volume = 4/3 π r3

Nothing of real importance today, as the work is still on going. In the mean time, I came across this video. I am not a big fan of the History Channel, but this does seem a bit interesting.

Putting the Horse before the Cart.

While working on my own contributions to the exo-field, I have come across several disheartening instances of well intentioned individuals putting the cart-way before the horse. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people associated with exo-politics, UAPs, UFOs, ETIs and the such; take for granted the scant reliable evidence to be had, is in itself undeniable "proof" of Aliens, UFOs and a world-wide cover up. These overstatements are unfortunate due to the fact that for the majority of those outside of the exo-community, UAPs, UFOs and ETIs are not a forgone conclusion. In other words, most people not only "don't" believe in UFOs, but they seriously doubt the existence of life outside of this pale blue dot. We still live in a world, where people seriously put forward dinosaur bones were placed there by (g)od as a means of testing our faith.

Further, with people purporting to have "seen" "heard" and "been abducted by" aliens (not UFOs) it causes the rest of the community much distress, as it paints everyone with an accepting brush, that "he" believes he has been abducted, when in actual fact, "he" just wants to do some real science and research into the phenomenon.

Alas, though I digress from the original intent, I would like to swing back around to the meaning of open-science. Last week I posted a short video clip of The Ocean Explorer Peter Lindberg. This is an example of "open-ish" science. He found something interesting, decided to throw it out there and now there are several hundred interested souls. It may be a bunch of rocks, or something else- It doesn't matter, because in the end, regardless of everything, this small portion of the ocean floor, will have been mapped, studied and cataloged. So, even if it turns out to be just a really cool undersea rock formation, science has been pushed forward by that much. Additionally, I believe in one of my first posts, I wrote about Copenhagen Sub-orbitals and their launch of an open source rocket on June 3rd. Again, this is something the exo-community should take seriously! And there are also the countless open science sites, where the community could participate in cataloging, defining and basically "doing" real science.

The above are all examples of what I mean, when I call for an exo-community lead, "open science" group. We could do research into UAPs, UFOs and ETIs while, also doing related science which benefits all. Further, if after decades of research, we are forced to concede that the ETI hypothesis is not viable, we will have contributed a great deal to the scientific community regardless.

Special Announcement::

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World Disclosure Support

ETIs and The Incompleteness Theorem.

In last week's post, I commented on the improbability of Extraterrestrial Intelligences (ETIs) being able to stop by our planet on a "whim" and settle down for a chat and probing. The doubt arises from the ability of any sentient being to be able to "know" a completely foreign language (without even the most rudimentary basis of comparisons) and use to it convey anything of meaning. However, the last post did not state it was impossible, and more importantly did state that after some time, some type of mutual "meaningful" communication might be had. I further contended that even the seemingly universal language of mathematics might not be enough, due to our incomplete understanding or the very real possibility that two sets of sciences, mutually exclusive, developed in isolation from one another may turn out to be incompatible; at least in the short term. This incompatibility, brings us to the thrust of this weeks post: Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem.

Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem in essence states:

1. If the system is consistent, it cannot be complete.
2. The consistency of the axioms cannot be proven within the system.

or in other words: It is possible to have a true statement (mathematically) not only without proof, but by its very nature unable to be proven. Now, most mathematicians will shudder at the next few lines; and I do not intend to convolve this theorem with some misguided attempt to "prove" ETIs, UAPs, UFOs exist; rather, I would like to offer the following more as a thinking point, an intellectual nugget to ponder. If these phenomenon are dimensional in nature, as some would contend: how could their existence(or lack there of) be proven without a complete dimensional model? It would seem this argument alone necessitates an agnostic approach to all UAP/UFO phenomenon; as to dismiss these events out of hand, would seem premature and counter logical.

I will not draw this post out, as there are "things" afoot! Hopefully, by next week I will have some things of import to discuss.

Thoughts on ExoLinguistics and Glorified Stamp Collectors.

Something that should be made clear on the outset: This blog does (and for that matter, myself) take seriously the notion UAP/UFO could be controlled by ETI. The extraterrestrial hypothesis, contains a symmetry, which often is the hallmark of a valid theory. However, the community surrounding "UFOs" is something left to be desired. Two weeks ago, I posted a "call out" to anyone and everyone who had any ideas on how to approach the UAP "problem" scientifically. To this day, I have not received a single response. Last weeks post dealt with the possible reasons why this might be; namely: 1. People don't know how to read. 2. The mystery is better left as such, otherwise the UFO story telling would come to an end. (a concept not to be taken too lightly) 3. The UAP/UFO community works under the same general rules as all "virtual" social groups, mainly that I have no street cred, so was/is ignored. In essence that is what was posted. And by not too much of a surprise, no one commented.

Being more "proactive" myself.

Shortly after writing last weeks post, I did make the rounds through the various online forums, social sites and podcast. I was checking to see if any of the other attempts to gather ideas had come to fruition; once again, not really any surprise, several views but not a single comment. It felt, as if I had run into a brick wall of apathy, the community seemed comprised of two sets of people: drooling, brain dead "ufo-ists" and self proclaimed "ufologists" who, when not busy fighting amongst their peers were salivating in philatelic delight over the latest scraps of government documents.

