Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

Scott G. Beach · 2004-01-30 18:57:11

In the last section of "3001: The Final Odyssey," author Arthur C. Clarke explained that during the production of the movie "2001" the idea of an alien-built "pyramid evolved into the now famous black Monolith." That brick-shaped monolith had the proportions 1 by 4 by 9.

Clarke's alien-built pyramid was originally described in "The Sentinel," which was published in 1951. The proportions of the pyramid are not given, except that it is described as "twice as high as a man." I have drawn a pyramid that could function as a sentinel -- an automated transmitter that would alert the builders that another sentient species had found the transmitter. My drawing shows a tall pyramid that has proportions based on Phi. The base of the pyramid is square. The sides of the base are the square root of Phi units in length, which means that the area of the base is Phi. Each of the four ridge-lines of the pyramid are Phi squared units in length. My drawing is on the web at http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743 … iramid.png . A pyramid with these proportions might be constructed as the "Center Monument" of a Martian settlement (see my draft Martian constitution at [http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm]http://www.geocities.com/scott956282743/owningmars.htm ).

A pyramid that has proportions based on Phi can be referred to as a Phiramid.

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-03-06 00:26:33

Yes they were strange, pyramid of elysium

but its only a strange land formation, no martian alien!

:laugh:

Josh Cryer · 2004-03-06 02:27:50

I agree Yang Liwei

It would be fun to climb them.

Norden · 2004-03-23 09:06:15

standing in the middle of flath landscape..

falkor · 2004-08-21 08:48:35

has anybody thought about the monoliths spotted on Mars viz:

http://www.windsorsafaripark.org.uk/wph … ?t=84]long thread on this back at WSFP

has anybody seen this 'photo' before??

Shaun Barrett · 2004-08-23 18:02:07

Yes, Falkor. I've seen it before.
It's an interesting concept and might explain the formations seen in some places on Mars ... except for one small problem.
Whenever we get higher resolution shots of the same landforms, they don't start to look more like the remains of artificial geometric structures but more like naturally eroded geological features.

I, too, was intrigued by the Viking images of Cydonia. I was almost prepared to believe I was looking at the remnants of cyclopean buildings and I definitely wanted more pictures. Higher resolution photos taken since then have not reinforced the argument for artificiality but, rather, have served to fatally undermine it.

[However, I still find the Face worthy of further investigation. Though the likelihood of it being artificial is almost vanishingly small and there are thousands of more pressing questions about Mars I'd rather be addressing.]

Mad Grad Student · 2004-10-10 16:13:52

If we want to leave a message for aliens or our distant descendants (Or whoever) that we once went to Mars, I think that we could do better than a pyramid or a monolith. Granted, it would be pretty strange to find some giant slab on the Moon that had the precise demensions of 1x4x9, but that doesn't necessarily mean it came from aliens. Look, this things shaped funny, it must have been made by aliens! I doub that would be the general reaction. Additionally, the odds of a pyramid (or phiramid) "twice the size of a man" or a monolith two meters tall on an entire planet are exceedingly small.

Perhaps a better idea would be to create vast pits 1,000 feet deep by a mile wide and long, and with them spell out a message, like the first five prime numbers, that could be seen from orbit. A message like that would take eons for natural erosion to wipe away, and with perfectly square sides would look decidedly artificial from orbit. It would take a pretty good amount of effort to clear away such a vast amount of land, but perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone and make the monument wherever a big amount of resources exist, turning it into a giant open-pit mine.

Looking over what I've written above, I realize that in a way we've already found several "monoliths" on Mars, the face, the pyramids, the "rabbtit," the list goes on and on. If we actually found a precisely-milled monolith or pyramid anywhere undoubtably there'd be a bunch of raving X-Files fans claiming it came from ET but no one in their right mind would ever go along with that.

Then again, nothing spells out "we were here!" like a space elevator and/or a bunch of junk in low orbit.

RobS · 2004-11-28 13:40:04

By "phi" do you mean the Greet letter "pi," which is 3.14159 . .? Phi is a different Greek letter, pronounced more like "f."

-- RobS

Scott G. Beach · 2004-12-01 01:28:43

RobS:

The numerical value of Phi is 1.618033988749... The formula for calculating Phi is the square-root of 5, plus 1, divided by 2.

RobS · 2004-12-04 22:22:56

Where does phi come from? What is its significance?

