Part # 2 Not what you thought, but its true anyway "Let's take a time out," added Musk. "I feel certain that you would like the chance for some refreshments. When we return in 20 minutes or so, I would like to have Jake Barrymore join us. The topic to discuss next is religion and part of that necessarily concerns Islam. Jake and I have already talked at length about the subjects all of us have just reviewed, except for some of the religion material, but comments about Islam and Muslims. must be included. Jake once hosted a television show called Islam Today, he knows the subject very well, indeed, and has some important things to tell us." It was a good time for a break; the bar was opened and the guests were able to imbibe libations of their choice. Jake Barrymore was a connoisseur of social beverages, and for the occasion had stocked up on such enjoyments as quality bourbon and fine ale. There were food refreshments, as well, although there was no need for a sit down dinner since the meeting had started at an hour late enough for everyone to have had a chance for that on their own. The respite allowed people to talk in clusters of two or three, some of the guests in conversation in the living room with its Art Deco paintings, others to walk outside to the garden and talk in hushed tones, a few to gather not far from the bar in order to have second drinks, or thirds. Musk's talk had clearly alarmed some of the guests; the demonstration, voices in everyone's heads, had ensured that much. Many were wondering how to make preparations in their businesses, others were more concerned about personal matters, a wife or husband, or what to tell the kids or parents. Two of the men were concerned about what effects this might have on relationships with their mistresses. "What the hell else?," asked Robert Swan, exasperated by the information overload. Sundal Pichal agreed that everything was incredible, too much to absorb all at once, but this was their best chance to soak up everything they could because, from now on, even though this must stay a secret, it would not remain a secret forever, and, however you looked at it, the world had changed completely. "I feel like an idiot," said Meg Whitman to Marillyn Hewson and Phebe Novakovic. "I'm in shock. Everything I thought I knew about homosexuality has all been dead wrong." "I know the feeling," Marillyn replied. "But I've got to tell you that, all along I have been hoping that someone would show up one day and tell me that my previous ideas on the topic were close to the mark and I could go back to being myself and not need to lie to anyone about how 'accepting' I was toward sexual deviants, and all the rest of that rot." "Tell me about it," said Phebe, "I still can't believe that we never researched the subject, at all, and yet we went ahead with changes in rules at my company that drastically changed corporate culture -looking at it objectively, changes mostly for the worse." Randall Stephenson and Satya Nadella were talking about the implications for software in the immediate future. "You can believe that I am curious as anyone can get about Elon's plans for an interstellar space ship," said Satya, "but it is clear beyond any doubt that there will be many opportunities for new kinds of information services, new kinds of videos, new kinds of games, the whole shebang." Randall replied that this brought security to an entirely new level, far beyond anything anyone had ever considered before."This means billions for businesses," he said, "and we need to agree on some kind of policy with respect to the Government. I think it is general sentiment that none of us want anything to do with the White House as long as Barack Obama is in office. The man is a threat to everyone, he is incompetent as often as not, and basically he is uninformed." "After all the hoopla what did we get?" asked Satya. "To be sure, we need conscientious social workers but, face it, that profession is approximately the worst possible preparation for the presidency. The man is a loser yet we may be stuck with him for a full 8 years because of demographics." "We would be fools to spill the beans about this," said Darius Adamczyk, "we are in a perfect place to position ourselves for huge new markets if we can just wait the right amount of time." Lowell McAdam of Verizon replied that the interim, before the rocket was launched, would allow everyone the chance to put their affairs in order, whatever loose ends there might be in their lives. Messy quarrels could be settled, apologies made to those who deserved apologies, debts paid, all kinds of things that we all too often leave for another time and never seem to get to. "This is a gift," he said, "we must not screw it up; besides, if we did, we might be asking for a disaster." Darius added that "yes, a lot can be taken care of, out of the spotlight. After the space vehicle soars into the heavens anything could happen and it probably would be too late." Dennis Muilenburg was huddling with Jake Barrymore. "I hope you can make time in your schedule for a trip to Seattle," he said. "I need to pick your brains. Boeing, as you know, has business dealings with just about every Muslim country in the world. I'm guessing that what you are about to tell us will be bad news for Islam. In my opinion, it is high time for exactly that. However, you can also appreciate the fact that this could mean one gigantic horror show for my company. I need ideas for how we are going to solve the problems this will cause, huge problems." "Give me a week or so and I think I can help," said Barrymore. Is that OK?" "I was hoping it would be in the next 3 or 4 days, but if you need a week..." Musk, who had been helping the bar tender, also exchanging comments with guests, rang a little tinkling bell. "Can we assemble in the conference room again?" he asked the group. His talk resumed..... "This stuff goes back a long