Review of book - "As Man Becomes Machine"
AS MAN BECOMES
MACHINETitle and most of the contents
of this article are taken directly
from David Rorvik's book published by
Doubleday & Co., 1971. Other comments are
written by Al Pinto.In my last article,
CYBORG.UFO, I had said that the material
presented, is "watered down". That
article was meant as an introduction
to what you are about to read. In his
book, which by the way has nothing to do
with UFO's, Rorvik supports what I have
presented to you before. He supplies
us with valuable technical information
into a technology that seeks to make
man evolve into machine. Some of the
concepts have already been presented
to you in my last article. An overview
you might say. This article will go
more into detail on the subject of
ESB, or electronic stimulation of the
brain, and participant evolution. This
comes from Mr. Rorvik's book; Page
151:ELECTROPROSTHESIS Somatic functions
have yielded even more dramatically
than the autonomic to ESB. These are
the motor functions, movements of the
body and it's extremities, which can be
controlled by stimulating various parts
of the cerebral cortex. In Dr. Delgado's
experiments animals were induced to
"move the legs, raise or lower the
body, open or close the mouth, walk or
lie still, or turn around." He found
that the animals took all of this very
much in stride, seemingly unaware of
outside interference. Cats stimulated
in such a way as they would suddenly
have to raise a hind leg would go right
on purring. Nor would they stumble or
fall. "However," Dr. Delgado observes,
"if we tried to prevent the evoked
effect by holding the hind leg with
our hands, the cat stopped purring,
struggled to get free, and shook it's
leg," indicating that the stimulatory
command is a powerful one. A number of
researchers are working to put this sort
of motor control to practical effect.
------------------------------------------------------------------So,
if ESB is effective on animals,
could it be just as effective on
Humans? Rorvik writes: To understand
fully the impact ESB may have in the
very near future, it is important first
to understand something of the actual
technique of implanting electrodes in the
brain. Thousands of laboratory animals,
including rats, dogs, cats, dolphins,
bulls and even crickets, have been
wired, some with more than one hundred
electrodes. Dozens of humans, most of
them suffering from serious diseases or
mental disorders, have been similary
wired- some with scores of electrodes
and for periods in excess of a year.
------------------------------------------------------------------What
is the history of this technology? How
far back does it date too? Is it
possible that this science could
explain at least that possibility, in
which the occupants of UFO's may not
be extraterrestrial? That it is indeed
possible that the abductees ARE under
a mass hallucination imposed on them by
their abductors? Rorvik again provides
us with more answers: "Recent
rapid development in ESB technique
follows upon what was a rather slow
start. Direct electrical stimulation,
in fact, dates back nearly two centuries
to the experiments of Volta, Galvani, Du
Bois-Reymond and others , who discovered
that the brain was more suceptible to
electronics than to obscure chemical
forces ("animal spirits" they were
called) that were in vogue up to that
time." That came from page 141-142. He
continues to tell us that electronic
stimulation of the brain was used in
1870 by battlefield brain surgeons. Then
he says: "This medical 'technology'
lay mercifully dormant for decades
after the war-until Dr. Walter R. Hess,
a brilliant Swiss neurophysiologist,
devised the modern technique of electrode
implantation in 1932, demonstrating
in the process that nearly all of
man's functions and emotions can be
influenced by electrical stimulation
in specific cerebral areas." -page
142 Here we are again. Nearing WWII,
and humans have already learned about
and demonstrated this technology. You
will recall that we also had saucer
technology back then. What if Hitler and
his brilliant scientists got hold of this
technology? Rorvik doesn't say whether or
not this relates to that situation. He
does offer us some scary scenarios,
however. He writes:GOVERNMENT BY
"ELECTROLIGARCHY" The incredible power
that one can exert over an individual's
actions and emotions with ESB has
given rise to some alarm.What works for
lower animals in this realm can also be
made to work for man. Most scientists
assume, of course, that this technology,
will remain in (their) benign hands,
ushering in a new era of "electrical
nirvana." But if the technology should
fall into decidedly unscrupulous hands
(and this must certainly be considered a
possibility), then a strange and fearful
world could result. An electrical
engineer named Curtis R. Schafer
alluded to this very possibility in a
paper he presented before the National
Electronics Conference in Chicago some
years ago. Half in jest, he proposed
computer-controlled electrodes be
implanted in the brains of babies,
a few months after birth, robotizing
them for life. "The once human being
thus controlled would be the cheapest
of machines to create and operate," he
pointed out. "The cost of building even
a simple robot, like the Westinghouse
mechanical man, is probably ten times
that of bearing and raising a child to
the age of sixteen." Other scientists
have admitted the possibility that
governments could try to control
citizen behavior by techniques of ESB.
The vision of a society controlled
by such a government is not pleasant
to contemplate-yet it is certainly
as "realistic" as that envisioned by
Aldous Huxley in his famous novel "Brave
new World", in which the masses were
bio-chemically stratified via the sort
of genetic engineering that is already
becoming possible in laboratories
around the world. An electronically
contrived Brave New World, however,
might actually be easy to achieve. The
stratification here, of course, would
be somewhat different, as the following
scenario would illustrate: To begin
with, let us imagine a conspiracy
participated in by a small group of
powerful men who seek to "optimize"
society. Noting the fantastic potential
of ESB, they invision themselves at
the top of an electronically sustained
socio-structure that might be called
the Eletroheirarchy. The conspirators,
let us say, are leading figures in
the military-industrial complex who
want to run society in the same way
that they run their factories and
armies. But now, instead of having to
worry about personal incentive programs,
waste, time consumming inter-office
bickering, in house pilfering, and
philandering, insubordination, the
costly ritual of hiring and firing
and so on, they need only punch
buttons and transmit the appropriate
signals to achieve every general's,
manager's, president's, premiere's
dream of the efficient society.
