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Metal monolith found by helicopter crew in Utah desert
- trixie_ 6y agoWow this is getting a lot of PR. I've seen this article on the on so many news sites now. It's funny, but front page news? Seems of all the random things that go on, this was picked as special for some reason. Just interesting how some things you wouldn't expect rise to the top.
- blonde_ocean 6y agoI mean, it’s pretty cool. There’s that fact. But my guess it’s probably being drive to top due to the parallels to 2001. I’d imagine there’s a large Kubrick fanbase on HN, if not just a 2001 fanbase.
- ac42 6y agoClarke. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
- sdmike1 6y agoThe book and the film where written and developed cooperatively so both really ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ However, they are both based on clark's 1951 short story The Sentinel[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_(short_story)
- ac42 6y agoIndeed, and to my feeble defense: > The book was credited to Clarke alone. TIL :)
- DamnInteresting 6y agoIt's a fun mystery that gives the mind something to chew on apart from pandemic, elections, murder hornets, etc.
- Grustaf 6y agoMonoliths are supposed to be made of stone, hence the name...
- kube-system 6y agoMost of the ones I've seen over my career are made of spaghetti.
- wyldfire 6y agoOr mashed potatoes? "This means something..."
- jonathanoliver 6y agoUHF! I caught that reference. It took me years to understand that reference fully. When I saw UHF originally it bugged me that I knew it was a reference to something but I didn't know what. Finally, a decade later I saw Close Encounters of the Third Kind and I finally put two and two together.
- gfodor 6y agoprobably the weirdest comment on HN to which I've ever thought "me too!"
- vlunkr 6y agoI saw close encounters as a kid. I don't know how much I enjoyed it, but it at least gave me a deeper appreciation of UHF and the Simpsons.
- fred_is_fred 6y agoDue to my age when I watched UHF I had not seen many of the movies that it referenced: Conan the Barbarian, Rambo, Indiana Jones & The Temple of Doom, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Close Encounters - only over time did I come to appreciate it.
- wyldfire 6y ago
- tyleo 6y agoThis looks exactly like something from the game Control. Specifically, it reminds me of "The Nail" from "The Foundation" DLC.
- teucris 6y ago> "It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said.
- nwsm 6y agoDon't tell Banksy
- mhh__ 6y agoOr my personal favourite "artist" Wanksy who draws (if he's still going) penises on potholes because they are then considered obscene and therefore will be fixed by the local council
- grishka 6y agoRussian variant of it: if your local authorities aren't cleaning snow, just write "Навальный" on it and it'll be gone at the speed of light. (Navalny is the leader of opposition.)
- ozim 6y agoDownside is that family in the building next to that text is gone as well at the same time.
- qz2 6y agoA friend of mine in Watford had some Wanksy art done in his street and they cleaned off the art and left the pot hole there another year...
- lozaning 6y agoHe should have called Dominoes: https://www.pavingforpizza.com/ https://www.pavingforpizza.com/
- dwaltrip 6y ago
- Paul-ish 6y agoHow expensive would a solid piece of metal that size be?
- umvi 6y agoDepends on what type of metal. Tungsten? Very expensive. Steel? Somwhere between $1000-5000
- kijin 6y agoIt's also going to be extremely heavy. Assuming the "monolith" is around 10ft tall with a 1.5ft square base, it would weigh 5 tonnes if it were made of solid steel. Whoever installed it would have needed serious machinery to haul it over there and stick it in the rock. Thin sheets of metal, either welded or riveted together, would have been much easier to build and install. It could even have been filled with some other material (e.g. sand) before the top was put on.
- devy 6y ago> Thin sheets of metal, either welded or riveted together, would have been much easier to build and install. It could even have been filled with some other material (e.g. sand) before the top was put on. Yes, it was a prism shaped object with 3 pieces of stainless steel panels riveted together, the bottom has concret and silicone:) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/
- Forbo 6y agoIf you look closely there appear to be small rivets, so I don't think that it is solid.
- 7952 6y agoA lot if its platinum.
