WHY DO TALL MONOLITHS KEEP APPEARING AROUND THE WORLD?

To begin:

The year 1968 was a turbulent one, and 2001 was released right in the middle of that chaos.  The Vietnam War intensified, the US military stunned by the ferocity of the Tet Offensive earlier in the year.  Fervent opposition to the war led to widespread and often violent demonstrations and police responses across the country.  The Civil Rights movement was painfully gaining momentum through the 1960’s; Martin Luther King would be assassinated just two days after the world premiere of 2001.  The Space Race was still very real.  The Apollo fire that killed three American astronauts occurred only a little more than a year before the film’s release and the US was still trying to recover from that loss and still meet President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.  No American had yet flown in an Apollo capsule, the giant Saturn 5 rocket had flown only once and without a crew (its second flight, also unmanned and which was only partially successful would take place two days after the world premiere).  The high-risk Apollo 8 trip around the Moon hadn’t even been conceived yet.  In April 1968, it was far from certain whether the Moon landing goal would be met, or whether the Soviets might beat us to it.  The film’s premise of an extensive space infrastructure including a large orbiting space station staffed by international crewmembers, with regular trips to a lunar base by 2001, was visionary and highly optimistic at a time of great uncertainty.

Ever see the 1968 film 2001:  Space Odyssey?  Remember the early scene, around 4 million BC on Planet Earth, of an 11-foot tall black slab?

The pre-human Australopithecines were startled, and in time this alien thingamabob became known as a monolith.  

• That initial ape, known as Moonwatcher, symbolically was inspired to pick up an animal bone, and, for the first time, used it as a weapon to kill a tapir.

• 
  Perhaps in Kubrick's mind, this Nietzschean affirmation of life, was the spark of knowledge from which intelligent us evolved.
• This monolith appears four times in 2001:  Dawn of Man, on the Moon, orbiting Jupiter...and in abstract, in space near the end, leading to the Star-Child.

• 
  Who left that monolith?  Arthur C. Clarke refers to them as the Firstborn, who had developed interstellar travel millions, if not billions of years ago.  And how prescient was Clarke?  In his books, he indicated that the earliest biological forms evolved into noncorporeal forms, or Artificial Intelligence, to spread throughout the universe.

About the 2001 Monolith:

• Black and non-reflective rectangle, 1:4:9.  
• The original was acrylic, and rejected by Kubrick.  This first one was exhibited at Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee in 1977.
• There is a fourth dimension.
• In the film, the first two are about 11 feet long, the one around Jupiter longer than mile, and the fourth, less than 11 feet.
• Controlled internally by Von Neumann machines, or computer.
• Supposedly able to survive for millions of years.

Interestingly enough, the first replica was a white monolith about 18 feet tall, erected in 1973 on the Manoa Campus of the University of Hawaii, a year after I began teaching there.

• 1'x6'x18'.
• Designed by Bruce Hopper and called Krypton.
• Initially had a hum, which was disconnected in 1974 because of the energy crisis, plus complaints about noise.  Was restored in 2019 with thoughts to reinstall sound, but not yet added.
• That is Watanabe Hall in the back, and my Pacific Ocean and Science and Technology building is adjacent.

Others.

• It was not until 2001 that the Dutch Hackers at Large conference, HAL2001, erected a replica at the University of Twente in Enschede, Netherlands.    Note that the acronym of Hackers at Large is HAL. 

• 
  Also in 2001 was another replica by an unknown artist on Kite Hill in Seattle's Magnuson Park.  Some say that the perpetrator was a guerrilla installation group of local artists calling themselves Some People.  Cost $250.

• 
  Here is what looks like a monolith on Mars, in 2012.  Courtesy NASA.
• Various monoliths can be seen in video games, like Kerbal Space Program and Space engineers.

• 
  It was reported that the NASA Ames Research Center had a replica in 2016.
• In 2020, a 15-foot tall wooden replica was found in the main courtyard of the Ecole normale superieure University in Paris.

In 2020, Business Insider reported that after a mysterious monolith was found in Utah on November 18, 87 similar structures have popped up around the world.

• This Utah monolith was installed in October of 2016, and disappeared on November 27, 2020.
• On 18November2020, a monolith appeared in Piatra Neamt, Romania, but disappeared on December 2.

• 
  To the right, atop Pine Mountain in California on 2December2020.
• Also found in Morocco, Canada and Australia.
• Replica monoliths have attained meme status.

Some have no known installers, some do, like Travis Kenney to the right, with Wade McKenzie and Riddle at their second Atacasdero monolith.

They continue to appear.  Last year, a 10-foot-tall silver metal monolith appeared in Hay-on-Wye, Powys, Wales.

• How did it get to the top of the hill, for there is no road?  Helicopter?
• Watch this video.
• No one claimed responsibility.

In March of this year, near the Seven Magic Mountains site, about 10 miles south of Las Vegas.  No one has claimed responsibility.   Watch this video.

Nuisance?  Illegal?  Exciting?  Alien pranks?  Here is what Google AI Overview recommends if you find a new one:

1. Contact the Authorities: Report the monolith to the local police department, BLM, or other relevant authorities, especially if it is on public land. 
2. Do Not Interact with the Monolith: Avoid touching, moving, or attempting to dismantle the object. 
3. Discourage Public Visits: Advocate for the site to be left undisturbed to prevent damage to the environment and any archaeological resources in the area

Better yet, inform your TV station, for they will immediately film it for a viral opportunity.

So why do these monoliths mysteriously reappear?  Just creative human nature.  Nothing extraterrestrial.  It all began with the film 2001:  Space Odyssey, and will continue into the foreseeable future.

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