Going feral

While I was still working in the distribution warehouse next door, I tended the front yard garden for pleasure and as immediate therapy. Digging my hands into the soil, watching the variety of plants flowering, growing and attracting bees helped me to cope with a boss who seemed to miss the good old times of feudalism. Gardening combines the pleasures of immediate and delayed gratification. Picking a tomato or passion fruit, munching on some fresh parsley, mint or pineapple sage gives a hit of pleasure straight away, establishing some new plant in the mixture and waiting for it to thrive works on delayed gratification.

Pottering about the front yard also provided a great opportunity to get in touch with the neighbourhood, invite them to help themselves to some fresh produce, and have a friendly yarn about what else goes on in the unmarked yet busy place. I intended to create an appealing space, mainly to balance the never ending disorganised chaos which still typifies the remainder of the space.

After all, the company hiding in this massive warehouse markets itself as sustainable operation, engaged in saving the planet and community building. So converting a trashy bit of green strip into a lovely, thriving patch of greenery felt like the right thing to do. Having no pet myself, and believing the marketing spiel kept me on the ball creating a good first impression for visitors fitting the bill of the way the company, or rather its founder and boss, present themselves.

The neighbourhood undergoes quite some massive changes due to gentrification, but most people I got to know while living here where those in for the long haul. I sure noticed some faces which moved into some of the new developments which sprung up lately, yet most of those engaging as neighbours might stay for longer than me. Not only did I quit working next door, our house will be sold soon which means I have to move on. That's another story, which hopefully will have a happy ending.

What a sight

Gardens need tending, even if they have been set up with some permaculture ideas. The mild climate means that any spot which can grow something will be taken over by abundant weeds floating around. The rosemary, which survived probably already for a decade in the front yard. might need no help surviving, but besides this, things go pretty wild. The ivy growing along the fence to the neighbouring property will soon shade out everything beneath it, the passion flower is about to take over the pineapple sage, the ground covering succulent certainly stopped the comfrey from brandishing the abundance of purple flowers which attracted many bees last year.

While the patch isn't that big, it would take probably a day or two of pruning, weeding and mulching to get it back into a presentable and pleasant state. Of course, without caring about the more thirsty plants, a single intervention would probably just help for a month or so, but then, my time here is limited. And it seems like my former boss cares more about his social media image than the impression his place of business gives.

Feral and uncared

My offer to improve the first impression about his space were declined, mainly because of a ridiculous grief over my house mates dislike about the frequent use of the warehouse as entertainment place. A single one star review of his business sparked a conflict which nearly led to mutual intervention orders. While I did my best to remain neutral, I'm now blamed not for bringing my housos in line with his demands, and have to suffer from minor irrelevant consequences of his wrath.

The care about the real life impressions of a feral front yard reflects his care about the "community" he's trying to build. Being present and approachable in front of the warehouse meant that neighbours approached me, but not everybody in earshot of his enterprise is willing to show their dismay about the noise pollution coming from his space. At least not in person. After all, it takes some courage to rock up in the middle of a night to tell a bunch of pissed people that you'd like to have some peace and quiet late at night.

My housemate approached the ongoing noise pollution in a reasonable way, trying to engage the people in a face to face conversation and asking to tone it down. After some unpleasant (and later quite intimidating) responses, she decided to leave a one star rating with the comment: "Would give zero stars if possible." That's when things started to escalate, luckily not to the level of physical violence.

As a single review is obviously capable of single-handedly bringing down an entire business, my former boss knocked fiercer than police on our door, and took about a minute to lose his shit, demanding to remove this review, or else... We managed to ask him to leave and take his temper tantrum with him. As response, he used the A-board, often illegally (without council permit) placed on the pavement, to leave a message: "My neighbour doesn't like music and writes negative reviews on social media. He now gets a concert everyday until he deletes his review. Requests? @nameomittedcozYoucanresearchifyouwantto"

That happened about a month ago, and while I had some relatively normal conversations with him in the meantime, I noticed the grudge he still held today when offering some gardening services. I was surprised, mainly because I had no idea about the other social media stuff which happened since then. He complained bitterly on facebook about the uptight neighbours trying to limit his "right to party" whenever he wants to, and begged his abundant fb followers to leave positive reviews of his business.

