Project Orion was a Top Secret U.S. project to build a huge space cruiser, powered by A-Bombs, that would ultimately be used to colonise Mars and Saturn. It sounds like one of the more hair-brained schemes of the of the early atomic age, but in actual fact project Orion was granted a massive budget, and to the surprise of even the scientists, was well on its way to actually working. However, it was never to be completed. A combination of the nuclear backlash of the 60’s, nuclear test ban treaties, and JFK’s personal horror at military plans for the project (to construct massive orbital nuclear battleships) were to eventually kill it. Somewhere though, the rest of these files still exist, and the project waits to be resurrected.

Here George Dyson, son of project leader and all round genius Freeman Dyson (after whom Gordon Freeman was named, trivia fans) talks about his childhood memories of being told his dad was building a rocketship to travel to Saturn.

However the method is not without its risks, and is expected to badly damage the Ozone Lair and set back its healing process by almost 70 years. The method will also not address the other effects of excess CO² in the atmosphere, such as ocean acidification.

Story from Popular Mechanics

Outlined in the map is a plan to bring a final end to the age of colonialism, and usher in an age of continent sized power block, supervised by the U.N and the “Supreme Military and Economic Council”. But like some conspiracy theorists wet dream, there is a dark side. The axis powers are to be “hermetically and indefinitely quarantined” in nation sized ghettos, and their numbers reduced with a tightly enforced “population control policy” and their leaders subject to an “unforgettable” punishment. And taking a leaf from the Communist’s book, every natural resources and the entire logistical infrastructure if the planet would become nationalised, becoming the property of the new super-states, and through them, to be “shared” by the global government.

For over fifteen million years, perhaps much longer, they dominated the primordial oceans from which they evolved. For fifteen million years they experimented with a multitude of forms and structures, some resembling plants, some resembling rudimentary creatures. Some are even thought to have even developed crude nervous systems and antennae, the first tentative steps towards becoming even more advanced organisms.

Then came the age of predators; the Cambrian Explosion. And with it, their apocalypse.

The Ediacarans are sometimes referred to as nature’s great ‘failed experiment’. This bizarre underwater Eden was easy prey for the newly evolved beings that instead of harmlessly turning light into matter, instead devoured the tissue of others life forms in order to survive. One might say the Ediacarans were doomed to this fate, to be swept aside by ‘fitter’ beings whose bodies would become the template for all animal life; a pointless prologue to evolution proper. But in nature, there is nothing without purpose. Without the Golden Age of the Ediacarans there would have been no Cambrian Explosion to follow. No millennia of photosynthesised energy to consume, nothing to turn into bigger and bigger predators.

The Ediacarans played their role in the great story of life, then vanished.

In the eons that followed many forms of life have taken their turns at dominance, such as the giant insects of the Carboniferous or the reptiles of the Mesozoic. Today, we sit at the tail end of the Cenozoic: the Age of Mammals, an epoch now drawing to a close because a unique species of jungle dwelling primate has disrupted the planetary ecosystem with the force of a celestial hammer.
Our rise to global ascendancy can be traced back to at least the Middle Paeoloithic when our ancestors moved into Europe at the same time that mysterious side branch of mankind, the Neanderthals, suddenly vanish from the geological records. When we migrated to Australia 50,000 years ago the island’s diverse megafauna began to disappear. The giant flightless bird Genyornis - among the last true successors of the dinosaurs - became extinct soon after our arrival, as did the titanic Diprotodon – the largest marsupial ever to live.

As we migrated through Eurasia at the peak of the last Ice Age, the Mammoth, Wooly Rhinoceros, Elk, Cave Lion, and Giant Rat were amongst the animals that disappeared in our wake. Human colonisation of the Americas at the same time was followed by the decimation of the 70% of large mammals, including the Mammoth, Sabre Toothed Cat, and the American Lion and Horse. The Bison were spared, only to be culled to near extinction in the second wave of colonisation around 500 years ago.

This latest phase of extinctions is even more intensive and accelerated as humans replace the jungle, woodland and savannah environments of their ancestors with a single homogenous steel and concrete mega-habitat. Plants and animals we have use for are artificially bred in vast factory farms and grown in mono-fields and managed forests for foods and textiles, their remains broken down into component chemicals and other industrial products. Life forms we find no use for are forced to adapt to this artificial habitat or fade into oblivion. Extinctions are currently a thousand times higher than the ‘background’ level, sitting at around 27,000 species a year. The seas, where multicellular life first coalesced half a billion years previously, are being systematically emptied of all life. 90% of large predatory fish such as Tuna and Swordfish have disappeared since the advent of industrialisation, and those we don’t dredge from the sea are being poisoned by the rivers of alien toxins our civilisation secretes.

