Ufology ends in 10-20 years?

[Hoffmeister]

So I have recently been reading about some of the telescopes we plan to be putting in to space over the next ten years. Apparently there are a few telescopes at the planning stages that will directly be able to view planets, and literally take images of them so we can see their colours, and makeup, and continents etc.
In fact the great astronomer Martin Ree's mentions it in his latest writings for the BBC: Greatest Discoveries of the Naughties
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8435246.stm

So say he is correct in predicting we will have one of these telescopes by 2020... whilst nobody knows how long it will take before we look at a planet see another civilization via spectroscopy or some other means, presumably there is a chance no matter how small that we could find one within ten years.
In fact it was recently that I was watching some documentary with Ree's and co that someone said they believed we would find proof of extraterrestrial life by 2030.
If so, how would this effect ufology? Would the general public and skeptics alike still shoot down the UFO (as ET) theories even when we have proof that there is other civilizations out there? Would it propel ufology into the mainstream or kill it altogether?

My gut feeling is that it will take us a lot longer to find another advanced civilization, but its an interesting topic of conversation. People in UFOlogy always say it hasnt changed in 60 years and probably wont' do for a long time..... well in my eyes, this is the most likely way it will change.

I have heard many paracast guests say the only way things will change is if a UFO lands on the whitehouse lawn, perhaps we have all overlooked our own technology potential to uncover the mystery for ourselves..... but perhaps not.... who knows, I guess i'll wait 20 years

 

[Xylo]

The way I see it, even if some sort of non-terrestrial or crypto-terrestrial or interdimensional being announced it's presence, and the humans accepted it, there would still be some group of UFOlogists that would consider them innately hostile, or have paranoic visions of their race, or whatever. There's always somebody with a conspiracy theory.

As far as human discovery of non-earth based life, I suspect humankind will be insulated from that discovery in specific and hopeful and speculative of it in general for many, many years. Even if we have the most powerful telescopes in the universe, those telescopes have to be aimed and focused precisely. Even so, we may find that we are looking into the past of a civilization more than into the present of that same civilization.

 

[Schuyler]

I don't see how taking pictures of a planet would change anything much. I remember one of the astronauts making a comment about Earth upon seeing it from space. he said, "Is it inhabited?" And he was pretty close. Of course, if we were able to take a picture of a planet in the dark with sufficient resolution to determine lights, that would be interesting. We've had these hyperbolic comments for years that by such-and-such a date we will have done this or that--but it never comes to pass.

 

[Hoffmeister]

I'm not really sure how these scientists reckon they're gonna identify extraterrestrial life-forms on other planets. My guess is like you say, that they look at a planet and see lights on it but I am really speculating here. You can also use spectroscopy to determine what materials e.g. organic and others, that are in the atmosphere.

The difference between now, and previous times when people have put a finger in the air and come up with a date is that we actually have the technology to look at other planets at our finger tips. It all depends on how common life is in the galaxy I suppose. We might end up finding a habited planet near every star for all we know.

It was really just a conversation piece I suppose, because apart from this one glimmer of hope, I can't see any other way this thing is gonna get resolved any time soon (i havent forgotten the fact that UFO's might be nothing to do with E.T.s by the way).
If we do start finding life even as close as Mars, I do think it will open up more people in the general public minds to the possibility that we are being visited by E.T.

My gut feeling is that one day we're gonna find life all over the place, and its gonna look eerily similar to life on our own planet but who knows!