I admit, as immediate neighbour I got sometimes annoyed by the random party noises coming from next door, and even while still working there, I sometimes called/texted asking to tone the noise down. In real life conversation, I suggested sound-proofing, as I was certain that our house couldn't be the only one affected. Which seemed an outrageous suggestion, because "all the neighbours love him, just our house causes trouble".

So when I checked out the google reviews again today, I couldn't help but revel in a bit of schadenfreude. When my housemate left her review, the company had maybe a dozen reviews, the oldest from 2 years ago. When I was working there, I served maybe about 100 people in person, dealing with 1,000s of mail orders. Most people didn't bother with a review, and I guess most people didn't check it to decide whether they would come or not.

Now it's a whopping 54 reviews, not even half as much as a Cafe in the same street which opened a couple of years ago. Unsurprisingly, most of them happened about a month ago, some of them explicitly referring about the nasty neighbours. Niall wrote: "Ignore all these 1 star reviews! **** **** ***** is the best! These immature bully boy tactics because a disgruntled man-baby doesn’t like live music! Wow! Support local, listen to loud music! And number 1 allways love! Not hate!" While he might have checked in this year, I haven't seen him in the neighbourhood for a long time, so I guess his, and his girl friends review reflect facebook solidarity.

Another item of this kind of solidarity: "These guys ran a fundraiser for my friends at their warehouse, and now the neighbour is getting their friends to write fake reviews? I rate that 0 out of 5, and the good people at **** **** 5 out of 5." Hmm. If I find someone offering their space for free to raise funds for a theme camp for a festival (remember, parties are totally sustainable and the best way to change the world for the better), and probably throws some free drinks in the mix, I would absolutely vouch for him.

As mentioned, part of the image of social engagement, and image building works out on social media. "Amazing ********. Wonderful social events. Proprietor is a real environmental activist and a generous kind-hearted gregarious human being" I don't know whether this poster is aware that the warehouse is in a residential area, without liquor license and not classified as entertainment venue. Many of the former, quite fast changing employees might disagree with "kind-hearted", but then, I'm biased.

"Social events" often need a lubricant, and bribing with free booze works like a charm. Yet even pubs are well aware that it's better to have their drunken patronage indoors after 10pm. Well, that doesn't apply to this warehouse, and so unwillingly listening to highly intellectual conversations of pretty pissed people often continued long after midnight.

Another commenter also has nothing but praises: "Great tasting ******** made ethically; solar powered and empty bottles can returned to place of purchase and will be reused.
Be dubious of negative reviews, as they may have ulterior motives."

While the bottles were indeed (illegally) reused up until about two or three years ago, this practice has stopped. Unlike the marketing for it. One of the reasons I stopped working in that place was the obvious discrepancy between what's on the label and what actually happens. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated the maverick approach to wash and reuse bottles, and private customers might still get a refund. But just like the front yard, the ethics have gone a bit feral.

Dying and disrespected

So let's have a look at the "ulterior motives" for negative reviews. In my naive view, community literally begins next door, in your immediate neighbourhood. Online communities, just like party communities, seem a bit vapid to me. They might sometimes offer similar benefits like real life communities. I'm totally willing to believe that, despite not having experienced it. Being the old fart I am, I dearly miss the social glue I experienced before the rise of mobile phones and social media.

What do actual neighbours of this company say? "Deplorable people who disturb the peace of neighbours due to “bad comments”. Don’t know how old the people who operate the place are but they need to grow up and not create a public nuisance of themselves in the neighbourhood". This surely sounds like someone having read the sign mentioned earlier. "Not very nice humans operating a business, you need to be able to work with the community not against it." Olivia certainly seems to have doubts about the "community building" aspect of this business.