time," said Musk. "We are talking about millennia, not merely years or decades. Sajor has given this a good deal of thought and, while he does not claim to have all the answers he has a theory that makes considerable sense." "We need some kind of overall explanation" said Satya Nadella. Exactly when this fantastic story really began is an open question," Musk continued. "The movie 2001, makes a case that the saga actually starts in the geologic past, to the time when there were woolly mammoths roaming the planet and Australopithecus was still learning how to use stone tools. He questions that scenario but does suggest that we would be well advised to consider that the era of the rise of civilization in ancient Mesopotamia is a good place to look for evidence. He recommended a book on this topic, co-authored by Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe. It was first published some time in the late 1960s." "According to Sagan, there are a number of myths in Sumerian and Babylonian literature that can be taken as indicating extraterrestrial contact in that far off epoch. But Sajor cautioned against fringe theorists like Von Daniken and Steichen, writers who have poor understanding of actual ancient history and are happy to invent all kinds of pseudo-explanations that don't really explain anything and end up misleading everyone who takes them seriously." "One example is the claim that those eerie looking figurines with highly slanted eyes show us how aliens look physically. As any competent art historian can tell you, however, what these statuettes show us are forms of a snake god or snake goddess as Mesopotamians imagined them. Snakes were associated with immortality because they shed their skins every year and seem to be reborn fresh and new, this process going on forever. But that was simply their belief, and, in any case, what that actually gives us a pretty good impression of how archaic people thought that a snake-human hybrid would look if there were actual snake deities to worship." "What Sagan conjectured was that the arts of early civilization, or some of the most important arts, were transmitted to the Sumerians, maybe augmented with some sort of "in person" intervention to expedite the process. But that's all. This is realistic and believable." "That was a helluva long time ago," observed Meg Whitman. "Indeed it was," replied Musk. "Which gets us to Sajor's model of how history really works, not all of history, but the history of ideas." "This I have got to hear," said Phebe Novakovic. "This would also mean how current events work on the other side of the curtain." "You've got that right," said Musk. "I'm blown away by all of this," said Dennis Muilenburg. "The theory," Musk continued," is that Earth had been approached from outer space ever since at least the time of the Mesopotamians, but just about certainly from that time onward. That is, while we could not see it, there were two great spaceships speeding toward our planet, starting from a distance that has to be measured in multiples of billions of miles." "Imagine a large space ship heading in our direction at speeds approaching that of light, but maybe with some limit, like 70% as fast, or 50%, whatever it may be. The point being that it cannot be instantaneous, the laws of physics won't allow it. But it isn't just one space vehicle, there are two. One of these ships has a head start on the other. Call that ship Evil 666. This is a spacecraft with just one crew member. He had some means at his disposal to use AI to help in the operation of the craft. This hardly made for an enjoyable voyage for him, and that helps explain his attitudes and values, but he compensated by playing games, as much as was possible for him, by manipulating human societies in various ways to incorporate evil values and dysfunctional behaviors. That is, he was doing the manipulating at very long range. Hence, as an example, the rapaciousness of Attila the Hun, and before that, a very different set of evils in the rise of sodomy among upper class Greeks; then among the Roman upper class." "He had stolen the vehicle and somehow managed to -in our terminology- run away with a load of enriched uranium. Not to sell it to terrorists but to use it to dominate our planet. This is very bad news since there aren't all that many planets suitable for intelligent life in our galaxy. Some people have speculated that there are millions of worlds more-or-less like our own. The real figure is far less, in the thousands, which means that they are rare. Considering the billions of stars in the galaxy the tally is less than 0.000001 %. Earth is anything but alone, still, it is very unusual and valuable if only for that reason -although there are other reasons as well." "The original plan of the nearest extraterrestrials to ourselves was to allow Earth to develop naturally toward civilization and to use their long distance quantum technology to broadcast ideas into the heads of our ancestors that would allow them to cultivate science, the arts, commerce, and so forth, until we would be ready for contact and join the other planets in their galactic civilization. However, the crime that led to commandeering of a space ship.by a perverted being threw this plan into disarray. Now the task was to send a second space vehicle to Earth and combat the evil being as he tried to corrupt our civilization and homosexualize -pathologize- the whole planet. Call this second space craft Lilliput 777." "This second ship has a full crew, maybe several thousand "people" -little green men- who have the task of defeating the Satanic creature. Think of an aircraft carrier. But to get their ship ready in a very short time for an interstellar flight of extremely long duration they had to sacrifice a significant quantity of energy. When they arrived, apparently in the 1930s, they had less than 10% as much power. The Satanic being