A Salt Lake native whose innovations have put millions in the bank has given up his Silicon Valley CEO title to further a revolution in science he believes society hasn't been ready for, until now.
Joseph Firmage forecasts scientific revolution over the next 10 years will liberate the earthbound, freeing mankind to explore the universe and meet its inhabitants -- whose technological advances made it possible for them to interact with the people on Earth for some time.Did the government cover up a 1947 UFO crash in Roswell? Perhaps. He's not sure the government even knows at this point. Is there life beyond our world? Yes. Firmage said evidence of both is in his book "The Truth," published on the Internet at http://www.TheWordIsTruth.org.
Firmage founded Serius Corp. in Salt Lake City at age 17, selling computer programming tools. Novell acquired the company, and Firmage, in 1993 for an estimated $24 million. He and several other Novell executives left Novell in 1995 and he co-founded USWeb, which merged last month with CKS Group Inc., an Internet marketing and business company, to form a company with $260 million in annual revenues, according to the Associated Press.
It is perhaps ironic that a 28-year-old master of technology, whose most recent fortune was built on an Internet business, underestimated traffic to his own Web site and has had to take it down temporarily. Interest in the Internet-published book swamped the server; and new computer hardware is being added to triple the site's visitor capacity, he said. "The Truth" will also be published in print this summer, he said.
Firmage, a bachelor who lives in Los Gatos, Calif., said in a telephone interview that his business success and bank account have given him the credibility he needs as he launches the International Space Sciences Organization, even though the pursuit may affect his reputation and keep him from re-entering the business world -- a second irony.
"I would far rather be remembered by future children as having taken a stand and ultimately making a difference than simply vanishing into the background with a Wall Street theme with innumerable Wall Street CEOs building innumerable Wall Street companies," he said.
Firmage is a member of the LDS Church and was raised in the heartland of the Mormon culture -- the great-grandson of the late Mormon apostle Hugh B. Brown. He said his father, University of Utah law professor Edwin Firmage, notable for his scholarship in church history, was a significant contributor to the book.
"I think that what we are staring in the face here is the fact that science and religion are the opposite sides of the very same coin," he said. "If I were to summarize the intent of my book down to one sentence, it is to present the first rigorous perspective to connect science and spirituality."
Firmage's thesis is to the 21st century what Mormon apostle Parley P. Pratt's thesis was as the 20th century approached. "Planets will be visited, messages communicated, acquaintances and friendships formed, and the sciences vastly extended and cultivated," Pratt wrote in 1855; and that is precisely what Firmage wants to do.
Mormon theology embraces an openness between Earth and the heavens; but the culture is not preoccupied with a quest for knowledge about or contact with extraterrestrials.
Firmage believes credible accounts of encounters with extraterrestrials are suppressed by fear of what the story would do the witness' reputation. "I came at this with a lot of money," he said. "If somebody came forward without (my resume) and $3 million, what would happen to them? They would be crucified, and they would never be heard from again."
"My assertions in this book are clearly pointing toward the idea that this is all part of a common phenomenon that stretches back thousands of years and is operating up to this present moment."
Firmage said his scientific explorations began at age 8 when he got his first telescope. An experience 15 months ago seriously redirected his professional interests toward the pursuit of the emerging science and technology he sees on the horizon.
"I was just waking up one morning, and then this being was sort of hovering over my bed." A dialogue followed and an exchange of energy. "It was more dreamlike than tangible, but in the course of a brief dialogue, the physical effects in my body of some energy that this being sent my way were so pronounced that I clearly had to conclude that this was more than simply a dream."
Nature has a way of keeping its secrets out of the hands of those who do not have the ability to use them wisely, he said. "The technology that we develop is parallel to the culture. It's through the advancement of culture that we become wiser and more responsible. . . . We're close to the day when the fundamental principles of nature are going to be understood."