The End of Vacillation
Alphy smiled inwardly, (which he could actually do), as he read new reports of UAP’s (Un-identified Aerial Phenomena) previously known as UFO’s, and the fact that the United States was delivering a report to the US Congress on these, next month.
Unbelievably the SAPs thought that another life-form intelligent enough to travel to a very distant planet (way out on the edge of the Milky Way) would allow themselves to be detected. Secondly given the distances involved did the SAPs think that ‘spacecraft’ would somehow be capable of travelling those distances? Alphy was proof of this having used STD (space time discontinuum) portals, not spacecraft or the like, to get to Earth and Australia. The Saps were so far behind on the evolutionary journey of inter-galactic travel, it was like the stone-age SAPS having invented the wheel and thousands of years before the evolution of powered transport.
Alphy knew what these UAPs were, but resisted the temptation to discuss the subject with his flat mates, Janno and Johno. Janno in particular was a strong believer in UAP’s and alien spacecraft. Given she was also a devoted viewer of ‘reality tv’ shows and did not question their authenticity, Alphy was not surprised.
Alphy had just come back from a trip with Johno and Janno to the Yarra Valley and the Tarrawarra museum of art, to view an exhibition titled Slow Moving Waters. Art was something that Alphy found very interesting with the Saps. Whilst still very primitive in its conception and delivery, it did distinguish them from most other life-forms.
Back on AC (Alpha Centauri) it was an intrinsic part of life and not considered a culturally separate element of life. Centaurions had many Millennia ago evolved beyond the need for work, so art or the closest thing SAPs would recognise it being like, became ubiquitous. On AC the greatest ‘artistic’ creations were truly orgasmic, (but cerebral not physical).
Alphy even with his ability to understand complex languages with ease, found the art speak somewhat confronting.
'Aligned with the unhurried arc of the river, Slow Moving Waters explores processes of deceleration, delay and the decompression of time, proposing a stay to the ever more rapid flows of people, commerce and information that characterise the dynamic of globalisation. Against today’s cult of speed, the artworks in the Biennial mark a different sort of time—one which connects with the vastness and intricacy of geological and cosmological cycles, seasonal rhythms, interconnected ecologies, and ancient knowledge.’
Alphy often heard the expression ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ so was somewhat confused that most of the exhibits actually required a multitude of words to explain them?
With one exhibit he observed he was going to communicate the detail back to AC, but decided against it, on compassionate grounds: 'A dot matrix printer registers the appearance of stars over the horizon, printing key information such as the star’s common name, its constellation, spectral type, distance from the sun in light years, and magnitude, at a rate of one star per minute, theoretically for eternity. Over time, this incessant flow of data accumulates as a concertinaed pile on the floor, majestic trajectories of celestial movement compressed into plain typed records in a sea of paper. Synthesising macrocosmic and microcosmic perspectives ...’
Alphy has been amused to observe how Johno and Janno had tried to act knowing and sophisticated, during their tour of the gallery and would gaze in silence for a few seconds before each exhibit, finishing each mini contemplation with the words ‘awesome’.
At one stage, Alphy did point out to them that what they were staring at in quiet contemplation was not an art piece, but the QR code for registering their attendance.
As usual Covid is dominating the news. The IOC is still insisting on holding the Kamikaze Covid event in Tokyo.
After a long period of virtually no community cases of Covid in Australia, people had become complacent. They were deferring their vaccines to avoid Astra Zeneca which had associations with blood clotting and wait for alternatives such as Pfizer to arrive.
Then a break-out in Melbourne, and the whole of the State of Victoria is placed into a 7-day lock-down with no travel allowed beyond a 5km radius. Suddenly the vacillation cohort are having second thoughts, long queues forming at mass vaccine centres.
Initially the Victorian Government stated they would still allow the AFL (Australian Football League) to have massive crowds attend the football matches for the coming weekend. Even Johno a footy tragic, couldn’t believe it.
Alphy concluded the AFL was clearly a mass cult in the league of Jonestown.
With the announcement of the lock-down some games would still be played in Melbourne but with no crowds.
Australians were renowned for their love of a punt, but this mass gamble had been lost due to the trifecta:
- Despite 14 months of Covid - no quarantine sites fit for purpose built - reliance on CBD based hotels;
- Inevitable leak from a CBD quarantine hotel (this time in South Australia);
- Complacency by Federal Government and potential recipients resulting in abysmal levels of vaccination.
Alphy again decided not to report this back to AC. This would just confirm the SAPS, to use a Johno expression as ‘total fuckwits’ — he would have been recalled and Earth almost certainly put into the ‘critically endangered - intervention not warranted’ category.