Execs curious about possible link between UFOs, technology

By Matt Beer
EXAMINER TECHNOLOGY WRITER

If Silicon Valley execs can invest in Internet companies that have little hope of making a profit, it's probably no surprise they're willing to pony up millions for a company that is looking into the link between space aliens and high technology. The details are somewhat sketchy, but sources have told The Examiner that on Oct. 12, scientists, including some from NASA's Ames Research Center, will mingle at an unknown Bay Area location with a handful of top Silicon Valley executives. The event is being sponsored by the International Space Sciences Organization.

That organization was founded and is headed by Joe Firmage, who has become known as Silicon Valley's space alien ambassador.

Firmage is the 28-year-old founder and former CEO of USWeb, a Santa Clara-based Web consulting firm. He stepped down from that post last November after he published a Web site in which he detailed his beliefs that high-technology advances are actually gifts from aliens who crash-landed in the desert near Roswell, N.M., in 1947. Firmage also claimed he was visited by a space invader who hovered over his bed, surrounded by a brilliant white light.

Firmage stepped down from the company after shareholders protested that his outside pursuits could taint the corporation.

Since then, Firmage has founded Intend Change, another Internet consulting firm based in Santa Clara.

According to three sources who asked to remain anonymous, Firmage intends to announce that a technology officer from a large Fortune 100 company has agreed to head up International Space Sciences, an organization dedicated to studying advances in physics and their relationship to UFO phenomena.

These sources say the organization is slated to receive some $100.million in funds from Silicon Valley executives who agree with Firmage's beliefs.

Besides space alien visits, Firmage believes, according to his Web site, that "there is stunningly good evidence that UFOs are real star-ships."

He adds that "whatever did or did not happen at Roswell in 1947 will ultimately prove to be a rounding error when the implications of this phenomenon become widely known."

Firmage, reached by phone Monday, confirmed he is organizing the Oct. 12 meeting. He confirmed that the group would be talking about "advances in propulsion technologies," but he stopped short of saying UFOs would be discussed.

"We will be taking the discussion to its logical conclusions," he said. "Wherever it goes, it goes."

©1999 San Francisco Examiner

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