Insufficient Data

Here's a little story that came to me as I was riding the fast train from Avignon, France, to Geneva, Switzerland. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to leave any comments. You may see some more creative writing here in the future! Marcus

 Insufficient Data

 by Marcus T. Anthony

With a thunderous roar the sky’s lone cloud parted and a most unearthly craft veered forth. Radiating an intense light in the daytime sky, it slowed almost as impossibly quickly as it had appeared, and came to rest upon the parched ground. Shortly thereafter the light emanating from the vehicle dimmed, revealing an oddly plastic-looking assemblage in light hues of grey and white. Suddenly a wall split in two, and from the brightness within, two hominid creatures sprang forth, gasping for breath. Tall and slender, the pair was dressed almost completely in white, in complete contrast to the midnight blackness of their faces and hands. Not quite male, and not quite female, their almost feline slenderness would have struck observers as being completely out of place in the dry, hostile heat; if any such observers had been there.

After a short while, the two regained composure, and turned to each other.

“That was certain genius, Dem. We had seconds of oxygen left.”

The shorter and thinner of the two responded shyly. “Thanks Lor, but I confess it was little more than pure self-preservation. Besides, the data processor informed me that there are no other oxygen rich planets with suitable gravity profiles within light years of here.”

Lor, whose stout demeanor indicated that he was clearly the senior authority, breathed deeply. “Not bad air at all, Dem. Slightly putrid, but breathable.” A small , barely visible beam of light suddenly emerged from his forehead, illuminating a screen in front of his face. He ran his hands across it, feeling the ghostly surface of it with his porous fingers.

“A little high in carbon dioxide. Traces of carbon monoxide.” He tiny eyes flittered a little as he sensed the data. “What do you know about carbon monoxide?”

“Never heard of it, sir. I’m no chemist, I’m sorry. But let me check.” A light beam immediately shone from his head and illuminated a device identical to his colleague’s. “Carbon monoxide. Well, it will kill us in sufficient concentrations, but at the levels detected here that would take about fifty years. This freezing air will more likely be the end of us.”

Lor retracted his data processor and stepped forward gingerly, feeling the rough ground with the sensors contained at the soul of his shoes. Dem followed as they moved over the small hill before them, and walked down.

“I can hardly see a thing, it’s so dark here,” lamented Lor. "Sometimes I wish we modern Truans had the eyes like a beasts of Yorda. Not that they would do us much good back home. The sun would burn them white within seconds.” Suddenly he stopped. “Did you hear that?”

Dem stood fully upright, his ears prickling in the too-cold air. “Yes. A definite rumbling sound, sir. Something large is moving this way, and quickly!”

It was too late. Terrified the two Truans stood frozen with fear as the huge, dark object closed in on them. 

Life on Mars, Life in the Cosmos

-->

Mars landscape just beyond the Argyre rim

Marcus T Anthony's new site and blog can be found at www.mind-futures.com.
 
It seems that not a year goes by now without further tantalizing evidence for the existence of life on Mars being brought forward, even if that life is long extinct. 

A recent significant finding has been that water existed on the surface of Mars in large quantities. A little over a month ago, an intriguing study from the European Space Agency found that water existed on the surface of Mars for hundreds of millions of years, mostly in the form of rivers. This was somewhat of a lesser finding than that of an American team, who just a couple of weeks prior to that had published a paper in Nature Geoscience journal, suggesting that a massive ocean had covered about a third of the Martian surface 3.5 billion years ago. 

Now a report published three days ago in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, reports that rocks have been identified on Mars that may contain evidence of life. It’s not quite proof, but close to it. 

The end of China

 Scene from the Tibetan riots in 2008

Is China destined to implode once again? George Friedman, in his book The Next 100 Years, dismisses China's rise. The chapter is entitled "Paper Tiger". He suggests that the historical issues which have plagued China in previous times will resurface yet again, once the economic growth begins to retract. The recent strong performance of China's economy in the Global  Financial Crisis suggests China will continue to rise economically. But could Friedman possibly be correct?

Recently China's blogging community has been enraged by widely circulated figures which indicate that 0.4 per cent of the population possess 70 per cent of the PRC's wealth, while 91 per cent of those with assets of 100 million RMB or more are children of senior Communist Party cadres.

Mark Osborne's haunting short film, "More"

Deep Futures are about deep meaning, and this academy-award nominated short film is a perfect comment on futures that have lost all depth. Although the film shows an industrial work setting, the essence of the society remains the same for the so-called knowledge economy. In seeking to push for more "Bliss", we can lose touch with the child within, and the simple joy of being present.

More reminds me greatly of my resident city of Hong Kong, where ordinary people have become increasingly left behind amidst the relentless drive for growth at all costs. GDP is nothing to be proud of when the soul of humanity has been sucked dry in its endless pursuit of cash and "prestige/status/face".