Firmage, The Truth: Condensed Edition

Date:	99-01-16 04:58:48 EST
From:	thekairos@the-word-is-truth.org (The Kairos)
Reply-to: thekairos@the-word-is-truth.org (The Kairos)

Hello friend,

My name is Joseph P. Firmage. You are receiving this message either
because you have visited my Internet book site at
www.TheWordIsTruth.org, or someone considered it important to refer
your e-mail address to me to include in this distribution. 

Broadcast messages from me will not be frequent, so don't worry about
me cluttering up your mailbox.

Following this brief introduction, I have provided below a URL which
will direct you to an "editor's cut" condensed edition of my book, The
Truth, published on November 25th, 1998. This condensed edition is first
available only in a Microsoft Word 97 file format, other formats will be
added later. A hardback version of the complete book as it stands will
become available later this year. I understand and appreciate that it is
impossible for many of you to allocate enough time to read a several
hundred page book, particularly online, so I have taken the time to
provide a proper summary of its contents and claims. I've spent millions
of dollars to communicate this information at no cost to you, so it is
not asking much to take a quiet moment and at the very least read this
shortened version. I don't ask that you believe, just that you read and
consider.

The Truth represents a rather large hypothesis, whose overall
conclusion has enormous implications for every single human on Earth.
I have written the book from the perspective of a generalist, with the
collaboration of many well-respected specialists. The specialization
in which I have been most deeply educated is computer science, and
more recently, the Internet economy. But that's only the latest step
in my particular journey.

It started from a passion for the stars, sparked by wondrous science
fiction shown throughout my youth. It grew into a commitment to
science, and physics in particular. The desire to comprehend the
deepest functions and meaning of physics evolved into a study of
scientific anomalies - always where fundamental new discoveries
emerge. Unfortunately, 5-10 years ago, such anomalies found no root in
a rational explanatory hypothesis, and therefore the underlying
observations have been rejected by science. Frustrated, I left the
domain years ago to concentrate exclusively on a growing involvement
in computing and communications and various related enterprises.

Sparked again 14 months ago by one of the most remarkable events in my
life to date, I returned to these domains to study more recent
developments, now aided by the communications reach of the Internet. I
found extremely well-respected scientists whose remarkable new
theories began to clearly explain the anomalies. The pieces of those
old puzzles then began to assemble into a majestic picture, motivating
me to return attention to studying a broad cross-section of works as a
generalist. Adding fuel to the fire is a growing understanding that
the future of our biosphere and our civilization is at risk and
depends in fundamental ways upon the types of discoveries I discuss on
the book.

Why are generalists useful to the world? Because we predict the future
for the whole of civilization, not simply a single branch of study. As
within any field of specialists, many generalists are frequently wrong
and many generalists are frequently right. I've chosen to put forth a
testable hypothesis which is concisely stated in 17 phrases. The
details underneath these phrases are each important, but more
important is the coherence of the overall pattern. It is certain that
several of the details in a work of this scale are incorrect. But the
plausibility of the overall hypothesis requires only that there is
good evidence for each primary logical step. 

Naturally, there should be a lot of evidence supporting each logical
step in order to make the assertions I am making. I believe such
evidence is now in print, across my book and in those books referenced
by me.

You might think that I am distraught over wild exaggerations in the
press and the resulting possibility of damage to my credibility and
career, given my choice to communicate this information so publicly.
Indeed, though I am no longer with the firm, I have helped to create a
$2+ billion dollar enterprise at the pinnacle of the Internet
communications revolution just before the dawn of the new millennium.
It's a great place and time to build a career. But, actually, I am
more excited than ever before in my life, despite the frightening
challenges we all face that I describe below. What I have put together
is quality information, I have studied it for over a decade, and its
implications are an order of magnitude more fundamental than you have
imagined. The implications fire the imagination.

This book simply does not fit into the class of the fringe or fantasy.
I do not mean to diminish the works of others who've tackled this
subject matter, for I have built my hypothesis in part upon their
preliminary research into a phenomenon almost completely foreign to
open science. But whatever the ultimate truth may turn out to be, it
will have to explain all of the subjects addressed in this book, for
everything in this book observes significant phenomenon that are or
have actually occurred. I am not aware of an alternative theory that
connects each of these large pieces. One thing is certain: there is a
human saga, and we must decipher every major clue discussed in this
book to understand it.

Even granting this, you may ask why I should bother doing this. Why
should I not keep this to myself, and pursue whatever passions I have
as a private study?

Why? Because you are my brothers and sisters in a sense more
meaningful than the cultural frameworks we use to separate ourselves
into groups: we are all part of the race of homo sapiens beings, a
fragile yet ancient creation just now waking up to its potential. I
care about you, and I am deeply concerned for our shared long term
future, the legacy we shall leave. We are destroying our children, our
culture, even the ancient biosphere that made us, as we encourage a
mindlessly uncontrolled praise of wealth. The Earth has a water cycle
and a carbon cycle. It must have a profit cycle. And it will, even if
it becomes so disfunctional as to fail humanity, before returning to
health. As the great scientist Carl Sagan long maintained, the
discovery of extraterrestrial life will ultimately become the single
greatest unifying force ever for humanity. We will need that kind of
unity to overcome the next century's challenges.

Meanwhile, the Cosmos beckons us, as if to say "demonstrate the
judgment to deserve access to this domain".

In this story, the CEO in me has become a human being, the scientist
has turned from a pessimist to an optimist, the skeptic has opened his
mind, and the spirit in everything I have sensed with clarity. Whether
you agree with my conclusions or not, if a critical number of us can
cross similar thresholds in our pursuit of truth, in whatever
direction it may lead each of us, a genuine transformation of our
society will occur.

Welcome to The Truth, http://www.TheWordIsTruth.org/TheTruth.doc,
a story that will go on forever. Print this out, it's about 240 pages
long. Take it to a quiet place, and read it through at one time. If you
find it as fascinating as I do, please forward this message to as many
people as you can. My primary objective is to spread this knowledge as
far as possible. We can all agree to let the history books determine
whether my hypothesis is correct.

The complete book, and a recently started personal journal that will
track its evolution, can be found at www.TheWordIsTruth.org. 

And to my brilliant co-authors, thank you again.

JOSEPH P. FIRMAGE
INTERNATIONAL SPACE SCIENCES ORGANIZATION

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The Truth: Condensed Edition (online web page)