Pg. 60 — THE THIRD LAW | editor’s contribution
Dr. T. O’Conor Sloane, as the editor of Amazing Stories, wrote on more than one occasion in that magazine that he did not believe space travel to be possible, a position that has elicited criticism from science fiction fans to this day. Sloane thought as a scientist first; a science fiction editor second. His thinking in the matter reflected the science of the day. His understanding of the physics of attaining escape velocity and what it was thought that would do to the human body led him to his conclusion. It was not until a couple decades later in the 1950s that he was actually proven wrong when high-altitude testing was conducted. Why do we rely exclusively upon the existing body of scientific knowledge to conceive of what might be possible? Where based solely upon the facts concretely known, we dismiss the possibility of something greater, something unknown that far exceeds the boundaries of our scientific knowledge. We have inadvertently applied a self-limiting framework upon the exploration of that which might yet be discovered. Bell’s theorem proves the EPR paradox to be correct, that quantum mechanics is an incomplete theory, it does not fully describe physical reality. Of course it doesn’t, we are not there yet, we are still too scientifically young. The constraints imposed by our rudimentary understanding of the universe and its physics leads many of us to rule out the possibility of UFOs or that they might travel extraordinary distances through unknown mechanisms to arrive here like unexpected dinner guests. To this I respond with a simple question: What then are we seeing?
* * *
The third,
of Clarke’s three laws,
states that any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic.
Technology magic.
I wonder then…
what of crop circles?
Magic circles.
Ancient peoples and primitive tribes have idolized and deified
strange beings from the heavens and their glowing airships,
deities in glowing airships,
phenomena presenting like cosmic symptoms of bio-ubiquity;
or cosmic manifestations of spiritual energies and physically unseen realms;
or maybe some form of cosmic fuckery,
self-inflicted, intentionally or not, from the overactive consciousnesses of sentient beings,
a byproduct of the electrical mind, much like heat radiating from a lightbulb:
obeying a broader cosmic perspective of the second law of thermodynamics;
with the tendency of natural processes to lead towards spatial homogeneity
of matter and energy but especially of temperature;
(us, them)
where isolated systems in separate but nearby regions of space;
(us, them, human, nonhuman)
each in thermodynamic equilibrium with itself, but not necessarily with the other;
(us, them; human, nonhuman; terrestrial, extraterrestrial)
an interaction precipitated through discovery of the other;
eventually reaching a mutual thermodynamic equilibrium.
(us, them; human, nonhuman; terrestrial, extraterrestrial; normal, paranormal; our dimension, their dimension)
The sky creatures and sky ships appear throughout human existence. Sky deities. The sky father. Sky chariots.
Prehistorically chronicled on cave walls and on the sides of overhung cliffs;
(sky creatures)
as geoglyphic wayfinding signage and announcement;
in stone carvings, and later, ceramic and sculpture;
(sky ships)
on great and holy pillars, walls and paintings;
(sky deities)
in grand architectures, their monolithic construction, celestial design, and locational significance;
(sky father)
in oral and written accounts, and some say the Bible;
and in every society and culture, on every inhabited continent;
(sky father)
extending through to this day, the modern world;
(sky chariots)
additionally documented through the technologies used for recording what is seen and heard in the physical world, and perhaps reflected in certain technologies used for flight.
(sky chariots)
Such a long, nebulous, tantalizing history. The collective archives of Tantalus.
As Tantalus, here we must stand, eternally, cosmically, in a pool of water, beneath a fruit tree with laden boughs, the fruit ever eluding our grasp, and the water ever receding before we can drink.
I wonder then…will our thirst for this knowledge ever be quenched? This Holy Grail of scientific significance.
Our hunger sated? This Holy Grail of cosmic importance.
The quest concluded? This Holy Grail of spiritual awakening.
Such absolute high weirdness!
I wonder then…about UFO sightings and aliens, alien abductions, government-alien conspiracy theories and cover-ups, alien civilizations, alien physics, reverse-engineered alien technologies, and the secrets of a strange and unknown cosmos playing cloak and dagger with the human mind. Tradecraft of the highest conceivable caliber!