-page 145-146Rorvik goes on to explain
details of how such a government might
operate by groups known as the masters,
who are only about 50 people spared from
electrode implants; The next rung down
would be the Electrons, who are somewhat
implanted, would be the poets, thinkers,
scientists, scholars, etc.; Next, The
Positrons would be more heavily implanted
and would be the positive thinkers, the
ones who put the plans into action. The
"white collar" workers; At the lowest
level might come the electrons or the
most heavily implanted, which would
be engaged in the repetitive, often
menial tasks. All would be cheaper and
more reliable than automatic equipment
and mechanical robots. They would be
robotized so that they could do their
tasks all day, and love every minute of
it. I find it more than interesting
that this scenario fits in, almost too
well, with what the Nazi's were trying to
do. If they somehow had access to this
technology, which is entirely possible,
they would use it similarly as depicted
above.------------------------------------------------------------------GENETIC
ENGINEERING AND BIOLOGICAL MUTATIONThe
idea that the EBE could be a TBE, or
TERRESTRIAL biological entity, is also
possible. Rorvik writes: Space, as much
as medicine, has fostered the cyborg
concept; in fact, it was in connection
with the space challenge that the word
itself was coined. Dr. Manfred Clynes and
Dr. Nathan Kline, both of Rockland State
Hospital in New York, first introduced
the word in a paper presented at the
Pschophysiological Aspects of Space
Flight Symposium in San Antonio several
years ago. They noted that "in the past,
the altering of bodily functions to suit
different environments was accomplished
through evolution. From now on, at least
in some degree, this can be achieved
without alteration of heredity by
suitable bio-chemical, physiological,
and electronic modification of man's
modus vivendi. The value of this sort
of "participant evolution" they pointed
out, could be immense, particularly in
the space-effort, where a self regulating
man-machine system could function
so much better than a conventional
astronaut.Rorvik also goes on to state
what this "cybernaut" would look like. He
says: "The astronautic cyborg they
envisioned would be considerably more
agile and certainly far more effective
than our present day moon men. For one
thing, the cyborg's space suit would
be lightweight and skin tight. It
would require no pressurization since
the cyborg's lungs will be partially
collapsed and the blood in them
artificially cooled. Mouth and nose
would be superfluous and hence sealed
and totally non-functioning. Respiration
and most other bodily processes would
be effected cybernetically through the
utilization of artificial organ's and
sensors, some of which would be attached
to the exterior of the suit while others
would be surgically implanted within
the cyborg's body." page 107-108
One Doctor, J.B.S. Haldane, had some
interesting thoughts. He said it might
be best to breed legless astronauts for
the first space flight to the stars,
"thus reducing not only their weight but
their food and oxygen requirements. A
regressive mutation to the condition of
our ancestors in the mid-Pliocene, with
prehensile feet, that can grasp things,
no appreciable heels and an ape-like
pelvis, would be still better."Scientists
already know how to put genes together in
test tubes and how to synthesize their
elemental components. Microsurgical
techniques provide one means of altering
the natural material. Experiments
with certain viruses will do the same
thing. It seems that special viruses,
adept at insinuating their way into
certain cells, can be made to freight in
with them, specially prepared genetic
instructions (in the form of carefully
prepared DNA nucleotide sequences), thus
altering the course of development in
the desired direction.On the subject of
Bio-cybernetics, Rorvik offers: "The
suggestion, for example, that man be
linked directly to computers to enhance
mental efficiency provides "participant
evolution" with a new demension. Indeed,
some insist that bio-cybernetics offers
a far greater degree of participation
than genetics; the coupling of man and
machine can provide instantaneous and,
as Dr. Clynes points out, possibly
reversible, modification of the
genotype, wheras controlled biological
change would take a good deal longer
and to prove permanent, at least in
individual cases." -page 112Well now;
let's see. Rorvik states that at the
time of the writing of this book, which
is 1970, we were about two decades away
from controlled biological change, if
not sooner. Dr. Clynes points out that,
if we used bio-cybernetics, that time
period is cut down by a good deal. Couple
these facts in with the possibility of
this technology in the hands of evil
intelligence and we have the makings
of truly a great nightmare. One that
fits in perfectly with what is going
on in the UFO phenomenon. One that
could even explain why the "aliens"
look the way they do. You should
also recall the Nazi's obsession with
genocide during WWII. How advanced
would a scientist become in human
genetic engineering, if he had virtually
unlimited human specimens to work with
and, did not have to worry about moral
and ethical laws stopping him? How
advanced would he become in any field
of endeavor, for that matter?This is
very detailed information. You amy
want to read it a couple of times to
let your mind absorb all of it. You
may find, as I do, that you may have
missed something or didn't pick up on
a point that is very important, that
may help clarify this theory better.
I look forward to any feedback you
may have on this material. See
you on the Echo! Thanks.
Al
Pinto-----------------------------------------------------------------
Go back to Book and list reviews index page
