#2,900 – New Black Mirror Scenarios

Five years ago when I was first discovering Black Mirror I came up with 50 additional plots of mine based on current events and my own ideas. Most of them really do feel eerily prescient and like they could be actual episodes on the hit show. Others remain purely in the realm of science fiction. With so much going on though it’s time to come up with some more scenarios ripped from the headlines and my imagination. 61 of them this time around! Charlie Brooker, you’re welcome in advance:

• It started with AI girlfriends.  Chatbots based on real people that you can rent out to chat with and pretend to date.  But eventually people began to fall in love and wound-up marrying AI entities.  Which means that some children are going to wind up growing up with AI parents. Which creates a whole host of issues at the first parent-teacher conference when an AI parent feuds with an AI teacher designed to act like Socrates.
• It started out just as testing but eventually synthetic embryos wind up developing all the way into full-fledged humans.  Is the resulting person actually human or something else? The next generation is about to find out.
• AI advancements let us communicate with other species. All species. Not just our pets but wild animals too. Resulting in mostly hilarious situations and improving life for every little thing on Earth.  Until a plot to overthrow humans unfolds in the ocean.
• Sending each other memes takes a dark turn when we develop the ability to actually emotionally experience the memes not just view them. This starts out as a way to prank people until it’s used for torture.
• To keep up with AI some people decide to get Brain Computer Interface implants.  Leading to a divide in society between those who have implants and those who don’t. And a plan from the government to force conversion.
• A conspiracy theorist finds compelling evidence to suggest that some major conspiracy theories were in fact true and all the facts we’ve been told are the conspiracies.  But no one believes him. Until years later when whether or not to believe him becomes a conspiracy theory itself.
• A driverless car has to sole the train problem and make a life-or-death choice between saving one person (you) or a bunch of other people.  The person who wasn’t chosen was the inventor of the car.
• A mental health call center fires their entire staff and replaces it with a chatbot that starts to give bad advice.  Including to some of the recently let go staff that now needed to use the service.
• Researchers at CERN prove the existence of an alternate reality and figure out a way to contact that world.  Leading to a whole host of problems once people start interacting with their other versions.
• There’s so much AI generated content that AI programs start to use AI generated content in their search results creating a feedback loop that crashes the program. And a society that grew too reliant on AI is now hapless without any AI to guide them.
• Space tourism accident results in several billionaires dying. Turns out it was sabotage.  A plot to kill off all of the world’s billionaires one by one by enticing them to spend ridiculous amounts of money on novel experiences that only they can afford. The most it cost the more they wanted to risk it all.
• An AI QR code brings you into an Augmented Reality.  That you can’t escape from.
• We develop the ability to play back our dreams as movies. Watching them with loved ones let us share our sub conscious thoughts and become even closer together. But this backfires when a young couple find out what the husband has been dreaming of and fantasizing about.
• A Climate Change geo-engineering scheme to save the planet goes wrong, actually dooming us all.
• Underwater spas grow in popularity after a stunt shows that living underwater for 100 days can make you 10 years younger.  But there are unintended side effects such as loss of bone density and personality changes.
• Some people decide to use Personal AI to built their own chatbots trained on their own data so that they aren’t reliant on Big Tech.  These chatbots respond to emails and complete tasks for us based on how we normally would respond. But can we be held legally responsible for something our Personal AI said? One man is about to find out.
• To keep up with AI the Transhumanism movement takes off with people implanting sensors into themselves.  There’s a rift in society between Luddite holdouts, those with Brain Computer Implants, and the Transhumanists actively merging with technology.
• AI wins a local art contest enraging a talented artist who desperately needed the prize money.
• Biosensor tattoos monitor our health and let us know when our blood sugar levels are too low or when we have an infection. The tattoo of a young woman keeps glowing but doctors can’t figure out what it’s trying to tell them.  Is it malfunctioning or is she about to die? A similar plot could be with tech that monitors your mental health and indicates that you’re going crazy when you’re not which actually winds up driving you crazy.
