From: Alintelbot@aol.com
Date: Sat Jul 03 1999 - 22:34:47 MDT
> But the same can be said about any paranormal phenomena or even stuff we are
> pretty sure is outright bull. I mean, perhaps Jesus was resurrected using
> Perhaps the apparitions of the Virgin seen in so many places is actually
> nanotech in action. This really doesn't clear things up.
I understand your point fully. The reason I "singled out" UFOs is simply
because, of all things paranormal, UFOs and abductions are the only phenomena
that, superficially, at least, appear to implement a _technology_. And if it
really is a technology that we're seeing (and it might not be), it seems it
would have to be a variation of what we know collectively as "nanotech."
Thanks to [don't remember name...] for the reference to John Keel; another
name to look up on the subject of paranormal concerns is Jacques Vallee. And
the chapter "Theater in the Sky" in Whitley Strieber's _Communion_ is quite
provoking and cogent. Strieber's position is that the course of our
technological evolution is being subtly accelerated by a nonhuman
intelligence...possibly the same intelligence that beamed information into
the mind of Philip K. Dick. (Ever read _Valis_ or _Radio Free Albemuth_? Hot
stuff!)
The Jung in me wants to attribute all of this to some sort of projected
hallucination, but I don't know of any neurological mechanism that can
produce a seeming phenomenon of such duration and complexity. My best guess
is that we're really dealing with a nonhuman intelligence from which we can
learn a lot, as it seems to be remarkably advanced and consummately
postbiological. If so, it's reassuring, since it indicates that a lot of
today's science fiction is attainable (mind-uploading, nano, etc.).
Maybe this is what "first contact" looks like: a very gradual program of
acclimization in which any given generation of the recipient species doesn't
know quite what's going on (because if it did, the urge to create might
slacken or atrophy: there's ample historical context right here on Earth).
If alien species really are interested in reaching out to their neighbors
(instead of imploding into virtual reeality pleasure farms, as some have
feared), this scenario is actually much in keeping with some of the basic
tenets of the SETI paradigm. (Radio waves? Get real! Sagan and Drake
founded SETI on the impossibly rigid notion that aliens, for all of their
otherwordly weirdness, would have an economic system virtually identical to
our own, and would thus consider radio transmitting more cost effective than
building spacecraft. They neatly bypassed exotic propulsion techniques in
favor of the chemical rockets we just happened to be using at the time...it's
an odd, elliptical perspective, kind of like von Daniken pointing at a cave
painting and saying "Doesn't that look like a space suit?"
My answer is a cautious "yes--but a space suit circa 1960! Why would aliens
millions of years our superior be wearing this ridiculous stuff?")
Mac Tonnies
"Today's Abstractions are Tomorrow's Archetypes"
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