Interview with Paul Hynek by Fernanda Pires
Interview with Paul Hynek
by Fernanda Pires
Welcome to ‘our interview,’ a series of conversations exploring the most intriguing and mysterious phenomena of our time. Today, I’m joined by Paul Hynek, a renowned Chief Financial Officer, who has decades of experience in finance, technology AI, cryptocurrency, entertainment, and is an expert in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
For decades, humanity has been fascinated by the possibility of life beyond Earth. From the eerie glow of UFO sightings to the tantalizing hints of exoplanetary biology, the search for answers has captivated scientists, theorists, and the general public alike.
As we venture further into the unknown, we’re forced to confront the limitations of our current understanding and the tantalizing prospect of discovery.
Paul Hynek is a son of the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek, an astronomer who worked with the U.S. Air Force investigating UFO cases. Paul works with numerous startups as either a board member, advisor, or part-time CFO and helps numerous early- and mid-stage companies and nonprofits manage their accounting, finance, HR, and investor and donor relations. In addition to his MBA, Paul has a Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Joseph H. Lauder Institute, and a BA in French from the University of Illinois, and we’re thrilled to have him share his insights with us today.
In this exclusive interview, we’ll delve into the latest developments in the search for extraterrestrial life, the implications of UFO sightings, and the intersection of science, philosophy, and the human experience. So, let’s embark on this journey into the unknown and explore the cosmos with Paul Hynek.
Paul, you are a dear friend and I am so grateful for this interview with you. Thank you for the opportunity and for joining me today. As an expert in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence and a UFO researcher, you’ve spent years studying the phenomenon. What sparked your interest in UFOs besides your father?
I don’t know life without UFO’s. We had flying saucer ornaments on our Christmas trees. It’s like asking how I got interested in walking!
Further on UFOs research, you are also an expert in AI and this is the hot topic at the moment. Can you please tell me what are the implications of creating AI systems that can communicate with extraterrestrial life? And what is the potential role of AI in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?
The movie “Arrival” showed the potential difficulties in communicating with an alien race who has a fundamentally different way of looking at language. I believe that AI will help us communicate in a few years with animals, and may well be key in unlocking how to communicate with an alien race.
SETI is already using AI in its efforts to locate extraterrestrial intelligence. AI will continue to make this time-consuming laborious task orders of magnitude more efficient.
We do investigations on UFOs. What is the connection between AI and extraterrestrial life? Can AI be used to distinguish between natural and artificial signals in space? How can AI be used to detect and analyze signals from outer space that might be of extraterrestrial origin? Do you think it’s possible?
If extraterrestrials are sending spaceships here, in my mind the inhabitants of the crafts are likely sentient AI entities – call them androids, robots, what have you. The time involved in space travel and the rigors of space radiation etc. make it very difficult for biological beings. And if somehow they are going anywhere near the speed of light, they will be so out of time phase with their home planet as to never see anyone there again.
Definitely it can. AI is an excellent tool when you need to pattern match and cull through thousands if not millions of potential candidates. I’ve been to the world’s largest cherry processing plant in Washington state. It can process 60 million cherries a day, and assigns each of them a unique identification number. If we can do this with a fruit, imagine how much it can help in space.
What are the potential risks or benefits of relying on AI to represent humanity in interactions with extraterrestrial life and how might the development of AI for extraterrestrial communication impact human society or culture?
The Drake Equation shows us that there are likely thousands, if not millions of what we would consider intelligent civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The Fermi Paradox wonders why we don’t already have more definitive evidence of their existence. The Dark Forest theory says that civilizations are afraid of other potentially more advanced and hostile civilizations and have decided to stay under the proverbial radar. Since to our knowledge the universe is about 14 billion years old, and Earth is almost 5 billion years old, other civilizations could be not only thousands, not only millions, but billions of years more advanced than us. That’s a sobering thought.
The connection between AI and beings from another planet is something very intriguing and terrifying at the same time. However, let’s talk about UFOs. Your father was brilliant conducting his own independent UFO research, developing the “Close Encounter” classification system. My question is, how have UFO sightings changed over the decades, and what patterns can be observed?
One interesting phenomenon that my father, Jacques Vallee and others have remarked upon is that reports of UFOs have tended to match the prevailing technology of the times, or at least the technology that’s represented in movies and TV. In the 1890’s there were reports of steampunk type air ships in the US and England that we do not seem to see these days, as reports now are of sleek crafts, many with no right angles, sound, and the ability to accelerate far faster than our jets, and also blink in and out of sight.
How do UFO reports compare with historical accounts of unexplained phenomena?
As with the type of technology at the time, people will interpret unexplainable phenomena in the context of their current belief systems. The Bible has several accounts of strange crafts in the sky, the most notable perhaps being Ezekiel’s Wheel.
What is the most compelling evidence supporting the existence of UFOs for you?
The consistent number of reports over decades of cases with credible and even expert witnesses such as military pilots who quite often have nothing whatsoever to gain from reporting an incident, machine confirmations such as radar readings and FLIR camera footage, and extensive analysis by MUFON and other entities. This is a phenomenon that simply will not go away. The United States Navy has admitted that they see hundreds of objects that they cannot explain in the air and water, and they have admitted concern for the safety of their aviators.
