Attn: Dr. Derrick Pitts

Chief Astronomer/Director Fels Planetarium

The Franklin Institute

Philadelphia, PA

Dear Dr. Pitts:

Apologies for the public query. I know your schedule is busy and that the email De Void sent on 5/9/11 was just one of many you receive on any given day. But to reiterate, I was intrigued by your 5/7/11 Franklin Center forum with UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record author Leslie Kean.

I understand the chat went well. Even more impressive was, according to your Facebook posts advancing the discussion, you actually read the book, unlike so many astronomers who claim to be informed. You called it “an NYT Bestseller and endorsed by me” and “a riveting read of real experiences.” I also liked the no-nonsense part: “Leslie Kean and I talk UFOs as legitimate science research — NOT ET spaceships. Why don’t we investigate as legit science? Other countries do …”

Exactly. So what’s up with American scientists? Why are so many of your astronomer colleagues, like Steven Dick, in such deep denial?

Last October, NASA’s former chief historian delivered a paper to the Royal Society repeating his longstanding theory that SETI may be on the wrong track. Dick argued that advanced “post-biological” civilizations would probably create artificial intelligence — e.g., self-replicating robotics — “more likely to roam the universe than to send [radio] signals.”

The study of UFOs might bolster his theory. But Dick won’t even go there; he claims there’s nothing to warrant any linkage. He hadn’t read Kean’s book. He wasn’t familiar with UFO radar data. He said the UFO riddle had been put to bed 42 years ago with the cessation of the USAF’s dreadfully flawed Project Blue Book.

Were this any other discipline, Dick’s disconnect would be laughable.

How many people showed up for your session with Kean, Dr. Pitts? I’d bet not a lot, although I’d also bet most of your audience knew more about this subject than Steven Dick. Conversely, I don’t have a good feel for how many people read this blog; maybe a dozen or so post regularly. And, like politics and religion, naturally some tend to get a little weird.

But there are also sharp and discerning people out there, many with important contributions to make. If a single concern unifies their disparate theories and motivations, it would be an exasperation over the inability of American science to join the rest of the 21st-century world and confront this most compelling obligation.

How do we make this happen to ensure its integrity? What’s the proper venue? Private or public funding? How do we extend this debate that you appear to support? Where do we start? Where do we go? How do we become adults?

Help.