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— " VOL. 16 NO. 11 AUGUST 1994 EDITOR IN CHIEF & DESIGN DIRECTOR: BOB GUCCIONE PRESIDENT & C.O.O.: KATHY KEETON VP/EDITOR: KEITH FERRELL EXECUTIVE VP/GRAPHICS DIRECTOR; FRANK DEVINO MANAGING EDITOR: CAROLINE DARK ART DIRECTOR: CATHRYN MEZZO DEPARTMENTS FEATURES 4 31 First Word Mars Face By Paul Levinson By Robert C, Kiviat Sensoria Are the mysterious formations Communications in the Cydonia 8 region of Mars natural Funds or a sign of By Linda Marsa intelligent intervention? Investing 38 in cyberspace The Resuscitator 10 By Janet Stites Electronic Universe Although we may try By Gregg Keizer to live by 12 our hearts, it's the Mind brain that will By Steve Nadis get us walking out the If is one colonize Mars, will the The phantasmic humankind to day we be hospital doors. first? Or do the monuments on Mars' surface realm Brain resuscitation is a prior civilization? art Pat Rawiings/ of sleep disorders suggest Cover by around the bend. 14 SAIC for NASA, (Additional credits, page 76,) 43 Medicine Cosmic Conspiracy: By Nina L. Diamond Six Decades 16 of Government UFO Virtual Realities Cover-ups, Part V By Tom Dworetzky By Dennis Stacy and 18 Patrick Huyghe Earth) 54 By W. Bradford Swift Pictorial: Tobacco Beauty and ttie Beast the miracle plant By Robert Bixby 20 60 Space Fiction: By Brenda Forman See Rock City Enter Tonga, By Allen Steele 23 67 Continuum Interview 88 By Nina L, Diamond Games 71 By Scot Morris Antimatter OMNI (ISSN 0149-8711) is published monthly in the United Slates and Cantida bj urnni Fublii.dli<jrit, intPindlional Lid- Broadway, New York, NY 10023-5965, Second-class postage paid at New Yorl<, NY and at additional mailing offices POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Omni Magazine, Post Office Box 3041, Harlan, lA 51537-3041. Volume 16, Number 11 Copyright©/ 1994 by Omni Publications International Ltd, All rights reserved. Tel, 1-800-289-6664; (212)496-6100. OMNI is a registered trade-t® mark ot Omni Publications International Ltd, Printed in the USA by R, R, Donnelley a Sons Inc. and distributed in the USA, ( United States territorial possessions, and the world (except Australia and the UK) by Curtis Circulation Company, 433 Hackensack Avenue, Hackensack, NJ 07601. Distributed in Australia by The Horowitz Group, PO. Box 306, Cammeray NSW 2063 Australia and in the UK by Seymour International Press Distributors Ltd., Windsor House, 1270 London Rd., Norbury, London SW16 4DH. EfiHre con- tents copyrighted. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Any simllaffty between places or persons mentioned in the fiction or semifiction and real places or persons living or dead is ooincidentaL Subsciiplkms: U,S,, 1-800-289- AFO—$24 one year; Canada and elsewhere—$36.33 one year Single copies $3.50 in U.S . AFO. and Canada. Telep^icoe: 6664, The publisher disclaims all responsibility to return unsolicited matter, and all rights in portions thereof remain the sole property of Omni Publications International Ltd, Letters sent to Omni or its editors become the property of the magazine. Printed in U.S.A. Canadian GST Registration #R126607589 — FIRST UUDRD PICKING RIPE: There are just some things you can't do in cyberspace By Paul Levinson radio flourishes in an age of 0'^ f% y grandmother had a fruit sight-and-sound TV, whereas I 1 1 I ''sP'-il^s'^iori as a I %m I squeezer among the sight-only silent movies fell by bustling stalls off Pelham Park- the wayside once talkies came hearing- , way in the Bronx. "Mrs. Hoff," along. Why? Because they'd see her coming, "we've without-seeing is a mode literally got some great cantaloupes for hardwired into our specieshood: you." And they'd hand her one, We have eyelids not earlids, the which she'd hold up to the light, world grows dark every night but "Some of us divine in some indefinable way not necessarily silent, and so on. still get and either accept or reject re- Thus radio, in tapping into an al- a kick out of gardless of the hype from the ready-profound human mode of actually fruit store. And she'd do the communication, survived; silent hanifling video same for every carrot and head movies did not. "' cantaloupes, of lettuce she bought. Still photography survived the hefting tlie boxes, In-person presence—the full advent of motion pictures be- and read- interplay of every relevant sense cause stillness is a fundamental ing the blurbs." in the sensorium—was the only part of human perception: black way of interacting with reality for and white photography, on the my grandmother. At least insofar only be experienced in the flesh. other hand, is no longer used ex- as fruit and vegetables were A dinner at a fine restaurant, with cept as a deliberate artistic concerned, (She did, however, its nch mixture of tastes, smells, statement, because we see in read the newspapers.) sights, and sounds—a walk on a color. In activities in which