343 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
343 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: WHITEPAPER BY RICHARD HOAGLAND FILE: UFO1735
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Context and Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial
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Life:
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A Whitepaper
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by Richard C. Hoagland
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(C) 1989
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Introduction
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One of the things I have tried to understand, as my research and that
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of others has revealed ever more suggestive data, supportive of the
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phenomenal idea that these objects in the Viking images could in fact be
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artifacts, is the curious "historically anomalous" position of the agency
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which took the pictures in the first place: NASA.
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Despite "a billion dollars plus" spent by Viking in the Search for
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Life on Mars, NASA has refused throughout these ensuing thirteen years to
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even once reexamine its original "political" position on these images --
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that the objects they contain are merely "tricks of light and shadow" --
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despite now published and peer-reviewed good science to the contrary. This
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reaction, increasingly at odds with both outside scientific assessments of
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our work and rising public calls for swift resolution of this question, has
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resulted in this paper -- a serious attempt to place NASA's curious "non-
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reaction" in some historical context and perspective.
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The Ancient Roots of Our Obsession with 'ETs'
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Scholars who have studied the history of our involvement with the idea
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of "extraterrestrials" have been more or less amazed to discover the
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ancient roots of what has been generally perceived, until these studies, as
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a minor and relatively recent "pop" cultural reaction to the Space Age --
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you know, "Star Trek", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "ET", etc.
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Dr. Michael Crowe, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science, at
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the University of Notre Dame, has published the most current (1986) in-
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depth treatment of the subject: "The Extraterrestrial Life Debate 1750-
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1900: The Idea of A Plurality of Worlds from Kant to Lowell." Crowe's own
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words summarize best what he and others have discovered:
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"The question of extraterrestrial life, rather than having arisen in
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the twentieth century, has been debated almost from the beginning of
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recorded history. Between the fifth-century B.C. flowering of Greek
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civilization and 1917, more than 140 books and thousands of essays,
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reviews, and other writings had been devoted to discussing whether or not
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other inhabited worlds exist in the universe . . . the majority of educated
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persons since around 1700 have accepted the idea of extraterrestrial life
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and in numerous instances have formulated their philosophical and religious
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positions in relation to it."
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Notwithstanding Crowe's all-too-familiar Western Civilization
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chauvanism -- that all human intellectual thought began in Classical Greece
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-- he is pointed in the right direction; it is amply demonstrable that we
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are heir to several thousand years of intense preoccupation with ETs prior
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to the Greeks -- such as Sumer's fascinating "Oannes Myth," and their
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attribution of their entire civilization and culture to visitation and
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specific instruction by a representative of an advanced extraterrestrial
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society, in about the 4th Millennium B.C. (the full "Oannes Legend" is
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carefully cited in detail in ^BMonuments^B). The ancient documents and
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cosmologies that Crowe then cites as evidence for Grecean origins of human
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ET curiosity -- such as Epicurus' "Letter to Herodotus" -- actually reflect
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an already very old tradition, which the Greeks (along with all their other
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supposed cultural "inventions" -- according to Stanley Kramer, noted
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"Sumerologist" at the University of Pennsylvania) simply passed along to us
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from Sumer, several millenia before.
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The 'Extraterrestrial' Roots of 'The Enlightenment'
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Crowe's recounting of the involvement of more recent historical
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figures in the great Extraterrestrial Life Debate is more original -- from
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the written works of fundamental religious revolutionaries, such as John
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Wesley (founder of the Methodist Church), to extraterrestrial musings of
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that "great man" of pre-Einsteinian physics, Sir Isaac Newton, to discovery
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of detailed conversations carried on around the subject by such
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geopolitical giants as Napoleon -- and amply confirm that even theoretical
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interest in ideas of other worlds has had a remarkable effect in shaping
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human thought -- and thus the current world. Rather than merely making the
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claim that "the discovery of extraterrestrials would powerfully influence
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human ideas," the historical record reveals direct evidence that the
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extremely ancient, widespread belief in extraterrestrial life has
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repeatedly and directly affected life on Earth -- beginning with Sumer 6000
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years ago. Furthermore, its captivating hold on leading philosophers and
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intellectuals of what has since been termed "The Enlightenment" (c. 1700-
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1800) -- from Descartes to Kant -- reveals the fascinating, and heretofore
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unappreciated, extent to which the quest "for extraterrestrials" actually
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created the context for the rise of modern science.
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Which makes all the more inexplicable NASA's adament refusal to either
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take a second scientific look at the anomalies on its own Viking
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photographs -- the first demonstrable hard evidence favoring the existence
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of extraterrestrials in the millennial-long history of this Debate -- or to
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take new and better pictures of Cydonia, when the unmanned Mars Observer
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mission returns to Mars, in 1993.
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Why -- against the historical backdrop of documented, overwhelming
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interest in the idea of "a plurality of worlds" -- this apparent paradox?