Paul writes plain and simple "Respect your neighbors." Which just sounds to me like he lives close enough to have an opinion about the things happening in the warehouse. Greg leaves no doubt that he lives close to the place where beautiful social events happen. "About time people spoke up about these idiots, I have two young kids and live within ear shot of that place and for years we have had to listen to foul language and vile and degrading comments made to other people coming from that place, all while hiding inside that building. Don't know whether they have the mind set of a bunch of three year old's or if they really are a bit simple, most people in the area despise them and ignore/avoid them, there have been countless complaints made to both council and police about them over the years, sooner those supremacist are gone the better." (emphasis added by me)

I haven't met Greg, probably because he might associate me with the warehouse, and therefor ignores/avoids/despises me. No hard feelings, especially as he voices something I tried to communicate to my former boss for some years, without any success. However, it seems like even some random visitors have some doubts about the loving, beautiful people working in that warehouse... Stu writes: "Really friendly people as long as your not Black Asian or gay" and gets immediately backed up by Sally: "Well put Stu, I have heard some of the most derogatory comments directed at people coming from that place"

Just like the comfrey in the corner of the front yard, I guess I'm burned in the neighbourhood. I was visible a lot while I was working in the warehouse, tending for the front yard on a near daily basis. Most likely I will be associated with the nuisance it caused over the years to those "living within ear shot of that place". This attempt to settle down and engage with my neighbours didn't work out. Then again, I will have to move out soon anyway, without even knowing whether my strange situation will allow me to find a roof over my head at all.

The uncertainty about my future does my head in. I learned to appreciate gardening, hanging out with our shared pet, becoming local. I feel as connected to this place as I felt to the place I grew up in. I can only hope not to get as feral as the front yard garden I set up.

PTSD

It's occupy again. I came across some message of social media, got updated on twitter and hooked again in tuning into tweets and feeds from a different 'corner' of our planet. This time, not the US went into the spotlight, but Europe. In Frankfurt the European Central Bank opened its new head quarters which united many Europeans to air their dissent about the wave of austerity sweeping over Europe.

I used to live in Frankfurt, and saw many familiar views in the images and streams I came across. I even used to work for the ECB, walking over red carpet into the opera house in the summer of 1998 when its birth was celebrated. I don't expect my signature to have remained in the guest book, but you'll never know.

When Occupy Wallstreet swept like a virus around the globe, it happened in Melbourne as well as in Frankfurt, and many hundred of other cities. My friends back in Frankfurt weren't too impressed by what happened then, and like, everywhere else, the occupy movement fizzled away.

Or just went into some sort of metamorphosis. Some people continued to provide community support in various ways, continued in activism for other causes, joined cooperatives, started growing food and, of course, some spend endless time licking their wound to keep them fresh.

The major cause of misery, an economic system designed to feed the rich and starve the poor, increased its potency to cause havoc among communities and mother nature. International institutions like the ECB and the ESM (European Stability Mechanism), not to mention IMF, World Bank disempower local governments to become pawns of a monetary aristocracy.

The human family, with 7 billions or even more members, deserves a better organisation of society than one which allows anyone to starve despite the abundance the planet has to offer. All forms of government have been invented by humans. We can invent something which serves everyone. Anything less doesn't make any sense.

Liebeskummer

Our story was too good to be true -

if only I could stop loving you!

This torturing pain could go away

and my life would again seem okay.

You brought happiness back into my life,

I'd happily have chosen you as my wife.

I had millions of things for you to give,

'cos you gave me millions of reasons to live.

Now my heart feels empty and sad,

missing the special connection we had.

I'm way to numb to start to cry

I just know that I'm ready to die.

Our story was meant to last,

can't believe it ended so fast.

Interim

There's some shadows of the past

which seem to want to last,

fuelling again the futile fight

for what's wrong and what's right.

The straight gait becomes a sway,

won't those shadows go away?

Won't there be eternal laughter

of being happily ever after?

One step forward, two steps back -

is it really the right kind of track?

For as long as you follow the flow

your intuition guides you where to go.

Yet for each thing you've been shown

another million things remain unknown.

Querencia

Prelude

I'm playing the game of chance,

wanting my life to advance.

