Skip to main content

Mysterious monoliths

 

The year 2020 was full of extraordinary events. Outbreak of COVID-19 changed our lives- thousands of dead, economic recession and massive lockdown defined the whole year. If a massive pandemic wasn’t enough, our world literally caught on fire, with hectares of American and Australian forests being burned to ashes. Moreover, society faced big political movements, including Black Lives Matter or fight for women's rights. With so many breakthrough events happening at once it was so hard to keep track of all events that many people didn’t hear about one of the most extraordinary news of our decade- in April of 2020 the Pentagon has officially released videos of "unidentified aerial phenomena", the same conforming existence of aliens. This brings us to more recent event- in November mysterious silver monolith was discovered in the Utah desert just to disappear few days later. The monolith was reported to be a 3 meter tall, triangular prism and was made from metal-like material. The object looked more like an artistic installation than scientific machine, however, no one claimed responsibility for the sculpture. Since the first appearance of the famous Utah monolith, more monoliths were reported internationally, including one in Warsaw near the Świętokrzyski bridge. Few of the monoliths were intentionally built for promotional purposes, but the origin of most of them remains a mystery. Some people speculate that the appearance of enigmatic structures is strongly connected to extraterrestrial life and alien invasion.

 

Crew members of Utah Department of Public Safety next to the monolith (Credit: Utah Department of Public Safety, DPS Aero Bureau Encounters Monolith in Red Rock Country | DPS News (utah.gov))

11.1. In your opinion, what is the source and purpose of these mysterious monoliths?

2. 2.What emotions do these monoliths evoke in you?

2. 3. Do you belive that Aliens exist? 

2.


Sources:

Utah monolith: The mysterious silver monolith in the desert has disappeared - CNN Style

Mysterious monolith in US desert reportedly disappears | Life | Malay Mail

List of 2020 monoliths - Wikipedia

 

Comments

Viktor Ryś said…
1.
From what I've heard the one that is located in Warsaw, near the river was an artisitic installation, the author of it made itself public. So I assume the same can be said above the other ones, if we hovewer were to assume it was placed there by aliens it could be some kind of sendor researching earth and passing the data somewhere to outer space.

2.
They're pretty I didn't have a chance to see one in person so it might make a bigger impression on me then the one I got from pictures only.

3.
I believe that there is life outside of earth in the cosmos, and sure they might visit or take a look from far away how's life on earth (we are quite noisy, and radio and tv wawes travel wast distances in cosmic space). I don't believe however most of the stories of so called alien encounters or sightings, they seem fake to me, and with everyone carrying a great camera in their smartphone we should get far better quality of footage of ufos if it was real.
Anastasiia Bida said…
1.In your opinion, what is the source and purpose of these mysterious monoliths?
I also have heard a lot about this magic monolith in the Utah desert. Another mysterious metal monoliths appeared in Romania and California. I used to think that it could be either some forgotten movie decoration or somebodies prank. The Utah desert is a popular place among filmmakers. There were filmed Indiana Jones and A Space Odyssey.
But a few days ago I noticed news about artists group who takes credit for mysterious Utah monolith. The community calls The Most Famous Artist.

2.What emotions do these monoliths evoke in you?
Honestly, monoliths do not evoke any emotions in me. I consider myself a realist, and I did not think that it was something made by aliens.

3. Do you believe that Aliens exist?
I believe that there are planets in the universe where life in some way exists. Nobody knows if they are enough sensible and intelligent. Moreover, it is a big question about how to communicate with them, because aliens can use smells or biological signals we can not understand.
I was thinking about it and realized that I don`t want they will find us first. Cause it will mean that aliens have more powerful technology and can easily destroy us.
1. I've heard about these monoliths appearing in Utah and California, in USA. They also appeared in Romiania too. Even in Poland - in Warsaw near by Vistula river! The source and purpose of these mysterious monoliths? I have no idea. Maybe for prank? Maybe for movie set? No idea.