- crote 6y agoA quick look around the internet[0] gives 6" aluminium square bars at $1,473 for 144". The monolith is about 141" long, and has sides of about 23.5", so 16 of those bars would neatly fill it. So if it is solid aluminium, that's about $23,500 in material. [0]: https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/aluminum/6-aluminum-square-bar-6061-t6511-extruded/pid/12864 https://www.onlinemetals.com/en/buy/aluminum/6-aluminum-squa...
- Koshkin 6y agoNo one seems to have watched 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sad.
- giarc 6y agoIt's mentioned in the article. Mr Hutchings speculated that the monolith may have been installed by "some new wave artist", or a fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick.
- barbecue_sauce 6y agoNew wave artist? Like Devo?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jet_32951 6y agoThe dimensions of the monolith in 2001 were related as 1:4:9 according to the book, this one doesn't appear to follow that relationship.
- ericmay 6y agoFun art installation, but it should be removed now that it's been found.
- jamestimmins 6y agoWhy does it need to be removed? I understand not wanting to set a precedent, but I wish more organizations adopted a mindset that the original can stay, but no others are allowed. That leaves space for a little bit of whimsy.
- mindfulplay 6y agoThis is a federally protected land, there are no special rules for art unless it was before when such laws were made. FWIW, I find this piece of trash to be a showoff moment for some wannabe 'artist'. Mimicking a movie prop to me sounds like a low-effort, untalented mindset.
- ericmay 6y agoThe feds say that it's illegal to install structures or art as in this case.
- function_seven 6y agoJust thinking the same thing. There's no rule the you must clamp down the the first instance of a violation. Leave it be, and leave the rule in place. If there's an epidemic of monoliths being planted on federal land, then you uproot them all and say "this is why we can't have nice things." Until or unless that happens, just leave it alone.
- ericmay 6y agoEh, it's not good enough to get that kind of treatment.
- s1artibartfast 6y ago
- achr2 6y agoIf not an actual John McCracken piece, then likely heavily inspired by the artist. Beautiful!
- s_dev 6y agoIn Spore the video game you send down a monolith to upgrade a planet. I found this to be a very tasteful tidbit that paid homage to Kubrick.
- voldacar 6y agoIt felt incomplete in some ways but Spore was so cool. I don't think there's been anything like it in the sim genre since tbh
- fennecfoxen 6y agoIt felt incomplete because it's not a real game, it's a pageant — like little kids dressing up as shepherds and wise men and telling the story of Christmas. You feel it's cool and big, because you're looking at the story of going from the origins of life to the galaxy, but the gameplay doesn't actually support that ambition. Most of what you accomplish has very little impact; it's just a series of hoops you need to jump through, so that you can say that you did them.
- moritonal 6y agoI get that, but I'd prefer games that tell a story rather than cause angst whilst they siphon your wallet. Played LoL quite a lot and haven't learnt a thing from it :(
- b0rsuk 6y agoBest games don't tell stories - they generate them. There's no need to make games more like movies or graphic novels because we already have movies and graphic novels.
- kazagistar 6y agoThere is room for many types, and when it comes to more traditional storytelling, games can create more direct emotional connections by making you the character, rather then the protagonist just being someone you watch.
- neya 6y ago"We could just leave the Utah monolith alone and mind our business. And not summon an alien or demon or whatever during the one of the worst years in our lifetimes." This was the best part of the article.
- OnlyMortal 6y agoGiven the BBC based most of its news of social media... “It’s obviously Bigfoot, the human/ape hybrid the greys use when on Earth.”, says a source near to the monolith.
- Accujack 6y agoUse for what?
- rootbear 6y agoA friend suggested that they'll find the name Acme on it and when it's removed there'll be a very flat coyote under it. (American cartoon reference.)