-- RobS

Trebuchet · 2004-12-07 16:26:45

Iapetus is a much more promising example of aliens mucking about in the solar system than anything else. Even if it wasn't, it gives me a good idea about how best to contact alien life and build a lasting monument to humanity.

Let's take a look at the Drake equation. One of the terms - probably the most important one, because it varies so much - is L, the lifetime of a sentient species. Now, L classically is however long the species is capable of radio communication and wants to communicate. Personally, I feel this is stupid, because it's likely that radio is an example of temporal and technological chauvinism. Aliens have a huge variety of possible communications needs and potential technologies to fulfill them, so I don't put much stock in the traditional 'radio SETI' methods. Besides, the bandwidth sucks. Laser is much better. But the fattest interstellar pipe of all is a probe crammed with DVDs and the means to read them.

Soon enough, historically speaking, the Fermi paradox will be moot. It doesn't matter why ET isn't here, because we'll be coming to him. And it's possibly more likely to stumble across pretechnological stone-age civilizations chopping hand axes out of rocks or something similar than another technological civilization, IMHO. Nuclear bombs to systems capable of elementary interstellar probes (that AIM engine) in a century (Not now, I'm giving us until 2045 to build it...), compared to untold millenia chasing elk and worrying about glaciers. It's unlikely we'll want to stick around, build a giant orbiting space station, and observe the entirety of their civilization develop over 100,000 years, although that would be pretty cool. We're just too impatient.

Instead, we should find some worthless real estate in their solar system - some junk moon nobody cares about - and make it unambigious that something is amiss. Nuke the surface in weird patterns so that the glassy craters make the moon resemble a giant disco ball, give it a funky paint job, dig Mad Grad Student's huge trenches, whatever. THEN you put a giant monolith or whatever somewhere on that moon - preferably of a size visible from orbit or someplace where probes are likely to land while checking out whatever you've done to that moon. It would take a much shorter amount of time than waiting for them to develop technology. (Of course, you could take the shortcut and land a party on the surface somewhere pretending to be gods or whatever to kickstart the process, but that probably violates some sort of galactic ethics standard. Damn bureaucrats.)

Shaun Barrett · 2004-12-12 16:46:21

Trebuchet:-
"Instead, we should find some worthless real estate in their solar system - some junk moon nobody cares about - and make it unambigious that something is amiss. Nuke the surface in weird patterns so that the glassy craters make the moon resemble a giant disco ball, give it a funky paint job, dig Mad Grad Student's huge trenches, whatever. THEN you put a giant monolith or whatever somewhere on that moon - preferably of a size visible from orbit or someplace where probes are likely to land while checking out whatever you've done to that moon."

Always on the lookout for any evidence of Trebuchet's plan having already been carried out by aliens here in our own solar system, I wondered about Saturn's moon Iapetus.
It's not exactly a "disco ball", but its starkly two-tone appearance has attracted our attention very effectively. Now it's been found to have a string of three mountains spaced quite evenly along its equator.

Of course, I realise the upcoming higher resolution pictures will almost certainly eliminate any possibility of artificiality but, so far, Iapetus could be interpreted as a possible example of just the sort of thing Trebuchet described.
A half-white half-black moon, eh?
A string of three high mountains, eh?
In a straight line, eh?
All situated precisely on the equator, eh?
???

[P.S. The above picture is taken from http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini- … .html]THIS SITE. ]

Trebuchet · 2004-12-12 19:17:15

Hmm, very, very interesting. I didn't know about the mountains.

Now we should see if there are black mountains on the white side of the moon, on the equator (or aligned to the same longitude or something similarly suspect), when Cassini takes a picture of that part of the moon. It's certainly suspicious.

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#1 2004-01-30 18:57:11

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#2 2004-03-06 00:26:33

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#3 2004-03-06 02:27:50

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#4 2004-03-23 09:06:15

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#5 2004-08-21 08:48:35

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#6 2004-08-23 18:02:07

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#7 2004-10-10 16:13:52

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#8 2004-11-28 13:40:04

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#9 2004-12-01 01:28:43

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#10 2004-12-04 22:22:56

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#11 2004-12-07 16:26:45

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#12 2004-12-12 16:46:21

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

#13 2004-12-12 19:17:15

Re: Martian Phiramids - The Center Monuments of Mars

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