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The Search for Extraterrestrials as Inspiration
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for Major Astronomical Discoveries
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One of the most revealing new insights regarding the history of
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questions relating to extraterrestrial intelligence, is the extent to which
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the science of the times followed prevailing religious doctrines on the
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subject -- contrary to our general understanding of how science has
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supposedly developed.
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Countless quotes from the technical papers of legendary scientific
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figures of the 18th Century -- the heyday of the Enlightenment -- ranging
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from men like Immanuel Kant (and his Nebular Hypothesis -- how solar
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systems form) to Sir William Herschel (and his theories of star
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distribution and formation in the Milky Way) make clear that their
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revolutionary insights and discoveries were impelled by something other
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than pure "science." Their theories, which have led directly to our
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present understanding of the Universe were, it turns out, inspired in
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significant measure by a search for extraterrestrials! -- by a fundamental
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acceptance and pursuit of something termed "the doctrine of the Plurality
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of worlds." This basically religious inclination was spurred by a deep
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theological conviction, prevasive of the times, in "the principle of
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Plentitude" -- the assumption that a truly Infinite God could not help but
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create an infinitude of other, habitable worlds . . . if not Inhabitants
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themselves.
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The Rise of Modern Science --
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and the Rejection of 'the Plurality of Worlds'
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Only increasingly sophisticated telescopes, and other instruments of
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astronomical research (which eventually enabled acquisition of real
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information on the stark inhabitability of the other planets in this solar
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system) finally produced the sharp divergence of scientific thinking --
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beginning with the question of extraterrestrials -- from this curious
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religious heritage. This break thus marked the true beginnings of
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"rationalist science" -- and an increasing intellectual embarrassment by
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later scientists, over the religiously-based cosmologies which originally
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gave birth to the idea of "a plurality of worlds." At its height, it was a
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sweeping theological assumption that populated even the surface of the sun
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with "beings whose organs are adopted to the peculiar circumstances of that
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vast globe" (according to one memorable quote from Herschel).
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NASA's Intellectual Timidity Based on Fear
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of Intellectual Embarrassment?
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It is easy to see, in this brief overview, one element of NASA's
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obvious discomfort with reawakening ideas relating to even a formerly
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inhabited planet in the solar system. Much of current science seems to
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operate by "fear of intellectual embarrassment"; with a history like this,
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it's no wonder that the idea of a plurality of worlds seems more
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appropriate, in the eyes of some of NASA's scientists, to the Book of
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Common Prayer than to the pages of the scientific journal ICARUS!
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But this is not the whole sad story, of "extraterrestrials and modern
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science."
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The Scientific Death-Knell to
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'the Plurality of Worlds'
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By the beginnings of the twentieth century, all scientific expectation
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of actually verifying the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence
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essentially had died -- with the singular "anomaly" of a continuing
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intellectual flirtation with a place called "Mars."
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With this one, agonizing exception -- which almost singlehandedly
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destroyed modern astronomy and modern planetary science, according to Carl
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Sagan -- that should have been the end of it, no more "God given Plurality
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of Worlds"; the new scientific evidence in hand simply made life-bearing
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planets -- except for Earth (or "earth-like" worlds, like Mars . . .) --
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impossible.
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The rapidly ascending theory of planetary formation, in the early
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decades of this century, was now focusing on planets as "random by-products
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of near stellar collisions" -- events calculated as so rare, that in the
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entire several-billion-year history of the Milky Way Galaxy itself, there
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had been literally only one near-collision, with the resultant freak
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creation of the sun's nine planets!
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Thus, by virtue of the immense distances separating stars, sheer
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statistics argued implacably against more than "one or two" collisions in
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the entire history of time and space. Meaning, that in all the Galaxy --
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if not the Universe -- we were quite
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alone . . .
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The Scientific Resurrection of the Nebular Hypothesis --
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the Modern Basis for a Real 'Plurality of Worlds'
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The scientific process, if it's properly pursued, has a way of quietly
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continuing, leading to continuing developments in fundamental theory, new
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observations which throw out old ideas, etc. Within a few more decades, by
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the middle of this century -- the 1950's -- from the confident, premature
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pronouncement that Earth was undoubtedly the only inhabited planet (with,
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of course, the possible exception of Mars . . .) in the entire Galaxy,
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several fundamental astronomical breakthroughs came about -- and with
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these, came a return to a Galaxy potentially filled with stars as central
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suns, orbited by countless other worlds . . .
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In 1959, as the Space Age itself was just dawning, two astronomers
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proposed a radical approach to actually establishing contact with all the
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new potential beings on all those new potential worlds far beyond the solar
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system -- they proposed that technology might enable "ET to phone home" --
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or at least, try "to ring up good ol' Earth."
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The modern, scientific "SETI Paradigm" -- the Search for
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Extraterrestrial Intelligence -- was born.