- MrSourz 6y agoA reddit user [1] found its location [2] and another figured out it was installed sometime during 2015-2016 based on when the satellite imagery changed. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_metal_monolith_found_in_remote_utah/gdfoa9w/ https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/k01dc3/mysterious_m... [2] https://goo.gl/maps/2xdrTqcnguX3ky8AA https://goo.gl/maps/2xdrTqcnguX3ky8AA
- lultimouomo 6y agoThis guy really is something: > I looked at rock type (Sandstone), color (red and white - no black streaks like found on higher cliffs in Utah), shape (more rounded indicating a more exposed area and erosion), the texture of the canyon floor (flat rock vs sloped indicating higher up in a watershed with infrequent water), and the larger cliff/mesa in the upper background of one of the photos. I took all that and lined it up with the flight time and flight path of the helicopter - earlier in the morning taking off from Monticello, UT and flying almost directly north before going off radar (usually indicating it dropped below radar scan altitude. From there, I know I am looking for a south/east facing canyon with rounded red/white rock, most likely close to the base of a larger cliff/mesa, most likely closer to the top of a watershed, and with a suitable flat area for an AS350 helicopter to land. Took about 30 minutes of random checks around the Green River/Colorado River junction before finding similar terrain. From there it took another 15 minutes to find the exact canyon. Yes... I'm a freak. https://old.reddit.com/r/geoguessr/comments/jzw628/help_me_find_this_obelisk_in_remote_utah/gdfbzee/ https://old.reddit.com/r/geoguessr/comments/jzw628/help_me_f...
- wpasc 6y agoYou have to love the internet sometimes. Someone who works construction (as he stated) can develop a fun investigatory hobby just via the internet. The he can sign his work with a silly name like bear__f##ker (which I'm guessing is a reference to the movie super troopers).
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 6y agoOn the other hand, it was people like this that once fingered the wrong person for the Boston Marathon bombing. It's all well and good as long as we remember not to put too much stock in it when it really matters.
- helsinkiandrew 6y agoThe background looks vaguely similar to the prehistoric monolith in 2001. But the dimensions don’t seem to be 1 x 4 x 9
- alavesto 6y agoI hope this isn't the black Marker.
- seph-reed 6y agoI friggin love guerilla art. It always weirds me out how much effort is put into making the world un-artistic. Amazing murals being painted over, shrines being removed from nature, amazing homes made by off-skew people being demolished to put in bland main-stream housing. At least this one lives on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ends_Park https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_Ends_Park
- kortilla 6y agoRemoving fancy litter from what is supposed to be a natural preserve isn’t in the same category as housing. I agree that human occupied areas need art, but encouraging wilderness to be even more littered with human scars is the last thing we need.
- ogre_codes 6y agoIt is a fine line between tastefulness and crap. Even here there is a 50/50 between folks who like it and folks who think it's just screwing up the landscape. And this is a fairly tasteful piece. If there were a blanket "Leave it alone, it's art" policy, I can see junk popping up everywhere.
- c22 6y agoDoes anyone remember the monolith that showed up in Seattle in 2001? It moved around a bit, including to a swampy island in the middle of green lake. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Monolith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Monolith
- hinkley 6y agoI recall that. At the time I knew someone who claimed to be in contact with the perpetrators, and I had heard that the city made an arrangement for a permanent installation of that piece. I think I can infer from the wiki page that this either fell through, or my friend was making stuff up, because it appears to be at a metalworking shop.
- NKosmatos 6y agoGreat, this is what was missing from 2020 :-) What's next... asteroid, aliens, mega solar flare, singularity. SPOILER: This metallic monolith (most probably guerilla art) has been out there in the desert since 2015-2016.
- sundvor 6y agoI love the fact that someone did this such a long time ago and then just waited patiently.
- zuppy 6y agoyou can already check aliens off the list: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/pentagon-ufo-videos.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/us/pentagon-ufo-videos.ht... pentagon confirmed aliens and nobody cared, 2020 is weird.
- xwdv 6y agoWhat rare material could a monolith be made from that would almost certainly suggest extraterrestrial origin?
- danlugo92 6y agoProbably something that is so scarce in earth that the monolith alone couldn't have been made by anyone other than a government, a billionare or aliens. Solid gold maybe?
