I
do not believe that I have ever taken so long
to develop an architectural concept as with this
project. |
There
are several reasons for this reluctance to start:
the press of other work that had a more immediate
time frame; the complexity of the program; the
requirement of including and facilitating the
large number of stakeholders; the need to build
the capability of SFIA Architect-MasterBuilders
(now called TSM Architecture) before taking on a project of this scale and scope.
All these are true but not sufficient; I have
not been ready. |
In
recent weeks, however, this project - the IDEA
of it - has been pressing on the back of my mind.
It is time to hatch it and see what we have. |
October
4, 2004 Note:
I
first started to explore this project with
Jill Tarter in 2000; I wrote the comments
above just over
a year ago. Still, the IMAGE of
the project remained obscure and this
web page did not move forward. A long
incubation period indeed.
A
few moths back, CNN produced a couple of
special
programs
in
which
Jill was
quoted rather extensively. In both,
she remarked on how
difficult it is for humans to get
out of the dominate paradigm of their time;
to think “outside of ourselves.”
As I watched, the idea of this facility came
to mind. I have had part of it for a long
time. This was that there should not be a
major building on the site. Instead, there
should be a number of scattered yet connected places and
environments which provide a series of intense
experiences. What I did not have, before
hearing Jill on CNN, was the Program, the
reason why these learning stations needed
to be as I had dreamed them.
This
reason is embedded in what Jill was saying.
The experiences need to do several things.
They need to take us outside of ourselves;
at the same time, they must be a record of
what we are, what we have come from and what
our potential might be; that have to be a
statement - made to ourselves - of what we
would say to an alien life if we were to
meet it.
The
following scenario is a way of illustrating
how this “Visitor Center” might work. It
must be a profound educational experience.
It must be the summary of not only human
science but human art and life. It must inspire
us
to become what we can become. It must educate
(to lead out) us to our past and our future.
It must be a welcome to all life which we know, all life we do not, and all potential life yet not realsized in all of
its diversity. It must be a place of peace,
of reconciliation and of aspiration. A place
that shows a reality of life far beyond what
we experience today.
It
is the discipline in many traditions to make
a PRILMAGRIGE. This is true is science,
in religion and in the liberal arts. One
goes to the great Centers to learn and to
contribute. What if Hat Creek became
such a place? What if it was not
about the past - although it would honor
our evolution -
what if it was about our future? The future
we may not have if we do not think about
it and make a sustained effort to create. What would we have to do - to become -
to reach “Graduation Day” as Bucky called
it? What if we were to discover
other life, what would we want to say about
ourselves
- how
would we want to be represented? what would
we want to BE and to become?
Experiencing these
questions is what this Center needs to be.
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Five SCENARIOS of
reconciliation and hope: |
SCIENITIST
Tom,
As
we decided, when we were last
together, I have visited the
SETI site at Hat Creek in Northern
California. I did so anonymously
as a visitor not in my role
as
a
member
of the Institute. I wanted
to see what kind of science
was
being presented to the public.
As
you know, I have often been
critical of this program and
questioned its cost and contribution
to science when so many programs
you and I consider critical
are going un-funded.
I
have been skeptical that real
science
can be done while co-mingled
with such an extensive Visitor
Center so this is where I
focused my attention. Frankly,
I expected
to see “ET come home” but
actually experienced something
entirely different in nature. In
fact, I was quite moved by
my experience. It is causing me
to check many assumptions that
I have held in more than one
arena of human activity.
I
generally dislike science museums
and particularly all stripes of
“hands on” so-called learning.
From
what I had heard this is what I
expected to see. No so.
The science presented here is rock solid. It is accessable to the lay person yet not at all dumbed down. There is a smooth transition from basic level information to the most advanced and up to date thinking. In fact, I found myself learning a great deal in areas outside my specities. Actually, “presented” is too weak a term. You engage - there is nothing passive about it. And, all areas of knowlege and human experiece, are present and integrated. I was sceptical when I heard that the Humanities and Religion - from all eras - were woven into one fabric. This is the Human Enterprise - past, present and future - complied in a way which somehow makes it a shared memory. Nothing is left out. What make all of it science, including that outside how we normally category the fields of science, is the clear, objective, unvarnished look at Humanity. We have visited great hooror upon oursleves, other species and our planet. This is not to be disputed. We have also created great monuments of thought, art and social experience. When you travel through this memory of our becoming you realize that we are a yong species of great promise ina dangerous moment of our development. This realiztion is achieved without shouting, propaganda or evasion. I was not alone in this, I talked with many people and saw in in their face and mannor.
If we were ever visisted by another intellegent species, this is the first place I would want them to experience. It is all here, the narrative of our race and home. It is not presented at you. You find your own way with the environmnet as a friendly guide and support. Support is needed because frankly, the experience is overwhelming. |
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PARENT-EDUCATOR
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A
LETTER FROM THE EARTH
Fellows,
I choose to write this message
in the language of these
curious and paradoxical earth-people
in order to authentically
express the full nuance of
this gnostic species.
I
decided, when given the mission
to document this civilization
and to place humans on the
scale established by the
PRIME DIRRECTIVE,
to visit their own Center
for the
search for what they
call “extraterrestrial” life
in what they conceive of
as
the Universe.