• A factory worker starts to don a mechanized suit that allows him to lift heavy weights.  At first, he’s reluctant to put on the suit but eventually he doesn’t want to take it off. In fact, he can’t.
• There are currently fears that TikTok is actually a Chinese bioweapon. Designed to make us dumber. An episode could explore a similarly sinister social media plan.
• Sex toys in the future let you send your emotions to your partner. A kissing machine even lets you experience what it’s like to kiss your partner.  Which is problematic when a young man in Tokyo decides to stay in a long-distance relationship rather than ever met up with his girlfriend IRL.
• Just like a Tamagotchi a new smart watch lets you take care of a pet that’s living inside the watch face. But eventually the pet becomes aware that it’s trapped and wants to get out of the watch. 
• In the future there are a whole bunch of ways to give birth.  There are babies from three parents, babies seeded by robots, babies grown inside of artificial wombs, babies with AI entities for parents. In one private school for the ultra wealthy all of these different babies grow up together.  In a time lapse episode that jumps around throughout their childhoods you come to find out which birthing method is the best and which ones raises a killer.
• An AI powered typewriter helps a wannabe author produce several big hits. He signs a big contract for a sequel to his blockbuster hit but now the AI no longer wants to help. And his deadline is fast approaching.
• A hacker uses voice cloning technology to steal information and commit robberies while pretending to be the victim’s loved one.  But then that same technology is used by the authorities to trick him into surrendering.
• A woman who feels no pain goes viral.  Resulting in her being experimented on by a drug to try and find a drug that can eliminate pain for everyone else. They’re actually successful, not just in eliminating pain but also in removing fear which has unintended consequences as everyone in society becomes reckless.
• A new app store for neurological experiences lets people select the mood or feeling that they want and download it for a small fee. Predictably, a new brand of drug addict emerges.
• An avalanche causes a group of friends to get snowed in. Luckily their rental house is made of edible bricks. To survive all they have to do is eat their way out.
• A psychological vaccine is developed that protects us against misinformation. But how do we know what’s misinformation and what’s fact?
• A link is established between gut health and mental health leading to a whole host of new treatments. And a nefarious plan from a cereal manufacturer to control our minds through breakfast cereals.
• A new hangover cure lets you drink as much as you want without ever getting drunk. It works really well and people begin to become reliant on it. Leading to a series of overdoses when it suddenly stops working.
• Unemployment reaches an all-time high as AI avatars and chatbots replace most traditional jobs.  People begin to fight back leading to an all-out riot.
• An episode that explores the nature of physics/reality/illusions. If reality isn’t “real” what is the world really like? A man suffers a traumatic brain injury that impacts his vision and his brain instead of constructing reality shows him the raw feed.
• In an alternate reality people embrace taking vaccines.  To the point where we now have vaccines for everything.  For preventing bug bites, Alzheimer’s, skin cancer, diabetes, everything. One day the “everything” vaccine comes out that promises to protect you from everything.  But there are unintended consequences.
• There’s so much plastic in the world that it’s starting to get into our water and food supplies.  The local weather even gives plastic rain forecasts. Eventually people start embracing all the plastic.  A little bit too much.
• A woman starts having success at her job once she starts using ChatGPT.  Soon she becomes obsessed with AI and does whatever it tells her to.  Using chatbots to communicate with friends.  Using its advice on what to eat and what to wear. Eventually she takes things too far and starts killing because the AI told her to.
• A viral TikTok trend (the Grimace shake) goes too far once people start trying to one up each other on who can orchestrate the best fake death.
• Skin suits get developed that let you change your physical appearance so you can hide skin deformities or become a different race or gender. Problems arise when no one is who they appear to be.
• A rescue worker testing a jetpack designed to reach inaccessible terrain on rescue missions crashes deep in a forest on a test run.  There he discovers a lost tribe that’s never encountered any modern technology before.  Their whole society is quickly torn apart once they start interacting with the gadgets he had on him.
• A Japanese inventor creates a suit that gives people up to six extra arms. Hilarity and controversy ensue once people start living with extra appendages.
