And why not?

For the past couple of weeks, I've had cable (satellite, really) teev. It's certainly an interesting piece of entertainment; no more am I restricted to three commercial and two non-commercial stations.

Of particular interest, at least to me, are the History, Biography and Discovery channels along with... um... the Cartoon Network and TV1.

Recently, the History Channel has shown a number of programs on predicting the future and aliens. (Why is it that the two seem to always be shown together?) It's as if the programmers put both together, neither will be believed, and anyone who turns up on one of these shows - no matter how believable - are immediately branded as crackpots, liars or grifters.

Do I believe in the likes of Mother Shipton, Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce? Yep, sure do. Do I believe in aliens? Yep, sure do.

With the first question, they have predicted the same things accurately, centuries apart. With the second, I've heard too many stories from friends and family, seen to many strange things in this world for it not to be true.

Why should we be the only one's in the Universe? Because old Christian teachings tell us so? They also said it was heretical to mention that the world wasn't, in fact, flat, nor was Earth at the centre of all things. Because there's been no definitive proof? There's plenty around if you take into consideration the similarity of stories world-wide and Area 51. Because scientist and the military are always coming up with excuses or reasons? Swamp gas, a meteor, lights bouncing off an atmospheric anomaly, a prototype or simply "you didn't see anything" to quote the penguins.

I can understand why the world isn't ready for such a revelation, but to keep denying it with such lies is wrong... Think about this: the scientists of the world can only use what has been discovered previously and what they know as 'absolute truths' to search for other entities. Once upon a time, that 'absolute truth' was that the solar system revolved around earth; that if you went too far, you'd fall off the edge, that there was nothing smaller than what the eye could see, that an eclipse was a harbinger of doom, that earthquakes, floods, droughts and hurricanes were a sign from the gods of their displeasure. These were 'absolute truths'.

Are there things we can't see or detect because we don't yet have the technology? That is an Absolute Truth. What's beyond the light spectrum we know, for example? Why can't we travel at light speed? (Apart from the obvious that our frail bodies can't handle it, that is.) Lasers, microwaves, satellites, space flight, book readers were sci-fi, yet we have them now and the future is rushing towards us with ever increasing fevour.

Anyway... the point is, is that I'm astonished by the lack of imagination from these naysayers. People recalling what happened to them is a boon to us writers. We can take their stories and make up similar stuff to write. It doesn't have to be a confrontational episode, it can be any-damn-thing. These people open our minds to what's possible.

The soothsayers are even more wonderful and scary. What of the future? For sci-fi writers, anything is possible with a leg up from the most famous psychics in history.

So I say again, and why not?