2. Monoliths like monoliths. These are normal sculptures that a human can make and I don't think they are extraterrestrials. So they don't evoke any emotions in me.

3. I think there is some extraterrestrial life in a distant galaxy, but we cannot discover it, because we do not have sufficiently developed technology and knowledge about the cosmos. I think it will be several years before we discover something.
These monoliths could be intentionally placed and consequently taken by the folks who seek attention.
There are many who pump fake stories and then mass media aggregators make it big.
Honestly, I expected nothing less of CNN...

On the other hand, they indeed look mysterious to me.
I believe that such style is brave and thought-provoking.
By any means, I am not an expert in architecture, but I am sure such constructs would fit in our school's lecture hall.

I think that it is possible that Aliens exist.
There are many claims that intelligent forms of life have already been contacted.
The thing is, reports are countless and people present believable proofs.
But in the end, most is proven to be fake.
I fear that due to accessible AI we will experience new wave of fake news.
Pawel Bluszcz said…
1. I believe that the source of monoliths is a group of pseudo activists who want to draw attention to monoliths. So, in my guess, for nothing. A happening that became a laughing stock in my eyes.

2. The only emotions that these monoliths arouse in me are emptiness, triviality and simplicity. I don't know what could be interesting about a piece of metal that isn't even pretty.

3. Yes, I believe there is extraterrestrial life. It is hard to imagine the infinity of our galaxy. Following this lead, it can be concluded that the aliens exist, but are somewhere very far away. So far, no contact has been made with them, but let's be positive :).
I went to personally see the metal structure near the Świętokrzyski bridge. It is not a monolith... By definition, a monolith is one object made of one piece of material. The construction in Warsaw consists of metal sheets welded and bolted with popular philips screws. In addition, near this structure there were scattered foils with the logo of the company that most likely produced this metal structure.

Several self-proclaimed Reddit specialists have decided to analyze monoliths and non-monoliths from around the world. There are not too many common features between them and the differences in construction preclude them from being made by the same or even somehow connected people.

2. The monolith itself in the Utah desert is visually pleasing. Pictures from this place are like frames from the Stanley Kubrick's movie. Unfortunately, how people behave around these events make me cringe. They are trying to duplicate this effect by locally building similar structures and causing a similar stir. I hope these are just a pranks or sociological experiments.

3. There is nothing to believe. Our visible universe is made up of 3 x 10^23 stars. This is an unimaginable number for a human. Many planets may orbit each of these stars. The calculus of probability suggests that with this number of potential planets there is a chance of not one alien civilization, but 36, and its 36 only in the milky way galaxy itself.
As Arthur C. Clarke said, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."
Mathematically, the chances that we are not alone are much much greater, I'll stick to that.
I’ve heard about this 3 weeks ago and I was terrified! It truly seems weird. They were appearing all around the world and I couldn’t find any reasonable explanation. I remember checking Wikipedia and it was updated every day!

1. In your opinion, what is the source and purpose of these mysterious monoliths?

I’ve got a few thoughts. First of all, they appear mostly in highly developed countries. I think it may be some artistic performance? Nowadays with the Internet and the speed of information spreading it's possible to make it. It might be something similar to Banksy. You can spot Banksy-like graffiti in every city nowadays because people are copying it. We are just more used to see paintings on the wall than minimalistic monoliths.

2. What emotions do these monoliths evoke in you?

They seem to be quite terrifying. They started to appear in 2020 (which wasn’t our lucky year at all… but 2021 is weird as well..). Also, the Internet hoax wasn’t helping me to think reasonably about it.

3. Do you believe that Aliens exist?

No, I have never believed in such things…
Kacper N said…
Answering your questions,

I was following this topic a bit, and the real answer is (not my opinion) that it was a artistic performance, and it was confirmed. Even without that information it was easy to state after closely looking at the provided pictures. All the metal plates were connected together with rivets, and that is not some sophisticated technology, the quality of build was also not to impressive.

Unfortunately almost no emotions. At the beginning I was a bit curious, but later on when I discovered how they were probably prepared I stopped following this topic.

