Determining the "U" in UAP

Ask Ethan: Could we determine if UAPs/UFOs are aliens?

"Although a great many unidentified sights have been seen in the skies, none have conclusively demonstrated the presence of aliens. So far."

"This is actually very robust; if you can find objects that either:

• accelerate at hundreds of gs (or more) for several seconds,
• that move at speeds of hundreds of thousands of km/hr (or greater),
• or that can change their distance from you by amounts that are greater than any known rocket can travel in the same span of time,

you have evidence that you’ve observed a technology that goes well beyond the technologies that are known to humankind at present."

***

- Via a Big Think article (link above) which attempts to establish "clear evidentiary thresholds we'd need to pass to conclude that an unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) truly defies natural or terrestrial explanation."

The video introducing this post reports one account of a mysterious spiral light which appeared over Norway in 2009. A CBS report of the same phenomenon appears in the Ethan article - Spiral Phenomenon Explained - but, judging by most of the comments on the YouTube page, I'd say the explanation (a Russian missile) was not popular.

Alternative explanation? The death of Mothra.

More Fun:

Angels or aliens? Some researchers say Vatican archives hold UFO secrets

The sci-fi future stands derelict: Taiwan’s abandoned UFO houses

***

The moon in a phi-shell. G - DS - 22024.

A belated Happy Birthday to Mac in the Multiverse!

Art connects us to the past... which is a good thing, or we might try to forget it. The artwork above and inset left is a tiny detail of a much larger religious painting, a fresco of the Crucifixion from the Visoki Decani Monestary in Kosovo, Serbia, 1350, artist unknown. The image has been all over the web, mostly misinterpreted as a medieval UAP. According to The View from the Junkyard, and with whom I agree, the two UAPs which fly in the background of the crucified Christ are, in fact, medieval symbolist depictions of the sun and moon; this detail is of the moon. That the sun and moon happen to be vehicles for UHE (Unidentified Human-like Entities)... well, let's just say, it's probably one of those Pre-Christian things. The UHE may symbolize gods... the old gods who still lingered in artist's minds regardless of what new gods they were hired to portray.

If I remember correctly, Mac Tonnies adored the old gods as a boy... along with dinosaurs and robots, of course. But, then again, artists, writers and makers of all varieties still appreciate the old gods till this  very day. Well, they were Immortals, weren't they? Oddly enough, in visual art, the celestial gods often appear in vehicles that echo the shape of the pentagonal golden ratio's spiral mechanism. Even this one does to some degree, and, so, I embellished it with a phi-shell.

For more images and info regarding ancient future vehicles (and/or the "Chariots of the Gods"), try Crystalinks, or this  Preterhuman .pdf.

Breaking News! The Cryptoterrestrials Reconsidered...

Screenshot of the Reference page from a recent academic research paper (see below).

"In a new paper that's bound to raise eyebrows in the scientific community, a team of researchers from Harvard and Montana Technological University speculates that sightings of "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" (UAP) —  bureaucracy-speak for UFOs, basically — "may reflect activities of intelligent beings concealed in stealth here on Earth (e.g., underground), and/or its near environs (e.g., the Moon), and/or even 'walking among us' (e.g., passing as humans)."

Yes, that's a direct quote from the paper. Needless to say, the researchers admit, this idea of hidden "cryptoterrestrials" is a highly exotic hypothesis that's "likely to be regarded skeptically by most scientists." Nonetheless, they argue, the theory "deserves genuine consideration in a spirit of epistemic humility and openness."

- Via the June 11, 2024 Futurism news article: Harvard Scientists Say There May Be an Unknown, Technologically Advanced Civilization Hiding on Earth.

***

Well, it's been awhile, but I'm always happy to report news stories directly related to Mac Tonnies.  This one regards a research paper presented by Tim Lomas, Brendan Case, and Michael P. Masters from the Harvard Human Flourishing Program and Montana Technological University, which can be read online. See: The Cryptoterrestrial Hypothesis: A case for scientific openness to a concealed earthly explanation for Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.

Much of it will seem familiar, but the bones of  Mac's 2011 "thought experiment" are now seen in the light of recent developments in the field of UAPs. Note: although referred to as "bureaucracy-speak," - and although I've said it before - we know UAP from another beautiful mind: Bruce Duensing. 

BTW, Nick Redfern is listed in the references, too.

