http://www.techweek.com/articles/1-25-99/usweb.htm True Believer: Joe Firmage breaks from USWeb/CKS to fund fringe projects and launch EarthCity by Amara D. Angelica We’ve all heard the story: Whiz kid multimillionaire launches hot new $2 billion Internet services company, acquires 44 Fortune 100 clients, takes it public, tunes into the universe and drops out to write a book on space aliens. "The Fox Mulder of Silicon Valley," "UFO CEO," yada, yada. Joe Firmage, 28, founder and former CEO of Santa Clara-based USWeb/CKS, is not the first earthling to speak of unearthly visitations, UFOs or Roswell, N.M. But he is perhaps the first to have made such a public and dramatic break from his past as the rich founder of a successful high-tech venture to pursue his new calling unencumbered by heckling from corporate directors and stock analysts. To serious UFOnauts, there’s no real news in the book. It is precisely because Firmage epitomizes The Silicon Valley Success Story that the press has clamored to broadcast his theories, which immediately sets him apart from other "believers." Imagine if Bill Gates woke up one day and said he believed in the theory of a second gunman on the grassy knoll. You’d be getting a steady dose of Gates and Zapruder highlights on all forms of mainstream media. "My agenda is to introduce the public to this body of knowledge," Firmage says, referring to his Web-based "living book," The Truth (the condensed edition is downloadable as a 1.1 megabyte Microsoft Word document on his Web site, www.thewordistruth.org/truth.cfm). The 600-page book presents the thesis that "modern leading-edge science is compatible with ancient traditions." So how does Firmage plan to parlay the media attention, his sizable wad of cash and his business acumen to further his cause? First, he is trying to distance himself from some of the most sensational media reports. "I don’t believe modern technology comes from aliens," he says, referring to a dubious notion advanced by former Army colonel Philip Corso in his book The Day After Roswell. But in his manifesto he does mention Corso’s belief that lasers, integrated circuits, fiber optics and other exotic technologies were reverse-engineered from a crashed spaceship. However, "the jury is still out," says Firmage. Firmage also denies that he was visited by an alien. However, in a chapter from his manifesto titled "My Contact," Firmage writes about a 1997 incident that occurred in his Los Gatos home after he pressed the snooze button on his alarm clock. "A remarkable being, clothed in brilliant white light, appeared hovering over my bed in my room," Firmage writes. "He looked rather annoyed and asked: ‘Why have you called me here?’ "I answered with a moment’s pause: ‘I want to travel in space.’ This was always my lifelong dream, and it naturally came out in a state of semi-waking thought. "He chuckled skeptically, paused, and asked: ‘Why should you be granted such an opportunity?’ " He didn’t beam Firmage up into space, but Firmage writes that an "electric blue sphere" floated down from the visitor’s body and entered him. "I have no idea what entered me that morning," he writes, "but I know that I went to work feeling as light as a feather, and my life since has seemed to be influenced by the most remarkable coincidences." Firmage is promoting his ideas with the same religious zeal that he brought to the formation of USWeb/CKS. He’s spent $3 million so far and will spend "several more million" in the next 18 months, he says, through his International Space Sciences Organization, bolstered by his approximately $26 million in USWeb/CKS shares. Firmage says he’s planning a "live, real-time Internet radio show on UFOs and other subjects," but with credible scientists that serious-minded people might listen to, "unlike programs like the Art Bell show, where there’s little distinction between fantasy and fact." Among the planned guests is Jack Sarfatti of San Francisco, a visionary Ph.D. physicist working on the "physics of mind-matter and propellantless propulsion" who has been cited as the inspiration for Doc in the movie "Back To The Future." He’s also planning a "worldwide speaking tour to address audiences firsthand and present the information pointblank." In addition, Firmage plans to make private investments in edgy physics research projects, especially in "zero-point energy," the idea that we can tap vast amounts of energy from empty space. This is not as nutty as it sounds; some scientists are taking the idea seriously, as noted in Scientific American in December 1997 (www.sciam.com/1297issue/1297yam.html). Firmage won’t name which physicists he’ll fund. But a good bet is that they’ll include Dr. Harold Puthoff of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Austin, Texas, formerly with Stanford Research Institute, who is quoted in Firmage’s book as a major influence. Firmage also hinted he’ll be funding researchers in New York, New Jersey and Ohio. Radical e-commerce Firmage is also planning to create a nonprofit organization next year called EarthCity. EarthCity will be "the ultimate collaborative e-commerce Internet site whose profit motive is dedicated entirely to the interests chosen by the individual citizens who become its members," he writes in The Truth’s condensed version. "At www.EarthCity.org next year, you will be able to purchase virtually any good or service online." Buyers will be able to designate which of the top 100 leading nonprofits they would like to receive a share of EarthCity’s profits. "It will be the ultimate portal and commerce Web site, but with the fundamental purpose of restoring power to individual citizens of Earth, who wish to reclaim their world from a dangerously materialistic economy and liberate themselves from the shackles placed around their necks by investor motives," writes Firmage. He’ll present a business plan for EarthCity early this year on his Web site. "My business partner and I built USWeb Corporation, the largest Internet services company on the planet, so I know what I am talking about creating here. "Is this a radical proposal?" he asks. "Absolutely. Is it insane? Yes. Is it a utopian fantasy? Totally. Radical and insane proposals are necessary to save a short-sighted and dangerously hubris nation from self destruction." © 1998-1999, TechWeek and Metro States Media, Inc. 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