• NASA researchers figure out how to use ultrasound pulses to induce hibernation in astronauts. Meanwhile a study comes out suggesting that noise is detrimental to your health. A tech blogger winds up using all of the latest research (initially intended for benevolent purposes) to go on a crime spree inducing hibernation in his victims (instead of killing them) and using a noise gun to injure them. Points to a scary future where gun violence has been replaced by science inspired violence.
• An episode takes you through the day in the life of a citizen in a peaceful, futuristic society where everything is perfect.  So, how is this a black mirror episode? The twist at the end is that this taking place on a floating city in a world overwhelmed by rising sea levels from Climate Change.
• Ghosting becomes such a problem that a dating app goes to the extreme and forces people who match to stay together no matter what.
• In the future there are so many unique people.  There’s a person who can’t feel pain and another who can experience colors. So called Freaks of Nature like a boy who can’t stop hiccupping and a transhumanist with over a 100 different implants in their body who become famous for being so unique.  But fame comes with a price.  When an eccentric antiques collector winds up collecting them too and putting them into a human zoo on a remote island.
• A geneticist invents a way to bring back extinct species such as the Wooly Mammoth.  But eventually Neanderthals are brought back as well and all hell breaks loose.
• A universal translator lets people talk to anyone regardless of what language they speak.  But eventually the translations aren’t accurate and an international incident ensues.
• Voice based technology continues to take over society.  From podcasts to voice controlled AI assistants to voice cloning we’re constantly talking to or listening to something.  There are even podcasts recorded in our own voices.  This winds up driving a man crazy when he thinks he starts hearing voices. Is he or did he just forget to take out his earpiece and still has a podcast in his own voice playing?
• It’s been suggested that by 2025 90% of all online content will be AI generated. Not only will we struggle to know what’s real news or fake news but soon we won’t even be able to tell what’s AI generated and what’s made by a real person. Or even who is real or an AI avatar. Is the main character even real?
• The Technological Convergence (AI, AR/VR, nanobots, quantum computing, driverless cars, synthetic biology, 3D printing, etc.) all coming online at once overwhelms society as we’re not emotionally ready to experience 20,000 years of innovation in just 100 more years of evolution. 
• AI advancements lead to a new Beatles song and remixes of other famous artists.  To the point where no new songs ever get invented again.  Which makes a rising pop star very angry.
• The button. Just hit the button and AI automatically responds to your email.  Or just hit the button and AI codes an app for you.  Soon society becomes too reliant on just hitting “The Button” to do everything. To disastrous results. Like when someone hits a button that starts a nuclear war.
• A local pizza chain (domino’s inspired) uses technology in their marketing ploys such as paving roads to ensure smoother pizza delivery.  So much so that they become obsessed with using technology in service of pizza.
• Thanks to AI and VR books and movies now allow to visit virtual recreations of famous worlds such as Middle Earth or Dunder Mifflin as you live inside the stories. In this episode you get to experience some famous examples. That you can’t escape from.
• Inspired by the Mark Zuckerberg/Elon Musk cage fight duels make a comeback to settle feuds in the future.  Even for people who don’t want to participate.  With a surveillance state ensuring that every infraction gets noticed and resolved.
• A whistleblower comes forward with proof of alien technology. And then starts to get harassed as a result. Is he telling the truth? You’re left wondering but there’s a suggestion that a lot of modern technology was actually reverse engineered from alien tech.
• Inspired by vintage inventions that have been shared recently on Twitter such as a pedestrian catcher, window knocker, acoustic kitty, solar bath, music for the deaf, etc. there’s an episode that takes place in the past with a plot revolving around the unique inventions of the time.  Imagining what a Black Mirror-esque experience would have been like in a different era.
• A new procedure lets people become taller.  But first they have to break their own legs on purpose.
• A DNA ancestry kit leads to a host of issues. A person finds out they only have a few days to live due to a rare genetic disorder.  Someone else find out they are related to an infamous person while another gets arrested from a 30 year-old cold case.
• A famous inventor (Ray Kurzweil inspired) is known for making scarily, accurate predictions about the future. Throughout the episode you see him working on something, making new calculations.  At the end of the episode he is horrified by what he sees.  But the audience never knows what that is.
• A marketing firm gets hired to promote a new movie (think Barbie dream house popping up in Malibu) and brings that movie to life in the real world. But some people don’t know that what they’re seeing is just to promote a movie.

