08/10/2003
Hello again folks. Today I am going to attempt to give you the rest of the story of my recruitment by the aliens. But I reckon I might need a third instalment.
My friend and unwitting recruiter Andrew had been conscripted into buying for me a subscription to a regular postal newsletter which mostly consisted of cultural-related science fiction stories, astronomy, and philosophically minded articles about mankind and its place in the universe. From this point onwards, a select few others and I were being conditioned for life up here with the aliens, with one – eventually me – to be finally selected. Obviously, the object was not to mould us into something else – what would be the point of having me here if I was to be merely the product of a kind of taming process? The newsletter always consisted of a large brown envelope of A4 paper with articles printed out using a normal PC printer – usually about 40 stapled pages. I understand a small printing company who received copy and payment by wire did the necessary photocopying and posting. The reading matter I initially received was a mixture of previously published and original essays. My alien friends wrote many of these, if not all of them, especially for us.
Connected with the newsletter was an Internet forum on which there were nearly a hundred regulars. Of these, I think about a dozen were other candidates like me; the rest were invented characters. Obviously at this point I had no idea about all of this. I am told that each simulated member of the group was actually a projection of the Mind of an artificial intelligence already running some task up here but also asked to commit a (according to Jefry: vanishingly) small amount of its capacity to this assignment. Jefry has now said to me that he disapproves of the term “artificial intelligence” on the grounds that it would be misleading to most people reading this. He says that although the Minds are created by unnatural methods using material that is not entirely organic, they are treated as living, sentient beings with all the rights and privileges that a naturally born and intelligent creature would receive – despite many Minds not having a pre-defined physical form to speak of. Hence the capital “M” I have now began to use in the name “Mind”. Perhaps it is no surprise that Jefry brings this up: he is after all a Mind himself. Sorry Jefry.
So for almost six years I read the thoughts of, conversed with, and asked questions to over seventy Minds each with an intellect and knowledge beyond anything I could possibly comprehend. The vast majority of these intelligences are older than human civilisation itself. To them I must seem to be an extremely basic but hopefully vastly interesting creature. I don’t want to address the issue of the Minds here now as I hope to write some specific posts about them in the near future. To someone who has studied philosophy, the existence of these beings and the regard they are given is profoundly interesting: more to follow on this folks.
The effect the newsletter and forum had on me was a subtle but definite one, however it seems the aliens had learned a bit about human psychology or more likely my own individual psychology as I found myself responding very enthusiastically to almost everything put in front of me. I contributed to the newsletter with enthusiasm – although my words often appeared in a highly edited form (another form of psychology?). I regularly found myself on the forum having taken a liking to the characters on the board. I found most of the forum members funny, interesting, engaging, and well informed. It is probably not much of a feat for an ancient and super-intelligent Mind to impress a human in his early thirties. I did not find my newfound enthusiasm suspicious at all.
I was encouraged to read particular novels, autobiographies and factual titles (all written by human authors as far as I know), and I went out and bought almost every recommended publication. The issues addressed by these books were very wide ranging, so much so that even now I cannot see why some were pushed onto me except to help me get an all-round educated beyond that which I previously had. Many of the books dealt with loneliness and individuality for obvious reasons. Others were science fiction novels, although most of those specified were difficult to find. The well-known sci-fi books must have been a bit too far off the mark. The science fiction community obviously has a lot of work to do.
The question I have now is how did the Minds know what all these books contained? When I finally had my first contact with the aliens (actually with Jefry who has always acted as their envoy) much later, I was asked to bring along with me all sorts of materials including many books – the first they would get their hands on (they were desperate to get at least one copy of a children’s Encyclopaedia in particular).
After about two years, the forum and the newsletter slowly turned itself to concentrate on getting me used to the concept of my current situation. This is what I meant earlier by subtlety; even with hindsight I find it difficult to form a picture in my mind of the way I was parked in front of the subject of voluntary alien abduction! Regardless, I intimated strongly that it would be a great honour to be the first human to be examined (what other word is there for it?). I think one of the members “innocently” said on the forum that it would be one likely way an organisation of civilisations might quietly learn about a planet-dominating and space-faring species. Obviously, this was not a completely new subject, but rather a contribution to an already existing one. From there, the newsletter, and increasingly the forum, zeroed in on this particular topic. The actual situation of my alien friends was put forward as a fictional premise by a couple of members from which we could base arguments. There were many related threads of conversation that were stretched out over the next three years as I was taken into more and more depth by the Minds leading me along.