Every year in North America, 6.5 million metric tonnes of fertilisers, pesticides and other exotic chemicals are pumped into the Mississippi, which snakes down the continent to a place in the Gulf of Mexico now called the “dead zone”, because it’s now devoid of all life except the hardiest of primeval bacteria. Similar dead zones exist in Europe, Asia and Oceania, and all of them are swelling into the surrounding seas.

The origins of these dangerous and worryingly abundant chemicals can be traced to the breakthroughs in molecular science in the 1950s, when short-sighted, market driven experiments to solve short term problems like killing insects, emptied into the world futuristic chemicals like organochlorines. These strange molecular hybrids of hydrocarbons and chlorine are not found anywhere else in the known universe, and cannot be metabolised by organic life forms. They instead build up in tissue to cause neurological problems, cancers and birth defects. We release 4.1 billion pounds of pesticides annually, which are cycled through the entire biosphere to the point where wildlife in the fringes of nature, and even unborn humans are poisoned with traces of not only pesticides, but antibacterial agents, flame-retardants, detergents and plasticizers.

Furthermore, current breakthroughs in genetically modified organisms, nanotechnology and quantum computing will inevitably be unleashed on the planet before we can fully comprehend the consequences. Even with the best safeguards in place, it is impossible to know what will happen once these new technologies are released from the laboratory into the real-world environment.

It would be easy to conclude that we are slowly killing nature, certainly the evidence would seem to support such gloomy conclusions. Since the discovery of fossil fuels in the late 19th century, we have unleashed levels of extinction that are fast approaching that of the Permian-Triassic “Great Dying”, when 84% of all life was eradicated. As we crudely remake the planet in our own image mankind has set in motion a genetic holocaust which threatens to consume all living systems. But in nature, there is nothing without purpose.

We typically think that synthetic toxins, nanobots and GM foods as freakish and unnatural. Indeed, most human activity is seen as inherently unnatural. However Darwin has long since demonstrated that we are also a part of nature, therefore it follows that substances like organochlorines are also found in ‘the natural world’. If we forget for a moment our collective egotism about humans being some kind of chosen species that has transcended nature, we can step back and see that our cities and societies are as naturally occurring as termite mounds. That we are devastating our planetary environment is beside the point; 99.9% of all species that have ever lived are extinct, and history has shown that mass extinction is the engine of evolution. Even after the Great Dying, fungi soon evolved in the aftermath to become the dominant form of terrestrial life, flourishing and diversifying in the, cold, dark planetary wasteland to set in motion a new epoch of life.

Perhaps mankind was never destined to build political utopias or galactic civilisations, as we often like to dream. Perhaps we represent an evolutionary critical mass, a living extinction event whose purpose is to press the evolutionary reset button while simultaneously mass producing chemicals that couldn’t even be formed in the heart of a dying star. Perhaps while our selfish quest for lebensraum sends the biodiversity meter plummeting towards zero, we’re inadvertently creating an exotic new primordial soup from which entirely new entities will rise. Perhaps, like the Ediacarans, we will play our role in the great story of life, then vanish.

Perhaps in the wake of Man, even more incredible beings will arise.

1. Phillips LumaLive Light-Emitting Textiles

2. Multi Touch Interaction

Pioneered by Jeff Han at New York University, Multi-Touch Interaction Technology does exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a touch screen that allows multiple simultaneous interactions, which is a wordy way of saying a super cool user interface reminiscent of the computers in Minority Report.

3. Freedom Ship

Less of a big boat and more a floating city, this 1400 metre long behemoth is set to house its own population, complete with hospitals, schools, churches, casinos, park, shopping centres, currency, railway and airport. Planned to perpetually circumnavigate the globe with its permanent population of 18,000 souls, this would-be tax haven is currently under construction and coming soon to an ocean near you.

4. Trophy Active Defense System: Invisible Forcefield

Although the title is a little misleading (there is no “field” per se, just a defence perimeter) this Israeli designed defence system detonates all explosive projectiles within a hemispheric radius of the tank/command vehicle. Useful protection if, say, you’re fighting a guerrilla army with a large arsenal of rocket propelled grenades.