I had enough of luck's wrath

Just want to peacefully walk the path.

I had my fair share of the endless fight

about what's wrong & what's right

I can no longer stay in solitude

After steady increase of amplitude.

I see the tree tremble and shake,

in the game of give and take.

Deeply rooted to Gaia's core

That what I want of some more.

Yet it seem's like my life's predicament

is to remain in perpetual movement. 

Querencia

It seemed like coincidence

a random meeting of souls,

sharing o so many goals,

It turned into a cosmic dance.

Two hearts melting together

each of us of their own kind

thinking together as one mind

touch as light as a feather.

A common love of geometry

which shapes the universe

through which we traverse

brought our dreams into reality.

We were meant for each other,

For once, I stopped to bother.

On the brink

The middle of the solar year has just gone, winter solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, summer solstice in the Northern. 2012, the year of many apocalyptic prophecies and even more apocalyptic policies. The empire increases its effort to quench human spirit and enslave the majority of the population.

A glimpse of hope emerged last year with Occupy Wall Street and its many memetic offspring. More and more people world wide not only liberated themselves from the idea that 'government cares for all', but also started caring for each other and get organised.

The wrath of the Empire came fast and vile, filled prisons and thus lined the pockets of the private prison industry like Serco or Wackenhut. The disneyfied news media reported diligently about yet another futile violent protest, elegantly omitting any useful information.

Hundred thousands protest in Mexico against a stolen election, similar numbers protest in Spain against being enslaved to pay for some gambling bankers debt. Japan rises against the use of nuclear power with hundred thousands. Greeks hardly stayed calm since the IMF and Germany took their country over. The middle East is still boiling, hotter than ever.

The traces of the implementation of the New World Order are plenty and wide spread. Without going too far back into conspiratorial history, IMF, WTO and World Bank might be the governance to implement the Agenda 21, an official plan to save the planet.

Cool, not only is there some understanding that this planet needs saving, there's even a masterplan for it. Hold your horses, not everything might be as attractive as it seems in first place. 'Saving the planet from environmental destruction' is only the sales point of a plan that identifies mankind as biggest obstacle towards a 'sustainable planet'.

I admit, I want to save the planet. Not singlehandedly, as mythical hero archetype, rather in cooperation with like-minded people. I don't believe in the Messiah myth, which keeps our fixation to leaders alive. Self-organising groups of people have shaped the face of this planet, and this eternal principle of (human) life cannot be broken.

Yet a weird game determines the amount of resources available to any specific group of people on this planet. Since the invention of the magic scheme called 'legislation' a large part of the global population is forcefully put under its evil spell. The historic empires eradicated custodians of their lands, and replaced them with lesser wizards with the responsibility to maintain the magic spell of law.

Domestication of conquered people followed usually similar patterns, if they survived at all. Their cultural identity was subverted to subdue to the rules of the conqueror, from total ban to replacing just the top of the hierarchy.

The latest threat to the hierarchy comes ostensibly from machines. The creation myth of most contemporary societies portraits strict hierarchy as a given, and inevitable. Somebody's got to do the nasty job of bossing the rest around, and many societies regard this as a family affair. Soon, we can retire them, and have some machines bossing mankind around.

It's all for the best of all. My synapses scream and sigh simultaneously while writing something so wickedly Orwellian. While science still largely shies away from the exploration of consciousness, and has only ill-defined concepts of 'intelligence', Artificial Intelligence will blow us away. Or a comet. Or an alien attack. Or global warming. Or the sun exploding. Or the Oil Crisis. Or the Food Crisis. Or the Water Crisis.

When some people think about the future, they often see their biggest fears magnified. While contemplating plans about my individual future these 'globally accepted threats' want some attention. But they don't get it in their designed ways. I can choose whether to subscribe to the idea of humans as helpless, inferior beings needing a guiding hand for anything or whether to accept the challenge of free will.

Depending on the circumstances, we have been programmed to prefer everything 'just like it is', including a self-perception as unimportant and replaceable cog in a much, much larger wheel. Many lack the imagination required to consider a world without the big wheel government as desirable. Media provides us with a plethora of dystopian memes, which clutter our ideas about a potential future.