But, then I came across this: www.atlanticcoastufos.com Not having anything better to do while despairing over the ineptitude of the community, I decided to load up the latest show and give it a listen. The episode I happened to download, was an interview between Kate Valentine and Peter Davenport of NUFORC I was gratefully shocked to hear Peter Davenport, echo many of the same thoughts I had had about the UAP/UFO communities. Further, he had also approached the community with a science based proposal which was promptly ignored. Naturally, I was ecstatic to read his proposal and "see" if it was along the same lines of thought as my own. The white paper he had written, proposes to use passive radar to detect and calculate characteristics of UAPs. Granted the white paper is not "technical" in the sense that someone could read it and start building; but, it was certainly along the same lines I had had in mind. (There does seem, according to his proposal, a DIY solution which could be more conducive to the "open science" ideas I had in mind. Simply put, this interview restored some hope that had been lost by the lack of response; though it does leave the question: Why didn't anyone in any of the forums "at least" post a link to Peter Davenports white paper? Presumably, the answer is self evident, the above characterizations of the community are almost accurate.

Now, with the skeleton of a project in place, I will be contacting Mr Davenport with proposed modifications to his concept and then bring it to the DIY, Open Science communities. (which, I think might be more receptive and participatory than the UAP/UFO has been.) As this first project progresses, I will be posting updates and complaints and further derogatory statements about the UFO community until they get off their collective lard-asses and start being a tad bit more proactive.


ExoLinguistics

The main reason I am skeptical about many of the abduction / experience(er) stories has to do with communication. I am not implying these people did not "experience" something; but, rather I am not entirely convinced it was ETI based in nature. The abduction stories, often contain an element of telepathy; as the mood for communication. This in itself is not absurd as there have been many "human" advances in technology which would allow us to do much the same. Some of the more dramatic (exotic) examples can be found here, here and here. No, it is clear, even with the primitive commercial technology available, we can perform telepathic "like" stunts; so assuredly, any ETIs who have traveled here would be able to also. Rather, the problem I have is not exactly with the mode of communication, but rather viability of communication at all. It is becoming increasingly clear, that human language, regardless of region, culture or even history, shares certain entropic principles. Further, the study "Universal Entropy of Word Ordering Across Linguistic Families" has shown there is innate structure to human written (and verbal)communication. Additionally, because human language has built in redundancy (not to mention physical cues)the "fatal" error rate is quite small. These are the reasons, we can understand one another in circumstances less than optimal for communication. i.e. different languages, noisy atmosphere, whispering. Now, the above, would seem to indicate: "oh, human language is simple, so the ETIs would have no problems with communication" Here, is where the seemingly obvious is wrong. Because, of these shared traits in communication, we are able to communicate with one another; but, also it may very well prevent cross species communication from occurring. (at least easily)

Imagine for a moment if an ETIs language doesn't contain the same amount of redundancy as human language. A case where every "letter" contained meaning, without which no communication would be possible, meaning conveyed or perhaps, where a single inflection changed the entire concept of discourse. And these above examples are things that still do happen in natural language, notwithstanding communication between species. Further, we could compound the above problem with cultural artifacts which play a part in language too: what if the concept of ocean or blue sky or even the color blue were foreign? So, even if ETIs had somehow gained total access to our mental language processing: how would they even know what they were saying? Outside of instilling emotions, and perhaps "spacial" instructions, real communication between humans and ETIs would be problematic at the least. It has been partially for this reason, that many scientists have proposed that mathematics would be the common language between ETIs and humans: though I do see some potential issues with this e.g. mathematics built upon a different base, our incomplete understanding of some natural phenomenon.

Communication between ETIs and humans would require time, patience and a lot of thought. If the ETIs have however, been here for some time (more than 50 years) I could see the breaking down of the world's languages into its constitute parts and being able to communicate broad terms and concepts; but, find it highly doubtful they would be able to communicate with any amount of understanding abstract concepts such as: liberty, justice, shadenfreund and saudade.

Ideas Worth Having: Exopolitics and DIY Science.

Today we saw the launch of the last scheduled STS mission for Endeavor. Endeavor sped towards the heavens with a majesty befitting its final voyage. If you missed the actual launch, take a moment and watch it here: Endeavor.

