Twilight of the Gods: The Mayan Calendar and the Return of the Extraterrestrials (29 page)

French nuclear physicist Jean Charon said of the electron's amazing properties:

All matter used in the building of a living or thinking structure and which possessed its qualities of consciousness during that structure's relatively short lifespan, cannot simply return to its original, diffuse minimal state after the structure has died. Information, once collected, can never again be lost; no power in the world can ever cause the regression of an elementary particle consciousness after the death of a complex organized structure.21

The Big Bang that kick-started our universe already contained the entire gamut of vibrations (information) from the previous universe (from its final Big Bang). Matter-which is comprised solely of atoms and their subatomic particles-arose from these vibrations. This included the electrons that jump untiringly from one atom to the next collecting information and moving on. We live in an iridescent world of vibrations. The entire universe is filled with these vibrationsand we are part of all this. As thinking and acting beings, we create vibrations in matter. We think it is possible to build a house, and we build one. Thoughts become matter. We ponder about the feasibility and rationality of space travel, and then we develop plans for a starship. We are the "doers"; we implement the vibrations.

A tree or a head of lettuce is no more in a position to do this than a crocodile or an anteater. They, like any piece of hard rock, are made of just the same original matter-atoms and their electrons. Vibrations, though, are in a position to develop reason, deductive capabilities, and consciousness, and the ability to form matter in a conscious, targeted manner (hands, tools, machines, and so forth). They will do it first out of a desire for comfort (houses, clothing, washing machines, vehicles) and then for knowledge. Knowledge wants to expand; curiosity knows no rest; and every intelligence wants to go out into space. Knowledge wants to spread and multiply. (The poor lettuce, on the other hand, has no organs of implementation with which it could pass on the knowledge inherent in its electrons.)

The memes act like viruses that infect us. They are a kind of information medium that flashes messages from one brain to another. They infect the brains of other beings and are filed away for later use. Then they can be called up when necessary or possibly to infect other brains-a fascinating method of self-propagation.

I am neither an esoteric nor a fan of those sensitive people known as "mediums" who are always telling us that they are able to contact another plane of existence. Maybe I should pay more attention to them and find out a bit more about the world of mediums. My reasoning intellect resists, however, for the simple reason that I always look for material evidence and my life is just too short for me to start traveling completely new paths. My subconscious, on the other hand, knows that nothing is impossible-even those things that (honest and genuine) mediums want to tell me. Dr. Heinke Sudhoff is one such medium who claims she can tap the "spirit of the universe." The result is a series of insights such as these: "In the beginning-before consciousnessthere was just spirit.. .the spirit of the great one.. .there was no space and no time...just emptiness...in which all forms existed as possibilities, in which everything was laid out as vibrations and energy ...... 25

Dr. Sudhoff claims to have received this message from the vibrations of the universe. Is she a theoretical physicist with a deep knowledge of subatomic particles and the properties of electrons? Not at all. She studied archaeology and English, and knows as much about theoretical physics as any other layperson. There is, she writes, something like a "holotropic state of consciousness" in which one can experience the "unity of the universe as an indivisible whole."26 And she talks of a "state of bliss,"27 which I personally have also experienced (let me assure you here, dear reader, that I have never taken drugs) but could never put into words, certainly not in any scientific form. (If you're interested read my novel, Tomy and der Planet der Luge).

In other words, maybe we don't need to resort to interstellar travel, use up our valuable raw materials, or build expensive radio telescopes, and we certainly don't have to send out waves of colonists into space. All the knowledge we could ever need is right at our fingertips-hidden somewhere in every electron. We simply need to find a way of getting to it.

pace Travel, to Be on the Safe Side

If we had access to the entire knowledge of the universe, we would be almost divine. If individual people ever achieve this level of insight-maybe old monks sitting in their cells-they would never be able to put it into words. There are no words for the unthinkable. We are all transitory beings: our intellects and our psyches demand material confirmation. Proof comes from seeing and touching. No message from a saint or announcement from a medium could ever be enough for us. Belief in something proclaimed by someone else is just not scientific. If we were to believe instead of know, we would have just the sort of chaos wreaked by religions the world over. It's no secret that every religion in our earthly madhouse maintains that it is the only one that preaches the genuine truth. Faith creates fear and insecurity. Nobody knows whether other people's proclamations are holy or just seem that way. Secretly we are all looking for perfection-but not via belief. Faith is an artificial construct-a "must" that doesn't satisfy curiosity. Knowledge demands facts.

In other words, despite the cosmic consciousness, despite the memes, and despite the hints of a grandiose infinitude, we will continue to search for proof. These proofs have to be material, accessible, and visible to satisfy those who are uncertain. Every doubt wants reality. This level of certainty will not arise until we have our first contact with an extraterrestrial civilization. Hurrah! That's happened already!