Assuming that most people on this planet are harmless, a cooperative society emerges easily. The biggest mistake in perceiving a future society lies in taking every bit of the now and converting it into a better working equivalent. Most of the jobs done today are entirely redundant, to keep people busy and reinforce their conditioning on a daily basis.

One essential area for human survival has already largely moved into the hands of the corporate Empire: food. Other omnivores on this planet require about twenty hours per week caring about food, it makes us look quite stupid in comparison if we aim for 40 hours a week. At least in most industrialised countries, homelessness reflects just economic inequality, not a scarcity of resources.

Although a lot of damage to the environment needs active repairing/healing, in average we would do much less in terms of 'job'. If essentials like water, electricity, heating, shelter, communication infrastructure come for free (and there is no compelling reason why it can't be so), the jobs for 'competing for the best offer in these services' go away.

We have developed more than enough technology and products to ensure a comfortable life for every human being on this planet. As of yet, this comfortable life would hardly be sustainable, as most economic processes have been optimised for 'profit', while neglecting efficient (economic) solutions. Transforming the industries we need and want as mankind towards sustainability, that means conscious of the interdependence of mankind to this ecosphere we call planet Earth, sounds like an insurmountable task.

Yet since the idea of ecology became more popular in the 70s of the last century, it raised already the general awareness about environmental concerns, and led to some positive steps towards sustainability. However, this environmental awareness gets now hijacked by the proponents of the Agenda 21, which want to save the ecosystem by culling the majority of humans.

The future remains unpredictable, although some consequences of maintaining the current status quo become very apparent. Especially the contamination with radioactivity, in combination with the exposure to dangerous chemicals erodes life expectation and general health, not only in humans, but in the entire chain of life.

Liberating this planet from its parasitic leadership only begins the next step of evolution. A memetic shift needs to prepare the majority of people not to panic once the emperors without clothes have gone.

Unacyclist

I did many things as hobby in my lifetime, yet unicycling is something to last. Most urban environments offer sufficiently levelled surfaces, it's a bit faster than walking, much more fun though, and it reminds me of my work as Alexander Technique teacher in a mindful and non-intellectual way.

I also love the reaction of people I encounter along my cruises. Today's ride on a sunny autumn day was action-packed like never before, with some big surprises along the way. At the moment, quite a lot of the bike paths I usually take are blocked off, finding a safe route into the CBD can be quite challenging.

Off peak hours, Lygon Street doesn't scare me much, as long as the cars stay on their lanes the parked cars offer enough space for a slow moving unicycle. Bikes overtake me a lot, and while I soaked in the sunny afternoon, a MAMIL (middle-aged men in lycra) overtook me on his racing bike. He swerved over the tram tracks, and threaded his front wheel into the tracks on the way back. Ouch.

In Dr ABC fashion, while some helper guarded the cyclists from traffic, I moved his bike out of the way, before helping the guy to the side of the road. Assuring he was fine, besides some bruises, I cycled on. At the next set of traffic lights, someone had ripped the metal casing for the button open, when I started my index finger hooked into the sharp end and cut it.

Slightly bigger than a needle prick, the wound bled a bit. When I found something to wrap around the finger, I swerved a bit to the 'wrong side' of the bike track, which was greeted by another MAMIL with an 'Fuckwit!' outcry.

At the end of this section of the bike path, a school class was gathered next to it, spotting me early and spreading excitement. "You're awesome! I saw you yesterday! A unicycle!" And when I finally passed next to them, a round of applause accompanied me. After bowing and thanking it was hard to wipe the smile off my face.

The cruise along Royal Parade and the uni campus went smoothly, yet I kept my guard up for a potential encounter with Melbourne Bike Patrol. The center piece of the most liveable city of the world is currently a nasty construction site, with most of the pavement fenced off for a tight pedestrian squeeze. So unlike in the good old days (last December), when there was hardly any car traffic from the State Library down to Flinders Street Station, I had push along the pavement, and then switching to the road whenever possible.