5. BigDog - The Robotic Mule

Boston Dynamics claim BigDog, a hi-tech packmule designed for infantry support, is “the most advanced quadruped robot on Earth”. This video of the prototype certainly looks pretty robust, although I imagine squaddies will have fun picking on the poor thing. And you’ll notice that after a while the continuous whine emitted by the eerie headless robot borders on the blood-curdling.

6. Assist Sketch Understanding System

Effectively just a system for animating engineer’s whiteboard sketches using real-world physics, this geeky tool could no doubt be adapted to drop anvils on stick men.

7. Toyota PM Unity

Toyotas “wearable” concept car, the Personal Mobility (PM) Unit, is a sleek environmentally friendly drivable cocoon that bears a passing resemblance to the much mocked Sinclair C5, although Toyota at least admit that right now, there is not a market for such devices.

8. CornerShot

Something you’d expect to see in Spliner Cell, the CornerShot is a rifle that can shoot round corners while spying the enemy with a neat TFT screen (Although I hope it’s not got as poor a battery life as my digital camera). The promo video above is somehow quite silly.

To top it all, he ended his rant by telling me the book had since been recalled, and all copies destroyed.

In the following years I read books and books of conspiracy literature, watched videos and scoured websites guzzling information. I was determined to get to the root of the ancient conspiracy, to find the true “secret history” of the world. Naively, when I began my research I had assumed there was one definitive truth about the history of the Illuminati. After studying a little while it soon became apparent that there were many competing theories as to who they were, and major differences as to their origin, intents and goals.

It took me many years to figure out what the Illuminati actually represents: the roots of a future religion, currently rife with theological differences waiting to be ironed out. You can find many parallels with the emergence of Christianity in the first to Third centuries. In the first century especially, there were extraordinarily diverse views of who Jesus was, on notions of the afterlife and such.Was Jesus a man? If he was, how could he be resurrected? Then was he a spirit? If he was a spirit then how did he suffer on the cross? Was he a god? If he was a God, how was he also the son of God? Were they the same person? And so on. (much of this was eventually settled with the advent of the Trinity doctrine some 400 years after Jesus died) You even had Christian Gnostics who thought the universe was made by an evil god; polytheistic Christians and a kaleidoscope of other weird and colourful cults.

Illuminatism is a fledgling religion, and 9/11 is its crucifixion.

Why a religion and not a serious theory? Because it relies rather heavily on dogma and belief, rather than facts and figures. Don’t’ get me wrong facts and figures are cited to death in conspiracy circles, but they are often used the same way fundamentalist Christians use facts and figures, as a way to support a conclusion they’ve already arrived at. Because of the belief that the Illuminati are in control of all major media, and a huge number of prominent media figures and politicians are under their direct control or influence, then all information from these sources are seen as lies spun by the Illuminati to condition us to the New World Order master plan. However, if the information from these sources supports the worldview, they are adopted into it, and used to strengthen pre-held beliefs.

I call these “anchors”, news reports, events, documents and even physical objects that provide “proof” of an intangible belief that can be referenced in reality and shared wth others. We use them as place markers, associate our own particular meaning to them and over time, and build up a conceptual map of reality relative to belief in the Illuminati. One that is shared an enriched through communication, and evolved through debate that explains away internal contradictions and other nonsensities with all the vigour of Star-Trek fanboys explaining the sudden appearane of Klingon bumps. But that’s all it is, a map, and as all you fans of General Semantics already know, “the map is not the territory”, it’s merely a convenient and often crude approximation.

Belief in the authenticity of your map over others is an effective tool for dismissing things that don’t fit into it. Take Alex Jones and his like’s dismissal of Peak Oil campaigners and Climate Change scientists. These people are seen as pawns of the Illuminati, stooges peddling lies so the Illuminati can pave the way for their microchipped big brother world government. Anyone who does not agree 100% with Jones’ conclusions are doing the will of the Illuminati, knowingly or unknowingly. That’s why I had to wince when Jones was interviewing Chomsky on his radio show, and called the 80 year old anarchist a “new world order shill” because of his views on gun control – a herasy.

Why has it become so popular? Because since 9/11 people are questioning things and not getting straight answers from the media, politicians or other icons like celebrities. People are looking for answers.