As you can see this was a long and drawn out process. But it takes the human mind quite a while to get itself fully round a thing. Every aspect of a human subject’s existence with the aliens was studied including things such as the associated moral, philosophical, practical, cultural, and historical and every other issue you could possibly conceive. Then one day, one of the members – calling himself Total Harry - wrote a long and pretty damn convincing article claiming that he was in fact the representative of an alien culture and that he had engineered the conversation to address the issues he wanted to. For the following months the rest of the group viciously debated the credibility of this claim. By this time, the other candidate humans had long since fallen by the wayside for reasons I do not know. They were probably not as self-obsessed as I am!
I was extremely dubious despite “Harry’s” well-written line of reasoning, but it meant that the Minds could read my opinions in a safer way than had the whole truth been revealed, and it meant the Minds could control my opinion of “Harry’s” claims by forming an argument alongside me. Clearly this was a very careful preparation for my mind – I can put it no other way. Over a bit of time, part of me was becoming suspicious about the group as a whole; I didn’t think “Harry” could be an alien intelligence on his own, but I did think that the group as a whole could be if it was preparing me! One might say that I had guessed the truth, however it was a truth that was deliberately allowed to dawn on me. Even so, I told myself, it was a ridiculous thought to take seriously, but in my mind I thought it would pretty amazing if I was right and I might rightly feel very special indeed.
So for three months I amused myself with the unlikely possibility that I was being singled out for something extraordinarily special and that this huge project was undertaken only to reel me in. It was a bit of luxury thinking that I allowed myself to have even though I didn’t truly believe it. I didn’t think it was implausible, just unbelievably unlikely. Then, during the course of one evening, all of my private thoughts and (what had perhaps become) hopes were spelled out in front of me by the various members of the forum in a series of posts. The contents of my was mind seemingly laid out in front of me like I was a poker player being told about my own hand by my opponents. I was of course flabbergasted – either the various members of the group had all independently become mind readers or they had deliberately conducted my thinking all the way through the previous few months. I was told that they would prove to me that they were in fact all representatives of an advanced alien race and that they would like to ask me to be a subject for study.
What was my reaction? Confusion was strongest and that was mixed with anger and helplessness. Despite being carefully conditioned to hear this suggestion it took me many days to become comfortable with speaking to the Minds after that. I was still not fully convinced that they were who they said they were, but I did feel manipulated. However at this point I had to know and I was intrigued to see how they planned to prove their case to me. I had gotten to know them well and I was not about to cast the previous six years aside. Besides I reckoned I would look pretty stupid if it was all a joke; I considered that perhaps their assessment of my mind was lucky or obvious (it was clearly neither, their descriptions were amazingly accurate and specific).
I was assured then as I am now that the only psychological influence they would have had was to prepare me for what I would hear, my decision making has remained mine alone – unaffected by any psychologically influenced tendency that might have been inflicted upon me. This, I am told, would otherwise be somewhat counter-productive to the concept of studying me. Although I agree with this analysis, these are all issues that were addressed during the years of the newsletter and forum that the Minds participated in with me. So can I trust my own mind on such matters? If I conclude no, then I might as well submit to despair. I would not be an individual but an animal responding in a set manner to the stimuli given to me. In fact I don’t want to go down this road of thinking anymore, as it gives me a headache and makes me slightly upset. The thought that I am so helpless that I might only believe that I control my own mind is too much to bear. I find it ironic that I was the one organic naturally born being in the group and I probably acted much like an automaton: predictable and controllable. All this leaves a lingering question: When did the examination of me begin? At the start of my stay up here in a craft with the automaton representative of a Mind I have named Jefry; or at the start of my membership to the newsletter and forum?
Anyway, I have decided to finish the rest of the beginning of my story next time. Partly because this is dragging on too long and also because I have some thinking to do having written this all out for the first time.