Finally, on the block of Melbourne City Hall, I spotted two blue-shirted bike patrollers on the other side of the road. I continued my ride, swerved onto the pavement to walk over the pedestrian crossing, when I heard my name. "L, can we talk to you for a moment?"

It was the same constable that gave me last fine, however, his approach was this time much friendlier. He told me that a letter is on the way to me, revoking the fine. It become obvious that they had researched the current road code, and wanted to stop any further processing. More importantly, it seemed as if now the entire bike patrol knew about the lack of compulsory helmets for unicycle. At the next block of Swanston Street, one patroller I hadn't seen before, addressed me by name to spread the good news.

I still don't know how happy I can be about the change of events. Even the short talks I had indicated how much the police knows now about me, and at least the Unacycling incidents. Although I get myself prepared to stand my case in court, I don't insist on turning this into a hilarious spectacle.

Isolation

Time has come to a halt,

and I feel really old.

My mind keeps racing,

and needs some pacing.

I crave for normality,

which means insanity,

all twisting and turning

won't stop that yearning.

Everything is alright,

no end is in sight,

I got it all wrong,

and just move along.

O graceful desire

please relight my fire!

Intelligent life in the universe



Sometimes, life seems like a never-ending puzzle, with millions of pieces, ever changing and never completing. The missing pieces of the puzzle only open up the next level of experience, and hardly ever lead to insights into tidbits of truth worth memorising in stone.

Yet, some artefacts made of stone survived millennia to tell us about the human past. Carving stone takes more time, skill and effort than writing a blog entry, yet in comparison to the latter, has proven more reliable to survive the changing tides of human evolution.

Our current civilisation, emerged and shaped by the childhood of humanity, might leave its legacy with the Georgia Guidestones, lots of plastic and radioactivity. The net as living, collective historian of the evolution of mankind might not survive as long as the Sphinx or smaller morsels of information cast in stone.

The collective mind of today seems rather insane - not hopelessly and incurably insane, yet more and more dangerously insane. Human curiosity doesn't stop to ask about its origin, its heritage. The myth provided by the consensual reality of (western) societies might contribute to this collective confusion.

Science currently dominates the myth making game in the Western World, yet the revolutions in scientific thinking of the 20st century haven't been transferred into the common meme pool. Let's shortly wrap the scientific narrative about the origin of man.

About 14 billion years the Big Bang happened, with really strange things happening in the very first few moments (a second or so), until all matter drifted away from each other, shaping stars, planets, galaxies and so on. The chemical elements we know of were created by fusing hydrogene, stars breed all the stuff we see around us. Due to our metabolism every atom in our body will be replaced within about seven years, we are literally made of star dust.

According to contemporary scientific belief, chemical 'life' differs drastically from human life (and I totally agree). However, the clay humans animate, has a long story attached to it, actually an extra-terrestial story. It might blunt Occam's razor a bit to prefer the complex cosmology with Big Bang and all, and disregard God's six day job of creating the universe 6000 years ago, but then, I'm convinced by the evidence presented in favour of this ancient, maybe even rusty universe.

Wikipedia states the age of our planet as four and half billion years, so each and every atom found on this planet had spend already billions of years floating though space before ending up in human bodies, cars, computers and pizza. Earth started off very hot-tempered, a bubbly metal core spew various elements onto a slowly solidifying crust.

During this time, this planet got hit by a large celestial object, and lost some of its mass to give birth to the moon. The continuing volcanic activity build the foundation for an atmosphere, the impact of other objects made of ice most likely contributed to the abundance of water we still enjoy today.

When life started exactly remains unknown, somewhere between 2.5 and 4 billion years ago. It developed in the ocean surrounding Pangaea, the massive single continent that broke up about 250 million years ago. Humans or their ancestors missed out on this super-continent, and made their appearance between 1.5 to 6 million years ago. For at least a million years or so, hairless, upright walking members of human family know how to control fire, inventing their own ways to transform energy.

