Science Forums 2

[Boerseun]

One would assume that any species capable of overcoming gravity with their "antigravity devices", would not be in any need of such mundane things as gyroscopic stabilisers.

Nope, the only reason that UFO's in popular media are spinning, is the same as why the "Greys" look like they do. The first artist who came up with his own personal view of what it should look like, the first artist to put his imagination to paper/celluloid, basically dictated to the generations of artists to follow in his wake what a UFO or an alien should look like. If you want to get your message accross quickly, and you depict an alien spaceship as anything other but the commonplace spinning-top thingy, then fewer people will understand what you're on about. Also, if you depict an alien in a popular art media as anything but a "Grey", then people will think you drew a picture of a cucumber with eyeballs, or an octopus with a death ray gun, or whatever, but they will not think of them as aliens!

Popular culture is a nasty thing, and it also limits what we can and can't do, creatively speaking, to an unexpectedly large degree.

But there's no particular scientific reason why their spacecraft will spin. It just looks cool to have all those bright shiny lights flash all over, I guess.