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The Politics of SETI --
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Even Recognizing ET Artifacts as Opposed to ET Signals
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Morrison and Cocconi, the two astronomers just cited, proposed using
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microwave radio equipment -- technology developed for the fledgling science
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of radio astronomy after World War II -- in a bold program of interstellar
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listening for signals. The SETI Paradigm that they created by announcing
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this proposal was simply this: that, because of the vastness of the
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interstellar night and the immense difficulty of even approaching a
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reasonable fraction of the speed of light with any spaceship technology
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known to human science (especially in the 1950's!), any truly intelligent
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entities seeking conversation with other intelligent entities, separated by
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the almost inconceivable interstellar distances, would inevitably turn to
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radio transmissions . . . and "phone" their messages at the speed of light
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between the stars.
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That was thirty years ago . . . and the idea that it will always be
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easier and more economical to send radio transmissions then to send a fleet
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of spaceships, like the ancient theological obsession with "a plurality of
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worlds," has now became the new, unquestioned wisdom of the age-old Search
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. . .
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All opposing scientific concepts -- such as the very real
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technological possibility that spaceships someday might be good enough to
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do the job (to a truly advanced race of interstellar beings) -- quietly
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were banished. If it isn't a radio signal, whispering in from somewhere
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deep in interstellar space, no one currently looking for ETs is even
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interested . . .
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And therein lies the second cause of NASA's rejection of our
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Intelligence Hypothesis: there simply can't be artifacts on near-by
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planets!
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Not only are they all demonstrably lifeless (after all, not even a
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microbe lurks beneath the Martian sands, according to Viking's trusty life
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experiments) -- so there's no one "home" to build such artifacts -- all
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possibilities for visits from beyond the solar system have been effectively
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ruled out -- by the basic "theology" of the SETI Paradigm itself: to travel
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is engineeringly too difficult . . . and too expensive!
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The 'Ultimate' Reason for NASA's Apparent Fear of
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the Intelligence Hypothesis: It's on the Wrong Planet!
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And, if "they" -- interstellar beings with a spendthrift propensity
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for wandering around the Galaxy in spaceships -- by some miracle had
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visited the solar system, "they" certainly wouldn't have wasted great
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amounts of time and energy building silly "pyramids" and "faces" on the
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surface of a dead and cratered Mars! Shades of those fantasies about
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canals . . .
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Because . . . when all else is said and done . . . that's the ultimate
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reason NASA, by their own admission, hasn't bothered to scientifically
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examine one frame of Viking's Cydonia photography: the planet Viking
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photographed--
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The planet Mars itself.
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The ultimate reason NASA hasn't taken seriously our Intelligence
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Hypothesis is simply this: Mars is scientifically bad news!
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No other single planet in the solar system, or in the history of the
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pursuit of the plurality of worlds, has been more abused or ridiculed than
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Mars. With the scientific excesses and downright vicious namecalling of
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the last century, over the "reality" or "non-reality" of Martians, still
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ringing in their ears, planetary scientists -- not a generally courageous
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lot -- are loath to reopen anything even remotely resembling the "circus"
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that surrounded Schiaparelli's Canals . . . Lowell's "valiant canal-
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constructing Martians". . . or Orson Welles' Invasion . . .
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Or, in the words of Sagan:
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"It became so bitter and seemed to many scientists so profitless, that
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it led to a general exodus from planetary to stellar astronomy . . . the
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present shortage of planetary astronomers can be largely attributed [to
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this]."
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Conclusion
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If Sagan's assessment is correct, the present treatment of the entire
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issue of the "Face" by NASA and its small cadre of planetary scientists (
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led, it must be noted, by Carl Sagan) -- who vividly recall the sad and
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bitter scientific history of Mars and its "canals" too well -- is driven by
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a fervant fear that history will once again repeat itself -- only this
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time, in addition to intellectual embarrassment, the stakes are now
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perceived as cataclysmic: potentially, a disastrous loss of funding from
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the Congress, and with that -- as NASA is the only game in town which pays
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for "looking at the planets" -- the imminent destruction of the very
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profession of "planetary scientist" itself!
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Or, as one planetary researcher put it to me candidly: "If you keep
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this up, you will destroy the planetary program!"
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Which, of course, is a revealing personal statement -- regarding the
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nature of true scientific curiosity versus the desire for security . . .
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pursued merely in the name of "science."
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Ultimately, now that "good science" (as acknowledged by many reputable
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researchers, in a variety of fields) has been done outside of NASA with
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regard to Viking's Cydonia photography, the dispoition and implication of
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what's on those images lies, not with "science" or with fearful men and
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women pretending to be scientists . . . but with people.
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The meaning of potential artifacts on Mars is almost incalculable --
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and must lie somewhere nearer that millenia-old quest for answers to what
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Albertus Magnus termed "one of the most wonderous and noble questions in
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all Nature," than to NASA's 13-year timid and myopic "non-response." So,
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how do we find out?
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The problem ultimately is not with most scientists not really being
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"scientists," or with an agency called "NASA" worrying more about survival
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than with scientific Truth . . . but with our own individual response to
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"Do we really want to know . . .?"
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Because the wonder of this data is: we can.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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********************************************** |