While watching the pre-flight inspections and preparations, the dedication and professionalism, struck me as most profound. This (I thought) is something to be proud of, something the United States could show the world -as if to say, "we don't only make war, we also explore." And, most admittedly it was with a cringe of frustration that I reflected upon the myopic politicians who would rather fill the coffers of the rich, than fund these truly worthy "Endeavors" (SETI and the Allen telescope array, being another such example)

As the waves of frustration and despair percolated through my mind; I recalled an article I had read sometime before about DIY " manned " spaceflight. After a few moments of searching I found what I was looking for: Copenhagen suborbital It had been sometime since I had read about their "going-ons" so it was with some surprise that I found they were ready for the first test launch of their space vehicle. This news did indeed help to dampen down the chagrin I had felt towards state-sponsored science. (in particular space exploration and SETI)

If our leaders lack vision, it does not mean the individual should. And this is exactly what the folks at Copenhagen Suborbitals have: vision and tenacity to do the unthinkable. I even broke down and gave them some cash. Being notoriously stingy, it does say something about how struck I was/am with what they are doing. But, I digress with the back-story which lead me to this thought: The Exopolitics, ETH, UFO communities should do something similar. An Exopolitical inspired DIY space program, whose main goal is to test the hypothesis that the earth is being visited by entities unknown.

And this is where I open it up to the community: Which experiments and modes of exploration could be funded and produced using an open-source, DIY model? How could we frame the ETH in terms which could be tested, verified and repeated? And, wouldn't active engagement with the phenomenon be better than the passive collecting of data afterwards?

The ETH* communities are vast and varied: Engineers, Teachers, Retired Military; the skill set is there, why not start to use them? This is very much an idea in its genesis stage; I'd welcome all comments, both detracting and supportive, as there may be something I have missed. It seems though, the time is ripe for us to stop being glorified stamp collectors, passively waiting for disclosure and to become proactive in bringing these phenomenon to light.

*I am using ETH in a very general sense, as it flowed better in the writing.

Exopolitics and Culture Collapse.

An area of exopolitics which has received little attention is the impact on society and culture do to disclosure. Richard Dolan and others have "touched" on these issues; but, not nearly to the degree that is warranted. Disclosure and its corresponding affects on society / culture could* lead to the dissolution of the social fabric; which despite all of its apparent ills, does keep the world plodding along in a somewhat civilized manner.

As an analogy to the seriousness of the disclosure issue and the real need for open dialog and planning; let us take the Cultural Collapse of the Hawaiian islands.

In 1778 Captain James Cook made first contact with the indigenous islanders. The affects of first contact were not immediate in a cultural context though the introduction of non-native disease did have its immediate consequences for the population.

By 1804 however, the first signs of social / cultural collapse became apparent largely due to the devastation caused by disease, but also the beginnings of labor displacement caused by the introduction of western technology into a pre-industrial society.

In 1819 the fist signs of dis-adherence of native religious world views, governing structures and obedience to pre-existing authority structures further destabilizes Hawaiian society.

In 1893 the Hawaiian Monarchy is overthrown.

Granted the above is an over simplification of what transpired; actual Polynesian history is much more detailed and subtle. However, the notion European explorers facilitated this collapse is unquestionable tho to what extent is open for debate. The function of the above analog is to serve as an illustration of what happens to society and culture when confronted with a world view changing event. In this instance, the western culture was perhaps a hundred years more advanced* (which may be an over statement) yet, a short 115 years after first contact the total collapse of the Hawaiian monarchy and the social contract which supported it was apparent- ultimately paving the way for annexation by the United States.

There are a few social-cultural points that should be contrasted from the above analog and that of true disclosure.

About the ramifications of disclosure.

In 1778 when James Cook landed at Kauaʻi, western society and culture were in the early stages of mechanization. Steam power and musket were state of the art; hot air balloon flight a few years into the future. The society Cook came from had just fought a war in part over inalienable rights* of man.

The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi was indeed primitive in relation to Europe at the time: but, not so primitive as to be unrecognizable. Agriculturally based with a fairly sophisticated network of trade distributed amongst the various islands; the kingdom a monarchical cast system was perhaps stratified, but definitely not dysfunctional. Yet, the kingdom fell in little over a century from first contact.

If full or even partial disclosure occurred tomorrow, what would be the outcome: Culturally? Socially? Economically? How would the world react let alone the current dominate culture of the west? This is an area which few within and outside of the community are really discussing: regardless of the obvious seriousness of the issue. The indigenous peoples of the Hawaiian islands met with a technologically superior culture of human origin; what would be our fate if/when coming into contact of a technologically superior alien species? This is something which needs to be considered much more in depth when talking about disclosure and exopolitics.

As conscious beings with agency, our greatest strengths are our ability of forethought and adaptation. Now is the time of forethought.


Notes:
*As with every encounter with the new, Humanity as a whole may take an approach to disclosure as a challenge to reinvent itself ushering in a new renaissance.

**To say one civilization is more advanced than another is to open a can of subjective worms. The approximation of 100 hundred years "more" is a very crude measurement of the social-technological-cultural disparity between Europe and the Polynesian islands at that time. Suffice it to say Cook had firearms and the natives had spears.

***The age of reason: written by Thomas Paine was published in 1794. The arguments he put forward in his book had been long since established in the educated elite prior to publication. Further, concepts like equality and the questioning of the divine right of Kings had had also long been established. These "foreign" concepts would have radically altered local belief systems which were heavily predicated on casts and the divinity of the Hawaiian King / Leaders.