Nexus - 1602 - New Times Magazine-pages

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Columbus discovered on his travels unknown centres of ancient civilizations, so Man in his journeys through the universe may find innumerable centres of culture far more ancient than his own... He will discover a wealth of experiences infinitely more startling and beautiful than can be imagined: an infinite variety of agencies and forces as yet unknown; great fields of gravity and anti-gravity where objects are accelerated across space like giant sling shots, even other universes with different space and time formulae... "Why does Man reach for the stars? His energies have never been solely directed towards material benefits alone. From the beginning of Man's history he has striven...towards a spirituality and grace of which he was aware but could not fully comprehend. This drive to reach out beyond himself has been the motive power behind some of Man's finest achievements... So Man invading space for material gain or personal glorification alone will gain nothing, but Man searching to enrich his own spirituality and nature will come closer to understanding that God is Universal." origin of life in the universe—seemingly lending support to the so-called "Big Bang" theory, which he referred to as "the generally accepted theory" of an expanding universe that "originated from the giant explosion of a vast area of high density gas which contained all the elements necessary for life and matter". "If you accept this theory," he went on, "then all galaxies contain the elements necessary for life and matter; even at the very boundaries of the expansion, the original explosion is still distributing these elements... If you accept the theory of the expanding universe you accept that it is an ocean of galaxies with solar and planetary systems similar to our own. By the laws of probability there must be millions of planets in the universe supporting life, and within our own galaxy thousands supporting life more advanced than on Earth. "Earth is a young planet with its Sun a young mother. We may hazard a guess that other planets in [this] solar system are unlikely to support life except in possibly rudimentary cellular form and are no more than uninhabited and hostile islands. But imagine a galactic solar system somewhere in space with conditions similar to Earth except that its Sun is in the autumn of its life. Provided its inhabitants have survived wars and alien invasion, it is impossible to imagine what super-technology and cultural advancement they have reached..." A Prediction Janus predicted correctly that "perhaps in twenty years' time manned rockets will be commonplace and the Earth will be girdled by satellites of all sorts and sizes", and that there would be "great strides in the miniaturization of all our present technology, advances in navigational guidance and communication over vast distances". Non-Interference Why then were aliens coming here? "The answer is that this traffic is only a thin trickle in the vast highways of the universe," explained Janus. "The Earth after all is a galactic backwater inhabited by only half-civilized men, dangerous even to their neighbours... "Most of these vehicles are robot- controlled space probes monitoring what is going on. Some are manned in order to oversee the whole programme and to ensure the probes do not land or crash by accident. They must also ensure that evidence of their existence is kept away from the vast majority of Earth's population. You must be well A Dark Age "The Earth is going through a Dark Age at the moment," Janus went on. "Material possessions count more than a Man's soul. Like a child, Man is preoccupied with his technological toys, which he believes will bring him riches and happiness. This shows up in the superficiality of his culture and a careless disregard for nature. In his greedy quest for more complex machines Man is prepared to sacrifice almost anything—his natural environment, animals and even his fellow humans. The dreadful spectre of blowing up his world hardly makes him falter in this headlong rush." TRYST ME, THEY'VE TAKEr CARE OF EVERY OTHER PLANET N we've DRoPfED Cosmogony Janus expounded on cosmogony—the NEXUS ¢ 57 FEBRUARY — MARCH 2009 www.nexusmagazine.com