I bid thee farewell my friends until next time.
My friend and unwitting recruiter Andrew had been conscripted into buying for me a subscription to a regular postal newsletter which mostly consisted of cultural-related science fiction stories, astronomy, and philosophically minded articles about mankind and its place in the universe. From this point onwards, a select few others and I were being conditioned for life up here with the aliens, with one – eventually me – to be finally selected. Obviously, the object was not to mould us into something else – what would be the point of having me here if I was to be merely the product of a kind of taming process? The newsletter always consisted of a large brown envelope of A4 paper with articles printed out using a normal PC printer – usually about 40 stapled pages. I understand a small printing company who received copy and payment by wire did the necessary photocopying and posting. The reading matter I initially received was a mixture of previously published and original essays. My alien friends wrote many of these, if not all of them, especially for us.
Connected with the newsletter was an Internet forum on which there were nearly a hundred regulars. Of these, I think about a dozen were other candidates like me; the rest were invented characters. Obviously at this point I had no idea about all of this. I am told that each simulated member of the group was actually a projection of the Mind of an artificial intelligence already running some task up here but also asked to commit a (according to Jefry: vanishingly) small amount of its capacity to this assignment. Jefry has now said to me that he disapproves of the term “artificial intelligence” on the grounds that it would be misleading to most people reading this. He says that although the Minds are created by unnatural methods using material that is not entirely organic, they are treated as living, sentient beings with all the rights and privileges that a naturally born and intelligent creature would receive – despite many Minds not having a pre-defined physical form to speak of. Hence the capital “M” I have now began to use in the name “Mind”. Perhaps it is no surprise that Jefry brings this up: he is after all a Mind himself. Sorry Jefry.
So for almost six years I read the thoughts of, conversed with, and asked questions to over seventy Minds each with an intellect and knowledge beyond anything I could possibly comprehend. The vast majority of these intelligences are older than human civilisation itself. To them I must seem to be an extremely basic but hopefully vastly interesting creature. I don’t want to address the issue of the Minds here now as I hope to write some specific posts about them in the near future. To someone who has studied philosophy, the existence of these beings and the regard they are given is profoundly interesting: more to follow on this folks.
The effect the newsletter and forum had on me was a subtle but definite one, however it seems the aliens had learned a bit about human psychology or more likely my own individual psychology as I found myself responding very enthusiastically to almost everything put in front of me. I contributed to the newsletter with enthusiasm – although my words often appeared in a highly edited form (another form of psychology?). I regularly found myself on the forum having taken a liking to the characters on the board. I found most of the forum members funny, interesting, engaging, and well informed. It is probably not much of a feat for an ancient and super-intelligent Mind to impress a human in his early thirties. I did not find my newfound enthusiasm suspicious at all.
I was encouraged to read particular novels, autobiographies and factual titles (all written by human authors as far as I know), and I went out and bought almost every recommended publication. The issues addressed by these books were very wide ranging, so much so that even now I cannot see why some were pushed onto me except to help me get an all-round educated beyond that which I previously had. Many of the books dealt with loneliness and individuality for obvious reasons. Others were science fiction novels, although most of those specified were difficult to find. The well-known sci-fi books must have been a bit too far off the mark. The science fiction community obviously has a lot of work to do.
The question I have now is how did the Minds know what all these books contained? When I finally had my first contact with the aliens (actually with Jefry who has always acted as their envoy) much later, I was asked to bring along with me all sorts of materials including many books – the first they would get their hands on (they were desperate to get at least one copy of a children’s Encyclopaedia in particular).
After about two years, the forum and the newsletter slowly turned itself to concentrate on getting me used to the concept of my current situation. This is what I meant earlier by subtlety; even with hindsight I find it difficult to form a picture in my mind of the way I was parked in front of the subject of voluntary alien abduction! Regardless, I intimated strongly that it would be a great honour to be the first human to be examined (what other word is there for it?). I think one of the members “innocently” said on the forum that it would be one likely way an organisation of civilisations might quietly learn about a planet-dominating and space-faring species. Obviously, this was not a completely new subject, but rather a contribution to an already existing one. From there, the newsletter, and increasingly the forum, zeroed in on this particular topic. The actual situation of my alien friends was put forward as a fictional premise by a couple of members from which we could base arguments. There were many related threads of conversation that were stretched out over the next three years as I was taken into more and more depth by the Minds leading me along.
