Thanks for some very good answers, guys. I didn’t know just how small these so-called monoliths were (that’s assuming there aren’t any skyscraper high ones). Nor was I aware of what they were made of. The whole monolith building business strikes me as odd, but then so many things are in this world.
…I still don’t know whether it’s a hoax or a real phenomenon.
It can be both - but the hallmark of a hoax is that something is claimed to be something its not. From the sounds of it, no one is taking credit, they are letting people run with speculation.
…these seemingly transparent things …
They are shiny mirrored or at least reflective surfaces. They are not transparent - the photogrpaher probably has to work at keeping their reflection out of shot.
…then the stories ended with most of them “torn down”.
If they were on private property without permission or in parks / reserves they’d be removed by whoever owned the land, same as any unapproved thing somebody left there. About as mysterious as the theft of everything from your garbage bins whenever its bin night.
… these office building-like towers have been literally razed?
These ‘office building-like towers’ are 6’4" or as tall as a tallish person. Don’t confuse shape with size - you can be equally amazed that people build giant replicas of shoeboxes from concrete and steel and live in them.
…these wonderful boards …
Stop it - you’ll only pander to their egos
… I would like to know WTF is going on regarded these (co-called) monoliths. If it’s a Web “in joke”, that’s fine by me. The Bigfoot Of The Internet? I wouldn’t be surprised.
Many people live by the idea that if something is funny the first time, it must be hilarious the second → n+1 time after that. Minor novelties that require little effort to carry out begat more of the same. There’s probably some internet law about that.
… thanks for what polite and intelligent answers …
No worries
There’s absolutely nothing mysterious about these to anyone who has ever been to Burning Man… weird reflective art pieces in the middle of the desert are almost a cliche by now.
Someone (whether an individual, or an organized group, or a disorganized group, but someone) is actually making these things and actually putting them in various places. In that sense, they’re real. Anyone who’s saying that they’re from aliens or that they’re the size of skyscrapers or that they’re transparent is part of a hoax.
Well, I am comforted by the fact that the materials used are from this planet. When they find one that is made by some material that can’t be identified, then I’m gonna worry a little.
They are not in the slightest mysterious to anyone with an art background. They’re art. Their sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance is part of the concept. I’m slightly surprised that anyone doesn’t see this, but then one of the points the artist/s are making is how quickly people leap to least-plausible explanations.
It’s just the kind of idea that a bunch of art students would kick around but probably not have the wherewithal to put together. And then someone did.
Whilst it’s a common Sci fi trope to have alien materials that earth scientists can’t identify, the periodic table probably isn’t local. I suppose aliens might have some very different compound materials, but those are still going to show up as being made out of familiar elements.
The Marvel movies are amusingly inconsistent about that. In Captain Marvel, the Skrulls, who are basically organic, biological organisms, are described as “Whatever they’re made of, it’s not on the periodic table”. Meanwhile, in Avengers Endgame, Thanos refers to the Infinity Stones, manifested reifications of fundamental metaphysical concepts, as being “reduced to their constituent atoms”. Wait, so the Skrulls aren’t made of atoms, but the Infinity Stones are!?
Pedant mode on: Monolith comes from the greek for single stone. If it’s made out of stainless steel it’s not a monolith.
In terms of the whole ‘art’ aspect, it seems like the monolith thing has shades of ‘Kilroy was here’ about it. That is, there may be a guy who originally decided one day to erect a monolith or two in remote locales, but afterwards other folks learned about it and were enamored of the idea and decided to copy the idea themselves, thereby becoming part of a ‘phenomenon’.
And generally illegal if abandoned on public land; which is one reason no one is taking credit for them.
Yeah, that’s what I was referring to when I said it might be the result of a “disorganized group”: There might be multiple people doing this who have never actually met or directly communicated, and who are just copying each other.
Well, sir, there’s nothing on Earth
Like a genuine, bona fide
Steelified, reflective monolith
What’d I say?
Monolith
What’s it called?
Monolith
That’s right! Monolith
I hear those things are awfully bright
It shimmers softly like a light
Is there a chance it might offend?
Not on your life, my Hindu friend
What about us brain-dead slobs?
You’ll be given cushy jobs
Where you sent here by the Devil?
No, good sir, I’m on the level
I want to see the size of the shredder those things drop through right after someone buys them.
“Art for art’s sake. Money for God’s sake.”
-10 cc
Blame Arthur C. Clarke.
This needs to be acknowledged.
Well done.
At least the monoliths have evidence of having actually existed, unlike the creepypasta about staircases in the woods from around the same time.
Or for the “true” explanation, I mean the Daily Mirror is a reliable source, and they’re citing a viral TikTok, so it’s got to be true, right?
Correct the “Lith” part of monolith implies stone, right?
But there could be unfamiliar isotope ratios which could point to it being extraterrestrial.