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From: Mac Tonnies <macbot@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 22:57:17 -0700 (PDT)
Fwd Date: Mon, 15 May 2000 08:45:56 -0400
Subject: Cydonian Imperative: Hoagland's Claims Analyzed


Science Fiction and Possible Alien Artifacts on Mars:
Richard Hoagland's Recent Claims Analyzed

by

Mac Tonnies


The latest 'conspiracy' to hit the Net concerning possible
suppression of space-science knowledge is author Richard
Hoagland's recent 'revelation' that a set of View-Master reels
depicts a leaked agenda of Mars 'secrets'. Such a claim deserves
to be looked at; given NASA's incomprehensible reticence to
'come clean' with their agenda re. the Mars Global Surveyor's
mission objectives, it's not completely unreasonable to look for
possible 'leaks'. Given the Kafkaesque circumstances, it's only
natural to turn to sources other than NASA for confirmation of
our suspicions.

However, Hoagland has looked in the wrong place. The reels he
cites as evidence of a secret Cydonian indoctrination program
are segments from a serialized science fiction adventure series
from 1955--decades before the Viking mission discovered evidence
for the anomalies under investigation. So it would appear
Hoagland's claim is decidedly 'fringe' from the start; it's
predicated on the assumption that NASA (or some other space
agency) has not only been aware of the Cydonian enigma for much
longer than history would allow, but is confident enough in its
estimation of the mystery to begin a pop-cultural
indoctrination, plugging specific ideas at the science
fiction-reading demographic of 1955 in hopes of steering our
psychosocial acceptance of artificial structures on Mars (and
elsewhere).

Hoagland's reasoning is exquisitely absurd. In the View-Master
slides he enthusiastically referred to at his recent
fund-raiser, a team of plastic astronauts voyages to the Moon
and discovers a pyramidal artifact containing a scale model of
the planet Mars. Hoagland maintains that this is beyond
coincidence, and that the symbolic references to Mars and
pyramids (specifically tetrahedrons, which many argue are
inferred by mathematical alignments at Cydonia) prove a hidden,
behind-the-scenes knowledge of the features at Cydonia, as well
as a roughly triangular crater on the Moon documented by
Hoagland several years ago during his investigation of alleged
"crystalline ruins" visited by the Apollo astronauts.

Alien artifacts on the Moon and Mars are nothing new in science
fiction. It comes as no surprise to me that there once existed a
series centered around the discovery of "Mars-like" artifacts on
the Moon. Arthur C. Clarke's famous short story "The Sentinel"
describes a very similar situation, complete with pyramidal
overtones. It should be noted that Hoagland, in his increasingly
desperate quest for evidence, completely overlooks 'The
Sentinel'--and the movie based upon it, "2001: A Space Odyssey."

One wonders right away why Hoagland would devote any time at all
to an obscure View-Master drama when "2001", with its lavish
detail and illustrious cinematic history, is so near at hand. I
suspect ignoring "The Sentinel" as 'evidence' for Hoagland's pet
theories is because citing a well-known movie would immediately
make him look foolish. (After all, science fiction is generally
based on science fact--even if loosely--rather than the other
way around.) But the View-Master reels are just obscure enough
that Hoagland can feel relatively comfortable "discovering"
them, and in so doing creating the albeit tenuous illusion that
he's 'onto something'.

A close look at the purported 'symbolic parallels' between the
View-Master reels and the real mystery at Cydonia, however,
makes it quite clear that Hoagland is onto nothing at all. The
science fiction genre is littered with references to pyramids on
other planets, a theme that achieves a certain romantic aura
since we tend to think of the Pyramids of Egypt when we hear the
word "ruin". Pyramids are the archetypal "ruin", and as such
lend themselves nicely to stories of extraterrestrial discovery.

I personally own a copy of an obscure, long out-of-print
paperback called--get this--"Puzzle of the Space Pyramids." Its
cover features an astronaut wandering the sands of Mars with
enormous pyramids looming in the background--a 'parallel' that
outdoes any of the alleged symbolism in Hoagland's Martian
odyssey. I have little doubt that, if faced with "Puzzle of the
Space Pyramids" and some ancient View-Master reels about finding
artifacts on the Moon, Hoagland would have sprung for the former
to back up his fragile, nonsensical claims.

("Puzzle of the Space Pyramids" isn't the only story I can think
of that features pyramids on Mars. Another well-known story is
Stanley Weinbaum's "A Martian Odyssey." And as long as we're
being paranoid, why not include Ray Bradbury's "The Martian
Chronicles" as part of the conspiracy? After all, Bradbury's
Martians built sprawling, glass cities suspiciously similar to
the "highly geometric glass ruins" hyped to the point of inanity
on Hoagland's "Enterprise Mission" website. But why stop there?
Let's add "Total Recall," which featured an alien pyramid on
Mars, any number of "Star Trek" episodes, all the Tatoine
sequences from "Star Wars" that look vaguely Martian... Hoagland
has created a "conspiracy" that knows no bounds, and threatens
to constitute the whole of Space Age pop-culture if taken to its
logical extreme.)

Michael Bara, writing on his Lunar Anomalies site, depicts
Hoagland's delivery of the "View-Master Chronicles" as a
mesmerizing and awe-inspiring event never to be forgotten, and
goes on to challenge the skeptics to "explain this one!"

Not to pat myself on the back too hard, but I think I just have.


Mac Tonnies
http://www.geocities.com/macbot/mtvi.html