surro- The twentieth century can be moonlit beach in August, soft gacy satisfies the already-.ores- regarded as an age of increas- sand and sanalogue. The hottest ent patterns of our species, it will ing surrogacy in our relations chats on the fastest networks likely not only survive but sup- with the outside world. We hold not a candle to the restau- plant some in-person n^odes. started a hundred years ago with rant and the beach. Some parts The lowly amoeba has '"o capac- a shift from live theatrical perfor- of our lives, I think we can safely ity for vicarious perception or in- mances to movies on the screen. say, will always be conducted teraction— all it knows of its world IVIidway through the century, with best result offline. is what it physically bumps into more and more people started In-person environments still and dies the instant it comes to watching movies at home on little provide a dimension of choice. know something noxious. TV screens rather than going out Since the digital world is deliber- Evolution has given more to public theaters. I^ecentiy ately constructed, it is inevitably complex organises better buf- we've acquired the option of or- prepackaged, and prepackag- fers to help the'" "avigate the dering mpvies for our TV screen ing limits options in its early world^percep:::" in animals, via pay-for-view—eliminating the phases. Ultimately the reach of ideas and technologies in hu- quick trip to the video store. purely informational access will mans— and these allow us the All tliis, of course, pales in offer options undreamed of in the safety, the dignity in some cases, vicariousness to the precincts of old-fashioned store, but at pres- of knowing things without the nsk VR and cyberspace, where not ent I have a far greater selection of our physical commftment. The only our interactions, but the very of tapes in the video store than vicariousness of our newest stuff of our choices is an informa- via pay-for-view. My grandmother media thus has a deep-rooted tional construct, a digital concoc- had far greater choice of can- evolutionary imprimatur. tion through and through. taloupes in the fruit store than But in human activities in What residue of fruit-handling had she bought one from a mail- which only Otg real thing will do, will be left in the twenty-first cen- order catalog. Indeed, in the fruit in which the oa!l of the amoeba tury? Is the yearning that people store she could forego the fruit is still eminently felt, we can ex- feel for in-person presence a altogether if it didn't pass her pect the spirit of my grand- nostalgia akin to the preference tactile muster. mother to prevail into the for typewriters and ink pens? The best guide to the likely twenty-firs": century and well be- Not likely—certainly not for survival of modes of communica- yond. Hef Ling the cantaloupe still some aspects of life which can tion is media history: Sound-only has its appeai-CX] cannanumicAToms READERS' WRITES: KATHY KEETON Drivers' Ed for ETs, thanking a tliinker, Piesident & COO and a simpler scientific solution OMNI PUBLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL LTD. THE CORPORATION Bod Quccione Cnairrran and Chier E>eoutive Officer Kathy Keeton Vice Chairman and Chiet The Burden of Proof Interesting Quark Operating Officer I enjoyed the UFO articles [April, 1994] I applaud Dick Teresi's feature "The vVilliam F Marlieb Presiaenf/Ma'feting Saies & Great Experiment of the 20th Cen- Circulation but was perplexed by the number of Last Richard M Cohen Exec VP/Treasj'er crashes. What gives? My kid sister tury" [January, 1994]. I know a bit Patnck J Gavin £xec VP/Operatiom, and drives better than that. Looks like these about quantum physics, and Dick's Chief financia' Officei Frank DeVino Siec VP/Graphics Dneotor intergalactic hotshots should practice writing style made this article very in- Martise &rec VP/Circulation James B with Frisbees before putting pedal-to- teresting for me. It was on a level Hal Halpner VP^ recto' of Manufacturing William Tynan VP/Technoloyv & Irfirmation the-meta! and heading our way At the which I could discuss with nonscience- Sen, icea very least they should carry pilot liabil- minded acquaintances and still have Cathwine Simmons-Gili VP Gent='al Counsel ity insurance. an enjoyable conversation. EDITORIAL Fred J. Hermon A, R, Taylor VF/Edilor Keith Ferrell Mpiagirg Editor Caroline West Hollywood, Dd'l' Ediic- at Larqe Pamela W^jnlraub Senior Editor Santa Ana, CA CA Enn Murph/ Rcton Eaitor Elle'i Datlow Paulic Rim AOL: ART 77 Ediior Letgh Dayton Humor Editor BiW Lee StaffWriter I in KsUifeen Stem As^oc Editors Denny Alkin Anna truly enjoyed the information your Copeland Copy Crief John Johnson Editona! Coordi UFO issue, but feel I must convey how Take A Past Life and Call Me in the AM •^ator UsaQ Casinger Ediiorial Absistant Byron Poole ludicrous the idea of proving any of Thank you for the interview with Dr.