The big reveal. When? When is the big reveal? Shrouded. A monk’s hood of intrigue. We live in a state of the perpetual cliffhanger. A suspenseful syndrome of near-pathological curiosity and the unrequited need for resolution to this endlessly bedeviling perplexity! A whirling dervish of the curious mind. A flying carpet of suspense, providing peekaboo glimpses of some greater truth, momentarily exposed in the cosmic sands, by the winds of time and serendipity and intention.
The interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic, interdimensional need for resolution in the matter of human curiosity vs. alien inscrutability!
(High weirdness)
I wonder then…about Clarke’s third law.
I wonder then…what of crop circles? Mesmerizing in their mystery.
I wonder then…about all of this. Such high, shivering weirdness.
High, pulsating weirdness. Since time immemorial. A part of the human condition, the cosmic environment, or both?
Flying saucers. Flying discs. Silver spinning tops skittering through the Cosmos.
Unknown physics and unknown equations. Unknown pathways and unknown thoughts. Unknown imaginations. Unknown sciences, unknown technologies, and unknown civilizations. Unknown corners of the universe. Unknown dimensions. Unknown portals. Unknown liminalities. Unknown interactions. Unknown outcomes.
Cosmic windows of knowledge not yet discovered, not yet seen through, not yet opened.
High weirdness! High weirdness is cosmic weirdness. An unknown cosmic ecology. A cosmic ecology of energies and dimensions and portals and beings and manifestations and interactions.
I wonder then…about all of this.
Such a buzzing strangeness! A bumblebee, wings down in a murky puddle, furiously vibrating capillary waves across its surface.
A brisk and invigorating polar blast through the mind. A cognitive “thunder well” effect. Vibrant curiosity. Beguiling strangeness.
Maybe unidentified flying object = unidentified cosmic occurrence? UFO = UCO? Unexplained phenomena. Cosmic energy. No alien intelligence involved. Are they lifeforms themselves?
Creatures of plasma, starfire energy.
Occupying a niche in a cosmic ecology,
an ecology of energy,
a hidden realm of electromagnetic force, the ecology of electromagnetism;
interplanetary, interstellar, intergalactic, interdimensional, that is unknown to us and our physics,
a cosmic tapestry of energy pathways, a fractal network of infinite and intricate connections, sinews of the universe. Energyways rooted in forever spacetime, ancient beyond measure, a Caspian Hyrcanian of the deep, unknown cosmos.
An electromagnetic Yggdrasil, around which all else exists.
(UCO)
Are they ethereal, incorporeal creatures, not the ghostly or paranormal as some have posited, but the sum total of a trace energy of this planet’s once living biological creatures, creatures known to our science, but seemingly transmogrified by natural, physical processes, of which we have no knowledge,
and potentialized in some sort of undulating atmospheric echo chamber of energy harmonics?
(UCO)
Or are they some unknown output of the planet Earth itself? Not the various phenomena already identified by our physics but something still beyond our ken and more in line with a Gaia hypothesis scenario or by extension, a Galactic or Intergalactic hypothesis.
(UCO)
Electromagnetic phenomena.
Interplanetary fireworms tracing electromagnetic paths across the night sky.
Some grand cosmic articulation of electromagnetic lifeforms, some energy dance, fathomless, far beyond the conception of our physics.
Electromagnetic lifeforms? Electroluminescent? Electromagnetic-luminescent spacecraft?
ElectroluminescentMind. ElectromagneticMind. EnergyMind.
(UFO)
Drake Equation: Mathematically, intelligent life exists elsewhere. Fermi Paradox: But where are they?
Conversely, we have been seeing them for a very long time now. Should not the 1952 Washington, DC UFO Incident, a literal flyover of the White House, be viewed as an official notice of arrival?
Are they from governments testing advanced technologies or humans from the future, time traveling in flying saucers to intervene in the course of humanity?
Or are all UFOs alien spacecraft, displaying the dizzying technological diversity of a bewildering array of highly advanced civilizations, reflecting a great and unknown cosmic biodiversity?
Might they be biorobotic creatures developed by these civilizations?
Why did UFOs start appearing, not one by one as birds flying irregularly overhead, but in frenzied droves, like starlings at dusk;
glowing bluish-white spectral impressions (Were they even objects of substance or were they simply seen?), radar phantasms, otherworldly mirages
flashing in and out like celestial fireflies when first we sparked our nukes? Inebriated Fourth of July revelers, so eager to launch Roman candles streaming skyward, in bellicose arcs of exploding, metal-salted multicolor.
