It’s a question that has been debated and denied for decades and decades: do aliens exist? In fact, the word “alien” creates mental images of different creatures in each of our heads. No doubt thanks to Hollywood, we go from the gentle and wrinkled creature of “ET the extraterrestrial” by Steven Spielberg to the blue and lively one in “Lilo & Stitch” from Disney, up to the stereotypical green beings with big eyes who come to life in “Invaders from MarsBut, in short, do they really exist or is it all pure cinematic invention?
Former President Barack Obama would have jokingly confirmed their existence in an interview in recent days with the podcast host and YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohenbefore debunking the conspiracy theory that creatures from outer space are being held in Area 51, the remote and well-known Air Force facility in the Nevada desert.
They exist, but I have not seen them, to then clarify that they are not in Area 51, the military base in the Nevada desert which, according to many conspiracy theories, holds evidence of the existence of extraterrestrial beings.
According to Obama, in short, there is no secret underground base where aliens or unknown technologies are kept, unless one imagines a conspiracy so vast that it has been kept hidden even from the president in office. His sentences, spoken in a light tone, have nevertheless rekindled a theme that has fueled curiosity, theories and public discussions for decades.
The statement quickly made the rounds in the international media, prompting Obama himself to intervene to clarify the meaning of his words. In a message published on Instagram he explained that he limited himself to the rapid spirit of question and answer: from a statistical point of view, the immensity of the universe makes the existence of other life forms plausible, but the distances between star systems are so great as to make contact with Earth extremely unlikely. During his tenure, he added, no evidence of extraterrestrial visits emerged:
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What Area 51 really is
The famous Area 51 is a military base in southern Nevada, born during the Cold War and long surrounded by secrecy. Only in 2013 did the CIA officially recognize its existence, however fueling new speculation on UFOs and alien technologies. In 2019, a viral event on Facebook ironically invited people to “storm” the facility: over a million signed up online, but fewer than 150 people actually showed up.
In the dialogue with Cohen, Obama said that one of the first questions he wanted to ask upon entering the White House concerned aliens, a sign of a more scientific and philosophical than political interest in what remains unknown. The former president then broadened his discussion to the situation in the United States, defining the current political climate as a “circus” and criticizing some rhetoric on national security, reiterating the need for profound reforms rather than reactions dictated by fear.
Ultimately, between cosmic statistics and terrestrial common sense, Obama’s position seems to be halfway between The X-Files and an astronomy lesson: the universe is probably full of life, but for now the only truly certain one continues to be the one arguing on the internet. And if there are no aliens in Area 51, the most concrete consolation remains: at least there, apparently, conspiracy theories don’t even reach Wi-Fi.
