> From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ...
> For what it's worth, I recently read a fascinating book > that described the history of "the chip". How it came > into being. Based on what I read much of what Mr. Carrell > has had to say on this subject appears to be pretty > accurate. > PS: Vorts! Humor me for a minute! Back in 1997 I attended the 50th anniversary of the ROSWELL UFO crash held in Roswell, New Mexico. One of the major attractions who attended the event was a retired officer by the name of Philip J. Corso. Back in 97, Mr. Corso, now deceased, had made a splash in the media by publishing a book titled "The Day after Roswell". He had been on several TV shows talking up a storm. Corso claimed to have seen alien bodies that came from the alleged Roswell crash. He stated that he took a peek under the lid of a sealed crate and believed he saw an alien body floating in some blue liquid. He tried to forget what he saw. Corso did manage to, for the most part, forget about his Roswell experience until several years later, when he was working at the Pentagon he was given a special assignment from his superior. Several items allegedly taken from the Roswell crash site were brought up to Corso's office for evaluation. His boss wanted Corso to figure out how the alien technology could be "reversed engineered" so that the benefits might find their way into our society, and not just the military. One of the items Corso claimed to have carefully examined was something akin to what he described as a "silicon chip". Something else he claimed to have handled looked like what we would call today "fiber optics". The story goes that, with the blessing of his superior, Corso discretely took some of these foreign items to various commercial facilities and asked the R&D departments if there was some way they might be able to profit through "reverse engineering" the technology. The deal was that these compan! ies could reap the benefits as long as the military had access to the technology as well. According to Corso, none of these commercial labs asked where the "foreign technology" came from. Most assumed it came from the Russians, and Corso was more than happy to let them assume away. I should add here that how this alleged alien technology was discretely introduced to various commercial companies was done in a complicated manner. I'm definitely glossing over the specifics in this brief accounting. One of the labs Corso visited was Bell Labs. He visited other's prestigious labs as well. The highlight of my Roswell experience was having the chance to sit next to Corso in an airplane flight while departing Roswell. We both were on the same "puddle jumper" headed for Phoenix, Arizona. Corso was in his 80s. He was quite the gregarious fellow. He didn't seem to mind telling a good joke including a few told at his own expense. Earlier in the event I have given Corso a T-Shirt that had on the front one of my paintings suggesting symbolically the concept of how "reverse engineering" could influence our society. It was one of my first digital paintings created back in the mid 90s. I have the painting on display at my web site. It is titled "The Seeding." See: http://www.orionworks.com/artgal/svj/seeding_m.htm Fortunately, for me Corso remembered who I was and joked that he never got the chance to wear my t-shirt gift, as one of his grandkids, also attending the event, snapped it up. Corso was gracious enough to allow me to take a couple of snap shots of him pensively looking out the airplane's window as we cruised above 20,000 feet. We shared idle banter for most of our brief flight. I recalled Corso talking about his experiences with the "Flying Tigers" an air born outfit that existed back in WW2 in China. What I'd give a leg today to ask the late Corso back then on that brief flight out of Roswell was if he had ever read T. R. Reid's book "The Chip." Obviously, the book made no reference at all to the possibility that any of the companies who worked on developing the chip had been influenced by any kind of so-called "alien technology." I should add here that I see no reason to doubt the history of "the chip" as accounted by Reids either. Never the less, I would loved to have witnessed Corso's reaction. I bet he's slapping his knees as I write this. Regards, Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com