Homo sapiens sapiens, the name given to the current evolutionary phenotype of time-binding humans, exists for about 200,000 years, according to Wikipedia 'history proper' began about 8000 years ago in the region known as 'Middle East'. My head buzzes with all the numbers, especially when I attempt to bring our 'knowledge' about the universe and mankind into a consistent picture.

We distinguish different species by their genetic outfit, and all humans share a similar DNA structure. Homo sapiens sapiens has shared this planet with other human species, another bit of evidence pointing to evolution as law of nature. The methods to look back into time we have at the moment have limits, as organic material deteriorates usually very fast.

Cultural forms to transmit historical information let us stitch back a sketchy picture of something like the last two millennia, yet merely a couple of hundred years with more reliability and credibility. Although the principle of 'scientific objectivity' never dominated among any documented society, we assume that historic scribes did exactly act like this, and reported 'truthfully' about the events around them.

I tend to believe that signal/noise ratio of 'historical' information goes along a Bell-curve, and any source needs a healthy dose of skepticism. Veracity seems of little importance in mass media reporting, and facts rarely make headlines. The field of history represent rather a story collecting than a fact detecting human endeavour. The diversity of explanations around the events of September 11 2001 typifies the amount of story-telling emerging after an cataclysmic event.

We can hardly claim to know for sure what happened in the last ten years, so speculations about events spanning hundreds or even billions of years back can't be considered as facts. Written history, the way we understand it in 2011, only captures a tiny aspect of the adaptions of evolution the human race experienced so far. Yet any group of people has oral traditions telling about their origins.

Many of these creation myths vanished from memepool, many others survived in different shape and forms. As we 'know' the true story, Big Bang and all, studying those old stories can't provide any more useful parts connecting to the puzzle of human existence. All this talking about Gods obviously indicates a naive, pre-civilised concept of reality.

Yet some facts from the past remain unexplained. Many civilisation mastered technology in ways we can't explain or recreate with today's methods. The pyramids demonstrate amazing engineering skills thousands of years before the advent of the computer, which nowadays assists the construction of awe-inspiring mega-structures.

One explanation given for some marvels of the past includes extraterrestrial visitors. Do aliens exist?

I don't know. Yet many stories about aliens exist, and some of them quite old. A friend made me curious by talking repeatedly about UFOs, and so I went on a quest to find out more. I was told an eyewitness account of a sighting, and had a distant sighting myself some time later, but hadn't bothered investigating this phenomenon in the collective story pool of the WWW.

From a scientific point of view, the existence of life outside our tiny planet has a high probability. Astronomers have begun identifying solar systems with planets, and the sheer number of the billions of galaxies with billions of stars indicate how little we really know about our universe. We love the metaphor of the needle in haystake, yet the needle Gaia hides in the haystake Milkyway, which makes finding life elsewhere tricky.

Contemporary science has little ideas how to explain interplanetary travel, and shows little interest in considering visits from outer space. The level of xenophobia seems rampant in the 21st century, and if someone won't open their heart to an 'alien' member of their own species, they would hardly welcome visitors from other planets.

And when in doubt, ask Hollywood. The majority of movies warns about dangerous aliens, so we better avoid hoping for their arrival. Just like the real existing US empire they will invade this planet mercilessly to destroy infrastructure, rob resources and enslave us. Hmm, sounds like the evil aliens have already won the battle, but let's rewind for a second.

Humanity hardly tipped its toes into the ocean of the Milky Way, so swimming like a dolphin in it to master interplanetary travel requires some advanced technology. Mankind brought much suffering among itself by using technology for military purposes. The childhood of humanity looks cruel, bloody, savage from a conscious point of view. Technology fuelled the game of war, trying to establish fear into the nature of the human race.

Anyway, it's too late to be afraid, it seems like the aliens have already reached us. Unless they control the  33 bloodlines running the economic matrix of this planet, they seem to be friendly. Otherwise, the gap in technology should have seen this planet obliterated easily, according to Buzz Aldrin.

More thoughts on this topic will come. Wouldn't it be a great PR stunt if some UFOs hovered over the royal wedding today? A bigger life audience can hardly be reached soon....