Another mind stretching thread.
Thanks Mike (yet again) for compiling such thought provoking images. I appreciate the efforts taken in consistently challenging us with these
collections, many of which would be missed by the casual observer. Everyone with even the remotest interest in theoretical Martian history owes you,
Internos, and many others a debt of gratitude. It's this sort of thread that urges us to never lose interest, or faith, in what may be out there.
As ever, however, I look upon these photos with an annoyingly welcome, extremely vocal devil's advocate sitting on my shoulder. It's this voice of
reason that makes these photos even more fascinating.
It would be easy to simply accept visual evidence as coroboration of a belief. If that belief is strongly held and dear, as is mine regarding Mars,
then these photos are simply a gift. They confirm
everything.
But...
what we are working with, and acknowledging that this is
all we should allow ourselves, are assumptions regarding the object's provenance.
Naming them, associatiating them with familiar artifacts, IMO, is dangerous. I do not offer this as a personal affront, Mike, as I am unsure as to
whether you have applied the designations or simply used ones that already exist.
Either way, I'm sure you'll join me in saying that judgement as to what they are, or even appear to be, should be reserved and based on experienced
assesment.
I'm well aware that this in itself can be a dangerous approach, and I'm sure most experts would venture an opinion that would go some way to
verifying this, in that deducing the identity of any anomalous object cannot really be undertaken by the use of a blurred photgraph.
These images are provocative, evocative and captivating and should be viewed as such. Attaching monikers such as "machine parts" and "ammunition
box" only obfuscates what may be something
truly alien, in every sense of the word.
We have no idea what they are because we cannot pick them up, analyse them, study and compare them with anything we have or have knowledge of.
Yes, the "bird skull" is
incredibly suggestive of being just what it looks like (if it walks like a Martian duck, quacks like a Martian duck
etc... does apply), but it isn't really acceptible as evidence because it might just be a trick of the light.
An aside is called for here: this post should not come across as being sceptical.
I have, on
many occasions, voiced my opinions regarding past civilisations on Mars, in that I believe they once existed. This viewpoint accepts
that any civilisation(s) having been wiped out by whatever catastrophe or applied stupidity, would have had at its disposal abundant flora and fauna.
Obviously, and logically, varying proportions of these would have ended up being fossilised.
I
want the "bird's skull" to be just what it looks like, because that would indicate that life on earth may well have originated from Mars
as some theories have it, or that panspermia has a grounding in fact. This could mean life has reoccured here in recognisably Martian form, which
opens an incredible can of worms (or should that be strands of worm-like bacteria? :lol
To look on these photos, for me, is like looking into the past. They are snapshots of memories of childhood dreams; a physical manifestation of what
many deem science fiction.
How sad, especially today with the recent passing of Athur C. Clarke, that many will look at these images with something approaching disdain.
(I can here the heavy tramp of the "there just rocks" brigade approaching).
Where is that ellusive spark he had, that ability and willingness to merge hard science with the need to dream, and whatsmore be vocal about it? It is
a rare, brave attitude and something that we should all aspire to, but few of us dare.
I read that Mr Clark expressed the opinion that there are large, arboreal life-forms on the Martian surface. In doing that, IMO, he was expressing a
deduction based on scientific observation. He may be right, but I'm pretty sure he would have been magnanimous in defeat if proven wrong. It's a
damn shame he'll never find out.
I can see strange shapes in your photos, Mike, simulacra, and rocks too. The rocks excite me purely because they are
on another planet.
The simulacra amuse, nothing more.
The anomalies, those and the countless others I have seen, however demand the sort of attention that is missing in natural objects; they stand out as
surely and awkwardly as a square peg in a round hole.
They are alien in every sense of the word:
a·li·en (ā'lē-ən, āl'yən)
Belonging to, characteristic of, or constituting another and very different place, society, or person; strange.
dictionary.reference.com...
This is why it is difficult to categorize them.
For all we know, these "skulls", if indeed they are artificial, may be ritual objects, totems, idols. Indeed, their true origin, even when finally
retrieved, may be beyond our understanding.
But that prospect should not quash the allure of gazing upon part of the fabric of a distant, extraordinary landscape.