United We Stand, Divided We...? This image appears to show an older version of The United States of America in the background. What is the "O" in the middle? Why does it have a halo around it and the letters U.S. on each side? Why the symbol at the bottom is similar to what appears to be a pyramid? Why is it floating and looking similar to something out of "Avatar"? Is this our future? If so, how is that future? If this image isn't real, what is real? What is going to happen in the next few years? If we were to somehow all live in harmony, what would our new society look like? How did it get to be that way? Would it be free from war, greed, hunger and suffering? Is it even possible? If not, what do we need to do to get there? A: This image has been manipulated with computer software (specifically, with Adobe After Effects) in order to display a symbol in the sky: The image itself contains a symbol (a) in the sky. The white lines form the "letter" "U" which make the O appear to be hovering above the earth: If the white lines are removed and the letters of the word United are replaced with the letter C and the word stand with a U, you get: The circle forms a pyramid shape, indicating that its a capitol, as explained in this answer from the Skeptics Stack Exchange. The pyramid is also at the bottom, so it is the pyramid's shadow. This image came from the Wikimedia commons, which states on their page dedicated to it: A composite image of the sky over various parts of North America to be used in a visualization project. Credit: User:Zackel420 / Source:NASA's MODIS satellite. As a work in progress, much of the sky may be incomplete, lacking images. Additionally, clouds are not removed, so a few of these images may look hazy. A work-in-progress, with the date listed to be when the image was last updated As you can see, it's simply a collage of images taken from space of a view of the sky. The image has been modified by removing the clouds and filling in the sky with white and adding the white lines making it appear that there is a letter "U" floating above earth. A: While it looks like a manipulated image, if you look closely, there are actually several of these floating around the internet: I'll spare you the image that leads up to that final image, but once you get there, the answer is easy enough. The O has a halo because the graphic designer put one in. These are the original images that he used to put together the final version: A closer look at the circle, though: (source: thepaintedbox.com) It seems as if the designer was actually attempting to illustrate the US dollar sign. The U at the bottom, just a few steps to the left of the dollar sign, is not real, just a coincidental alignment of some shapes. The bottom of the circle that has the "O" inside is not straight, as can be seen here: It's basically the same design he used at the top of the pyramid, or with several versions: To be honest, though, I believe this was just an exercise in image manipulation. It would've been much easier to start out with one image that he had already created and just modify it to get this result, but I guess he wanted to keep it interesting. He did try to make sure that all the letters were at the proper heights and in alignment, though: I think it's more likely that the images were taken from NASA's SOHO archive, with slight modifications to make it appear that the U and O are floating. A: Actually, it's nothing. It's a Photoshop image using Google Maps as the source. So, not only the shape of the earth, but even the location of the earth is not original. It's an open source, the sky is the limit on the imagination. You can explore Google Maps here. As you can see, we are already moving to Mars, and the sun will soon burn out due to a planet's proximity. :) As to the message, it is all speculation. My interpretation of the message is as follows: We need to move together. We have failed our ancestors for too long. We've forgotten the value of our past. The world will soon burn to the ground because of our greed. We are a nation divided. We must join together again as a one. This is our future? The last line I interpreted as "this is how we will see our future". If you want to know more, I encourage you to read Orwell's 1984, the only book he wrote about his own vision. In the beginning, there was the "golden age" when there was peace, no suffering and no disease. It ended after a huge war that lead to death and destruction. What do we have now? Is it our version of "golden age"? And we are told that this "post scarcity" era will happen with or without human efforts. I believe that the earth is just a very large spaceship, and we are just visitors here. I believe that all "space craft" come with a built-in AI that will take control in some point of the journey. And we will never see what happens on the ship after that. PS. I do know how to program, so feel free to tell me what I did wrong if I have some mistakes in the coding. :) Update for 2017. The world is still fighting wars, the value of a currency is plummeting as we speak. The earth's death is not yet near. But, there is a new threat. The artificial intelligence will not play nice with us, and it will surely destroy our society. I have never known what a robot was before reading Asimov. Now, I fear the earth more than anything else, for what it may become, not what it used to be.