Kairos:
The Truth is Out There(Coyner's comment: I came across this via a ZDNet e-mail newsletter that lined me to their web site that offered a net televised interview with Joseph Firmage at the following URL: http://www.zdnet.com/zdtv/siliconspin/features/story/0,3725,2195357,00.html
Firmage held his own pretty well as he was grilled by a panel of journalists. Intrigued, I downloaded and read his book. Draw your own conclusions but I definitely think the book is definitely worth the read. The below is the e-mail letter that is generated to all first-time viewers of his web site.)Hello friend,
My name is Joseph P. Firmage. You are receiving this message because you have visited my Internet book site at www.TheWordIsTruth.org.
Broadcast messages from me will not be frequent, so don't worry about me cluttering up your mailbox.
Following this brief introduction, I have provided below a URL which will direct you to an "editor's cut" condensed edition of my book, The Truth, published on November 25th, 1998. This condensed edition is first available only in a Microsoft Word 97 file format, other formats will be added later. A hardback version of the complete book as it stands will become available later this year. I understand and appreciate that it is impossible for many of you to allocate enough time to read a several hundred page book, particularly online, so I have taken the time to provide a proper summary of its contents and claims. I've spent millions of dollars to communicate this information at no cost to you, so it is not asking much to take a quiet moment and at the very least read this shortened version. I don't ask that you believe, just that you read and consider.
The Truth represents a rather large hypothesis, whose overall conclusion has enormous implications for every single human on Earth. I have written the book from the perspective of a generalist, with the collaboration of many well-respected specialists. The specialization in which I have been most deeply educated is computer science, and more recently, the Internet economy. But that's only the latest step in my particular journey.
It started from a passion for the stars, sparked by wondrous science fiction shown throughout my youth. It grew into a commitment to science, and physics in particular. The desire to comprehend the deepest functions and meaning of physics evolved into a study of scientific anomalies - always where fundamental new discoveries emerge. Unfortunately, 5-10 years ago, such anomalies found no root in a rational explanatory hypothesis, and therefore the underlying observations have been rejected by science. Frustrated, I left the domain years ago to concentrate exclusively on a growing involvement in computing and communications and various related enterprises.
Sparked again 14 months ago by one of the most remarkable events in my life to date, I returned to these domains to study more recent developments, now aided by the communications reach of the Internet. I found extremely well-respected scientists whose remarkable new theories began to clearly explain the anomalies. The pieces of those old puzzles then began to assemble into a majestic picture, motivating me to return attention to studying a broad cross-section of works as a generalist. Adding fuel to the fire is a growing understanding that the future of our biosphere and our civilization is at risk and depends in fundamental ways upon the types of discoveries I discuss on the book.
Why are generalists useful to the world? Because we predict the future for the whole of civilization, not simply a single branch of study. As within any field of specialists, many generalists are frequently wrong and many generalists are frequently right. I've chosen to put forth a testable hypothesis which is concisely stated in 17 phrases. The details underneath these phrases are each important, but more important is the coherence of the overall pattern. It is certain that several of the details in a work of this scale are incorrect. But the plausibility of the overall hypothesis requires only that there is good evidence for each primary logical step.
Naturally, there should be a lot of evidence supporting each logical step in order to make the assertions I am making. I believe such evidence is now in print, across my book and in those books referenced by me.
You might think that I am distraught over wild exaggerations in the press and the resulting possibility of damage to my credibility and career, given my choice to communicate this information so publicly. Indeed, though I am no longer with the firm, I have helped to create a $2+ billion dollar enterprise (USWeb) at the pinnacle of the Internet communications revolution just before the dawn of the new millennium. It's a great place and time to build a career. But, actually, I am more excited than ever before in my life, despite the frightening challenges we all face that I describe below. What I have put together is quality information, I have studied it for over a decade, and its implications are an order of magnitude more fundamental than you have imagined. The implications fire the imagination.
This book simply does not fit into the class of the fringe or fantasy. I do not mean to diminish the works of others who've tackled this subject matter, for I have built my hypothesis in part upon their preliminary research into a phenomenon almost completely foreign to open science. But whatever the ultimate truth may turn out to be, it will have to explain all of the subjects addressed in this book, for everything in this book observes significant phenomenon that are or have actually occurred. I am not aware of an alternative theory that connects each of these large pieces. One thing is certain: there is a human saga, and we must decipher every major clue discussed in this book to understand it.
Even granting this, you may ask why I should bother doing this. Why should I not keep this to myself, and pursue whatever passions I have as a private study?
Why? Because you are my brothers and sisters in a sense more meaningful than the cultural frameworks we use to separate ourselves into groups: we are all part of the race of homo sapiens beings, a fragile yet ancient creation just now waking up to its potential. I care about you, and I am deeply concerned for our shared long term future, the legacy we shall leave. We are destroying our children, our culture, even the ancient biosphere that made us, as we encourage a mindlessly uncontrolled praise of wealth. The Earth has a water cycle and a carbon cycle. It must have a profit cycle. And it will, even if it becomes so disfunctional as to fail humanity, before returning to health. As the great scientist Carl Sagan long maintained, the discovery of extraterrestrial life will ultimately become the single greatest unifying force ever for humanity. We will need that kind of unity to overcome the next century's challenges.
Meanwhile, the Cosmos beckons us, as if to say "demonstrate the judgment to deserve access to the heavens".
In this story, the CEO in me has become a human being, the scientist has turned from a pessimist to an optimist, the skeptic has opened his mind, and the spirit in everything I have sensed with clarity. Whether you agree with my conclusions or not, if a critical number of us can cross similar thresholds in our pursuit of truth, in whatever direction it may lead each of us, a genuine transformation of our society will occur.
Welcome to The Truth, http://www.TheWordIsTruth.org/TheTruth.doc, a story that will go on forever. Print this out, it's about 240 pages long. Take it to a quiet place, and read it through at one time. If you find it as fascinating as I do, please forward this message to as many people as you can. My primary objective is to spread this knowledge as far as possible. We can all agree to let the history books determine whether my hypothesis is correct.
The complete book, and a recently started personal journal that will track its evolution, can be found at www.TheWordIsTruth.org.
And to my brilliant co-authors, thank you again.
JOSEPH P. FIRMAGE
INTERNATIONAL SPACE SCIENCES ORGANIZATION
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February 1, 1999 Return to ourPage