arrived in about 1920." "Wait a minute," objected Sundal Pichal, "arrived? Do you mean that a thousand year old man walked out of a spaceship and took up residence on Earth?" "No," Musk replied, That's not how this works, But you do need an explanation. I certainly needed one when Sajor first described things to me." "We're listening," said Sundal. "This is gong to sound weird, like ancient mythology," said Musk, "but it is, what it is. If I was writing a science fiction story this is not how I would develop the plot. It sounds naive and, well, primitive. The trouble is, this is how its actually done." "The rule of extraterrestrial contact is that if you -that is, a little green man- want to live on another planet you must be born on that planet and grow up on that planet and become one of that planet's humans -humanoids or whatever. There is no other way because, of course, we aren't isolates, we are beings who share DNA with microbes and bacteria, we are part of an entire web of life, the very air we breathe is teeming with itty-bitty organisms, and there is no escaping this interconnectedness.: "How in the world does anyone do that?" asked Phebe Novakovic. "I wish I knew," said Musk. "It really would be useful for Sajor to join us and tell the story in his own words, but for now we will need to wait on that. We're working on a deal; blame it on the lawyers. I'm sure you understand." "What I can tell you," Musk continued, "is to think about the 'transporters' in the Star Trek shows. But it isn't a case of '"beam me up Scotty," it is more like, "well, here I go, so long dear body, its been good, but now its time to be reborn in another body and go through all the crap necessary to emerge as an adult of another species some years from now, even if, fortunately, at some point memories of my 'real life' as a green man will be restored to me." "My God!" exclaimed Marillyn Hewson. "Jesus Christ," said Randall Stephenson, visibly shaken. There were gasps throughout the room. "I can't tell you how its done," said Musk, "but this is the basic idea. This also says that there is more than one birth of this kind to contemplate. How many? I don't know the answer to that question, either. Two? Twenty-two? Two-hundred and twenty two? I just do not know." "The implications of this are staggering" said Satya Nadella. "If I may make an observation," said Jake Barrymore, who had been sitting quietly and simply listening, "this is similar to various ancient myths. I'm going to guess that those stories were planted in the minds of ancient peoples using the technology you have been describing. Make sense?" "Yes," said Musk, "please continue..." The first such story that I am aware of dates to the creation of the Epic of Gilgamesh. In that tale, the hero is 2/3rds non-human, some sort of spiritual being, and one-third human. But he lives his life as a man even if he has great strength and takes part in an incredible journey of discovery to try and find the plant of immortality. He was only the first of the "half man / half spiritual being" stories of similar nature. Later there would be figures from Assyrian religion, from the Egyptians, and so forth, up to the time of the Greeks who gave us a collection of such personages, most notably Herakles -Hercules. Personifications of an evil being who takes human form are found in Zoroastrian tradition, and in Hinduism." "I think you are reluctant so say so, but there also is Jesus," observed Darius Adamczyk. "There certainly is," said Barrymore, "but I have no idea what to say in this context. Anything is possible. The point to make is that through our cultural traditions we are familiar with the concept of a being, or beings, who combine attributes of some other realm with those of a normal human being -who then lives life as a human." "One additional matter to bring up is the fact that verbatim Christian theology simply doesn't stand the test that all of this new information brings to us. This doesn't mean that its all false, that is not the case, but it does mean that any number of revisions to that theology are absolutely necessary. I'm not saying this lightly, I'm a Christian myself, but about some things I also need to be agnostic, there are some things I simply do not know. Nor do any of us. But I won't say more for now, I'd like to listen to what Elon wants to tell us." "Very interesting," said Musk, "we are seeing more and more of the overall picture. In any case, this is the situation as it stands. We are dealing with something utterly bizarre and weird beyond belief. All of our conceptions about reality need to be revised, uhhh, make that revolutionized. We are on the verge of something so big that there is no available vocabulary for it. But allow me to return to the story of the spaceships that have reached Earth." "What happened to the spaceships?" asked Dennis Muilenburg. "No idea for sure," said Musk. "My best guess is that Evil 666 was destroyed because the Satanic creature had no more use for it. Could have plunged into the ocean, could have been sent into outer space on a trip to nowhere, it is anyone's guess. As for Lilliput 777, possibly it is lurking in our solar system at a safe distance from Earth. I'd guess that is is somewhere near Enceladus, the watery moon of Saturn. Life needs water and even a huge space vehicle cannot carry enough to last forever. The ETs could park their craft almost anywhere, however, and we would never be the wiser because, even if we went looking for it, they'd know about our search and take the necessary precautions." "One thing seems certain, its there someplace," said Musk," it continues to send UFOs on various missions on -in the skys above- planet Earth." "Science, social science, biology, astronomy, culture, the whole nine yards," said Darius Adamczyk, "its all mixed together. This is incredible." "My sentiments, exactly," Musk replied. "I don't know how much of