9/11 especially acts like a conspiracy “hook” into the Illuminatism worldview, and often encourages digging deep into the rabbit hole. You find out about the Bilderberg group and the Council of Foreign Relations, the Rothschild family and the Freemasons. Suddenly a whole new way of viewing the world, of viewing reality, begins to unfold. There is a hand behind world events, a malevolent one; much like Satan was blamed for everything that went wrong in Medieval society (disease, crop failure, sudden unexplained deaths), it is possible to blame the Illuminati for in ours (Bird Flu, Engineered Resource Shortage, the death of David Kelly). It’s rationalisation is a rich and voluminous, a complex tapestry of a thousand sources – what else to expect from the first mainstream religion of the
Information Age?.

Depending on which route you go down in your research (which could be influenced by your previous beliefs), you can go down one of these following paths (not exhaustive). Each a Illumiantism sub-sect with its own particular focus and specialisation. If you follow it for long enough you’ll experience a complete paradigm shift, a totally new way of organising incoming sensory information. Literally, a new reality.

Christian (Pro-Government)

Territory pioneered by Hal Lindsay and Pat Robertson in the 70s, 80s and 90s. The Illuminati is a Satanic plot to engineer the rise of the Anti-Christ and herald in the World Government. The United Nation is their primary tool. This movement seems to have split with the one below and become pro-Republican sometime in the late 80s. Believe Hilary Clinton is an Illuminati Witch.

Christian (Anti-Government)

Shares much in Common with the above worldview, except both Democrats and Republicans are two heads of the same beast (controlled from London by secret societies). Aspects relating to the Anti-Christ are traditionally toned down and emphasis is placed on sci-fi aspects of the Illuminati plot such as microchipped super-surveillance societies and hi-tech mind control. Typified by one of the Grand Imam’s of the conspiracy world, Alex Jones and popular in survivalist circles. Illuminati often described as “communist”.

New Age / UFO

Shares much in common with the above in terms of practical details and organisational structure, however Satan is not the villain of the piece in this strange reality; it is the mysterious Annunaki. Strongly influenced by the strangely charismatic David Icke, this movement sees the Illuminati as being either trans dimensional or extra-terrestrial entities attempting to keep mankind in a spiritual as well as physical prison to use as labourers on a planetary plantation. Influenced by Buddhist thought and draws, somewhat haphazardly, from sources as eclectic as Zulu shamans, UFO abductees and quantum physics.

Far Right / Anti-Semetic

The most traditional of the Conspiracy worldviews, this sees the Illuminati as a tool of Jews, who plan to enslave the white man and dilute his race with inferior stock. Israel is often seen as the source of the global plot to control the world via international Banks. US Government often described as ZOG – Zionist Occupational Government. Some views expressed by the shady Lyndon LaRouche.

Far Left / Rationalist

Sees banks as the power behind world events, and often described in the language of Globalisation. Religious aspects of the Illuminati are toned down, and often the name “Illuminati” is not even used. Particular emphasis put on corruption and secret societies like Skull and Bones. A very diffuse grouping of beliefs. Some ideas relayed by Michael Parenti.

The other reason, of course, that such thinking is becoming increasingly popular, is the sheer amount of information available today. Belief in the Illuminati is a way of making sense of an intimidating and unpredictable world which we can never hope to truly comprehend. Like religion, it is a way of simplifying an infinitely complex universe to once that is internally cohesive and provides a basis for understanding reality. Also, the more indoctrinated (i.e obsessed) one gets with the Illuminati, the more evidence one will see of their existence. If they truly have their hand in everything, they might be monitoring your computer, they might have spies after you, they might be trying to shut you up. That way, madness lies. Two of my friends have had nervous breakdowns, both did so via paranoid fear of the Illuminati.

But as I say, these are early days. In the centuries ahead, especially as society becomes more technologically advanced and bewildering (or conversely, as the world spirals into increasingly titanic wars), beliefs in Illuminatism – that a Malevolent force is guiding world events – will become more and more prevalent. We’ve just began to see the first high profile adherents of such beliefs – Charlie Sheen has just come out and said he believes 9/11 was an inside job, and was interviewed on Alex Jones radio show. CNN done a follow up interview with Jones and took a poll of who thinks he’s right. 83% of the CNN audience thought Sheen was correct.

Was that the tipping point?