In the gloom of the pre-apocalyptic nuclear dark.
Death flame, starlike in its firepower. Star fright, grim albino light.
Nuclear winter. Radioactive night. No starlight. No moonlight. No sunlight.
Elemental!
By its very nature.
Elemental!
In its scorching signature of devastation.
Elemental! The roiling surface of the sun, fallen to Earth.
Was it the equivalent of sending up an intergalactic flare? A beacon to the nuclear space deacons and space demons. The signal of a distressed civilization with the power to annihilate itself.
Starfire at the push of a button. God the destroyer in our fingertips. Shiva descended.
Shiva technology attended by the ShivaMind. And along came the interstellar foo fighters of the ShivaMind. Or the exploiters. Like swirling gray spiders down a cosmic spout.
Attaining a benchmark by which alien races classify developing civilizations, to be placed into the “Closer Inspection Warranted” category. CIW. Ditto humans from the future. Or was it a collective outpouring of humanity’s concern that impinged upon the very fabric of conscious reality, some mechanism of the collective human subconscious?
Could that be what UFOs are? Some energy of our subconscious mind made manifest by traveling cosmic pathways that we know nothing of. A part of the cosmic ecology of energy.
UFOs. Flying saucers and discs, orbs, cigar-shapes, triangles. Geometric. Geometric technologies. Geometric energy structures. Glimpses of the unknown. Imagine for a moment the technologies that a civilization, millions, perhaps even billions of years beyond our own would possess.
Multidimensional camouflage, time travel, riding chariots of technology drawn by photons – an intergalactic race of Helios, even a fluid integration into the very fabric of space and time itself is not beyond comprehension. A spacefaring race of exceptional capacity. Ancient intergalactic civilizations. How many?
Might we be a stopover,
in the interplanetary transport network, or an intergalactic transport network?
A well-known place along the way
to recharge energy systems but not a place you’d like to stay?
The inhabitants not the kind you’d want to interact with.
What are we seeing then? Are alien beings a manifestation of a universal, subconscious, human birthing imprint, as some have postulated — but piloting spacecraft and caught on video, in photographs, and on radar?
UFOs. Glinting in the sunlight.
Drops of aluminum light, suspended in the water vapor.
Mercury dripping into a milky-blue puddle, caught in the atmospheric medium, hovering, moving through the thin blue,
silvery clouds sailing high above in the winds,
silvery fish navigating the deep and restless currents of the airy seas,
glowing like filaments from the passage of electric currents, across the sky-sheathed ocean depths of the infinity of the cosmos beyond.
UFOs. Glowing as the moonlight.
Sightings of UFOs rise and fall as the deafening crescendo of stridulating cicadas in the Texas summer. Brood X and their 14 earthen tribes ascend from their soil slumber; and UFOs descend in ever-greater number. Metallic insect thunder and alien wonder. Troglodytes run for their bone-carpeted caves, deep in the mind, retreating from the CosmicMind, receding, into the far recesses, receding, like a dark tide of fear-frothed consciousness, back out to sea space and into oblivion.
Saucer prototype flying vehicles, developed with US government support, attempting to harness the Coanda effect,
may surely account for some UFO sightings around US military installations.
The Coanda effect and the difficulties encountered may reflect the time needed to develop this form of UFO technology effectively, or perhaps it was simply a false trail. Breadcrumbs leading nowhere, a spinning folly.
UFOs. Shining as alien starlight.
Suspended deep in the atmosphere, jellyfish glowing in the light of a submersible – simultaneously the submersible and the jellyfish, bioluminescent craft, in our translucent-ocean atmosphere, this ocean spacetime. Exploring? Or simply appearing? A specific purpose? Or simply there?
OceanMind. AtmosphericMind. BioluminescentMind.
Bioluminescent spacecraft, interdimensional fireflies, technology like a white magic,
glowing brightly, fading, then glowing again, blinking in then out, here then there, both here and there, pulsing with light, charging up in the atmospheric electricity, Dr. Frankenstein’s lightning rods and energy coils abuzz, crackling with coursing striations of energy. Interdimensional beings. Fireballs of technology.
Saucers aglow with foxfire.