Could any of my ideas become a Black Mirror episode?!

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#2,899 – Underwater Spa

Everyone’s still talking about the Titanic sightseeing sub that was shoddily constructed and predictably imploded. But there’s another underwater story that we should be talking about. And no, I’m not referring to the increasing number of orca-strated attacks in the Mediterranean. Rather, I’m talking about the scientist who spent 100 days living underwater and emerged ten years younger. Anyone want to start an underwater spa business?!

Outdoors explains:

“Joseph Dituri, a University of South Florida professor, former U.S. navy diver, and expert in biomedical engineering, locked himself in a 592-square-foot underwater research station in the Florida Keys for more than 100 days. His time underwater scientifically reversed his biological age clock by approximately 10 years.

Dituri now holds the world record for living underwater, which was previously 73 days. He spent his time underwater at the Jules’ Undersea Lodge, the ‘only underwater hotel in the United States.’

While underwater, Dituri conducted research into the effects of hyperbaric pressure on the human body. He measured the length of his telomeres and his overall stem cell count and concluded that a 60% increase in deep sleep added to the reversal of his biological clock. The experiment showed a 20% growth in the lengths of his telomeres and a 1,000% growth in his body’s natural stem cell count.

Telomeres shorten as we age, exposing the DNA to damage, and many longevity programs today focus on halting that loss.

Other beneficial effects of Dituri’s deep-sea hibernation included a 72-point drop in cholesterol and a 50% reduction in inflammatory markers.

Before going underwear, Dituri was concerned about the negative consequences of living under the sea. For instance, he anticipated that the lack of sunlight and changed gravity would reduce his exposure to vitamin D, disrupt his circadian rhythm, cause loss of bone and muscle mass, and weaken his immune system. To combat all this, Dituri used exercise bands at least five days a week and swam daily.

Dituri also guessed that there would be some benefits to life underwater, similar to the benefits of a therapeutic hyperbaric oxygen chamber, like improved brain health and better cognition. However, it’s safe to say that he was pleasantly shocked to find himself 10 years younger after his experiment.”

There’s already been a lot of progress made on the age reversal front. Some people think we may only be about a decade away from achieving longevity escape velocity. Of extending our lives by a year for every year we live. And perhaps underwater spas play a role in how we achieve that. Especially with sea levels rising thanks to Climate Change.

Can living underwater make us younger?

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#2,898 – Online News Coverage

We already live in a world of divided information. Of real news and fake. Facts and conspiracy theories. But lately it seems to me that the real divide is between what we talk about online and what gets publicly talked about on the news.

Obviously, there’s going to be some overlap. When a submarine implodes near the Titanic it’s going to make headlines and inspire memes equally. But other times if you want to know what’s going on, what’s really going on, what people are buzzing about, what they’re likely to be talking about around the proverbial watercooler the next day, you need to be plugged into what’s happening online.

Reddit claims to be the front page of the Internet but right now their moderator protests have become one of the biggest stories itself. Twitter is a great source of information and breaking news but similarly Elon Musk’s recent categorization of Cis and Cisgender as slurs has become a story itself. As has his cage match with Mark Zuckerberg.

With so much going on, and social media sites themselves starting to generate headlines, we may need to consider a new approach to covering the news. One that flips the script and covers what’s happening online instead of in the real world. That covers what people are buzzing about. More viral, less virus. More popularity, less politics. More memes, less mean.

We could call this new site “Buzz” but that sounds too similar to BuzzFeed and reminds me too much of puns on Bumble. But you get the point. A place where you can go to find all the latest news, conspiracy theories, memes, jokes, cancellations, celebrity gossip, and hot topics that are going viral at any given time. Maybe we call it Snapshot?

If such a place existed over the last few weeks you’d be getting informed about the missing sub, the Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg cage fight, Joe Rogan bullying guests into appearing on his show, RFK Jr.’s controversial views, Zion Williamson’s porn star sex tape, the Reddit moderator battle, the NBA draft, the Barbie and Oppenheimer movies, the Grimace TikTok challenge, whale attacks, and the Wagner near coup attempt in Russia.

Sure, you would probably also know most of that from the mainstream media. But would their submarine coverage including the step son’s feud with Cardi B, Blink 182 references, or MrBeast claiming that he was almost on board? Would their NBA draft coverage include jokes about Gradey Dick’s Wizard of Oz inspired outfit? Would their RFK Jr. coverage include footage of him working out? Would they even be talking about Grimace at all?!

By framing what’s happening publicly by the way people are acting privately you’d get a clearer picture of what’s going on. Helping those who aren’t plugged in online to stay informed while also forming a deeper understanding of what’s going on for everyone. And quite frankly this gossipy approach in more interesting than regular news coverage. Alternate takes on news telling like the satirical Daily Show or Last Week Tonight have had great success. As have tabloids.