In my opinion they not exist.


Roman Dubovyi said…
1. Some funny people decided to make a joke. I applaud to them. Sooner it became a trend and everyone started setting those things up. Someone even tried to set one in Kyiv, Ukraine. But soon police attached a fine for this obelisk. Owners got scared and removed it lol.

2. Funny emotions.

3. I don't believe in aliens. I am a man of a science and according to science it's never aliens. Until it is. I believe in incredible math behind the probability of spawning life in the form as we know it. And with all the odds it seems like we are the aliens to this world.
olga jaroń said…
@Viktor Ryś
I didn't follow the news about monoliths so it's interesting to hear that the one in Warsaw was an artistic installation. Theory about monoliths being used as sendor resarching earth is also really fascinating, but what kind of data would it collect?
olga jaroń said…
@Anastasiia Bida
If those monoliths are really just an art project, then it must be one of the biggest ones Earth has ever seen. Placing metal monoliths all around the globe, even in places that are hard to reach is quite challenging and pricey. As you pointed out we have no idea how aliens think or communicate. Even if they are more developed than us it doesn't mean that they mean any harm to us. Humans are one of a few species that we know of that make war, hopefully this is one of the things that aliens are different from us.
olga jaroń said…
@Krzysztof Kowalski
Maybe these monoliths will inspire PJATK architecture students to make some interesting designs. Fake news is a big problem of modern society, but these monoliths actually exist- news may have exaggerated the meaning behind them.
olga jaroń said…
@Pawel Bluszcz
If pseudo activists are the ones behind monoliths what kind of message would they try to pass? Placing metal statues all around the world can't be cheap, do you think such operation would be profitable in any way?
olga jaroń said…
@Karol Sołtysiak
Thank you for your first-handed report about Varsovian monolith! The Reddit article you mentioned has some interesting observations I haven't heard before. These insights debunk theories monoliths being made by aliens or single organisation. Even though these structures are proven to be nothing more than a hoax, I still find them extremely interesting as it shows what people are capable of doing for any form of sensation. If these numbers are real then there is a big chance that we are not alone in our universe. Hopefully we will get to see scientific evidence of life outside of our planet.
olga jaroń said…
@Justyna Woźniak
I also felt unease when I first red about these monoliths. I was surprised I haven't heard about them before, and suddenly I found a whole Wikipedia article with a list of their appearance. After finding more evidence proving that these monoliths are just a hoax, I felt kind of disappointed- they lost their interesting value for me.
1. KFC has shown the monolith from Utah in their bizarre reveal of a gaming console that... warms chicken wings. However, they don't seem to confirm (or disconfirm) that this is their weird marketing strategy. I think that other company will come along claiming those statues, as a part of a big announcement. I suspect Tesla, but I don't wanna place any bets.

2. I like them. It is an interesting phenomenon even if this is just a big commercial. Imagine, you can have an unskippable add in your game or youtube video that makes you angry or have some mysterious sculptures placed around the globe. That is awesome! makes people talk. Not revoking any aggression, just attention. Nicely played. Also, they are very aesthetically pleasing, futuristic and minimalist, what's not to like?

3. Well... there is some form of life in the universe for sure, however round spaceships with green people inside stilling cows? Nope.
Grzegorz Rostek said…
1. In your opinion, what is the source and purpose of these mysterious monoliths?
My opinion is that these monoliths are just a prank, we shouldn't take it seriously.