Fairy fire discs. Technological luminescence. Or, bioluminescence?
Craft covered in intergalactic fungi. This radiant chemical dance of luciferase and luciferin. Lucifer the space traveler.
Light like radium, symbol Ra, the Egyptian sun god, symbol of the sun disc, light, from far distant worlds and far distant leagues of space. Interdimensional glowworms.
UFOs. Origins unknown. Destination unknown.
UFOs. Flying mechanical trilobites. Searching for civilizations? Silver scavengers of deep space?
UFOs. Purpose unknown. Intent unknown. Meaning unknown.
UFOs. High-tech horseshoe crabs. Built to crawl through spacetime? The last of the Xiphosura.
UFOs. Fabrication unknown. Generation unknown. Longevity unknown.
Xiphosura. Surely, the name of an alien race?
The Xiphosura.
The last of the Xiphosura. Seeking survival of their species somewhere in the grand expanse of the stars.
UFOs. Over time, my thoughts in this matter have coalesced like weightless quicksilver in form. Tornadic thoughts have become cloudlike and surreal.
Unanchored, they have gradually gained altitude, floating gently above the surface of the routine thinking required to successfully navigate the responsibilities of a day,
a Fata Morgana of the mind.
OdinMind. LokiMind.
Star-wheeling discs, in a state of gravity-fed perpetual motion, surfing the curvatures of spacetime, harnessing the inexhaustible energy source,
sailing the surface tension of dark matter,
interplanetary Polynesians in double-hulled voyaging canoes, island-hopping the planets.
Island planets of the interstellar seas. Sea of stars. Cosmic ocean. Each galaxy an archipelago. Spacetime ocean, where skeins of wormholes, swaying kelp forests, await the ingress and egress of spacecraft, little fish, flashing molten silver. Star fish. Sea stars.
In our own time, scientists are creating microscopic wormholes — imagine the future. Give it 1,000 years. Quantum entanglement, black holes, and wormholes. Cosmic transport at its finest. Spooky action at a distance. Bell’s theorem proves the EPR paradox to be correct, that our description of physical reality, as provided by quantum mechanics, is incomplete. We’ve just begun this journey.
Spooky action.
Wormhole travelers. Navigating the shimmering capillaries of the universe. Circulating like blood through the body cosmic.
Spooky action.
UFOs, slingshotting around dark matter halos, threading the eye of Einstein-Chowoloson rings, spinning through galactic halos, stellar halos, skipping across galactic discs; halos, rings, discs, flying saucers — circular phenomenon, as everything in the universe.
Flying saucers, motes of technology and mystery, floating in the atmosphere, glinting in the sunlight, glowing as the moonlight, shining as alien starlight; the illumination of some grand cosmic perplexity in the mind of the beholder.
Tesla understood. Infinite gigajoules harvested ambiently. 4.184 gigajoules in a nuke, UFOs sponging these energies from the universe through technology developed by civilizations at the top of the Kardeshev scale, Type III civilizations, galactic civilizations. Backtrack, 4.184 to 1844 and Grove’s advancement of a theory about the conservation of energy, treating the relationship between mechanics, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism as manifestations of the same force that it is neither created nor destroyed, only transformed or transferred. Might this hold a key to advanced space travel, in both manifestation and interconnectedness?
(UCO=UFO)
A Cosmic Council of Supreme Authority could not mandate against the disappointment I have felt in never having seen a UFO. Why some, but not others? Still waiting for that big reveal. To pull back the curtain and see the Wizard. (UCO = UFO), it is all UCO, I suppose. UFO is too compartmentalized a term. Too limited. It does not adequately reflect the spectrum of possibilities, stating only the observable phenomenon. The term is adequate only when viewed through the foggy government lens of the Cold War, swamp gas, rogue weather balloons, redirection, subterfuge, and the undue concern for mass hysteria.
I wonder then…of dark matter and dark energy. Will the answers be found therein? These unseen, unknown forces of the universe, exerting their influence in observable but unknown ways. So little is known. So little understood. Maybe the minds of sentient beings are fundamentally tuned in to dark energy, vibrating at shared frequencies, the one reading from the other; or perhaps the human imagination is dark energy itself and it is all just some wild figment of our collective imagination after all, as what we think, manifests, being both real and unreal all at once. Who really knows?