The news in its current form is far too negative. I get that “if it bleeds it leads” but we’re over it. People genuinely want to stay informed. But they also want to be able to fall asleep at night. Newspapers have gone away. As have trustworthy nightly news anchors. Times have changed and so has the way information spreads. What the mainstream media covers should change too.

Should the news cover what happens online instead?

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#2,897 – Space Week: Double Decker Seats

Airplanes are notoriously crammed as airlines try to make as much money as possible by stuffing planes with anxious passengers. As a result we all fight for elbow room, pay more for extra legroom, or even buy extra seats out of necessity. Could double deck seats be the solution?!

Well, it may depend on the design. The image above looks appealing. Below not so much thanks to someone being able to fart directly into your face.

However, some passengers might be willing to accept the trade off for extra legroom. As USA Today puts it:

“Downstairs, the seats have more legroom with a footrest that extends well under the upper seats. There’s plenty of storage, but the upper-level partition does feel a little close at eye level…

Even still, especially on overnight flights, the extra room and deeper recline compared to standard economy could be a good option for sleeping.”

Personally, I kind of like the concept. So long as I’m in the top bunk!

Are double decker airplane seats the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,896 – Space Week: JetZero

Thanks to JetZero we could soon have a new airplane design that would reduce carbon emissions simply by changing how planes are built. If the so-called SpaceX of aviation has there way we could be taking to the skies inside flying manta rays.

Singularity Hub explains:

“Air travel is a major source of carbon emissions, accounting for about 2.4 percent of global emissions each year. There are a range of solutions in the works, from electrifying aircraft to using hydrogen fuel to bringing back the airship. The likelihood of any of these coming to fruition varies, and even if they do, it won’t be soon.

A California-based startup called JetZero has a different idea: changing the shape of commercial planes and the material they’re made of. The company unveiled its designs for the midsize commercial and military tanker-transport markets this spring, and has big plans to upend the way air travel looks and feels—as well as how much it costs and how much carbon it emits. Tony Fadell, founder of venture capital firm Build Collective and a JetZero investor and strategic advisor, thinks the company could be the “SpaceX of aviation” due to its potential to disrupt the existing business model.

JetZero’s planes, which are still in the concept/prototype phase, have a blended wing body design. That means the wings merge with the main body of the aircraft, rather than being attached to a hollow tube like the planes we travel in today. Picture the body of a manta ray: wide and flat, it tapers off to a narrower fin at each side, with a head and a tail. A blended wing body aircraft isn’t terribly different, though on JetZero’s models the body isn’t quite as wide.

Besides providing a lot more space, this design is more aerodynamic than tube-and-wing planes. JetZero plans to fly its planes at higher altitudes than today’s norm (40 to 45,000 feet rather than 30 to 35,000), and says its airframe will cut fuel burn and emissions in half. It plans to make its planes out of carbon fiber and kevlar (a strong lightweight fiber used for things like body armor, bulletproof vests, car brakes, boats, and aircraft). The company says its planes’ lighter weight and improved aerodynamics would be able to fly at the same speed and range as existing midbody jetliners, but burn half as much fuel in the process.

JetZero points out that we’ve brought the traditional tube-and-wing design about as far as we possibly can in terms of efficiency gains; there’s not much more to be done to make them lighter, faster, or more fuel-efficient. At the same time, jet fuel is getting more expensive, and reducing emissions is getting more urgent. If JetZero is able to bring its blended wing body aircraft to production, it would be the first major overhaul of commercial passenger planes, well, ever. But, the company says, its planes would still fit seamlessly into airport infrastructure, utilizing existing runways and gates without requiring significant alterations.”

The future is taking shape!

Is JetZero the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,895 – Space Week: Nuclear Clocks

What is time anyway? Is it a fixed point? Flowing in one direction? Folding back onto itself? Is time travel possible? There’s still so much we don’t understand when it comes to time. But we are getting better at measuring it. And with that improvement comes new technological possibilities.

