One of my coworkers was showing me some stuff in augmented reality. This led to a discussion about virtual reality.
We were watching a Microsoft demonstration video about VR and there was this person who’d entered a VR version of their own apartment. On it’s surface, cool but then as I was watching this person hang virtual pictures on a virtual wall this thought popped into my head.
“What if VR becomes so much the norm, that people simply become unaware of their homes and apartments falling down around them. What happens when the VR construct is so lifelike and interactive that people no longer see the dirt or the broken windows? More and more of our written documents exist in digital format only, what happens when we become fully invested in a VR world? What would our civilization look like in 5 or 10 thousand years?” What would be remembered and how?
Then I thought about all the ancient civilizations scattered around the world. Broken stones standing in mute testament to a people who were gone. Our archeologists trying to piece together a civilization from fragments left behind. What would they think of our civilization after it passed?
Excerpt from last Journal entry of Lin Jon, Archeologist of the Draco-Tang Consortium
These people appear to have made large monuments and dwellings, they had a written language but only seem to have used it to engrave names and dates on some of their most important buildings. In virtually all other cases this civilization did not use written language, we find little evidence of books, or libraries and those we have found appear to have been reserved for only the wealthiest of the population.
Each person carried a totem that had great significance. These totems are typically smooth rectangular wafers of varying sizes. Totems are always found within arms reach of their owner.
The totems all contain a complex array of delicate gold wires embossed on an unknown laminated material. The wire patterns fall into predictable patterns, however their meaning is as yet unknown.
We surmise these may have been significant of religious practice or religious sects. All the totems have a container of poisonous chemicals in a desiccated state, Perhaps at the end of an individual’s life they were expected to break the totem open and consume the chemicals?
We have found huge numbers of bodies. Many of them in repose inside what appear to be individual dwellings. We believe these were dwellings, not tombs. Our theory is grounded in the variety and quantity of serving & eating utensils with organic residue.
What we do not understand is why each dwelling has only one or two individuals. In many cases the individuals seem to have died at different times. We can deduce this because in some cases of two individuals being present, we have found that one of the individuals was encased in a large sack. Often the second individual was discovered in a reclining position in close proximity on a piece of furniture specifically built to maintain this Skyward looking pose. Our testing on the material of the various sacks, suggest that an intact sack would have been air and water tight.
We do not know what happened to this civilization, the first assessments that these civilizations were ravaged by some kind of disease are called into question by some of our findings. (See previous reports attached)
On the one hand these people appear to have been civilized and lived in a social hierarchy. On the other hand, they don’t have art, music, or literature, all of which are precursors to civilization. It is almost as if there was some other “ruling class” who suddenly left, and the remaining population, without guidance couldn’t take care of themselves anymore.
This new find on the Southwest coast of the continent is in a remarkable state of preservation. No doubt owing to the arid climate and little rainfall. This site will keep archeologists busy for decades as we try to understand what happened here.
Clearly, this may be one of the civilizations of legend. Let us hope we can find out what happened here so that we may avoid the same mistake.
Addendum: Send more fuel. Our explorations are taking us deeper into tunnels under the city and we’re using lanterns more than expected.
2nd Addendum: Dr. Gravo just brought three artifacts to me. One looks like a ceremonial mask but there is no way to see through it when wearing it. The other two artifacts are small curved domes of glasslike material. Dr. Gravo found these in the eyesockets of one of the bodies. He began rechecking and has since found each body has a set, always found in the eyes.
Dr. Gravo has suggested cleaning and sanitizing a set then trying them on to see what function they may have served. He surmises that these are corrective lenses of some kind.
We’re going to work through the night so we can allow the entire research team to try these little domes on.
I’m very excited to see the world as the ancients did, more tomorrow.
What if Atlantis was a High Technology Civilization surpassing our own? What if they actually did destroy themselves with that technology. What if the legends we have of magic are actually descriptions of technology that have been watered down through the ages?
What if we’re on a similar path?
Yeah, I sound like Ancient Aliens. But I have to say all of the stuff above crashed into my head in about 10 seconds. It’s not like I’m dwelling on it.
It was just one of those weird trains of thought.
It’s possible that artifacts in museums around the world are not what the arbitrary placards say they are. What if the oddball items are in fact technology that we don’t recognize as technology because it’s beyond our understanding.
After all would you recognize a memory chip if it was mounted in an amulet? Do you know what’s actually inside your TV, Phone, Computer, or Tablet? Would you know how to activate any of those components outside their user friendly boxes?
Without a schematic or pin out description of a particular chip, I couldn’t even apply power to most of the chips used in our technology today. That’s coming from a guy who’s been working in technology for over 30 years.
Sure, I could figure it out with the right tools, but it’s not like those tools are just laying around and you’d have to understand that the tool… was a tool in the first place.
As I’ve said in the past… Be grateful that you don’t live in my head.