io9: Conspiracy

In the webcomic Monster Pulse, a government conspiracy turns human body parts into kooky kaiju

Lauren Davis — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 09:00:00 PDT

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Bina's a little girl with a big heart – literally. After a mysterious encounter, Bina's heart has popped out of her chest and transformed into a walking, punching monster. Now Bina and her heart are on the run from government agents. More »

Was Area 51 a conspiracy between Stalin and Joseph Mengele?

Cyriaque Lamar — Mon, 16 May 2011 07:40:00 PDT

Did two of the most evil Joes of the 20th century team up to troll America with fake child aliens? According to author Annie Jacobsen's new book Area 51, Stalin and Mengele collaborated on a Cold War of the Worlds. More »

The most secret agencies dedicated to making sure you're only seeing a pale shadow of reality

Esther Inglis-Arkell — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:00:00 PST

The philosopher Plato once posed the Allegory of the Cave in his work, The Republic. He thought that, if prisoners spent all of their lives chained in a cave and facing a wall, their only experience would be watching the shadows on that wall. They never understand that there are things beyond that wall. The philosopher, however, is freed from that cave and can begin to understand the nature of actual reality. This may look like stoned sophomoric wonderings with some bragging tacked on at the end, but it laid the groundwork for a lot of science fiction premises. There are plenty of minor conspiracies and cover-ups in the world, but some go beyond minor plots and conceal the fabric of reality. Have a look at all the agencies, societies, guilds, and collections of friends that like people to be kept chained up in a cave. More »

NASA caught Photoshopping an image of Saturn's moons. What were they trying to hide?

Charlie Jane Anders — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 13:20:00 PDT

A conspiracy theorist noticed that an image in NASA's Astronomy Picture Of The Day had noticeable Photoshop brushstrokes in it, when you turned up the contrast. Is there a mysterious object hiding near Saturn's moons? More »

LSD Blamed For Epidemic Of Madness And Self-Castration In Small Town

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 14 May 2010 09:30:00 PDT

Arcata is a tiny coastal town in Northern California, known for its beautiful redwood forests. But over the past few weeks, a series of bizarre events suggest that somebody is selling seriously bad drugs to the town residents. More »

Advice On Removing Your Alien Implant — From An Expert

Scott Timberg — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:18:15 PST

Don't you hate it when you can't get that pesky alien implant out of your groin? Dr. Roger Leir is here to help. More »

H1N1 Is a Plot to Kill Baby Boomers, Argues Conspiracy Theorist

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:16:52 PST

A new day, a new H1N1 conspiracy theory! But this one is special. Ken Welch says on his blog, before treating us to an extremely detailed analysis: More »

Area 51 Is Declassified, And Its Project Leads Speak Out

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:07:12 PDT

Details related to Area 51 have been declassified, and for the first time in history former members of the staff are allowed to admit Area 51 exists and talk about what went on there. More »

Elvis Has Left the Planet

Lauren Davis — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 10:00:07 PST

Hip-shaking, pill-popping rocker Elvis Presley officially died in 1977, but he keeps popping up, at least in science fiction. Think Elvis lives? We list scifi’s explanations for what really became of the King. More »

Declassified Government Documents Reveal the Truth About UFOs

Lauren Davis — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:40:00 PDT

As any viewer of Fringe or The X-Files will tell you, the governments of the world know more about UFOs and alien life than they’re letting on. The party line may be that UFO sightings are mere misunderstandings and close encounters a fantasy, but not every government official agrees. We’ve rifled through tons of declassified government documents and turned up papers that prove the truth about UFOs is still out there. More »

What's the Real Explanation for the Roswell Incident?

Lauren Davis — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:00:00 PDT

It's been over 50 years since something many called a UFO landed near a military base in Roswell, New Mexico, and the mysterious incident continues to capture our imagination. Although some people still aren't sure exactly what landed in Roswell, science fiction knows the extraterrestrial truth. In scifi, the crash site has become the scene of many a predestination paradox, grey alien, government conspiracy, and sought-after technology. Check out our list of Roswell's greatest crash landings and cover-ups and decide which one you should believe. More »

A Beam of Gamma Radiation Aimed Precisely at Earth

Annalee Newitz — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:16:13 PDT

A few months ago, astronomers began studying the brightest explosion ever observed: A massive gamma radiation burst that shot out of a star as it was collapsing into a black hole. The explosion was so bright that people could see it with their naked eyes. Now all the astrophysicists who watched the explosion have done their post-mortems and have discovered something awesome and strange. The gamma burst was aimed almost exactly at Earth, which is why researchers were able to see a stream of matter moving at almost the speed of light. More »

Northern Hemisphere Gets Ready for End of UFO Season

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 10:30:21 PDT

The holidays are nearly over, and it's time to start going back to school or return to work after a summer vacation. What you probably didn't know is that it's also the end of UFO season for the Northern Hemisphere. So if you're looking for ET, it's time to hightail it down to New Zealand. Here's why, according to the experts. More »

Is the Earth Quarantined???