In other news, I recently read 3 Big Think articles which might interest readers of this blog. Via the first article, What was it like when Venus and Mars both died?, we have the following:

"It is entirely plausible that, for the first few hundred million years of our Solar System’s history, we possessed three life-friendly worlds: Venus, Earth, and Mars. Venus most likely experienced a relatively quick death, as its close proximity to the Sun created a water vapor-rich atmosphere, which trapped enough heat to create a runaway greenhouse effect, ruining its chances for life early on. But Mars fared much better, and for 1.5 billion years, our Solar System may have possessed two heavily-inhabited planets, where single-celled life developed and took hold. It’s quite plausible that wherever life developed first — whether on Earth or on Mars — a random asteroid strike would have kicked material from that inhabited world up into interplanetary space, where primitive life forms could have been transported to the other, yet uninhabited world.

It’s possible, from that perspective, to consider that perhaps all Earthlings arose from Martians, or alternatively, that any life on Mars may have its ultimate origins traceable back to Earth. Mars’s magnetic field protected it from the Sun for all that time, allowing rivers and sediment buildup and hydrogeologic processes to take place. It was only because of its small size, which caused it to cool fast, lose its magnetic protection, and then its atmosphere, that it eventually became uninhabitable."

What goes around, comes around.

Also see: Even the smartest AI likely won’t be “alive.” Here’s why.; and  Does science fiction shape the future?

A Lost History Retrieved

Artificial Life Form #5 (with a phi shell). 2024 - GDS - DS.

Prayer Before Birth by Louis MacNeice

"I am not yet born; O hear me.

Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me, with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me, on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me

With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me

For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me, my treason engendered by traitors beyond me, my life when they murder by means of my hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me

In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white waves call me to folly and the desert calls me to doom and the beggar refuses my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,

Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me

With strength against those who would freeze my humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton, would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with one face, a thing, and against all those who would dissipate my entirety, would blow me like thistledown hither and thither or hither and thither like water held in the hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.

Otherwise kill me."

- An intensely powerful poem discovered today, written by the Irish  poet, Louis MacNeice (1907-1963). For more of his poetry see here and/or here, where Prayer Before Birth can also be found.

In regards to the link embedded, it leads to a Saturday Night Live skit featuring an impersonation of snake-oil salesman, Donald Trump, hawking politically "enhanced" bibles; the latest in the true-life series of Don the Wan's ludicrous escapades.*

I think Mac would've related to the sentiments expressed.

As for the digital image introducing this post; it is all that remains of a group of (virtual) artificial life forms first mentioned in this post. It had a full page illustration - in the form of a preliminary digital sketch: a view from a window of a strangely ochre-lit ocean, and a window ledge upon which sat a damaged glass container filled with water... a weird image which still haunts me.

So much history is lost... both real and fictional, when an artist loses large portions of their work. However, for a reason I can't remember, ALF #5's image found its way to my present digital image file.  I gave it a phi shell... and liked it so much, I decided to mentally retrieve its unwritten story. It appears below (and after the jump-break) 

***

The Lost History of Artificial Life Form # Five

(condensed)

"I'm the next act

Waiting in the wings

I'm an animal

Trapped in your hot car

I am all the days

That you choose to ignore

You are all I need

You're all I need

I'm in the middle of your picture

Lying in the reeds"

- Lyrics from the song, All I Need, 2007, Radiohead

*

The artificial life form known only as "Model Five" - or "Five" - was the most successful and advanced of the miniature cyborg life forms produced by Project 15: a coalition formed by the collaboration of several (anonymous) cyborg artists, and a rogue - "Rainbow" - biotech industrial facility (also anonymous) in the early to mid-21st century.

For the most part, Five resembled a small embryonic, aquatic animal whose body was suspended in a transparent, fluid-filled sac. In reality, the animal and the sac were one glutinous unit which could rapidly ambulate in water, a feat aided by the cluster of tiny spheres located at its flexible base. The spheres served a number of purposes. Essentially, water was the only substance necessary for Five's survival; the smaller spheres absorbed and transformed this simple liquid into a type of fuel and/or nourishment.

The larger spheres were databases, however, which were, in turn, wirelessly in communication with a central database. These tiny devices were not merely programmed to monitor Five's location and overall physical state, but, allegedly their owner's physical state as well. Some speculated that Five might monitor a great deal more, but surveillance had ceased being an issue by this time; civilization had been conditioned to accept it and, with albeit a little trepidation, overlook it.

Unlike earlier attempts regarding miniature cyborgs, Five was the first "living" Bluetooth-like device which might "warm the heart" of its owner. It had character. It possessed creature-like eyes; optical lenses interfaced with a "brain," a biotechnical marvel which its makers claimed approached the complexity of its organic rivals. Moreover, this "brain" was designed and programmed to communicate with actual organic brains provided one owned the dedicated interface app, a password and a small device implanted in ones brain via a simple injection.