what you are saying is 100% correct and how much is in error," said Marillyn Hewson, "but I think that you are far more right than wrong, and this means that we all need to get our priorities right or we will all look like imbeciles. More to the point, we will have missed a literal chance-of-a-lifetime and kick ourselves in the butt for as long as we live. Sign me up for whatever it is that you are planing. I may not like everything but my preferences are pretty much irrelevant, aren't they?" "Good girl," said Musk, "and I'm a good boy. You're catching on. I had to cross the same Rubicon not that long ago. I know what you are feeling. This is bigger than me, much, much, bigger. I'm just "starting out," that's what it amounts to. But you've got to cross that river or you will find yourself on the wrong side of history." "How does that classic Rock song go?" asked Lowell McAdam, "we are stardust, we are golden, and we've got to get back to the garden." I think those are the words. I could have kissed all of this goodbye if I had decided to go it alone, and screw you, but that would have been one helluva bad choice to make. We need to talk, later, Elon, about what I'm willing to chip in, but it will be substantial." "We are children in all of this," said Randall Stephenson, "that is what it amounts to. Tell us more." Musk resumed his talk: "The ETs would need to use their superior intelligence and capacity for stealth to outwit the Satanic creature, draining his power, causing his plans to go awry, and only when success was close could they begin to surface, to let us Earthlings in on this secret war and the future they have in mind for us the way that a doctor has good health in mind for a patient." "In so many words, a crackpot would-be dictator wanted to set up a kingdom of homosexuals led by himself, supplying him with an endless supply of boys to abuse while the 'breeding population worshiped him as if he was a god." "Ugh," said Robert Swan. "Which was why secrecy has always been a priority for the little green men. Or, as the case may be, little green women. The idea was to keep their operations secret from the Satanic being. He must not be allowed to eavesdrop in on their planing, to learn their objectives, or learn what resources they might bring to bear at any given time. This isn't a duel between combatants in an open field, it is a surreptitious war of ideas for hearts and minds, and Earthlings are the prize." "It sounds like bad science fiction, " said Lowell McAdam. "I could not agree more," Musk replied, "but reality isn't always rational or pretty and, at that, it can be grotesque and insane. To repeat the example, think of how pompous and absurd the North Korean fat boy is. Think of how pompous and absurd Idi Amin was, or Hugo Chavez. But this is also how the system works. So far, anyway, there has always been a 'manifestation' of the Satanic being on Earth as long as he has been among us. This is an automatic -reflexive- effect of how quantum biotechnology operates." "Does this include the Nazis?" asked Phebe Novakovic. "It was that profound during that period of time," said Musk. "What about the holocaust?" asked Meg Whitman. "That is part of it," Musk answered. "I have hesitated to bring this up but it seems that the Satanic creature is a self-hating Jew. This is NOT my idea of how the story should go. I really dislike this part of the saga. I admire the state of Israel, and even if he has his flaws, I regard Benjamin Netanyahu as a hero. I am impressed at how most Jews value education and culture and scientific accomplishment. There is much to admire as a matter or fact." "But, regardless, some Jews are total idiots, starting with the Haredim and including sonsofbitches like Bernie Madoff. And some Jews hate the fact that they are Jewish. The Satanic being is in that category" "Why did this creature materialize as a Jew?" asked Musk. "An answer can only be conjectural for the time being," he continued, "but there seems to be a psychological reason. He identified with the persecuted and with a very conservative strain in Jewish theology, the part about being a chosen people and being superior to everyone else, with men vastly superior to women. After all, for a really long period of time he as alone in a space craft, all the while fully aware that he was being challenged and oppose by the LGMs -little green men. He may well have felt persecuted, just like the Jews on Earth. So, in effect, he chose his parents, Orthodox Jews living in Brooklyn. That is what Sajor told me, and Sajor got it directly from the horse's mouth, the time he met this individual and realized, after the fact, who it was he had been talking to. This is all I can tell you." "Sajor has no solid answer about why this creature wanted to kill off the Jews of Europe, only the observation that this being obviously wanted to do this and got pretty far along toward that objective. The actual total of deaths, as estimated by Jewish scholars themselves back in the late 1940s, was approximately 5 million -a tally that was soon transformed into the mythical 6 million, a magic number that pops up in culture every so often, as in the TV show, The 6 Million Dollar Man." "There is one other thing, though," added Musk. "Orthodox Jews despise sodomy; they detest homosexuality and homosexuals. This placed the creature in an untenable position, as a Jew and as a homosexual. Possibly, killing off millions of Jews was his way of getting revenge for their opposition to sodomy. If there is a better explanation I'd like to hear it." "This goes everywhere," said Sundal Pichal. "That's the idea," replied Musk."It goes everywhere. The only good comparison is to ancient religious texts, its the stuff of prophecy -only not in the ways that true believers think. This is much more like science fiction, but no sci-fi authors have had the imagination to see the big picture and they tend