The full-spectrum search for life
From radio waves to brain waves
Future Folklore’s mission is to both:
(1) support the search for signs of intelligent life and technology that is other-than-human, and
(2) support technology development
to aid the search and
that’s inspired by findings of the search.
Number (1) involves onboarding lots and lots of new funding sources and programs in addition to NASA, SETI, university astrobiology and related departments.
But there’s something I believe sets Future Folklore apart. FF has an expansive view of what other forms life might take. If even earthly life shows a remarkable divergence, how much more should life surprise us if it originates in completely different biomes? And that’s not to speak of more ethereal or exotic possible life.
As I like to put it, FF is agnostic but open on these questions. FF will support the search from radio waves to brain waves, from metallurgy on recovered materials to metaphors in ancient literature. Humans have claimed contact with more advanced forms of intelligence from time immemorial.
I also strongly believe that the full-spectrum search for life is undergoing a renaissance and will only continue to accelerate. As many have pointed out, this represents a gold mine in every way. If humans are relatively new in their technical abilities, inventions, and understanding of what we believe to be fundamental particles and forces, imagine a civilization that is a mere 1,000 years more advanced along a similar trajectory? Or a million years?
In a 2020 Scientific American article, Harvard’s Dr. Avi Loeb wrote about how the “‘gold rush’ opportunity of mining the sky for new technological ideas offers a financial incentive for becoming an observational astronomer.” Dr. Loeb leads Harvard’s Galileo Project, which studies unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and interstellar objects.
On June 5th in The Debrief, Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal reported on the remarkable and credible claims of a former high-level intelligence official about recovered craft not originating from humans. Kean and Blumenthal have reported on UAP in the New York Times before. Blumenthal is a veteran Times reporter himself. One of a number of other corroborating voices added commentary to these claims: “It is no longer necessary to continue to deny that these advanced technologies derived from non-human intelligence exist at all or to deny that these technologies have landed, crashed, or fallen into the hands of human beings.” Major media outlets have since picked up the story, which continues to unfold and intrigue.
I predict there will be a rush to enter the search. My dream is for the demand for technology and consultants for the search to outpace the supply!
What might FF’s work look like in practice? Here are a few hypothetical scenarios:
A university chemist invents an extremely compact and cheap lab for detecting ancient biochemical remains. This device could be easily installed on rovers built by space programs or on craft designed to fly through the thin atmospheres of other bodies. FF would help license this technology to brand new programs funding their own expeditions.
Someone develops AI tools to assist religious communities to make their sacred texts available to more people in digestible ways that facilitate reflection and group discussion. (Yes, this is an example facilitating communication with non-human minds.)
A company with large cash reserves decides to enter the search and fund their own program. For instance, if Apple spent just 1% of its available cash reserves on its own program to search for life, they would have around $550 million to work with.
The most creative solo experimenters with open source LLMs put their ingenuity to work on open source astronomical data, coming up with novel search strategies that themselves can learn, like Nvidia’s new Voyager program.
Some may object that the search for non-human technology is a cheap shortcut. It cheats humanity out of the hard work of doing our own innovation, building on our own ingenuity. However, I believe that the search itself stimulates remarkable innovation, much like the early space programs did. Also, we study complex systems all the time that we didn’t invent. Who would call it cheating to study biochemistry and take inspiration from the inner workings of cells, just because humans didn’t invent these living systems?
Stay tuned for our upcoming MYSTERIOUS MACHINE token. This is a token launched on the Ethereum blockchain that will give you an early chance to support Future Folklore. The launch is coming very soon! Check out the animated token artwork on our homepage. Here’s a still below.
If you’re interested now, please reach out (email or Twitter).
As the late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack put it, let’s join together in mystery.