It is not possible to frame
these concepts in our own
language as our experience
of life and universe, and
certainly time, is radically
different from theirs. I
am tempted to
describe
their view of life-potential
as narrow and provencal
but I am reminded that we
are not to succumb to the
same thing ourselves. Indeed,
there is much that is charming,
fresh and challenging in
how this species sees things
- and
much that is, frankly, appalling
from our point of view.
I
understand that writing in
their language may impose
a barrier to your understanding
as I have already used several
concepts that exits in their
idiom but not in our way
of communicating. However,
to try to understand them
is important to my mission
something that I have been
devoted to since
we first
started receiving transmissions.
As we have discovered, using
their language is the best
way
to understand
an
indigenous species and their
culture.
I
was able to travel among
them by employing a disguise.
Due to the primitive state
of their health care there
are many among them that
are confined to what is called
a wheel chair. This has enabled
me to visit while not being
hampered by size, speech
and mobility issues. They
think of me as a young child
that cannot walk or speak
but who is nevertheless mentally
active and curious. They
seem to have a special fondness
for those in these unfortunate
circumstances. In this way,
the only part of me that
has to look human is my
upper trunk, head and hands.
Although we are configured
differently in these matters
it has proven fairly easy
to appear to function this
way. A strange constraint
which required active, moment-to-moment
management of my physical
configuration,
and which
give me some empathy with
what
these
creatures
have to deal with. This is a difficult reality yet a
workable
one. |
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These
scenarios contain a certain bias in that they are
all stories of individuals that came to the Visitor
Center with a degree of skepticism and left with
an expanded view of themselves, the human race and
the possibilities of other life. I do not wish to
imply that I think that this coming-in attitude on
the part of our writers represents the majority
case
or that, in any way, the purpose of the Center is
propaganda to promote the SETI agenda -
just the opposite in fact. These “cases” were used
for literary purposes;
the “conflicts” described are devises to dramatize
the elements that I believe to most essential to
the
concept.
And while
I do not believe that the SETI program is
at conflict to the degree that a singular reading
of the scenarios
would imply, the underlying issues these stories
bring up are certainly major points of controversy
in our
society
today. The fact that the Visitor Center experience
can be inspiring, present a comprehensive viewpoint
of life’s potential and help visitors, no matter
their own world-view, find
themselves in the larger
story of humankind is the
opportunity this project posses. In today’s environment
of manufactured controversy and managed information
I also have to state that my alien writer scenario
is not
making
a comment
on
visitations
- or not - from other intelligent life forms. Again,
it is a literary technique to help us to get out
of ourselves and see our civilization from another
perspective
than just from inside of it. This is consistent with
the proposed
THEME of the Center’s Program. Besides,
in order to get the permission to publish the letter,
I had
to promise not to disclose the star system from which
our writer came. Any inquiries seeking this information
will be ignored. |
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The
PROGRAM is clear: There are few places on
this planet that are truly neutral . By neural I
do not mean without agenda and passion. By Neutral
I mean objective. By objective I do not
mean cold and dispassionate. By passionate I
do not mean crazy and without reason. By reason I
do not mean that the universe can be reduced to a
mere logical statement. Passionate to me means the
investment of everything you are. Reason,
to me, means a reason-able approach to life.
The PROGRAM is to provide experiences that
are the SUM of what to be HUMAN is
about; what has been achieved; what we have failed to achieve; what what we have longed for;
how we
can relate to all life; what we can become. |
This
is a PLACE that must be heuristic. There
has to be a near infinite number of mind-like paths through
it depending on the choices each individual makes
as they travel
the SETI landscape. This is a physical algorithm
of life itself. Each decision leading to an number
of options and restraints and undisclosed opportunities
and risks. |
The IMAGERY is
clear: as we seek life other than ourselves we find
ourselves. |
The PROCESS is
clear: this is a physical manifestation of the Glass
Bead Game - every day it is played differently.
This play is documented and each play changes the
experience
itself. It even, over time, changes the physical
buildings built into and on the landscape. It becomes
the history of those who come to dream and to explore.
It is
an ALIEN landscape only in that it is one
that we have not yet accepted as our own. By experiencing
it, we see ourselves in a new way. We understand.
We shift our notion of what is important. We learn
to believe in what we can do - actually do.
The content is the best we have thought and tested.
It is open source so it is the reflection of all
- individual genius and GroupGenius. It evolves yet
it seeks a timeless core. |
The
SETI site is an ARTIFACT. It is embedded knowledge.
It is human Armature. “visitors” become
explorers - they discover their heritage, they dream
new dreams, they lay aside petty differences, they
embrace the universal, they become more human. They
learn to seek the Temple in Humankind. A
place like this has not been built on Planet Earth
for centuries. |
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A R C H I T E C T U R A L
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I M P L I C A T I O N S |
This
“building” will be a distributed structure. The structure
will be so integrated into the landscape that where
nature and human artifact each begin and end will
be subtitle and ambiguous. The “rooms” will be nodes
in this distributed structure forming a synapse like
environment and experience. There will be no single way though this “mind map.” And, as many of the exhibits and interactive experiences will change as a result of visitors participation, it will be impossible for anyone to have the same experience by returning. In reality, this is never possible. In this case, the change will be enough and of such a kind that it will be clear that this is so. This experience of non repeatable experience is, in fact, one of the major paradigm sifting aspects of the place. |
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