Every signal has noise inherent in it. One can look at the static and vainly seek for meaning – ignoring the signal. Look long enough, you will find the meaning you seek. Just as you can filter noise into a pure tone.

Its just the operation of Shannon’s law – nothing more. You can increase signal relative to noise, with effort, but the noise remains there always.

Why do folks like this character and his followers seek this particular tone from the random bits of noise that are in this particular signal.

1) most do not trust the government; largely a reflection of abuse they suffered at the hands of their paretns or guardians;

2) some note that progress in space travel has not been made since the lunar landings. If one projects exponential growth in capability in aerospace from say 1939 to 1969 naively onward from 1969 to 2009 – we would see something like 2001 A Space Odyssey or better.

In 1968 the New York Academy of Sciences published SPACE MISSION PLANNING: The Next 25 Years of Space Travel (1968-1993) We stopped about 1970 level (by the book’s standards) in 1983 – and are now regressing. Which has no more sinister explanation than space travel is hard, expensive and not very rewarding commercially.

The same was true of dirigible technology which was abandoned in the 1940s – notwithstanding projections of a fabulous future of a world tied togther with ‘ships of the skies’ carrying costly cargoes through the stratosphere.

So, while 100,000 ton cargo dirigibles never developed, no one proposed serious conspiracy theories to account for the failure of airships. One reason was likely the development of jet travel only a few decades later and 700 ton 747s.

We should enjoy the show while it still has currency! Obviously no one will take seriously these ideas after Virgin Atlantic or its successor builds commercial hotels around the Apollo landing sites at some point in our future. Our kids or grandkids will ask us then, did people really believe we DIDN’T go to the moon? And we’ll miss the assorted nutballs and fondly recall them. While sociologists write about the loss of credibility all governments suffered from as traditional system failed etc., etc.

How about something with “needing more tranquility”…

Incidents like that must work wonders for this nutballs credibility.