According to Big Think:

“However well we can keep time, then, determines what our technological capabilities will be. There are many tasks that require an incredibly accurate knowledge of time, synchronized across many different locations around the globe, and a few even beyond our terrestrial world. Any question you have about ‘which event occurred first’ or ‘how precisely can we measure the exact moment at which this event occurred’ can only be answered as well as you’re capable of measuring time according to the standard-of-rest (or reference frame) that we’ve selected.

At present, the atomic clock is the best technology we have for measuring time to the greatest precision of all…

Currently, the best atomic clocks are accurate to about 1 second in every 30 billion years, but nuclear clocks could up that to nearly 1 second in every one trillion years, which would be a remarkable improvement.

• Financial transactions could occur with ~picosecond accuracy.
• Global positioning could be achieved with ~millimeter precision.
• The gravitational changes in Earth could lead to us monitoring water-table changes by sub-centimeter levels.
• And radio astronomy, which is used today to image black holes with a telescope the effective diameter of Earth, could be extended into the space around Earth, leading to resolutions that are tens or even hundreds of times greater than at present.”

That last point is the most exciting to me. With resolutions that great we might finally be able to answer some of our most pressing questions about the Universe! Nuclear clocks here we come!

Is a Nuclear Clock the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,894 – Space Week: AstroCrete

“Blood. Sweat. Tears. Whatever it takes.”

That’s always been one of my favorite quotes. And soon it could be how we literally build on other planets. Thanks to a new proposal to create concrete out of Martian soil and human by products.

The Daily Mail explains:

“A protein from human blood, combined with urine, sweat and tears could create a glue-like substance to form concrete, called AstroCrete, on the moon and Mars.

The innovation comes from scientists at the University of Manchester who set out to tackle the issues, and cost, of sending building materials into space.

The ‘glue’ holds lunar or Mars soil together, producing a concrete-like material that the researchers say is 300 percent stronger than ordinary concrete.

The scientists calculate that over 1,100 pounds of high-strength AstroCrete could be produced during a two-year Mars mission by a crew of six astronauts.”

So if you’re wanting to live on Mars urine luck.

Is AstroCrete the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,893 – Space Week: The Starseed Phenomenon

Right now there’s a battle being waged online over transgender rights, pronouns, and all the different things people can choose to identify as. Elon Musk has even gone so far as to ban the words “cis” and “cisgender” on Twitter considering them as slurs. But forget for a moment about what sex you identify as. What if you don’t even identify as being human at all? What if you identify as being alien?! Welcome to the Starseed Phenomenon.

Science Alert explains:

“There’s a new group of people on Earth who believe they’re aliens.

Star people, or starseeds, are individuals who believe they have come to Earth from other dimensions to help heal the planet and guide humanity into the ‘golden age’ – a period of great happiness, prosperity, and achievement.

It might sound a little crazy but an internet search for the term brings up over 4 million results and there are scores of people posting videos on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook who believe they originate from another world. Indeed, content with the term #starseed has over 1 billion views on TikTok.

Unlike ‘Earth souls’, who are said to reincarnate on Earth, starseeds believe they have reawakened from another planet to be born here. Starseeds believe they are conduits between divine realms and the Earth and that they can transport between galaxies via meditation.

Starseeds also believe they can communicate in ‘light language’ – a form of communication that is said to bypass human limitations and be the language of the soul.

The idea is widely credited to the author Brad Steiger who wrote prolifically about the unknown and was keenly interested in alien life and extraterrestrials. In his 1976 book, Gods of Aquarius, Steiger introduced his notion that some people originate from other dimensions.

Believers claim there are several ways to tell if you are a starseed. These include searching for meaning in life and feeling a lack of belonging. Being spiritual and possessing a strong sense of intuition (knowing) are also qualities of a starseed.

They are also said to be empathetic, sensitive, and have more physical and mental health issues as their souls aren’t used to having a human body. Starseeds want to help humanity. But they get overwhelmed by life on Earth and so recharge by spending time alone.

Believers also say that starseeds have the desire to explore and experience new cultures and spheres, which help star people to then provide novel insights into existence. Examples include new (conspiracy) theories about society, holistic health interventions, along with thoughts on ancient aliens and civilizations.”

Wait a second…that sounds a lot like me!

Am I a starseed?!

Well…

“You might recognize some aspects of yourself in the above description. Many people, for example, report searching for meaning in life along with feeling displaced or like they don’t belong at times.

