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Saturday, October 30, 2004
Hermit Came to Los Alamos to Introduce Physics Theories
By Adam Rankin
Journal Staff Writer
Roy Michael Moore, a 56-year-old who grew up in Amarillo, said he came to Los Alamos about four years ago for a "very distinct reason": to get the attention of scientists working on the most complex cosmological problems of the universe and introduce them to his unifying theory.
Mike, as he calls himself, has come to be known as either the "caveman" or the "hermit," depending on to whom you talk, since he was discovered on Oct. 13 living in a well-appointed cave in a deep, wooded canyon on Los Alamos National Laboratory property.
Firefighters and LANL's security force discovered Moore and his cave when they were called to investigate a plume of smoke wafting up the 100-foot canyon wall. The smoke was spotted by an Energy Department employee, who works at DOE's Los Alamos headquarters, about 100 yards back from the canyon's cliff, almost directly above Moore's cave.
"I think it is just heaven on earth," he said about his former home.
What the intruders found was a bit startling. Moore had made himself a home in a south-facing cave— "the most beautiful views in town, no irritating neighbors"— complete with photovoltaic solar panels, batteries to store the solar energy, satellite radio, wood-burning stove, a bed and a glass door sealed across the cave's entrance.
By his own account he'd been living there for close to four years but said he doesn't keep good track of time, mostly because he devotes his energy and thoughts to intensive cosmological problem solving. He said he earns spending money doing odd jobs around town and worked at Los Alamos Music for two years.
To avoid detection, Moore said he was careful to avoid creating walking paths through the wooded canyon to his hideout, where Moore was growing marijuana— 10 plants, each about 18 inches tall, according to police records. Police also found and confiscated 21 ounces of dried marijuana in baggies and a homemade metal marijuana pipe.
Fire crews called police because Moore was trespassing on restricted federal property. DOE officials have said Moore posed no security threat and that the area where the cave was located— about half a mile from downtown Los Alamos— has been decommissioned as an active site for years.
He was arrested on charges of possession of a controlled substance, a fourth-degree felony, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor. Those charges were dropped on Thursday pending further investigation, according to court documents.
Los Alamos County Magistrate Court Judge Pat A. Casados said she signed the order dropping the charges against Moore at the request of a prosecutor. She said it is not unusual for the District Attorney's Office to dismiss felony charges in Magistrate Court and then refile them in state District Court or take the case to a grand jury.
Moore, who contended he has done nothing wrong, said DOE officials confiscated all of his aforementioned possessions, including his long pants, coat, socks and his prized walking stick— which he says supported him along more than 8,000 miles of trekking.
"So, I am camping with almost nothing at all," he said, adding that he is in the process of "negotiating several situations" with the many friends he has made.
Moore, who said he as an undergraduate biology degree from Texas Tech and also studied electronics and computers, said he doesn't consider himself homeless. He sold all his possessions in 1996— his house, his car, everything— so he could focus all his energy and thought toward solving large, complex problems.
Moore even maintains several Web sites— one is www.micromike.com/index.htm— where he explains his theories in detail and provides a brief autobiography.
He headed for Los Alamos, he said, because it is one of the smartest towns in the country, with a dense population of physicists working at LANL.
Using marijuana to help him solve problems inherent to the mysteries of space and time, Moore said, constitutes his "pursuit of happiness."
"I just dedicated myself to staying here forever until I die to try to get this work done," he said.
Copyright 2004 Albuquerque Journal
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