- rantwasp 6y agohah. gold is not that rare. even an entry level billionaire could afford a monolith this size
- dkersten 6y agoPrinter ink then ;-) On a more serious note, Rhodium fits the bill: super expensive, hard, durable, silvery and corrosion resistant. Using the 7,700 lbs estimate elsewhere here, and a price of Rhodium I randomly found on the internet of $16,100 per troy oz, the material of this structure, if made from Rhodium, would cost about $1,749,005. Which is actually not bad, for a very rich person. I guess they'd have to build an even larger one. Or make it hollow and fill it with printer ink.
- jml7c5 6y agoI think you calculated that wrong. I get $1.8B at that price.[0] Though that 7700 lb estimate assumed the sculpture was made of aluminum; rhodium is about 4.5X as dense, so it'd be closer to $8.1B. [0]: 7700 lb * 14.5833 troy oz/lb * 16100 $/troy oz = 1,807,891,701
- dkersten 6y agoAh, thanks for the correction. I just quickly googled values and multiplied them but thinking about it, I probably multiplied by "lb/troy oz" instead of "lb/troy oz" or something like that. I'm an idiot :) Your figure does sound a bit more realistic. Still, printer ink...
- dschu 6y agoReminds me of the fifth element somehow
- FR10 6y agoIt reminds me of Stonehenge. I understand that some people may consider this could set a bad precedent but if its not harming the ecosystem in any way why shouldnt it be allowed to stay up? To me this would be like erasing the paintings we made 5000 years ago.
- look_lookatme 6y agoBecause ghoulish influencers are already swarming it and publishing to Instagram or whatever looking for likes. Nothing good comes of that.
- wojtczyk 6y agoThe artist’s name is probably on the bottom face of the piece. :)
- julienchastang 6y agoI seriously hope this piece of artwork, as it is clearly intended to be, is preserved. Utah already has a tradition in land art with Robert Smithson's, Spiral Jetty [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty
- oxymoran 6y agoLook it’s not aliens but there is nothing clearly making this art. It’s far more likely a memorial for someone or something. It’s hidden. It’s expensive. And quite frankly, would be a shitty rip off if it was art.
- KnobbleMcKnees 6y agoNow, I'm no conspiracy theorist, and of course we don't know anything for certain, but is it even remotely possible that this could be a prototype of the Xbox Series X?
- tartoran 6y agoNo. This was clearly installed by a mischievous person relatively recently.
- forinti 6y agoThat might be the heat sink.
- natchy 6y ago> I'm no conspiracy theorist hmm. we've been shamed out of questioning things due to that one label. > but is it even remotely possible that this could be a prototype of the Xbox Series X reminds me of Simpsons episode where they found angel bones but it was used as advertising for the grand opening of a new shopping mall
- valentinemsmith 6y agoIt is an exact replica of the monolith from 2001: Space Odyssey, from what I’m seeing.
- PaulDavisThe1st 6y agoNot even close. Wrong color (2001 monolith was black, not stainless steel). Wrong shape (2001 monolith had a rectangular cross-section, this one has a square cross section (plus or minus). Also, you can see the construction methods.
- uHuge 6y agoFirst impression to me was that it is some sort of modern kinetic projectile[0] from aircraft weapons' testing. I've read US army used something of that shape in recent conflicts, but probably of smaller size. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Dog_(bomb) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_Dog_(bomb)
- GekkePrutser 6y agoIt probably wouldn't be in such great shape after impacting at high speed though.
- aeoleonn 6y agoThis is a really good point. I wonder if it could be some sort of new-fangled rail-gun projectile.
- papito 6y agoMan, they shot this down even on Parler. Why do I have a Parler account well why I hate myself of course.
- GekkePrutser 6y agoAll these worlds are yours. Except Europa, attempt no landings there.
- JoeDaDude 6y agoThis reminds me of other "land art" installations around the country. Presumably, these are done with the landowners permission: The Lightning Field: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Field Spiral Jetty: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Jetty Negative Space: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Negative_(artwork) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Negative_(artwork) Amarillo Ramp: https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/amarillo-ramp https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/amarillo-ramp
- blululu 6y agoAdding to this list Nancy Holt's Sun Tunnels - the best of the genre IMO: https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites/nancy-holt-sun-tunnels https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites/nancy... I believe that most of these were sponsored by the DIA art foundation and had some administrative backing.