to get caught up in adventure tales, shootouts in outer space, that sort of thing." "Not even Harlan Ellison?" asked Randall Stephenson. "He got as close as anyone ever got," replied Musk, "but even he never really grasped the overall story, he wasn't even close." Musk continued: "Not even Arthur Clarke, who simply could not bring himself to admit that at the crux of everything there is a homosexual Satan causing unspeakable evil." "I'm getting sick," said Meg Whitman, "I think that I am going to throw up." "There is one detail to add to this part of the story and it is very important," said Musk. "I suggested that space ship 777 might be compared with an aircraft carrier. If you have seen episodes of Battlestar Galactica, maybe you will grasp the idea without any difficulty. The ship has a compliment of much smaller craft even if some are as large as, say, a frigate." "The thesis is that while something as large as the USS Enterprise, actually much larger, is needed for a journey that takes millennia, smaller craft that can use quantum propulsion to travel faster than light, can be used for "errands" even if there are limits to their range. This is beyond me, be advised of that. It is far beyond Sajor's knowledge base also. But as an hypothesis that seems to explain otherwise strange but very real phenomena that we simply cannot dismiss whether officialdom downplays it all and has done everything possible to discredit people who think something else. Obviously this is to discuss so-called UFOs." Musk continued: "Focus on the fact that even though we are discussing very long range energy communications, this does not mean ineffective communications. People on Earth, at least a select few, were getting the idea, that is, a wide variety of ideas. The purpose, one purpose, was not only to advance the rise of civilization, but to provide humans with at least some intellectual resources with which to protect themselves from Satanic energy transmissions and communications. Hence, while religions were developing on their own, they might also incorporate ideas from the stars, so to speak, including a concept of the Devil." "As scholars of religion can tell you, there was no such concept in early Hebrew faith. A better way to say it is to point out that "Satan" in the Old Testament had inferior powers, he was sort of an afterthought even when he played a major role in, say, the Book of Job, as a foil to God's plans. Only after the Babylonian captivity and, during it, the conquest of Babylon by the Persians, did the Hebrews learn about the Zoroastrian concept of an evil and very powerful being called the Druj, the Liar, sort of a prototype to Satan -as the Devil became known in the West. But even then there was no guarantee that this idea would be adopted by the Hebrews, who, after all, did not adopt other ideas that they might have, like use of haoma, a natural hallucinogen, or the concept of fire as sacred, or the concept, from writings called the Gathas, that a good way, a way that is blessed, to discover the truths of Spirit and of truths generally is by questioning, forever asking good questions. Yet somehow the idea of Satan stuck and, anyway, the idea that questioning is Good also arose in Buddhism and became central to that religion. That idea was not lost." "Which is to say," Musk further added, "that it was vital that we -our ancestors, people who helped develop our own civilization with its huge store of ideas we use every day for all sorts of purposes- would one day be able to comprehend what was happening to them. Which is to talk about their future and our here-and-now." "I am flabbergasted," said Darius Adamczyk. "Utterly flabbergasted." Musk continued: "The idea of Satan had practical uses in addition to being true in the sense under discussion. Satan's attributes can be understood as descriptive of evils to avoid at all costs. At least people would be able to "put a face on" evil and guard against Satan's powers even if nominal theological explanations miss the mark and sometimes miss it badly. Anyway, some concept of Satan exists in most of the world's religions, not just Western faiths but also Buddhism and Hinduism, plus,of course, while it is a small fraction as important as it once was, Zoroastrianism." "You were talking about UFOs," Darius Adamczyk said. "I was getting to that," Musk replied. In about 100 AD, use this date only as an approximation, spaceship 777 finally was in range to send smaller space craft to Earth. And so it began. At first just a few, then as the centuries progressed, there might be as many as 25 or 30 always in transit or on station at planet Earth. Doing what?" "I'd like to know," said Randall Stephenson. "When I first heard this part of the story I was amazed, I both just could not believe it and, simultaneously said to myself, 'of course, it all makes perfectly good sense.' And it is rather strange when you think about it that we -meaning the US government- do nor believe the testimony of various airline pilots, military observers, even astronauts, who claim to have witnessed these exotic craft. Sure, forget the comments of maybe 90% of people who say that have seen flying saucers. I know that, so does anyone who gives things a second thought. But what about credible observers? Why should we be dismissive of their reports? I don't dismiss their accounts even if, yes, I've never been sure what to do with the information -at least until now." "Damn," said Lowell McAdam, "this is the secret history of the human race." "To be sure," said Musk, "a good number of these visits were, by our standards, quite understandable, you know, geographic surveys, investigating our atmosphere, and monitoring fluctuations of the oceans. But there was something else that was far more important." "It was very clear," Musk went on, "that the Satanic being would cause massive damage to human cultures in the time it took to