Octopods on Europa
Ever since our first post, back in February of 2009, that dealt directly with UFO lore, titled: Dr. Carl Gustav Jung & UFO Phenomenon… we have taken an active interest in issues involving extra-terrestrial contact. What with our forays into Ancient Astronaut Theory, culminating in multiple expeditions to the Pop ET fest: AlienCon, and the more new-aged Contact in the Desert festivals… we have taken more than one deep-dive into UFOlogy and saucer culture.
So imagine our delight in coming across an article in phys.org that speculated on the existence of octopus-like creatures living in the ice-covered oceans on the planet Jupiter’s 4th largest moon: Europa. “It's 'almost a racing certainty' there's alien life on Jupiter's moon Europa… and Mars could be hiding primitive microorganisms, too.”
So says one of the leading British space scientists, Professor of Planetary and Space Science: Monica Grady, who says the notion of undiscovered life in our galaxy isn't nearly as far-fetched as we might expect. In addition to Ocopods on Europa, Professor Grady speculates that the deep caverns and caves found on Mars may also hide subterranean life-forms… as they offer shelter from intense solar radiation while also potentially boasting remnants of ice.
"If there is something on Mars, it's likely to be very small (such as) bacteria. But I think we've got a better chance of having slightly higher forms of life on Europa, perhaps similar to the intelligence of an octopus."
On a synchronistic note, and as the astute readers of this blog know, Jupiter’s Europa was the moon where extra-terrestrial life was first detected in the 1984 film: 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Again, as you know, the main plot of this film, dealt with the manipulations of intelligent, extra-terrestrial beings (symbolically stylized and represented by the black monolith) resulting in Jupiter transforming, through nuclear fusion, into a small star.
At the film’s climax, a disembodied David (my god it’s full of stars!) Bowman, the intrepid astronaut/Starchild from 2001: a Space Odyssey... delivers the infamous message back to Earth…
ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
Octopods on Europa, viewed through the lens of Science fiction, also bring to mind the Heptapods of the 2016 film: Arrival. We examined Arrival and the ramifications of extra-terrestrial life, as depicted in science fiction, in our 2018 post: What is Your Purpose on Earth? From that post...
"In these confusing times we find ourselves living in… in our “Brave Noö World” …truth has become stranger than fiction. The distinction between science fiction and fact has blurred. As we have indicated many times before on this weblog, science fiction is at its best, as a cautionary tale. In a fanciful, futuristic setting, it allows us to examine our assumptions, beliefs, and prejudices to who we are, our relationship to ‘others,’ and our place in the world."
So in the final analysis, the search for extra-terrestrial life is, in essence, a search for the meaning of life. We seek the "other" and we find ourselves. The science-fiction narrative that runs parallel to the science narrative only deepens the exploration. It adds flavor and nuance to scientific inquiry. Science fiction may be fiction... but it adds speculative wonder to the hard equations of science.
So when we speculate on the Octopods of Europa... we also ponder the Heptopods of Arrival and ask the eternal question: What is your purpose on Earth? You can read all about the Octopods of Europa at the link below...
Shoutout to the OrangeOrb for bringing this story to our attention...
Comments
If something was truly alien there would be no assumption of a child/parent relationship or even something so crude as a predator/food relationship as they would be truly alien. Life has to already be quite similar to not be poisonous. The terror of the real alien which rings truest is the scenario where they want us gone because we are annoying or inconvenient in some way.
Symbolically aliens represent the unknown, literally, since once you know them they become something not alien. As a representation of insights about the self we are dealing with self-delusion perhaps. Puffing ourselves up to have an almighty cosmic significance which we may lack, in reality.
Perhaps a little self-delusion is necessary, but we have to be cautious about the nerds desire to control through cataloguing and naming. The power of the D&D monster manual. True monsters are just monsters. They do not have "stats" or "species" since they have no DNA or any other physical properties which we can measure with instruments. Data you invent based on your imagination is not empirical data. It just isn't, and that is why monsters are terrifying.
- Douglas Adams