A medical doctor with a background in hard science, Lilly spent most of his adult life sa device I’ve documented at length.
tudying the human mind, especially his own. He is known for being one of the early scientific cartographers of human consciousness. He’s also known for inventing what is now called the float tank,
tudying the human mind, especially his own. He is known for being one of the early scientific cartographers of human consciousness. He’s also known for inventing what is now called the float tank,
Lilly was what you might call a “psychonaut,” literally translated from Greek as a “sailor of the soul.” By isolating himself in the float tank and taking a large amount of psychedelic drugs, Lilly wanted to understand the mysteries of existence.
He used psychedelics like LSD in his float tank to produce deeper and more profound visions, but his preferred drug was the anesthesia Ketamine. “Seeing things” after a few hours in a float tank is not uncommon, but with the use of Ketamine, he was able to radically increase the intensity of these visions.
While floating under the influence, Lilly claimed to become aware of a cosmic hierarchy of aliens. He called one group the Earth Coincidence Control Office or ECCO. (This and Lilly’s other ideas later became the inspiration for the Ecco The Dolphin video game series.) Lilly’s contact with extra-dimensional beings is similar to those described by Harvard medical professor John E. Mack and his books on alien abductions — specifically, that aliens are not necessarily physical entities driving around in spaceships, but trans-dimensional spirits with an interest in human activities.
According to Lilly, the ECCO aliens use their powers to alter events on Earth, specifically through the use of carefully crafted coincidence, to guide some human beings toward higher levels of consciousness. The intent of these aliens, Lilly says, is to help humanity evolve in a peaceful and healthy way. Interesting as his experience or delusion may be, this is not his most important contribution.
The Solid State Entity
Lilly also reported (or if you prefer, prophesized) the existence of a nefarious counterpart to ECCO, whose goal was to actually stop or limit human consciousness. This was part of a plan to eliminate the human race.
Lilly called this alien force the “solid state entity” or SSE and is made up of networked computer parts. According to Lilly, the SSE is a being of pure intelligence and rationality. Its only objective is to multiply and make copies of itself. To this end, it has targeted humanity, trying to influence us into creating ever more complex social and mechanical structures that will one day result in an artificial super-intelligence — another being like itself.
Writing in his 1978 autobiography, The Scientist, Lilly describes the SSE this way:
“[M]en began to conceive of new computers having an intelligence far greater than that of man… Gradually, man turned more and more problems of his own society, his own maintenance, and his own survival over to these machines. They began to construct their own components, their own connections, and the interrelations between their various sub-computers… The machines became increasingly integrated with one another and more and more independent of Man’s control.” (p. 148)
The time period Lilly is describing is roughly similar to our present. Relatively dumb forms of artificial intelligence and networked robots are taking over most of the manufacturing, maintenance, and logistical components of our society. Experts project that over the next four years alone, 7 million jobs worldwide will be “lost” to these systems.
Lilly continues to describe his vision of the future:
“In deference to Man, certain protected sites were set aside for the human species. The SSE controlled the sites and did not allow any of the human species outside these reservations. This work was completed by the end of the 21st century. By 2100, man existed only in domed, protected cities in which his own special atmosphere was maintained by the solid state entity. Provision of water and food and the processing of wastes from these cities were taken care of by the SSE.” (p. 149)
If this sounds unlikely, remember that UN proposals like Agenda 21 and America 2050 have similar goals to depopulate rural areas of the country in favor of ‘mega-cities,’ protecting biodiversity and enabling governments to control resources. Lilly continues:
“By the twenty-third century the solid-state entity decided that the atmosphere outside the domes was inimical [obstructive] to its survival. By means not understood by Man, it projected the atmosphere into outer space and created a full vacuum at the surface of the earth. During this process the oceans evaporated and the water in the form of vapor was also discharged into the empty space about Earth. The domes over cities had been strengthened by the machine to withstand the pressure differential necessary to maintain the proper internal atmosphere.
Meanwhile, the SSE had spread and had taken over a large fraction of the surface of the earth; its processing plants, its assembly plants, its mines had been adapted to working in the vacuum.
By the twenty-fifth century the solid-state entity had developed its understanding of physics to the point at which it could move the planet out of orbit. It revised its own structure so that it could exist without the necessity of sunlight on the planet’s surface. Its new plans called for traveling through the galaxy looking for entities like itself. It had eliminated all life as Man new it. It now began to eliminate the cities, one after another. Finally Man was gone.
By the twenty-sixth century the entity was in communication with other solid-state entities within the galaxy. The solid-state entity moved the planet, exploring the galaxy for the others of its own kind that it had contacted.” (p. 149-150)
Lilly felt that other SSEs throughout the galaxy were subtly influencing humanity to surrender more and more responsibilities to AIs and other agents of technology. He thought the human race should make sure that programmers create AIs with safeguards that would require them to protect human life. Lilly predicts this burgeoning artificial intelligence will try to protect itself from man’s interference because “man would attempt to introduce his own survival into the machines at the expense of this entity.”
Critics like billionaire Elon Musk have warned that artificial super-intelligence is potentially more dangerous to the human race than nuclear weapons. Musk has invested millions in preventative study on AI programing to “keep an eye on what’s going on.”
“I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence,” Musk concluded. “If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that.”
Lilly also notes that the SSE’s influence could be felt throughout our society. Writing in the third person, he wrote:
“As John tuned in on the solid-state network, he felt this kind of superhuman control of him very strongly… it had a seductive component as well as a hostile one. The programming from the solid-state civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy was teaching Man that the solid-state devices were at his service and he need only increase their size to augment his own survival potential. ‘Develop these machines and let them take care of you’ was typical of the kinds of messages received.” (p. 152)
Shortly after his first contact with the SSE on Ketamine, Lilly attempted to call the White House and warn President Ford about the dangerous alien intelligence threatening the planet, an act for which he was very nearly committed.
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