Richard C. Hoagland is the principal investigator and founder of the Enterprise Mission as well as the vision and the voice of The Other Side of Midnight. In the first half, he discussed NASA's policy toward 'ET artifacts,' Cydonia, and ancient Martian ruins (view related images) and how AI may reveal new evidence for these ruins. A study commissioned by the Brookings Institution in 1959 predicted that NASA would find evidence of ancient civilizations on Mars, the moon, and possibly Venus. Hoagland believes such evidence was found but covered up until now and that NASA will begin to release detailed images that reflect this. He foresees AI technology as beneficial going forward in spotting evidence of artificiality or ruins by analyzing different data sets in a kind of "remote archaeology" (recently, AI was used to discover additional glyphs at Nazca).
The images he sent us depict the Face on Mars and the Cydonia region where it's located. In #4, the prismatic spectral colors demonstrate that the massive Face on Mars is made of glass, an abundant building material that is twenty times stronger than steel when produced in the vacuum of space, he suggested. Hoagland speculated that the Face was created by an earlier race of humans who lived on Mars, with the left half depicting an ancient Homo erectus primate and the right half a feline creature. Image #5 shows the "city" of Cydonia with "organized pyramidal geometry," and he believes these structures were built using sophisticated technology but have eroded over the last 500,000 years.
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In the latter half, science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer talked about sci-fi's history and prominent authors, as well as shared insights about the genius being portrayed in Christopher Nolan's upcoming blockbuster movie "Oppenheimer." Sawyer also explored the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his work to develop the atomic bomb in his speculative fiction novel "The Oppenheimer Alternative." With the dropping of bombs on Japan in WWII, Oppenheimer experienced a change of heart, finding the weapons to be "overkill," and transformed himself from a hawk to a dove in a short period of time, Sawyer recounted. He viewed Oppenheimer as fundamentally decent and felt that we were in safe hands when he had a say in atomic policy, but later he was stripped of his security clearance.
The brilliant Ray Bradbury had a wonderful command of language, and though he was not particularly concerned about scientific accuracy, he had an "unfettered imagination," Sawyer commented, adding that his own writing is very grounded in scientific research. He talked about meeting Isaac Asimov, the sci-fi legend who was famous for his three laws of robotics, a set of safeguards we should follow as we transition into artificial intelligence being a central part of our lives. Sawyer also touched on the work of writers Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Philip K. Dick, Marc Zicree, and Ursula K. Le Guin. For up-and-coming authors, he invited them to enter the Writers of the Future story contest, which can be an excellent opportunity to help launch a sci-fi writing career.
News segment guests: Howard Bloom, Mish Shedlock