There were those, of course, who imagined Five might technically be conscious, or even, perhaps, sentient. Certainly, it gave the illusion it might be "aware" of it's surroundings. However, in the last analysis, it's unlikely even its creators knew the exact nature of its cognitive abilities - let alone what its cyber-golem might be thinking - anymore than they could ascertain the full content of any living creature's mind - or, conversely, the secret life of a wristwatch. As the line began to blur between the "living" and the "not living"; "life" became a relative term.

(continued after the jump-break...)

True Science Fiction Tales - The Plasma Lights

A photograph of the Fornax galaxy. (Previously posted about here.)

"Plasmas may have been photographed in the 1940s by WWII pilots (identified as 'Foo fighters'); repeatedly observed and filmed by astronauts and military pilots and classified as Unidentified Aerial-Anomalous Phenomenon. Plasmas are not biological but may represent a form of pre-life that via the incorporation of elements common in space, could result in the synthesis of RNA. Plasmas constitute a fourth state of matter, are attracted to electromagnetic activity, and when observed in the lower atmosphere likely account for many of the UFO-UAP sightings over the centuries."

- Via the abstract of a Research Gate publication (.pdf): Extraterrestrial Life in Space Plasmas in the Thermosphere.

"Plasma-like entities have been filmed congregating in their hundreds, particularly around satellite tethers which generate electromagnetic activity.

They have numerous shapes, travel in different directions, with some moving quickly while others hover in place. They even appear to target or follow each other and sometimes collide, leaving what resembles a plasma-dust trail in their wake.

Co-author Dr Christopher Impey, of the department of astronomy at the University of Arizona, said: “This does not mean these plasmas are alive, or engaging in intelligent purposeful behaviour.

Rather, as documented experimentally, these upper atmospheric electromagnetic plasmas may be engaging in ‘energy cannibalism’ and behaviours referred to as ‘collisionality’ in which they turn, follow, collide, intersect, and, possibly exchange energy.”

- Via a Telegraph article found today: We know what ‘foo fighters’ that buzzed Second World War pilots really were, say scientists. Oddly enough, while we're told earlier in the article that the plasmas are not "alive", later on we find:

"Some of the authors believe that the plasmas may even represent an alternate form of life that is not carbon-based, although others are skeptical.

The team has called for more research studying the plasmas, including sending up satellites which generate electromagnetic pulses equipped with infrared and X-ray cameras to capture the phenomena."

***

When I came upon the Telegraph article (cited above) this morning, I found myself completely astounded. It brought me back to my early days as a Traveler - the summer of 2017 specifically - after I had spent a full year living in my Nissan sedan, the "black turtle" (or tortoise); photographing mountains, following the ravens, and sleeping (literally) beneath the stars. All things considered it was not a bad life.  Nowadays, I see it as a kind of privileged life. But, then, I merely felt like "the (wo)man who fell to earth": an anomaly; dazed & confused, subversive, unwanted and essentially invisible.

I used to blog from libraries in those days. Great places, libraries - the best places in the world if you're a traveler - they accommodate you regardless of who or what you are.

Watching people coming in and out of a library is good practice for a writer. You'll note a number of diverse and fascinating faces drifting through its halls. Some faces radiate intelligence, some don't. But, it doesn't matter. Every one has a story. Every one is like a closed book (but some of them have more intriguing jackets than others).

The best part of my days were either spent at the library, or lying on my car's front seat late at night, watching the stars through my windshield (which I distinctly remember had a small hole in it). New Mexico has great sky views in places... even parking lots. I slept in vacant parking lots off and on throughout that period.

Strangely enough, it was not entirely surprising to me when - for three consecutive midsummer nights - while watching the sky above Bernalillo, I saw weird little lights moving in the distance, seemingly weaving through the many stars like bioluminescent microorganisms. My first thought was: "Wow, my eyes must be really tired!" My second was: "Satellites?" By the second night, after noticing them again - this time, in larger numbers - I knew that what I was seeing was some kind of phenomenon... possibly extraterrestrial... in the sense that the lights didn't "live" on planet earth, they operated in the atmosphere only...

Morrisey and Bowie - Together & Live

Just found... via Morrissey's Rebels Without Applause YouTube page. Anyone who knew Mac would know that he would've probably given anything to see Bowie and Morrissey performing together. This duet took place in 1991 but the video wasn't uploaded until 3 years ago.

It's been awhile since I've beamed up something into the multiverse for Mac. Sometimes a news story catches my eye, but there's never enough enough passion or clarity in it to motivate me.

This one's for you, Mac!