Redefining Habitable Zones

" 'Habitable Zone' for Alien Planets, and Possibly Life, Redefined"
Clara Moskowitz, Space.com (January 29, 2013)

" One of the most important characteristics of an alien planet is whether or not it falls into what's called the habitable zone ­- a Goldilocks-like range of not-too-close, not-too-far distances from the parent star that might allow the planet to host life.

"Now scientists have redefined the boundaries of the habitable zone for alien planets, potentially kicking out some exoplanaets that were thought to fall within it, and maybe allowing a few that had been excluded to squeeze in...."

This isn't the final word in how far a planet needs to be from its star, for it to have an atmosphere, liquid water, and - maybe - life. It's probably a better estimate than the last one, since at that time scientists had solid information on exactly no planets outside the Solar system. Today, the count is in the hundreds. Make that thousands.

Scientists have a big enough sample now, to make a pretty good estimate for how many planets in this galaxy are about about the same size as Earth, and rocky. Unless Earth just happens to be in a very crowded corner of this galaxy, there are about 17,000,000,000 planets that are sort of like the inner four here: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Statistics, Earth, and Neighbors

If only one in four of those 17,000,000,000 planets have life, which is the local percentage: that's a whole lot of worlds with life. That's a big "if," though: and that brings the Lemming back to the revised guesstimate on where habitable zones are.

Good news, by the way: Earth is, according to the new estimate, still inside Sol's habitable zone. If it wasn't, the Lemming would wonder about how reliable this new-and-improved definition was. After all, we know there's life here on Earth.

If life got started somewhere besides Earth, and if it's close enough to 'life as we know it' for humans to recognize it as "life," and if this extraterrestrial life is close enough for humans to find in the near future: that's a lot of "ifs."

The Lemming would be excited if the Curiosity Mars rover found a wrecked spaceship that hadn't come from Earth: or a bit of plastic that couldn't have come from the rover. Even if the extraterrestrial wreck didn't have a speck of life on it, its presence would be proof that humanity had company: at one time.

But the first evidence of extraterrestrial life might be a little ecosystem supporting one-celled critters. That would be exciting, too.

The Lemming Philosophizes

The Lemming is fairly sure that the familiar 'science fiction' universe isn't what we're really living in. There's nothing wrong with telling a story about a galaxy teeming with non-human people - who all just happen to be almost exactly as smart as humans; with almost exactly the same interests, needs, and goals; and using almost exactly the same technology.

The universe could be like that, but probably isn't. If humanity was one of a few billion almost-exactly-like-human civilizations; all of which were within a few thousand years of each other in terms of technology - humanity would probably be selling souvenirs to space alien tourists.

It seems hard to remember how old the universe is. A million years ago, humans were learning how to use fire without killing themselves. But a million years is only a tiny fraction of the time that stars and planets have been spinning around this galaxy's core.

In the Lemming's opinion, when or if humanity meets other people - they won't be very much like humans. And that, again in the Lemming's opinion, is a good thing. Humans do a pretty good job of being human, there may be many other ways of being people, and we all could learn by comparing notes.

Even if there aren't any other people in this vast universe, just finding life elsewhere would let humanity learn a great deal. And this, again in the Lemming's opinion, is a good thing.

Related posts:

• In this blog
  • "Time, the Universe, and Space Aliens"
    (April 20, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Space Aliens and the Universe
  • "GJ 667Cc: Heavier than Earth, Maybe About as Warm"
    (February 6, 2012)
  • "The 'Christmas Planet:' Kepler-22b"
    (December 12, 2011)
  • "Beware Warmonger Imperialist Space Aliens!?"
    (January 11, 2011)
  • "Earth May Not Be a 'Class M' Planet"
    (December 5, 2009)
• In the Lemming's other blogs
  • "News, Good and Otherwise: and Billions of Worlds"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (January 11, 2013)
    Particularly
    • Planets Like Earth: Billions of Them
  • "Alpha Centauri, Freedom, and Me"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (October 19, 2012)
    Particularly
    • Science, Religion, and a Hairball
    • Alpha Centauri, Planets, and Life
  • "Science isn't a Four-Letter Word"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (January 29, 2012)
    Particularly
    • 1277 and All That
  • "Alien Life will Most Likely be - Alien"
    Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (April 12, 2010)
    Particularly
    • 'Life as We Know It,' Class M Planets and All That
  • "Gods, Demons, and Used Spaceship Dealers"
    Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (February 13, 2010)

Thought for the Day: About Imagination

"It is feeling and force of imagination that make us eloquent."
Marcus Valerius Martialis, via Quotes.net

A Thought for the Day From Hamlet

"...There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy...."

"Hamlet, Act 1. Scene V"
Shakespeare, via The Literature Network

The Web Rewires Your Brain: Ain't That Great?