reach Earth, plus the time he would be alive in human form, on Earth. The extraterrestrials wanted to preserve something of the best of human accomplishment and use it for the time when it would become possible to repair the damages, as much as might be feasible anyway, and reconstruct Earth civilization. They understood that it was vital for humans to look to other humans for most of the leadership they would need in order to make the transition from an isolated planet to a member of a super-advanced galactic civilization. That is, the ETs had -and still have- an educational agenda." "But how were they to preserve good and sometimes noble human cultures? The solution to this problems was fairly simple." Elon paused for dramatic effect. "They decided to rescue groups of humans in danger of losing their lives. This is to speak of, for instance, a caravan floundering in the desert, out of water, many miles from the nearest oasis. It is to speak of a ship on the sea that has damaged masts due to surviving a terrible storm. It is to speak of soldiers trapped behind enemy lines with no hope of retreat to safety yet whom their enemy does not know is there. And so forth." "This happened many times between about 150 AD and about 1920 when the process stopped; the arrival of the Satanic creature made further operations like this impossible. This is to talk about 1770 years or so, thirty people from a caravan, a hundred people from a lost ship, 80 soldiers in a trap, and so forth. Plus, now and then, someone special, a scholar who got lost on a hike in the mountains, a conscientious far sighted merchant who would otherwise have been killed by bandits, etc." "In each case the choice was stark. "said Musk. "Either agree to be rescued or choose not to be saved and lose your life. If you agreed to a rescue there was no turning back. You would board a UFO and, soon enough, you would never see Earth again, you would have been relocated to a different world altogether, to start life over. This was how it was done." "My God," exclaimed Marillyn Hewson. ""Do you really mean that there is another planet with a human population?" asked Sundal Pichal. "That is exactly what I mean," replied Musk. "Where do you think our space probe is going? But there are a number of planets with human populations, not just one. However for all kinds of reasons, the planet our probe is destined to go to is the first we will see and make contact with. It is called planet Centroid." "Getting people -humans- to a remote planet was kind of tricky," Musk continued. "Usually a UFO with its cargo of rescued humans would return to spaceship 777 and then wait for the transit of another large space vessel which would be heading in the general direction of the "frontier planet," the new world to be colonized by human beings. Then that ship, when it got within UFO range, would send its Earth people to their final destination via smaller craft. Not that there were very many other mega-size space vehicles zooming around the galaxy, in our case zooming in the neighborhood of Earth, there weren't, but there were enough to accomplish the objective." "That is, interstellar travel is established but because of relativity physics these ships may take dozens or hundreds of years to reach their ports of call. It is an unavoidable part of the system. With faster-than-light auxiliary craft, however, it wasn't necessary for transfer of humans to another planet to take several centuries. At most a few decades, like the Jews during the Babylonian Captivity. At least as the Tanach describes matters, we are talking about a generation or so, after which life can resume as before." "I should add," said Musk, "the life spans of the ETs are unimaginable by our current standards. Aeons ago they solved the problem of aging. The catch is that only a few births are allowed for any "woman" -female extraterrestrial. Otherwise there would be a catastrophic population explosion, many new births and virtually no deaths. Their medical technology and drug therapies and so forth, are very effective. Diseases are pretty much a thing of the past, all diseases except occasional mutations that cause concern for a short while before a cure is discovered. Otherwise, all the men have all of their hair, all senior citizens have all of their teeth, and women never have breast cancer. A "teenager" is someone who is 13,000 years old, or maybe 17,000 years old. 'Midlife crisis' hits around age 50,000. And so on." "In other words, the "singularity" predicted by Ray Kurzweil was attained by the ETs at the time when paleolithic artists were painting pictures of mastodons on the walls of a cave in Lascaux. Actually many years before that, but to provide a frame of reference you can relate to." "However," said Musk, "this does not apply to humans, at least not yet. The whole idea was to populate a planet with human beings who were still humans as we understand them, as we understand ourselves, to demonstrate what can be done starting from where we actually are, now, as a species. So, the humans on Centroid live more-or-less normal lifespans even though, because their medical practices are superior and they understand such things as good nutrition much better than most of us do, they may live a decade or two longer than our current average. That isn't insignificant, but it is a far cry from ET life. This also, of course, matches nicely with stories in ancient Mesopotamian texts as well as the Book of Genesis." "What I should also tell you, Musk continued, is that the humans on Centroid, like the humans on other worlds, know all about life on Earth. The ETs do not communicate with these people, at all. They do not want to "poison the well," as it were. Their plan is to allow actual humans devise ways to solve human problems. Whatever these people come up with. Nothing coached, or very little, just what they can devise on their own. However, so