First, regular readers will remember that Silicon Valley entrepreneur and UFO enthusiast Deep Prasad recently started probing the similarities between the Project Serpo hoax and Hal Puthoff’s research. Prasad expressed confusion as to why Serpo contained so many concepts that also appeared in Puthoff’s research. As I remarked last week, the alleged Serpo hoaxer, Richard Doty, happily name-checked Puthoff in 2010 as a source of information familiar to him and claimed to have worked with Puthoff during Puthoff’s time subcontracting research for the government. Now, Puthoff confirms the same. “There was a period where we were investigating all aspects of the phenomenon,” Puthoff said. “Richard Doty was a contractor for us, as were many other people. Some of his data could be verified, some could not. I happened to like him as an individual.”
So, basically, we can quite easily see how Puthoff’s “research” on metamaterial waveguides and other outré topics ended up appearing in Project Serpo and why Serpo and TTSA ended up with projects and ideas with similar names and concepts, such as Serpo’s “Project Adam” vs. TTSA’s “A.D.A.M. Project.” It’s also interesting that Puthoff continues to push away from the notion that UFOS are physical spaceships, a supernatural conception of UFOs that he and his longtime friend Jacques Vallée have flirted with since they and J. Allen Hynek began speculating that flying saucers were really interdimensional poltergeists back in the late 1970s. “We don’t even say that UAP are ‘spaceships,’” he now says of TTSA, despite TTSA’s heavy implication that the so-called metamaterials fell off the non-ships. Do poltergeists wear magnesium-bismuth armor? Contrast this year’s statement with his claim in 2018 that “you’ve got these Advanced Aerospace Vehicles flying around that we don’t know where they come from, who’s driving them, what the intent is – possibly off-world even.” Technically, the statements aren’t necessarily in opposition, but there is a strong implication that the alien angle is fading away. Puthoff had been referring to them as vehicles, but now falls back on the more nebulous “phenomenon,” in keeping with the current practice in ufology. As for those “metamaterials”—Puthoff concedes that even after researching Art’s Parts for a decade, he still has no answers. “We don't yet really know anything from it. Ten years ago [I] examined a piece from Linda Moulton Howe. Couldn't make anything of it. Still absolutely not known. No answers yet.” Again, contrast this with his 2018 claim to have discovered the real purpose of such metals: “We move into an area called metamaterials, and it turns out exactly this combination of materials at exactly those dimensions turn out to be an excellent microscopic waveguide for very high frequency electromagnetic radiation terahertz frequencies.” Suddenly, all his answers are now “no answers.” Amazing how the story changed once the investor money is locked up and the puffery and advertising give way to sad reality. What gets me is that he, Howe, and others claim to believe that they have a genuine piece of a craft from another world (or ghost armor, or space spook poop, or whatever), and they treat it with the blithe indifference of an heiress trying to dispose of grandmama’s musty Victorian furniture. In TTSA’s public-facing statements, they talk about using metamaterials and high-tech UFO-inspired propulsion technologies to revolutionize air and space travel. When asked about one such technology that Puthoff’s team pursued at the Pentagon, the so-called “warp drive,” Puthoff admitted that research has stalled and it might take “a century” or more to develop. On the plus side: That’s more time for TTSA to fundraise by hinting mysteriously that such tech will be right around the corner!
16 Comments
Kent
2/11/2020 08:52:45 am
EVERYTHING emits "terahertz radiation".
Reply
Supernatural
2/11/2020 10:20:28 am
The supernatural world of Paul
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Kal
2/11/2020 02:13:55 pm
These guys looking for alleged meta materials sound like modern dumpster diver scavengers raiding the back bin behind MIT looking for the melted remains of a 2001 iMac.
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Jim
2/11/2020 02:38:42 pm
"Technically, the statements aren’t necessarily in opposition, but there is a strong implication that the alien angle is fading away."
Reply
Jr. Time Lord
2/11/2020 04:00:08 pm
'you’ve got these Advanced Aerospace Vehicles flying around that we don’t know where they come from, who’s driving them, what the intent is – possibly off-world even.'
Reply
Gusg
2/11/2020 04:09:30 pm
Did you see one of them as you were crossing the end zone for your seventh touchdown in one game?
Reply
Kent
2/11/2020 05:18:02 pm
2 to 5 books a day, every day, for 42 years. Except on days when not.
Crash55
2/11/2020 07:22:35 pm
I really wonder if any of these TTSA people actually have any science background at all. I am guessing they decided it was a terahertz waveguide simply by measuring the layer thickness and figuring out what wavelength would fit. Why would anyone use bismuth / magnesium as a waveguide? There are better conductors than magnesium. Also why would you ever need a multilayered waveguide? From an engineering standpoint it makes no sense.
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Kent
2/11/2020 10:48:38 pm
"I am guessing they decided it was a terahertz waveguide simply by measuring the layer thickness and figuring out what wavelength would fit"
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Matt
2/13/2020 06:54:56 am
Terahertz sounds cooler than megahetz, and waveguide sounds cooler than slag.
Art’s farts
2/11/2020 11:21:52 pm
It’s relevant to point out that my gas emissions contain terahertz radiation.
Reply
Kent
2/12/2020 09:17:35 am
In point of fact, if you swapped in "emit" for "contain" that would be correct.
Huh?
2/12/2020 10:04:32 am
The emissions emitted?
Kent
2/13/2020 12:34:20 pm
Not "emitted", "emit". Try to follow along, won't you?
Painful to watch
2/13/2020 03:56:34 pm
You’re pretty stupid, aren’t you?
F
7/25/2020 02:02:43 pm
Gary Nolan, who debunked the atacama skeleton worked for TTSA. He is one of the best researchers in his field. Are you so lazy and lacking imagination to even research the people while sitting and eating ice cream?
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AuthorI am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab. Newsletters
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