Among the possibilities for interstellar encounters we've mentioned so far, the only thing that's missing is a "von Neumann machine." What's one of those? A von Neumann machine is a technical device capable of self-replication. Humanity sends a von Neumann machine out into the next solar system. Once there, it seeks out suitable planets and starts to produce copies of itself. Then two von Neumann machines start out, then four, then eight, and so on. It creates a kind of snowball effect, and within a calculable time frame-depending on velocities involved-our whole galaxy would be "infected" with von Neumann machines. These wouldn't need to be huge devices. A device the size of a macro-molecule riding on the tip of a laser beam would be enough.

Extraterrestrials? Contact with them? One of today's most brilliant forward thinkers in this respect is Professor Michio Kaku, a physicist at City University in New York. Following a lecture in Switzerland, Kaku was interviewed by the astronomer Dr. Stefan Thiessen. He wanted to know how we should understand the term cosmic evolution. According to Kaku:

When the time comes for us to head off into space, we will have nanotechnology at our disposal which will help us cope with the rough conditions of the extreme reaches of outer space. If we actually do meet up with some other civilization out there in space, then these beings might be part organic, part computer. Even the starships themselves could be living organisms. Professor Freemann Dyson wrote about "Astrochickens," a kind of genetically enhanced intelligent starship which uses "chicken technology" to replicate itself [i.e., lay "eggs"; author's addition/ emphasis].21

Professor Kaku subdivides extraterrestrial civilizations into various types or categories. We belong to type 0, which is the most primitive of all of the galactic families. Type I is already advanced enough to have stopped warring and is capable of deploying resources globally. Type II is a space-traveling civilization, uses unimaginable energies directly from the hearts of stars, and is already colonizing the galaxy. Type III civilizations are, from our human perspective, "godlike." They can do pretty much what they want to where they want to. Alluding to the Fermi paradox, Dr. Thiessen asked whether type III civilizations would even be interested in communicating with less developed species. Professor Kaku's opinion is: "Well, I would assume that they would be interested and therefore want to make contact with other civilizations. Having said that, for a type III civilization we would be little more than ants so the level of contact would be rather limited."29

During the conversation, Professor Kaku also claimed that type III civilizations could have sent spies out into the universe-in other words, small units that would send back word when they discovered other civilizations. Making full use of nanotechnology, these spies could be "no bigger than a bread basket" or even smaller.

It's even possible that extraterrestrial spies have already been watching us for thousands of years-and we simply do not recognize them. A spy could be a stone, a computer, or even a person. We all carry information about the past right up to the present within us. The electrons ensure that the message is passed on, even out into the universe.

udgment Day

Our current knowledge about cosmic physics is still in its infancy. Astrophysicists have measured the amount of "dark matter" in space and discovered that there is five times as much dark matter as normal matter-but nobody knows what it is. They have the same problem with "dark energy": It seems to be completely immaterial and yet contains around three times as much energy as the ominous dark matter. A massive 77 percent of the universe consists of dark matter, so is it any great surprise that, faced with these invisible and yet measurable dimensions, astrophysicists start thinking about parallel worlds worlds that exist alongside ours and whose existence we barely suspect, at best? Maybe some invisible brother is looking over my shoulder right now and-again maybe-supplying me with information.

One thing is certain: At some stage, we will have contact with an extraterrestrial life form. This meeting will be "Judgment Day" for the world's religions. All religions are basically intolerant, even when many of their followers claim to be otherwise. Despite all the talk of conciliation and all the alleged understanding for those of other faiths, at the end of the day the most important thing that remains is each religion's claim that only it professes the absolute truth. If this truth disappears in a puff of smoke, then what remains for the religions? Christians cannot suddenly claim that the word of Jesus in the gospels is false. After all, it's all supposed to come directly from the son of God. In just the same way, Muslims cannot turn around and say that the texts in the Holy Qur'an did not originate with the founder of their religion. Added to this, the followers of the Jewish world religion claim to be the "chosen ones"; and for Muslims, anyone who believes differently is an "infidel." Ultimately, the believers of all three major semitic religions-Christianity, Judaism, and Islam-think they are in sole possession of the absolute truth. They must all dread the day when we finally encounter extraterrestrials. Is this perhaps a hidden reason for a certain tendency among them to exhibit no small degree of animosity toward science? A religion that ignores scientific findings and keeps scientific evidence from its followers is dogmatic. In other words, conflict with the ETs is inevitable. Religious cantankerousness and the superior knowledge of the extraterrestrials are hardly an ideal mix.

"What if it were the other way round?" ask well-meaning critics. What if we humans really are numero uno in the universe? If we really are the first intelligent life form? If all the projects that I've outlined here-from the von Neumann machines and the warp drive to panspermia-originated solely with us? Sometime in the next couple of centuries, perhaps.

This way of thinking would be all right but for the fact the ETs have already visited the Earth at least one time already. I know the names and trades of some of the aliens that communicated with selected humans many thousands of years ago. How do I know that? Did I have some kind of epiphany? Did some spirit whisper them into my ears, or was I infected by some kind of memes?

Nonsense! Anyone who wants to know the names of the ETs can read them in the Book of Enoch. (I wrote extensively about Enoch in my last book, History Is Wrong.) So what do we do with this knowledge? Nothing.