LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Chances are, if you've been on Facebook you've probably seen the event to Storm Area 51. UNLV junior Dylan Orlando had his eyes on it.
“Just would really like to know what's in there, I mean it's pretty confidential, besides the people that are there. I want to free the aliens, let them out and see what's good,” Orlando said.
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He and many others are curious about the secretive site. UNLV sociology professor Michael Ian Borer says he's not surprised.
"People are always interested and have a desire for meaning and order and sometimes, that order goes well beyond the Earth that we know."
The site, officially an Air Force weapons testing site, has long been associated with aliens and government conspiracies. Borer says that creates the perfect conditions for such an event to happen.
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"It's this connection of fear and on one hand and hope on the other, all mixing together with Internet culture."
He says the mystique of Area 51 is tapping into the inherent curiosity of humans.
“This is a secured place that people are in danger if they come too close to it. Now of course that sort of danger is also enticing too. It's a catch-22,” Borer said.
For William Hamilton, it's a danger he wants no part of.
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“I believe they are real now. They out there, but I don't think we should go mess with them. We stay away from Area 51,” Hamilton said.
Borer says it's a train of thought already seen in pop culture.
"There are all the sci-fi horror films show how naive we are, that maybe they're not like us at all and start thinking about how we should act if we found other beings on other planets someday."
Whatever happens this week, Borer is confident the search for answers to questions out of this world will continue.