Indeed, research shows that a low sense of belonging is often linked to depression. But what makes some people who are experiencing such feelings jump to the conclusion that they must be from another planet? Particularly given that no life beyond Earth has ever been found and there is no evidence that alien life has ever visited Earth.

Welcome to the Forer effect. Named after Bertram Forer, the psychologist who first figured out that it was pretty easy to get people to agree with vague descriptions about themselves – see horoscopes.

The concept of starseeds is a form of new age belief. The term refers to alternative spiritual practices that developed during the 1970s.

Although each new age belief is different, philosophies share common features: they view existence in terms of the Universe and focus on spirituality as well as the self. Think crystals, energy healing, and psychic abilities.

Other features include reincarnation, karma, and the possibility of reaching a higher level of consciousness.

Support for new age beliefs – such as starseeds – is on the rise. It comes from a distrust of science and doubts about conventional perceptions of reality. Particularly, cynicism about modern society and an attempt to find meaning in life.”

Given the fact that we may actually be in contact with beings from higher dimensions it’s definitely possible that some people already living on Earth have some connection to those same dimensions. But for my money if I’m going to believe that I’m an alien I’d much rather join the Raelism UFO sex cult than just merely identify as an alien!

Do you identify as an alien!?

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#2,892 – Space Week: Eternal Flight

Some people choose to live on the water in houseboats, cruise ships, or expensive yachts. Perhaps in the future some people will choose to live for months or years at a time in the stratosphere?!

The BBC explains:

“It is June 2022, and a flying machine that looks like a cross between a prehistoric beast and a spaceship is about to take off. Named the Zephyr S, it has long spindly wings the length of an airliner’s. Together with its small, thin body and head, these make it resemble a pterodactyl. Its shimmering tinfoil-like solar panels and lightweight skeletal frame are more like something you’d see on a craft meant for space.

It takes five or six people to lift the Zephyr. When it’s ready to launch, they run across the runway holding the craft above them. The machine’s two small propellers turn frantically before the plane begins its slow climb up into the cloudless sky to 60,000ft (18,300m) or 70,000ft (21,300m) – a relentless ascent into the stratosphere that can take 10 days.

Its mission for the US Army is a secret, but clearly on its manufacturer’s mind is the desire to shatter a few records, particularly that for the longest flight duration for any type of airplane, which has stood for 63 years. In 1959 two men flew a four-seat Cessna light aircraft for 64 days, 22 hours and 19 minutes, refuelling in-flight from a truck.

British aviation pioneer Chris Kelleher designed the first Zephyr in 2002. His vision was of an uncrewed aircraft capable of ‘eternal flight’ in the stratosphere. He foresaw that solar power and lightweight materials would lead to aircraft capable of staying aloft for months, or even years. The Zephyr S is the first production model.”

It’ll be a while before we actually live miles high inside of stratoplanes. It’s difficult to breathe in the stratosphere, there are environmental concerns, and the air above a country is still considered their territory. But this technology could still wind up being useful as we run out of land on Earth for our ever expanding population or if we ever want to live on another planet that has an atmosphere but no where to land.

Is Eternal Flight the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,891 – Space Week: The Moonshot Idea

We now have a plan to put actual cannons on the lunar surface in order to shut dust into space, block out the sun, and counteract Climate Change. Talk about a literal moonshot.

As Futurism puts it:

“A team of astrophysicists is suggesting we could protect the Earth from global warming by shooting lunar dust into space to shade the Earth from sunlight, The Washington Post reports.

The Moonshot idea, as detailed in a new paper published this week in the journal PLOS Climate, would involve using massive cannons, mounted on the lunar surface, to launch dust that would eventually settle in orbit between the Sun and the Earth.

It’s a new and intriguing interplanetary spin on the concept of solar geoengineering, the idea of shooting particles into the Earth’s stratosphere to shade the surface below, which has already proven highly controversial among scientists.

After all, they argue, we still have no idea what the outcome of such an invasive technique could be.

But the team behind the new paper argues that it’s still better than doing nothing.”

And since we’re messing with the Moon and Space and not the Earth itself perhaps if it doesn’t work or backfires we won’t be negatively impacted. So if we are going to mess with geoengineering schemes perhaps this is where we start. Learning to (Moon)walk before we can run.

Is the Moonshot idea the Greatest Idea Ever?

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