The Mystification of Scientific Abstraction

It becomes slightly discomforting when one recognizes the source for X-File plot lines, as not entirely derived from the creative imagination of a sci-fi writer, but extracted from real narratives in our culture. And I’m being deliberate when I mention “our culture”, rather than “sub-culture” (if subcultures truly exist anymore, but that’s another Frankfurt story), because the sentiments and attitudes conjured up by ufo’s and aliens from outer space, are not hushed aside to the margins of society. Rather, ufo’s and extraterrestrial beings are a common theme in popular culture, and the terror, hope, and ambivalence they garner, is not unlike other speculative discourses permeating the public, i.e. religion.

Thus, it is not surprising our representation of ufo’s and aliens fit the epic archetype of a greater-than-man hero. Like Zeus and the Olympian gods, their formulaic personalities, omniscient presence, and higher knowledge, is no more different than the temperamental, and all knowing ET’s.

This link between the divine and the quite literal outer-worldly, is fundamental to occult leaders and followers. The manifestations of this linkage, often seen in x-file episodes, are communities based on the mystification of scientific abstractions, and the faith of biblical text.

Though the latter is a familiar and human sentiment, the former, mystification of scientific abstraction, is a process experienced in this regime of rationality and functionalism. In a society where our rituals and routines revolve around the systems of machines and technology, skepticism and cynicism towards angry gods are justified by statistics of global warming. However, when scientific and rational logic become the dominant discourse, we forget however, that it still remains a discourse. That is, the language of science is highly esoteric and omits the public from understanding specific facts. Nonetheless, it remains the dominant discourse in which people rely and place their faith in. The ramifications of this faith thus beings to look like a blur between scientific and science fiction. When scientific inferences are interpreted as facts by the public, the result is no different then how religions and faiths are formed.

Take for example, the black box. A piece of technology that functions though we don’t know how. We accept nonetheless, that through the magic that is technology, this microwave will heat up my food- no questions ask. On a metaphysical level, the black box does not singularly point to its function, i.e. Microwave = food, rather, it points to the all mighty and omnipresence of Science. And it is these instruments of technology that make up enivorment, brings us closer to a new god, a new faith, a new transcendental enlightenment outside of archaic churches and temples.