care”; “Rebooting Education”; “Capital: Wanted”; “Conscious Capitalism”; “Creativity at Work”; “New Skills for New Jobs”;”The Next Frontier”: and many more. A  keynote  speech by Michael Porter Professor at Harvard Business School will be “Competitiveness: a Strategic Perspective”. Another panel is “Building BRICS” (BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). Among the who’s who to be present will be a senior Vice President of IBM, The Chief Pilot for Boeing, the president of Georgia Tech,  the executive vice president  and chief Innovation Officer for DuPont, the Chairman of Walt Disney International and a whole host of other movers and shakers.
It seems ironic that very recently two different articles have appeared dealing with interstellar travel. One in Technology week, came from Marc Millis former head of NASA’Ss breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project and head of the Tau Zero Foundation which supports the science of Interstellar Travel.
“By looking at the rate at which our top speed and financial clout are increasing and then extrapolating into the future, it’s possible to predict when such missions [to the stars] might be possible. The depressing answer in every study so far is that interstellar travel is centuries away”.And Dr  Campbell in 1941 said a rocket to get a man to the moon would weigh a million million tons. What is a factor of 300 million between friends?
Papers have also come out echoing the nonsense from the astronomers and SETI specialists presented them at a Meeting of the Royal Society in London, last year.. nobody can go anywhere. Some of these same guys were saying space travel is utter bilge back in 1956.The 16 papers have now been published In the February 11 issue of The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A No. 369 pp499-699.They seem to believe nobody out there got started before we did.. despite our very short history compared to the age of the neighborhood."   Stan Friedman  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. www.stantonfriedman.com