Professor: UFOs, Aliens are Human Anthropologists From Future
In a recent experiment, scientists reversed the arrow of time for a split second, simulating the possibility of time travel using quantum particles called qubits. The experiment was a far cry from achieving time travel anytime in the near future, but if it provides even a modicum of possibility it would support Dr. Michael P. Masters’ theory that UFOs and aliens might just be future anthropologists traveling back in time to study their ancestors — us.
Masters completed his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the Ohio State University and is currently a professor of biological anthropology at Montana Tech. His resume also cites coursework in astrobiology, astronomy, and physics – needless to say, he has some pretty relevant credentials.
Our Future Humanoid Alien Descendants
In his book Identified Flying Objects: A Multidisciplinary Scientific Approach to the UFO Phenomenon, Masters explores the evolution of humans in relation to our hominin ancestors, and our likely progression as a species moving forward. Based on the trajectory of our physical, intellectual, and technological development, he says he believes the common trope of the hairless, large-headed, technologically advanced alien is likely where evolution is leading us.
Humans have evolved to become (relatively) hairless creatures compared to our ancestors and many anthropologists believe we’ll eventually lose it entirely as it doesn’t really serve much of a function anymore, save aesthetics. Add to that the fact that our skull size has doubled and tripled to support a larger brain compared to the smaller cranium of ancestors like Homo erectus and Australopithecus, respectively.
“The phenomenon may be our own distant descendants coming back through time to study us in their own evolutionary past,” Masters told a local television station in his home state of Montana. “The extra-tempestrials are ubiquitously reported as being bipedal, upright-walking, five fingers on each hand and foot, bi-lateral symmetry, that they have two eyes, a mouth, a nose, and they can communicate with us in our own languages.”

Dr Michael P. Masters
If that’s the case, and close encounters with aliens are really close encounters with our future relatives, the term extraterrestrial wouldn’t be appropriate to describe our humanoid alien descendants. That’s why Masters coined the term, extratempestrials.
Much like the theme of Michael Crichton’s 1999 novel Timeline, Masters imagines how incredible it would be for future archeologists and anthropologists to travel back in time to study the eras and people we’ve only imagined from our history textbooks.
“As an anthropologist who has worked on and directed numerous archaeological digs in Africa, France, and throughout the United States, it is easy to conceptualize just how much more could be learned about our own evolutionary history, if we currently possessed the technology to visit past periods of time,” Masters said.
The Alien Anthropologist
Language is another facet of his argument: reported encounters with extraterrestrials often involve their ability to communicate with us through the same mechanisms we use for communication.
Masters posits the possibility that extraterrestrials from another planet with a different atmosphere, different physics, and different evolution might use different forms of vibratory communication – not necessarily through language.
Though admittedly just a theory, Masters had his book peer-reviewed by a number of his colleagues to verify some of the foundations of his conclusion.
The theory is an interesting one and might help explain or corroborate the theory that extraterrestrials sometimes appear to act as inter-dimensional entities, who are able to transcend time and space through apparently inexplicable means.
And as we consider some of the bizarre elements of UFO encounters and their seeming ability to zip in and out of existence, appearing to defy known laws of physics, one can’t help but think of Arthur C. Clarke’s famous line, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”
UFO technology appears to be magic based on current technological capabilities, but much of our technology today would look like magic to anyone living a century ago, let alone hundreds, or thousands of years ago. What if we were to fast forward hundred or thousands of years from now?
Given that Moore’s Law — that is, computer processing power doubles every two years– has maintained, while quantum physics has conceptually made many science fiction themes now seem within the realm of possibility, time travel might just become science fact. That is, if our species is able to survive long enough to see it come to fruition, but if Masters’ theory is right, it appears we must have.
Increasing Number of Politicians Admit Belief in UFOs
In 2017, Bettina Rodriguez Aguilera, Miami Republican congressional candidate for the state senate in Florida was ostracized for admitting eight years earlier that she had been abducted by aliens. Perhaps the public just wasn’t ready for what seemed like such a bold and crazy admission to many voters.
Or maybe the general public is unwilling to admit what they secretly believe. In any case, more and more politicians are now coming out of the closet, so to speak, joining the millions who believe we are not alone in the universe, including a number of candidates currently running, or who recently ran for president.
More than a third of all Americans believe aliens have visited our planet, according to a poll conducted by the most famous of all pollsters — Gallup. Newsweek reported that demographic groups more likely to believe in visiting extraterrestrial spaceships include the young (18-29), non-college graduates, and the irreligious — with respondents in those categories trending toward 40 percent. Even with variation across demographic groups, no category fell below 27 percent of respondents describing some UFOs as alien spacecraft.
At this point in time, Newsweek reported, the extraterrestrial explanation for the UFO aerial phenomena represents a minority of US citizens. However, a large majority agrees that the government knows “more about UFOs than it is telling us.”