Posthuman Blues

Take a look at this apparent UFO. The images are digital, so their authenticity is effectively impossible to prove. Nevertheless, what they seem to show is interesting. While the unusual cloud formation could certainly be natural (and one correspondent says he's seen some like this), the presence of the blue sphere right below it gives one pause. A natural electrical phenomenon of some sort?

Reading "Spaceland" has caused me to view some UFO reports in a new light. Apparent "vehicles" that seem to change shape while in the air may not be spacecraft at all, but cross-sections of four-dimensional objects that bisect familiar 3-D reality. For example, a 3-D cross section of a 4-D tube would appear spherical. And if the tube was irregular in shape, we would expect it to "change shape" in our three dimensions as it moved, much how a sphere passing through a two-dimensional plane would appear like a rapidly growing disk to any watching Flatlanders.

There's at least one good multiple-witness case on record that makes sense if the UFOs seen were 4-D objects (or a single 4-D object) occurring at right angles to our three spatial dimensions. The pilots involved described the shape-changing objects as "flying jellyfish" -- pretty much what one would expect a 4-D phenomenon to look like if it happened to move through three-dimensional space.

The slightly unnerving aspect to this theory is that it implies that we literally coexist with the UFO intelligence (if it is, in fact, intelligent). But we're unable to see it unless it happens to intersect with us. And even then we're limited to glimpsing tantalizing cross-sections; our 3-D minds must turn to mathematical esoterica to reconstruct what the invading object/s actually look like. (In "Spaceland," Rucker does an excellent job of showing us how bewildering a four-dimensional landscape would appear to a 3-D observor. In short: Gnarly!)

Summing up: A hidden world with four spatial dimensions might account for some UFO sightings. The oft-reported lenticular shape may be a clue as to what these 4-D manifestations really look like. This theory also conveniently disposes of the supposed incredible distances extraterrestrial UFOs would presumably have to cross in order to reach us. It also resonates with Dr. Jacques Vallee's idea of a vast, intersecting "multiverse."