that context is never lost, the humans on another planet are given reliable information about events on Earth." "Brookfield Zoo for humans," interjected Darius. "I wouldn't put it that way," Musk replied, "although I can see why you might make that comparison. The big difference is that at some point in time the humans will have complete freedom. They will be able to do what they want -within the limits of the galactic system, anyway. That is, this is more like high school, everyone involved being prepared for eventual graduation." "At any rate," Musk continued, "the ETs have arranged to send radio signals to the humans that can be accessed at will, which consist of news items, sometimes in a dramatic format, that let's them know about life back on their ancestral planet. In pre-electronic times, when Centroid went through its equivalent of the medieval epoch, this information was disseminated through hard-copied books, or with the advent of printing, by means of posters and broadsides." "The effect has been intense interest on the part of the Centroidites in all things Earthian." said Musk. "It is rather strange in some ways. A great many place names are exact copies of place names on Earth, like Jodhpur, Lexington, and Helena. In some cases there are close variants,m such as Helsinka, instead of Helsinki. And names of Earth people appear all over the place, Vico, Henri Saint-Simon, Eisenhower, and Julian the Apostate, to mention a few. Teddy Roosevelt is honored with a "Bull Moose" place name." The capital of the planet, an island state something like a combination of Bermuda, the Isle of Wight, and Guam, is called "Buckminster," after the noted futurist and engineer, Buckminster Fuller." There also are religion-centered nations like Sarasvati, although it is actually more secular than not, and a Mormon theocracy. But there are very large populations of more usual Christians, plus a lot of Buddhists and so forth." "Because Centroid has had a different history than Earth, however," said Musk, "there are cultural traditions that might startle today's Earthlings." "This I've got to hear," said Phebe Novakavic. "Probably the most notable -and certainly the most conspicuous- is widespread use of swastika symbolism. The design is everywhere. Generally speaking, the design is taken to represent love between men and women, reproduction, compassion, good luck, divine truth, and the like." "Of course, American and European sensitivities haven't always been what they became after world War II, and these attitudes never appeared in Asia or countries like Ethiopia or among most Indian tribes of the western hemisphere. In any case, there are populations of Indians, never called "Native Americans," obviously. One result is that the flags of a majority of the countries of Centroid feature some kind of swastika design." "I don't suppose there are any Jews on Centroid," said Robert Swan, sarcastically. "Actually," Musk replied," there are quite a few and there is a Jewish nation that might be compared to Israel, but several times as populous. It has a world class navy even if the world in question is light years away." "How do you know all this?" asked Meg Whitman. "From Sajor," Musk replied. "I took him at his word because he clearly knows a great deal about such matters, there simply is no way for me to doubt that he is telling the truth -or a close approximation. And, to restate the plain facts, what choice do I have, do any of us have?" "This is 1492 all over again," said Darius Adamczyk, "and we're all Ferdinand and Isabella. This is just a little difficult to wrap my head around." "There is something else" added Musk, "these aircraft carriers of the cosmos are never hundreds of years out of date. Tachyon communications are as close to instantaneous as we are ever likely to get, that and quantum mechanics phenomena, and every ship in every fleet soon learns about the latest advances in technology, medicine, scholarship, laboratory research, everything that matters, and can make the appropriate adjustments of modifications. Its an amazing system." "This will revolutionize absolutely everything on Earth," Satya Nadella blurted out. "Yes it will," Musk agreed, "and as soon as this can be made known to the public we will enter a realm that we may as well think of as Alice in Wonderland. It is that different. But we aren't there yet, it is necessary to wait several years more, years when we dare not say a word to anyone at all except people who have a vital need to know -thinking of spouses and very few others- otherwise we are playing games with our lives. If the Satanic being finds out that you intend to take the story to the news you will have signed your death warrant. And do not make the mistake of thinking that he cannot do so. The demonstration a few hours ago should give you an idea and it isn't only the -mostly- benign little green men who can do that, so can the Satanic beast." "It isn't just that they may listen in and make poignant comments. For example, if they find -or help induce- someone who is compliant and willing to follow orders, that is someone who may carry out actions against others. In the case of the LGMs, the diminutive green men, you might be let down when you most need help, or unexpected personal problems arrive out of nowhere, or someone you think is on your side turns against you. That is how they sometimes operate as a way to let you know that they mean business." "In the case of the Satanic being the consequences may be far worse. For example, you find yourself broke as all of your money disappears for one reason or another, this person making a clerical error, that person using your credit card without your knowledge, somebody else blatantly stealing from you. However, it might be considerably worse. A gang of thugs beats you up on the street. A punk runs into your car with his truck. Your wife is raped. A child is