- killjoywashere 6y agoAdding Maya Lin's Eleven Minute Line: https://www.sartle.com/artwork/eleven-minute-line-maya-lin https://www.sartle.com/artwork/eleven-minute-line-maya-lin
- Jun8 6y agoNot quite art but related: Mojave Phone Booth: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mojave-phone-booth https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/mojave-phone-booth
- gameswithgo 6y agoPrada Marfa
- fritzo 6y agoDoes anyone know what those wire grids are in East Palo Alto, just west of the landfill? I can't tell if they're art or synthetic aperture radar. https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4464497,-122.1130144,156m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4464497,-122.1130144,156m/da...
- marcus_holmes 6y agoThe BBC news site really has become a "best of Twitter this week" site, hasn't it?
- dylan604 6y agoDoesn't that pretty much describe all "news" sites/programs?
- sj660 6y agoThe 2001 monolith has dimensions of 1x4x9 and that clearly does not.
- rbanffy 6y agoOf course! It's 2020! You gotta keep up with fashion!
- The_rationalist 6y agoThis is clearly a reference to this movie. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film) What's really fascinating is how such projects are funded. The cost estimates are probably wrong but why?
- at_a_remove 6y agoIs it, though? If I were going to go to the expense of putting up a monolith, I would at least try to get the proportions correct, if not the texture.
- tabtab 6y agoShould have used microservices ;-)
- cgb223 6y agoThe map in the article of the United States with just Utah filled in was super helpful...
- GavinMcG 6y agoGiven that it's a non-American media source, and that the specific location within Utah wasn't released, do you think there's a more appropriate visual that they should have used?
- function_seven 6y agoApologies if I've misread your ellipses, but I noticed that map and really liked it. No need to show the other 47 states; the intended information is highlighted better by leaving them off.
- jedimastert 6y agoI would suspect that fairly few people from Britain could point to Utah on a map. I couldn't even point to London is handed a map of GB
- LittlePeter 6y agoFestivus [1] for the rest of us! We find tinsel distracting. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX55AzGku5Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HX55AzGku5Y
- rbanffy 6y agoExtra points for the HNer that puts one on the Moon.
- mensetmanusman 6y agoIf it were alien, it would be made of a quasi crystal (a crystal in a higher dimension projected into 3D). Humans have no way of making bulk quasicrystals.
- onlyrealcuzzo 6y ago[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasicrystal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quasicrystal ^ Pretty interesting, for those of us who haven't heard about these yet. I at first assumed this was a joke like Unobtanium.
- newsbinator 6y agoIs there any way to detect quasicrystals at a distance?
- mensetmanusman 6y agoVery interesting question. Perhaps by looking at fuzziness in the spectral lines of elements in asteroids (which are sometimes composed of quasicrystals [0]). Looks like there has been some work on NMR of quasicrystals [1]. Zeeman splitting of spectral lines requires a magnetic field. Maybe if a large quasicrystal passed near a magnetar [3] one would see an effect. [0]: https://www.pnas.org/content/113/26/7077 https://www.pnas.org/content/113/26/7077 [1]: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03166327 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03166327 [2]: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1990ApJS...74..437S http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1990ApJS...74..437S [3]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoOf you wanted to prove you had advanced technology why not just fly your space plane around?
- tyingq 6y agoNo mysterious origin, but the "Tree of Utah" in the middle of the Utah salt flats, next to the highway...is similarly out of place and unexpected. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor:_The_Tree_of_Utah https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor:_The_Tree_of_Utah
- rspoerri 6y agofinally signs of intelligent life on that continent ;-)
- groos 6y agoWrong dimensions. Supposed to be 1:4:9. Wrong color as well.
- peter_retief 6y agoIs this not an art installation? I assume the article is part of the art?
