[RINGS] "where is ATS?" what happened?, page 1

To answer your question, Cerberus, it appears that everyone has visions of rings in their minds (just look at the first response to your question for evidence). Why bother with trivialities such as this when the first ring is out there waiting to be found? I'm sure we need to solve this clue before we can actually find that ring, but that's just a minor technicality.

Now, to the matter at hand. As you had mentioned in a previous post, "where is ats?" is certainly not a simple question. There are a plethora of answers that could be given, all seemingly correct. We have to determine in what sense the question is being asked. And, coincidently, what sense the answer is to be given in. Are we even to give an answer? Maybe the answer is itself the clue to the rings whereabouts. You had said that we already know the answer - of course, how can we understand the answer if we don't understand the question? So, what we need to do is understand the question.

First and foremost, we need to determine if "ats" is in fact referring to Above Top Secret. All evidence certainly points in that direction, but we can't know for sure. If it is, then in what context is the question being asked? The bits of data we know as ATS originate in Texas. From there, they travel around the world, through fiber-optic and copper cables, through the "ether" via WiFi, microwave, and satelite, and through silicon semi-conductors. They then travel from our display devices to our eyes via packets of energy known as photons. We then process those bits via electrical impulses between neurons in our brains. ATS is in all of those places, so logic suggests that the answer would be general enough to include all of them.

However, the information that comprises ATS certainly does not originate in Texas. Each and every one of us contributes our knowledge to form what we know as ATS. Every post, every picture, every time someone reads what ATS contains, contributes to ATS as a whole. ATS cannot be pinned to a certain location. ATS is in all of us, it is effectively everywhere.

Now you see why we, the "Kilby-spawn", have not been able to derive an answer to this question. This question is not unlike the questions the great philosophers have asked. Many have given answers, yet every answer leaves one with a dozen more questions; always wanting more. The greatest philosophical question of all is "Why?" The greatest answer: "Why not?"

Therefore, to those who ask, "where is ats?", I ask in return, "where is ats not?"