Above, Trerice House, Kestle Mill, Newquay TR8 4PG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trerice) lies three miles east of Newquay. The house with its surrounding garden has been owned by the National Trust since 1953 and is open to the public. The house is a Grade I listed building.
Trerice House is one of my favourite “stately homes”. One thing that I am happy about is that since February 2014, it is 40 miles from where I live and with little traffic and NO roadworks, is an hours drive away. Before February 2014 it was (for me) a 370 mile, 6 hour drive away!
Allow me Dear Reader to ask you a question: “How old is Trerice House?”
From the Wikipedia article one might answer: “From the 14th Century.”
Strictly speaking, it could be said that this I in fact an answer to a different question, that question being: “When was Trerice House built?”
Of course, many would reply that one is simply replying to the different question with the same (correct) answer. However, one could say that Trerice House is many millions of years old as that is the age of the stones it is built from!
OK then where am I going with this?
To the other side of the Sun! Where the Solar System’s interstellar visitor is proceeding in a direction that is retrograde to the orbital path of the Sun’s satellites (which of course include Earth).
You see, it appears from the observations that have been made of it, that 3iATLAS appears to have originated from the centre part of our Milky Way galaxy – a area much older than our location in one of the galaxy’s spiral arms. The stellar chemistry is very different in that section of space and may well explain the anomalous readings so far obtained.
Does that mean that 3iATLAS is a completely natural object and it’s highly exceptional course through our Solar System is a fluke?
Very possibly!
Does this therefore mean that there is NO possibility 3iATLAS is not an example of advance technology from an Extra Terrestrial civilisation?
Not at all!
Why?
Well many people might have been think along the lines that were an advanced Extra Terrestrial civilisation to visit us here on Planet Earth, their spaceship would obviously appear to be a manufactured artifact! Very different from Captain Kirk’s USS Enterprise below of course!
However, this MIGHT not always be the case!
It is possible that an advanced Extra Terrestrial civilisation may utilise an object already there – such as an asteroid. You see, one of the problems about building something like the imaginary starship above is cosmic radiation. Another is coronal mass ejections from stars. Were the ETs to utilise an asteroid it would be something of an exercise in civil engineering – albeit in outer space! You see the ETs could located their quarters well below the surface as solid rock serves an an excellent radiation shield. It could also be atmosphere tight so whatever atmosphere the ETs breathe will not escape. Of course, they may apply a sealant on a “belt and braces” approach.
Of course, this does NOT mean that the ET’s home is at the centre of the galaxy!
Consider this: The ET’s have observed our star which we call the Sun and their instruments reveal the planets orbiting around it which of course include the Earth. Remember also that we have already done this to other stars light years away!
OK then they decide that they will pay our solar system a visit! They may well be faced with a choice that we ourselves face when we want to visit and explore the other planets in our solar system. Like Venus and Mars. Well, we have a choice don’t we! We can either send a manned mission or an unmanned mission – meaning robots.
So far we have sent robots as they are cheaper and involve no risk – to us as people!
Maybe the ETs are thinking along the same lines as us!
Also for the ETs there is another aspect: Time!
Now in the case of sending probes to such as Venus and Mars the time scales are in months. To send a probe across light years at the speed 3iATLAS is travelling would be EONS!
Now this raises a most obvious question: What would be the point of sending a probe to another solar system when it will only be able to send the data back thousands or millions of years later bearing in mind that it will take years for the radio transmission to reach them?
OK the ETs may have much longer lives than us. The longest-lived animal on Earth is the glass sponge, with estimates for some individuals reaching over 10,000 years and potentially up to 15,000 years. These deep-sea animals grow extremely slowly in the cold ocean and are known to live for millennia, far exceeding the lifespans of other long-lived creatures like ocean quahogs (up to 507 years) and bowhead whales (over 200 years).
Even so, that is still a bit of a stretch!
However, there is one form of “life” that may well be less affected by time. Especially when it might not be concerned about transmitting back the data relating to their discoveries!
This form of “life” is not life at all. This being artificial life!
Here again, we today are in the process of creating this form of artificial intelligent so-called “life”.
This MIGHT explain why astronomers who have tracked 3iATLAS’s course back 10,000,000 years have not found a star along this path. They have found nearby stars but not a star on the path.
Well, consider this: There is a planet orbiting a star that has an advanced civilisation that has developed into one which is dominated by intelligent machines that are by definition immortal as they are NOT mortal. These machines may have aims and objectives that include scientific discovery and exploration. They observe an asteroid that they calculate will eventually visit the solar system (ours) they are interested in! The asteroid is not that far (for their technology) away so they travel to the asteroid, make the necessary alterations and construct the necessary structures which will include one or some of them and send it on it’s way! Eons later on – 15 August, 1977 –
they send what our astronomers on Earth called “the Wow! Signal” and continue on the course our astronomers are observing.
So here we are, October 2025 and we MIGHT soon be face to figuratively speaking face with ETs!
What might they call themselves – in an English translation?
How about, the Digital Artificially Living Electronic Kernel and using the acronym DALEK as an abbreviation!