- ertian 6y agoThat first picture looks so much like a colorized shot from an original Twilight Zone episode. The flight suits (military surplus, and sort of timeless), the (foam and plaster?) rocky background, the big mysterious artifact (that happens to be really cheap and easy for a prop department to source), and no other items lying around to easily date the picture...
- tempodox 6y agoWas Stanley Kubrick's movie crew secretly filming “2020”?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tgtweak 6y ago>Wildlife officials spotted the "unusual" object while counting sheep during a flyover in a remote south-eastern area of the US state. "So what is it you do for a living?"
- gtsop 6y agoI am so disconnected. In the title I read metal (the music genre) monolith (the software architecture) found by helicopter and sensed something isn't right here.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- jensneuse 6y agoShould be decomposed into microservices.
- typon 6y agoBravo
- usgroup 6y agoEncore! You sir, deserve a prize for this one.
- quickthrower2 6y agoThen they'd be a medium blog post about it, so not so secret.
- throwaway1723 6y ago"Spotted the monolith while counting sheep". I bet they are still counting.
- mholt 6y ago(deleting, because now my comment is getting pasted all over the Internet, and though it was not to my knowledge misleading, it didn't actually provide any useful information)
- grooling 6y agoWhat?
- Moonman08 6y agoSo please explain..
- wmil 6y ago> And the sister of the brother who died there is asking for people to delete the post and to please not go there. That's an unreasonable request without an explanation.
- ipsum2 6y ago.
- ed25519FUUU 6y agoEven with the explanation it’s an unreasonable request, because the public owns that land.
- voldacar 6y agoI don't know if it's true or not, but of all the text I've seen on the internet, this comment has to be the most likely to make the people who read it reply with "tell me more!!!" well done
- mholt 6y agoI know. I'm sorry. I have a screenshot if push comes to shove but I'm being vague on purpose for the privacy of those in my community.
- NiceWayToDoIT 6y agoIs it remotely possible that they put it themselves as media stunt for Utah tourism promotion? And as it all over world's media I guess they have succeeded.
- WarOnPrivacy 6y agoThe first Geocachers ought to be rolling up any moment now
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- URfejk 6y agoOmg, it was there the whole time?! I forgot where I have left it years ago ...
- acvny 6y agoWhat monolith? You can clearly see the rivets.
- tahoemph999 6y agoKind of interesting. You can google map yourself to within a few 100 meters of the thing. I suspect the people who "found it" were really just pimping it? If there isn't already there will be trash around it soon. https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Green+River,+UT/38.3431111,-109.66625/@38.4876904,-110.3167187,233795m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m9!4m8!1m5!1m1!1s0x8748f0fbf934edc5:0xa55a1898435ef5ba!2m2!1d-110.1596352!2d38.9955607!1m0!3e0 https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Green+River,+UT/38.3431111,-...
- ckosidows 6y agoYou can see its shadow clear as day right next to the pin
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- midrus 6y agoI bet this is a marketing strategy by DHH just before launching the new Rails version with the hey stack stuff.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- gigatexal 6y agoI WANNA BE A MONOLITH! 2001 was such a good book. I think I end up reading it yearly. I probably have an unhealthy connection to the characters.
- justinclift 6y agoPersonally, I wonder if there's anything interesting or interactive on the top. eg: Buttons? display? big red button? wifi password? :> None of the photos or video seems to have looked there yet. ;)
- codingdave 6y agoThere is a hunk of metal with a wifi password on it elsewhere in the Utah Desert - south of Green River, there is a place called "Crystal Geyser" - a curiosity from an old drilling site where they ended up hitting a spot that became a man-made geyser that sprays mineral water up on a regular basis. (Or used to... people have been throwing rocks into it over the years so it is not so impressive anymore.) In any case, there is a little monument there with a wifi password and a solar panel. If you sit next to it on a sunny day, there is enough power to run the wifi and a web server which will give you some basic historical and geological info on the place.
