The Spaceships of Ezekiel: Form and Mechanism (Part B)

	The Spaceships of Ezekiel Are there Flying Saucers in the Bible?

There are sufficient reasons to eliminate flying and swimming beings from this investigation, so that it only remains for us to consider a being which moves on solid ground and is surrounded by a gaseous mixture. The guideline for the basic layout of our "structure" may be established as follows: For understandable reasons the "control center" must be arranged as high as possible above the ground. The parts required for the conversion of energy must therefore necessarily be arranged between the control center and the organs of motion which are in contact with the ground. The location of operational organs (tools) does not lend itself to such a direct definition. Yet it may be inferred from the need for multiple utilization of the mechanism that they should be located as far as possible from the organs of locomotion. [p.141]

With the aid of certain mechanical concepts we can proceed from this general scheme of distribution to the identification of corresponding forms. With the exception of "force," the most essential concept in mechanics is the "moment," which is the product of force and a distance. We owe to the moment the important element in mechanics—the lever. We must acknowledge that these fundamentals have universal validity; just as we do for the inclined plane, friction, and the wheel.

Movements of the system result as a consequence of moments. Since, for structural reasons, the wheel is eliminated as a design element of nature, the use of the lever remains the only way to produce movement, and it necessarily entails structures similar to the leg, the arm, and the hand. The optimum number of legs, arms, and fingers may be a matter of argument and the same applies to the optimum number of joints in all these limbs. In addition, we know the minimum requirements: two legs, two arms, and hands with three fingers each. There are good reasons for concluding that in the case of legs and arms the optimum coincides with the minimum, which therefore explains the existence of these limbs in pairs. But such is not the case for the hands, of which it can only be said that they should probably be equipped with at least four but probably not more than six fingers each (for example, two thumbs, one at each end of the row of fingers). In any case, one can expect more than three fingers to a hand.

As we see, this investigation—which, as we said before, is here merely outlined in its basic essentials—leads to a structure which has all the basic characteristics of a human body. We have recognized that the entity "form = mechanical system" uses particularly one of the basic elements of mechanics, the lever. The mechanical consistency in the structure and the universal validity of the lever and of the law which governs it make this entity operative regardless of its location in the universe and show us that the design of the human body is neither unique, earthbound, nor coincidental, but that it possesses general validity. .

I would like to offer a strictly technical example in support of this statement. It concerns the mechanical arms and hands developed over many years for tasks ranging from the servicing of "hot" reactors to underwater operations. The more refined such designs are, the closer their appearance approaches the shapes of human hands and arms (compare Figs. 8a and 8b). This result is significant because it is certainly not due to preconceived planning. It is in fact the result of the work of groups, which independently were searching objectively for the most appropriate principles and designs.

Footnote: For a demonstration of an example in reverse I invite the participation of the reader. Please place your forearm on the table by which you are sitting so that your hand lies in front of your chest. Now raise the hand and the forearm and grasp an object which is a short distance from your hand. Observe purely optically, that is, without thinking of what you feel in your hand or arm, how hand, arm, and fingers move exactly as an industrial gripping device does. The close relationship between nature and technology is unmistakable.

This much for the outward shape. The desirable insight into the basic characteristics of the internal structure of the mechanical system will be obtained by the following additional considerations.

The mention of a highly advanced extraterrestrial civilization immediately makes us think of its technology which enables it to make contact with us. But it is self-evident that such a civilization must also have yet another form of expression: its art. A brief discussion of the dependence of art on mechanisms is needed to enable us to proceed with our investigation We are, of course, not talking about an "essential," but a purely mechanical dependence. We will explain this by an example taken from our own art forms: a string quartet, a Persian miniature, a Chinese jade sculpture would be inconceivable if our hands were shaped like those of a frog, or the paws of a dog, or the hands of an anthropoid ape. Even the writing of a poem or a musical score requires the mechanism we call a hand. From these few remarks two important requirements emerge as prerequisites for any activity in the sphere of arts: articulation and sensitivity.

The self-evident presence of art-related activities within the framework of a highly advanced civilization demands the existence of the same properties in its members. Sensitivity is particularly relevant to our argument because it means that the surface of such beings cannot consist of a shell or calluslike wrapping but must be made of a substance which, broadly speaking, is endowed with the properties of human skin. Proceeding from this premise, we can conclude with a high degree of probability that they must also have a skeleton as a "supporting structure."

Summing up, we can therefore say that—particularly because of the universal validity of the law of the lever—the general appearance of the human form can likewise, and with very high probability, be assumed to be universal. The likely existence of skeleton and skin is deduced from the necessary presence of articulation and sensitivity. Such visitors may therefore be expected with a great degree of certainty to look "like a man." [p.144]