Here's my problem with UFOs.
Here's my problem with your definition of UFOs
(I agree with your comment as you've set it out, but it's one my pet bugbears when the hoary old UFO = aliens in flying saucers straw-man is brought up
)
It's a very narrow and tight definition - little green men coming in to visit mechanical saucers from another planet. It's set up to be dismissed.
It's Unidentified Flying Object, not aliens a bit like us visiting in a mechanical spaceship. Although I'm completely aware there are years of baggage with the term, I personally prefer UAP now - which is coming back - unidentified aerial phenomena.
There are loads of alternative explanations for what are indeed very strange things that are happening. I myself have witnessed two good encounters, that unfortunately will remain unsolved, although I have my own strong suspicions. I fully suspect there is a great number of different effects being interpreted as UFO's - for example, taking Ray's comment, there are some very strong parallels with fairy encounters reported hundreds of years back and current tales of alien abducting or visitation, which suggests some common psychological motif recurring within us as humans. But there are also tentative explanations for real physical sightings, ranging from the mundane (
top secret government projects - at least I'd call that mundane!) to new physical science/interactions ("
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." )
Personally, I don't think there are any civilisations anywhere near us - I suspect 99.999999% of all life in the universe is bacteria and the closest civilisation 'now' like ours is probably in the Andromeda galaxy, but I'd really like some alien visitors. They'd have to have some really weird science, be inter-dimensional or from another universe (or something similar!) But I fully admit such a possibility has no evidence and is very unlikely
.