MemeMachineGo!

Richard Hoagland’s Moon with a View, or, What Did Arthur Know and When Did He Know It? is a fascinating examination of the preliminary photos of Iapetus, one of Saturn’s moons. Everything he sees is evidence for Iapetus being an artifact, fitting in with his thesis of there having been an ancient civilization on Mars (he’s probably best known for popularizing the Face on Mars.)

Reading it, I was reminded of a passage in Illuminatus! (I’m not going to try to find it in a 900 page trilogy I read over twenty years ago.) A character is discussing numerological coincidences so incredible they start to sound convincing… and then the authors, Wilson and Shea, quickly took it over the top. The character was similarly blown away by meaningless coincidences — he first thought of this when he was 23! And he was living on Smith Street, which has 5 letters in it! As they did through much of the book, they were simultaneously advancing weird theories, and making fun of them.

Hoagland’s article mixes things that sound convincing with things that go over the top. Only he, apparently, is equally convinced of all of it.

Still, though, that incredibly straight mountain ridge along the equator is awfully striking. I’ll be looking forward to September 10, 2007, when Cassini gives us our closest view yet.