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:21:41 PDT

Click to view Why haven't we met aliens yet? And why aren't we sending rockets all over the solar system? There is only one plausible explanation. Earth is being quarantined! A combination of higher alien civilizations and our own Earth-based military forces are working together to keep the Earth contained and neutralized. The reasons why they would do this are obvious, but where is the evidence? Below, we've got enough truly true facts to get your conspiracy engines revved up to maximum. 1. We have been located in a backwater part of the galactic rim. To keep Earth inhabitants away from the rest of the universe community, our planet was stuck way out in the boondocks at the rim of a second-rate galaxy. Obviously only a higher alien intelligence could have done this, to prevent humans from leaking out everywhere and finding all the cool shit in the universe. 2. Space debris is a shield to keep us from hearing alien broadcasts. You've heard that there are thousands of pieces of space junk orbiting Earth, posing a danger to orbiting spacecraft and creating a haze of garbage around the planet. Recently the Chinese government created infinitely more space trash by shooting one of its satellites, scattering its shattered body into orbit. What could be the possible reason for leaving all this junk in orbit, instead of cleaning it up? Obviously, our governments are using the junk as a deflection shield to prevent alien messages and craft from getting through. And this suits the aliens just fine, since they're quarantining us anyway. 3. Space-based weapons prevent aliens from wanting to bond with us. According to Alfred Webre, a Canadian futurist and author of the recent book Exopolitics:

Star Wars and the militarization of space is part of the information war against the integration with Universe society. Star Wars is an "inside code word" for this war among the military planners. The issue is whether our space technology will be in accord with Universal principles, or controlled by a military empire. The USA will ultimately suffer ignominious defeat by Universe society should it persist as a space military power.

Well, that pretty much covers it. 4. JPL scientists who are in on the quarantine efforts helped perpetuate the myths that were reported in Wired about how we could "never achieve interstellar travel." Why don't they want us to believe in interstellar travel? Why? These are space scientists, dammit — doesn't it strike you as odd that they are saying we shouldn't go to space? 5. NASA's launch of a suborbital rocket fails. Today NASA launched a suborbital rocket, but had to shoot it out of the sky due to alleged "launch failure." Really? Could this actually be an effort to discourage suborbital rockets, which might break through the space debris and catch sight of the Universe society? As one blogger points out, NASA already knows about aliens. Thus, they're the perfect organization to make it seem as if there were "problems" on a rocket that was about to run into alien vessels. 6. Large Hadron Collider. Seriously — need we say more? Any alien civilization worth its salt would know that when we start beaming subatomic particles through that giant, Swiss magnetic loop that the Terrible Events are about to begin. Stay the hell away from Earth when that happens. 7. Project Bluebook closed. In the 1950s and 60s, the Air Force created Project Bluebook, an investigative project to figure out what all those UFOs were. Despite the fact that people continue to see UFOs every day, the project was shut down in 1969. Why? Was that the year that the government learned about the Quarantine and decided to pull the wool over our eyes? 8. Twelve missions to Mars failed en route to the planet. Sure we have some satellites orbiting Mars now, and three robots on the surface doing measurements. But they're only in the quarantined areas. Whenever a satellite or spacecraft has tried to go near certain off-limits parts of the planet, they've mysteriously disappeared. Traces of them are never found again, even by the satellites that are supposedly photographing the planet in such minute detail that they can see this hunk of ice. 9. Global warming makes planet more comfortable for everybody. Little-discussed fact about global warming: It will make all the least-inhabitable regions of the planet into a tropical paradise. Climate change is basically a massive, multinational conspiracy to get everyone so comfy on Earth that they never want to go to ultra-cold Mars or the even colder reaches of deep space. It's good when people believe they actually CHOSE to be quarantined, isn't it? 10. Fly Me to the Moon This movie about flies stowing away on a moon rocket was actually a government-sponsored plot to make traveling offworld seem so awful that nobody would ever want to do it again. In the face of such compelling evidence, you cannot deny the TRUTH. Somebody — or something — doesn't want us to leave the planet. We're being . . . quarantined!!! More »

Why Richard Nixon Should Be Your Dystopian President

Lauren Davis — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 09:00:28 PDT

The latest Futurama movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs, found Richard Nixon’s head still president of an increasingly crappy Earth, and Nixon will again take the highest office in next year’s Watchmen. In fact, if there’s a vaguely dystopian alternate history or future, chances are there’s a Nixon to run it. But as our nation gets more presidents under its belt, another politician may challenge Nixon’s supremacy as head of unhappy states. But our 37th president will not relinquish his title so easily. After the jump, read Nixon’s track record and see why you should reelect him president of your dystopian America. More »

"Expelled" Conspiracy?

Michael Reilly — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:47:53 PDT

Much has been written in advance of the April 18th release of Expelled. Some might say too much. Even Fox News panned the film, which claims that an Athiest/Darwinist conspiracy has hijacked academia and is kicking out anyone that finds scientific evidence supporting Intelligent Design. The commentary's been highly predictable, though — a little too predictable. Is there another conspiracy at work here, one that no one saw coming? More »