Do you think there are any official government investigations into UFOs, and what were their conclusions? And if they have some, do you think the government hides something about UFOs and why?
I don’t know what the US government is doing, and I don’t care. They have demonstrated that they are a bad faith, corrupt, central actor and I no longer follow what they say or do. I don’t know what they have and are hiding from the public. What’s more, if I was a US Air Force general, I would not release any information. It would be my job to defend against all threats to national security, and there’s no way I would release information I had on aliens or efforts to harness or reverse engineer propulsion systems.
Paul, let’s dive deeper into the government’s involvement with UFOs. Do you think they’re working with extraterrestrials, or is it purely a defensive or research-oriented endeavour?
I have no idea!
Could UFO sightings be linked to advanced technology from secret military projects rather than extraterrestrial life? And what role do military encounters play in our understanding of UFOs?
I don’t think there is one answer to the UFO phenomenon. I think there are multiple answers, and one of them is almost certainly secret, advanced military technology. I’m not a big believer in the extraterrestrial hypothesis for a variety of reasons, but that could certainly be a part of the phenomenon. Personally I lean more towards an interdimensional origin, as this would help explain how the entities are aware of us and perhaps why they would care. The distances in space are so great, and just discovering our existence is no easy feat, much less getting here. If there are entities by contrast in another dimension which is essentially “here,” that could help explain both how they know about us, how they get here by some means of interdimensional transport which doesn’t need to go from star to star, and perhaps also why they would care about us, as they may in some way be related to us.
Do you think the government’s release of UFO-related information will lead to a greater understanding of the phenomenon, or is it just a publicity stunt?
Their dribbles of information have served to whet the public’s appetite to some extent. Whether they are doing it in an overall coordinated effort with an editorial schedule and narrative arc, or whether they can’t outright control the various whistleblowers who come forward, I don’t know.
How can we balance the need for scientific rigor in studying UFOs with the public’s desire for information and transparency?
The two go hand in hand. The higher the quality and rigor in our research, and the more people will lean into the phenomenon, I believe.
Can you discuss the potential implications of extraterrestrial life on our economic systems and global politics and how might the discovery of extraterrestrial life impact our societal values and norms?
Oh boy, who knows? This would be the biggest event in human history, and I don’t think anyone can predict what would happen.
Can you discuss the potential implications of extraterrestrial life on our understanding of the concept of “life” itself and how might the discovery of extraterrestrial life impact our understanding of human consciousness and the nature of intelligence? How might the study of UFOs and extraterrestrial life inform our understanding of the possibility of life on Mars or other celestial bodies?
In my view there is almost certainly life as we know it elsewhere in the universe. For all we know if could either be such a different form than us, or a post-biological civilization that it would be nigh unto unrecognizable to our telescopes and cameras and radio wave detectors. I think that many people know are aware of the traces of what seem to suggest life having existed on Mars. I also think that most people believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe. But it’s one thing to accept that idea and quite another to see it face to face.
Paul, let’s go back in time… What do you believe is the significance of the “Tic Tac” UFO incident in 2004, and how does it relate to our understanding of UFOs?
There are multiple types of evidence for this incident – FLIR camera footage from fighter jets, sightings from high-powered binoculars, and radar confirmations from both the USS Nimitz and USS Princeton. I am friends with Kevin Day who was the radar operator on the USS Princeton who made the first radar sighting, and he is one of the most credible witnesses you can imagine – he had no prior interest in UFOs, and his primary interest is always, as I mentioned about the US Navy in general, the safety of their aviators.
I would be curious if you ever considered other theories besides ET such as Time Travellers, Interdimensionals, something demonic especially concerning abductions or an ancient Silurian civilization hiding at the bottom of the oceans slightly ahead of us land dwellers? And did your dad ever consider other theories?
Yes, as mentioned, I favor the interdimensional hypothesis, although I will also tip my hat to my friend Dr. Michael Masters, who makes a good case for the time travel theory. My father, Jacques and many others have long looked beyond just an extraterrestrial origin.
One of my interests is the tantalizing possibility that DMT may not be a hallucinogenic drug, but rather a plant medicine technology that allows us access to another dimension, which in some strange way could be related to where (at least some) UFO’s may in fact come from. I’m working on protocols to demonstrate the objective reality of DMT encounters, as well as reports of communications with aliens.
And Paul I heard that you and your brother were working on a project to develop a “machine”, what is it exactly? Tell me about it.
My brother Joel and a friend of ours have picked up on the work of the French astrophysicist Claude Poher, and we have been working on developing a device that following Dr. Pohers’s theories would result in an anti-gravity device. I’ll let you know if we succeed!
Paul, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today. Your insights and perspectives have been truly enlightening, and I’m sure our readers will greatly appreciate your thoughts. You are very knowledgeable. It was an absolute pleasure having you share your story with us. Thank you so much!
My pleasure, dear Fernanda!
Fernanda Pires
Director of CAG International
Regional Director for Canada, Central & South America
MUFON ERT – CFI3
International Consultant, Revista Ufo’s Columnist, Screenwriter
Encounters Latin America Film Producer in Brazil