killed. It can get this bad, and there is nothing you can do about it. You may prosecute a thief or a reckless driver or or a rapist, but the worst enemy is the Satanic being who is provoking all of these actions against you. " "This is not a parlor game, it is deadly serious and sometimes lethal." Elon Musk had made his point. Randall Stephenson was sweating profusely, he had been weighing the odds for and against taking the story to CBS or one of the other TV networks. He immediately realized that he had better not do any such thing, the cost could be extreme, his death. No amount of money lost -or fame deferred- could possibly make much difference against throwing away his life. The thought of becoming a rogue player in this drama never crossed his mind again. "What else can you tell us about planet Centroid?" asked Phebe Novakovic. Musk thought about a good answer for a minute and continued: "The ETs were selective in choosing who they rescued. For one thing they could not rescue everyone; that task wasn't physically possible. For another, they did not want to export Earth's needless problems; it would be counter-productive to save a band of Attila's marauders, for instance, since those violent bastards would in all likelihood, make life miserable for people that the LGMs wanted to see flourish and grow. As well, it would be ridiculous to export ideologies that, if believed in, would undermine everything they were trying to accomplish. They would not be rescuing anyone employed by the Spanish Inquisition, any violent anarchists, or any tribal groups who cannot get enough of the ministrations of witch doctors. Such people are not needed and not wanted." "Also, now and then there would be secret brain-wave promptings if extremely difficult problems arose that no-one was about to solve without a little help. And, of course, the ETs made sure that, about such problems, the humans would learn what they most needed in order to cope with droughts or natural disasters like plagues. One result has been a steady increase in population, all told with less than one hundredth of 1% of Earth's population sent on journeys into deep space, Centroid now has a population of nearly 1 billion people. But, while there have been some limited wars, there have never been all-out slaughters in mass scale conflicts. There have never been massive die-outs due to starvation because of droughts, or because of epidemics like the Black Death. Nor have there been large scale persecutions of Jews or anyone else. There have always been human problems, but not avoidable catastrophes caused by mixing incompatible populations or caused by beliefs that invariably result in killing thousands of people." "I am beginning to think that we had better find a philosophy that does likewise," said Randall Stephenson. "You've got that right," said Musk. "We sure in hell don't have that now." "No-one has anything like this?" asked Darius. "No-one," Musk replied, "not the political Left, not the political Right, certainly not the libertarians. Most people don't begin to understand what it is to be objective about social reality. And not the state capitalists of China or Arabia, not feminists, not Bernie Sanders and his neo-Marxist followers, not so-called black nationalists, not Maoist criminals like Shining Path or the Naxals, not head-in-the-clouds sectarian Christians of various stripes, not closed-minded anyone of any country on Earth, extremist Hindus or Buddhists or anyone else " "There simply are no "perfect" philosophies and we aren't even trying to find one; its all identity politics now. As bad as things might have been in the 1980s or the 1970s, they are much worse today." "That sounds rather grim," said Dennis Muilenburg, "isn't there some way out of this impasse?" "That, my friend," said Musk, "is the purpose of planet Centroid. We are supposed to make contact to discover a world much like our own but that has already solved many, maybe most, of the problems that haunt us now. There really is a global population that has created not a perfect society but a damned good one that we can emulate. That is what this really is all about." "It would be nice if we could see for ourselves," said Satya Nadella, "I'm having difficulty in picturing this rather broad sweeping landscape." "That is at the center of the rocket mission to Centroid," said Musk. "We need to see things for ourselves by means of a space vehicle we have made for ourselves. But don't forget the other payoff, a flood of new information, new ideas, new approaches to politics, economics, social science, and still more. If all goes well we reap a bonanza. Not just us, but a large number of other people who want to be part of this "crusade." I use that word advisedly to suggest fervor, adventure, danger, calculated risk, commitment, willingness to put it all on the line." Musk looked around the room. The sense he had of things was that each guest was hanging on his every word. "But first we need to destroy the Satanic monstrosity," Musk continued, "so that we can proceed with the necessary work without the kind of violent opposition and hatred against the Good that would ruin all of our efforts. This means that the little green men will be doing the quantum vs quantum fighting but we have other responsibilities, especially in getting the space vehicle ready for launch. As soon as contact is made there will be an upheaval on Earth and the start of, not sure what to call it, a new Reformation, a new Renaissance, a new American Revolution. You can be certain that the centerpiece of everything will be the United States." "I'm speechless," said Meg Whitman. "This is where we ought to discuss the unique problems that are associated with the religion of Islam," said Musk. "Jake, can you take things from here?" "Thanks, Elon," said Jake Barrymore. "I'll give it my best." -- -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