- blackrock 6y agoIt’s possibly a Quantum Tunneling Device for interstellar travel. An old advanced alien civilization created thousands of these QTD, and sent them all over the galaxy, to land on rocky habitable planets, waiting to be discovered one day. In essence, these devices are synchronized with a quantum clock, for instantaneous bidirectional quantum communication across vast interstellar distances. It uses the essence of quantum entanglement, whereby every nanosecond, a quantum bit is revealed, and its complement device is triggered. Thus allowing for massive instantaneous communication across vast interstellar distances. Furthermore, by standing in front of the QTD device, and eliciting an audible command, the device will scan the subject in front of it, and allow himself to be dematerialized and transported to any other node in the interstellar QTD network. Some may call this a Stargate. Or it was planted there by some hippy high on shrooms.
- snowsilence 6y agoApparently this guy was just there a few minutes ago: https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_iU8JgeIr/
- look_lookatme 6y agoThey need to get this removed ASAP
- pugworthy 6y agoWhy?
- cauthon 6y agoNot OP, but I’d imagine to stop idiots from stumbling through the desert and either fucking up the surrounding nature or getting themselves lost/injured
- meowster 6y agoProbably same reason McCandless's van was finally removed. People dying or needing to be rescued while trying to visit it.
- DamnInteresting 6y agoI wish they had included a video where they knock on it with a knuckle so we can hear the reverberations.
- sorenjan 6y agoThis video shows it up close. Sheet metal riveted together, siliconed in the cut out ground. https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CH_212pAKpr/
- Foivos 6y agoAs a side note. The video quality seems incredibly good for a video hosted on Instagram.
- aneo 6y agoThe Utah desert has been used by performance artists before, remember the giant pen a few years back: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/09/14/german-artists-built-a-gigantic-pen-and-are-dragging-it-through-the-utah-desert-because-art/ https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/09/14/german-artists-built-... But I am hoping its alien tech ... I think we will find out soon
- codetrotter 6y ago> "It is illegal to install structures or art without authorisation on federally managed public lands, no matter what planet you're from," the department said. Is that really true though? Does earth rules apply to life from other planets? And what if the extraterrestrial life are magnitudes of order stronger and technologically advanced than us? I mean we could demand it but in effect it would be nothing but words. The only reason that laws work is because of the threat of what happens if you don’t obey. If we are not in a position to threaten the extra terrestrials then we are also not in a position to dictate rules for them to follow.
- mattmcegg 6y agojust because you threaten something more powerful than you doesn't make it not a threat.
- slightwinder 6y ago> Does earth rules apply to life from other planets? Any law applys to their territory, independant on whether the culprit is a citizen of that country or a foreigner. Whether they can execute the law is of course a different story. But from where someone comes from doesnt matter in the first place. Though, you could argue whether laws are limited to humans or whether they apply to every species. AFter all we don't apply the same laws to animals and humans, there are usually differnt sets for each. > The only reason that laws work is because of the threat of what happens if you don’t obey. If we are not in a position to threaten the extra terrestrials then we are also not in a position to dictate rules for them to follow. This is a classical problem of international laws. Country A can't execute laws to citizien of country B, because country B is stinky, or citizien already has left country A. Usually there are contracts for this, so in certain cases country B will give their citizien to Country A if the case is heavy enough to justify such an act. But of course they can also just ignore it.
- Zenbit_UX 6y ago>Though, you could argue whether laws are limited to humans or whether they apply to every species. AFter all we don't apply the same laws to animals and humans, there are usually differnt sets for each. Please enlighten me on which laws are written for my cat.
- realshadow 6y ago* BBC. back button doesnt work
- camillomiller 6y agoIt doesn’t look like a monolith. More like three panels of metal screwed together by whoever land artist brought the thing there. (you can see the screws in the video)
- nix23 6y agoMaybe bring some apes to that place?
- ulisesrmzroche 6y agoPlease let it be aliens
- dusted 6y agowhy, isn't that the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey ?
- ralphhughes 6y agoI love the fact that it has been added to OpenStreetMap[1] 6 hours ago! [1] https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/8162265901 https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/8162265901
- therealbilly 6y agoOnce the signals reached them, the aliens finally watched 2001 Space Odyssey and they thought cool, let's actually put something on that little blue planet.