2. What emotions do these monoliths evoke in you?
None really, they just look weird, that's all.

3. Do you belive that Aliens exist?
I think that Aliens do exist. Our universe is infinite, and there's a high probability that humans are not alone. But I also think that Aliens are not technologically advanced, so I don't believe in UFO's, and I don't take those monoliths seriously.
olga jaroń said…
@Adrianna Wróbel
I haven't heard about that, but that sounds interesting! If it really is marketing strategy, then their marketing director should get a raise. Your propositions would change the way we view commercials- I think people would wait eagerly for new campaigns. Maybe even they would turn into real art?
1. In my opinion it is just joke, most of the time it can be redone in some photoshop or other video editing program. I wouldn't look for conspiracies or aliens here.
2. I think mainly curiosity or smile, due to the fact that many people associate it with unreal things, and as I wrote earlier, it was probably after some movie or something else.
3. Yes, I think the world is so big that there are aliens somewhere far from us, but I wouldn't be sure if they are more technologically advanced than us. Maybe they're just developing humans and look like Neanderthals. The question is also who we define alien, human or an ordinary living fish. However, I do not think that we have direct contact with aliens and that they are visiting us
I think it will be marketing campaign or some group of hobbyists make a very strange experiment. I don't think that will be aliens or some kind of supernatural forces. There are a lot of people in Internet who will invent this kind of stupid joke. But in this case it will be some marketing campaign about some problem in the world or new product premiere.
I want to see it on my own but I don't have enough time to look around to find some monoliths. I don't think that will be fake photos or something like that but this is it that you don't see everyday. It's interesting.
It's very hard question. In my opinion somewhere in our world must be some kind of creatures that are intelligent but maybe we are exception? And only us are one of a kind. Or there will be more creepy scenario that everyone in space are quiet because something want destroy all kind of life on entire world?
Leya Chechyk said…
1. To produce such questions and/or raise such discussions? To become topics on blogs? To give people some ideas to think about? Lots of options

2. Feels like someone was to lazy to find a litter bin and monoliths were left just in the middle of nowhere. I can’t say that they are ugly, but they do seem unfriendly and scary.

3. I believe that we are not lonely in the Universe, but I don’t think that contact with alternative forms of life would be a great idea. It would be disaster, as it’s truly something unimaginable and simply dangerous.

Popular posts from this blog

Week 11 [03-09.06.2019] The problem with ecological cars emission in UK

The problem with ecological cars emission in UK Since the adoption of the European Emission Allowance Directive in the European Parliament, all car makers have tried to submit. Since 1992, the Euro I standard has been in force, which limited the emission of carbon monoxide to the atmosphere. The Euro VI standard currently applies, which limits the series of exhaust gases. These include: hydrocarbons, nitrogen and carbon oxides, and dust.   The most significant change was brought by the Euro IV standard. For the first time it introduced the limitation of nitrogen oxides, which are responsible for the harmful compounds of smog.   What is smog?   Smog consists of sulfur oxides, nitrogen and carbon. In addition, solid substances such as suspended dust (PM). Dust suspend in atmospheric aerosols may be in liquid and solid form. These can be particles of sea salt, clouds from the Sahara and artificial compounds made by people. These compounds often come fr

Week 12 (12.01-18.01.15) Are you an early bird or a night owl ?

Owls are nocturnal creatures. They’re wide awake at night and they sleep during the day. If this sounds like bliss to you, then, like about 20 percent of the population who find themselves most active at around 9 pm, you may fall into the same category as our feathered friend. Night owls often have difficulty waking up in the morning, and like to be up late at night.  Studies of animal behaviour indicate that being a night owl may actually be built into some people’s genes. This would explain why those late-to-bed, late-to-rise people find it so difficult to change their behaviour. The trouble for night owls is that they just have to be at places such as work and school far too early. This is when the alarm clock becomes the night owl’s most important survival tool. Experts say that one way for a night owl to beat their dependence on their alarm clocks is to sleep with the curtains open. The Theory is that if they do so, the morning sunlight will awaken them gently and naturally.

Week 4 [06-12.11.2017] This is what happens when you reply to spam email.

James Veitch is a British comedian. In today’s Ted Talk James with characteristic for himself a sense of humor shows how he deals with spam emails and why responding to junk messages may be sometimes dangerous. Questions: What do you think about James’s  way of dealing with spam? Why are junk messages legal, even though it sometimes may be a fraud? Dou you have a problem with spam? How do you deal with with it?