As you can see this was a long and drawn out process. But it takes the human mind quite a while to get itself fully round a thing. Every aspect of a human subject’s existence with the aliens was studied including things such as the associated moral, philosophical, practical, cultural, and historical and every other issue you could possibly conceive. Then one day, one of the members – calling himself Total Harry - wrote a long and pretty damn convincing article claiming that he was in fact the representative of an alien culture and that he had engineered the conversation to address the issues he wanted to. For the following months the rest of the group viciously debated the credibility of this claim. By this time, the other candidate humans had long since fallen by the wayside for reasons I do not know. They were probably not as self-obsessed as I am!
I was extremely dubious despite “Harry’s” well-written line of reasoning, but it meant that the Minds could read my opinions in a safer way than had the whole truth been revealed, and it meant the Minds could control my opinion of “Harry’s” claims by forming an argument alongside me. Clearly this was a very careful preparation for my mind – I can put it no other way. Over a bit of time, part of me was becoming suspicious about the group as a whole; I didn’t think “Harry” could be an alien intelligence on his own, but I did think that the group as a whole could be if it was preparing me! One might say that I had guessed the truth, however it was a truth that was deliberately allowed to dawn on me. Even so, I told myself, it was a ridiculous thought to take seriously, but in my mind I thought it would pretty amazing if I was right and I might rightly feel very special indeed.
So for three months I amused myself with the unlikely possibility that I was being singled out for something extraordinarily special and that this huge project was undertaken only to reel me in. It was a bit of luxury thinking that I allowed myself to have even though I didn’t truly believe it. I didn’t think it was implausible, just unbelievably unlikely. Then, during the course of one evening, all of my private thoughts and (what had perhaps become) hopes were spelled out in front of me by the various members of the forum in a series of posts. The contents of my was mind seemingly laid out in front of me like I was a poker player being told about my own hand by my opponents. I was of course flabbergasted – either the various members of the group had all independently become mind readers or they had deliberately conducted my thinking all the way through the previous few months. I was told that they would prove to me that they were in fact all representatives of an advanced alien race and that they would like to ask me to be a subject for study.
What was my reaction? Confusion was strongest and that was mixed with anger and helplessness. Despite being carefully conditioned to hear this suggestion it took me many days to become comfortable with speaking to the Minds after that. I was still not fully convinced that they were who they said they were, but I did feel manipulated. However at this point I had to know and I was intrigued to see how they planned to prove their case to me. I had gotten to know them well and I was not about to cast the previous six years aside. Besides I reckoned I would look pretty stupid if it was all a joke; I considered that perhaps their assessment of my mind was lucky or obvious (it was clearly neither, their descriptions were amazingly accurate and specific).
I was assured then as I am now that the only psychological influence they would have had was to prepare me for what I would hear, my decision making has remained mine alone – unaffected by any psychologically influenced tendency that might have been inflicted upon me. This, I am told, would otherwise be somewhat counter-productive to the concept of studying me. Although I agree with this analysis, these are all issues that were addressed during the years of the newsletter and forum that the Minds participated in with me. So can I trust my own mind on such matters? If I conclude no, then I might as well submit to despair. I would not be an individual but an animal responding in a set manner to the stimuli given to me. In fact I don’t want to go down this road of thinking anymore, as it gives me a headache and makes me slightly upset. The thought that I am so helpless that I might only believe that I control my own mind is too much to bear. I find it ironic that I was the one organic naturally born being in the group and I probably acted much like an automaton: predictable and controllable. All this leaves a lingering question: When did the examination of me begin? At the start of my stay up here in a craft with the automaton representative of a Mind I have named Jefry; or at the start of my membership to the newsletter and forum?
Anyway, I have decided to finish the rest of the beginning of my story next time. Partly because this is dragging on too long and also because I have some thinking to do having written this all out for the first time.
I bid thee farewell my friends until next time.
Visitors:
