Any hypothetical non-human species could accomplish more through direct and open contact with us, than they could by stealthy and secret abductions or other sneaky activity designed to avoid a free flow of information, commerce, or other interactions.  Imagine that for some reason the European explorers of the western hemisphere had decided that they just wanted to spy on the native Americans without ever letting them obtain any definite confirmation that such things as Europeans actually existed.  That might have worked out better for the native Americans (although one could argue that despite all the abuses and tragedy of the European conquest of North America, today's native American population is better off having the advantages of modern civilization rather than living in a neolithic culture), but it would hardly have been as rewarding for the Europeans, and there is no apparent motive for doing it that way.

One could also argue that other species could have entirely non-human and perhaps even incomprehensible motivations, which cannot be entirely ruled out.  However, since they presumably do live in the same universe as we do, we can expect some degree of parallel evolution.  Any successful strategies for survival are likely to produce recognizable and comprehensible ways of thinking.  So I don't think that intelligent non-humans would have entirely novel modes of thought.  They probably would not think exactly the way we do (after all, even among the various human cultures, people from different backgrounds think differently) but they wouldn't be likely to think entirely differently, either.  So this whole theory about secretive UFOs  doesn't make sense.  If they were here, they would speak to us openly, they would sign treaties and conduct business, they would be available to be interviewed on CNN, and so forth, or so I expect.  That is simply the most productive strategy.

Also bear in mind, "UFO" simply means Unidentified Flying Object, it does not mean alien spacecraft.  A UFO could in theory be an alien spacecraft, but it could be lots of other things as well.  Any object which either is, or appears to be flying, and which you for any reason are not able to identify, is by definition a UFO.  The mere fact that we human observers are fallible and cannot always identify everything we see, guarantees that there will be UFO sightings.  So when I am asked if I believe in UFOs, the answer has to be yes, I do.  There are indeed some flying objects that some people have failed to identify.  But are they alien spacecraft (or even more bizarrely, pixies and leprechauns)?  I don't think so.

Two alternative theories:

A. All those little folk, what we alternately call leprechauns, pixies, fairies, etc., have evolved just as we have. Instead of hanging around large dodgy mushrooms smoking interesting foliage, they developed technology just like we did. Only they're better at it because they also have magic.

B. Humans continue to evolve. And because of our increasingly automated sedentary lives, our limbs atrophy while our heads remain large to accommodate our increasing brain capacity. Meanwhile, in order to protect our eyes from increasing UV levels in our damaged atmosphere, we all wear dark full-eye contact lenses. All the races disappear due to miscegenation, producing universal grey skin. Or perhaps that's just the lack of sunshine due to our runaway greenhouse effect. Whatev. Anyway, one day, we perfect time travel, but it's dangerous, so just a few brave committed souls try to return to the time (the last fifty years or so, which coincides with Roswell) when we caused the most damage to our planet, in order to warn ourselves. But the great tragedy is no one believes it's real. In fact, they don't even know the visitors are human. Giant bummer.

Well?

3.  There's no need to use all that expensive Stealth technology when the creatures you're studying have no radar to detect it.  That would be like bringing in a duck blind to study E. Coli.  As for the changes in interior technology, the humans only saw the parts of the craft they were permitted to see.  The controls in those chambers matched the technology they knew, so that they couldn't replicate any of the good stuff when they were returned to the ground.

I'm afraid I've never seen a UFO, although I've been tempted to make one with the old candle/stick/dry cleaning bag trick.  And even though I answered energy ball, I would have liked to see those big triangles over Phoenix.

(is 3fingerspointback)