"Author Nicholas Carr: The Web Shatters Focus, Rewires Brains"
Nicholas Carr, Wired Magazine (May 24, 2010)

"During the winter of 2007, a UCLA professor of psychiatry named Gary Small recruited six volunteers—three experienced Web surfers and three novices—for a study on brain activity. He gave each a pair of goggles onto which Web pages could be projected. Then he slid his subjects, one by one, into the cylinder of a whole-brain magnetic resonance imager and told them to start searching the Internet. As they used a handheld keypad to Google various preselected topics—the nutritional benefits of chocolate, vacationing in the Galapagos Islands, buying a new car—the MRI scanned their brains for areas of high activation, indicated by increases in blood flow.

"The two groups showed marked differences. Brain activity of the experienced surfers was far more extensive than that of the newbies, particularly in areas of the prefrontal cortex associated with problem-solving and decisionmaking. Small then had his subjects read normal blocks of text projected onto their goggles; in this case, scans revealed no significant difference in areas of brain activation between the two groups. The evidence suggested, then, that the distinctive neural pathways of experienced Web users had developed because of their Internet use.

"The most remarkable result of the experiment emerged when Small repeated the tests six days later. In the interim, the novices had agreed to spend an hour a day online, searching the Internet. The new scans revealed that their brain activity had changed dramatically; it now resembled that of the veteran surfers. 'Five hours on the Internet and the naive subjects had already rewired their brains,' Small wrote. He later repeated all the tests with 18 more volunteers and got the same results...."

Sounds Good So Far: But Keep Reading

Using the Web isn't just like reading a book. It's different. And, as usual, different people see change in different ways.

Back to the Wired Magazine article.

"...When first publicized, the findings were greeted with cheers. By keeping lots of brain cells buzzing, Google seemed to be making people smarter. But as Small was careful to point out, more brain activity is not necessarily better brain activity. The real revelation was how quickly and extensively Internet use reroutes people’s neural pathways. 'The current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate,' Small concluded, 'but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains.'..."

Good News: Change Happens - Bad News: Same Thing

I don't doubt for a moment that frequent use of the Web changes the way our brains are wired. According to what we know about our brains, almost any activity that involves the brain, like solving calculus equations in your head, composing a symphony, or riding a bicycle, should change the way our brains work. If it didn't, we'd never learn anything.

However, I don't see change as a problem.

Particularly since we've been through something very much like this before. A little shy of two dozen centuries ago, a radical new information storage and retrieval technology was revolutionizing the culture of ancient Greece. And some of the Greeks didn't like it. (Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 23, 2009))

The Wired article points out that people who have learned to use the Web tend to read short excerpts of pages they visit, read many pages from many websites, and remember relatively little of what they read in any given page.

In contrast, people who engage in good old-fashioned reading words recorded in ink on paper tend to read everything on the page they're on, then turn the page and read the next one. After a while, they've read several pages - and can remember quite a bit of what they read on those pages.

The article says, accurately enough: "...The depth of our intelligence hinges on our ability to transfer information from working memory, the scratch pad of consciousness, to long-term memory, the mind’s filing system...." That sort of thing happens more readily when we read passages slowly and carefully: savoring each paragraph.

There's a time and place for that sort of reading, I think.

But I wouldn't get much of my sort of research done, if I tried working that way.

Old-School Information Tech: the Codex

Being born during the Truman administration, I learned to read and use books that were stored in codex format. We're so accustomed to dealing with that particular information storage and retrieval technology that when they see "book," they think of a codex.

In this context a "codex" is many pages bound together on one side, and usually with a front and back cover: a "book." In even older "good old days," books were also recorded on scrolls - and a few other media.

I like the codex form of books. There's something very satisfying to feeling one in my hands: and there are some practical advantages as well.

I also like being able to get at information efficiently. A codex with a good index lets me find the data it contains rather well - but I can find more data, faster, by using Google.

It's the End of Civilization As We Know It - ca. 360 BC

Socrates discussed the impact of writing on civilized society, in Phaedrus. I've written about that before. (Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 23, 2009)) The bottom line was that there was, about 2,350 or so years ago, a real concern that writing words down would result in people losing the ability to memorize and deeply understand ideas.

And, would result in people who could give "a show of wisdom without the reality."

I think it's worth noting that we wouldn't know about these concerns today, if someone hadn't recorded the ideas in written form - which could be passed along as the centuries rolled by.

The Information Age isn't Just Like Ancient Greece

Just as civilization rode out writing's growth from a method of recording commercial transactions to the primary medium for recording and distributing ideas ranging from philosophy to the content of Harlequin Romances, I think we'll survive the Web.

Even if people do learn to go through more information, faster, than they did when I was a boy.

I take concerns about how people handle information online seriously, just as I take the concerns recorded in Phaedrus.

I'm a living example of what some ancient Greeks warned of. For one thing, I find it moderately difficult to memorize long sequences of words. That isn't the handicap it might be, though, because I know how to look up information that's not stored - in detailed form - in my head.

The Wired article's concern over the lack of memorization that occurs during most Web use is, I think, somewhat justified. When I'm going after information online, I often can't remember just what I read and where I read it.

That's why I keep a text editor open while I jump from website to website. When I find something useful, I copy and paste the URL into the text editor, often keying in a few notes - and sometimes a bit of text from the page itself.

Later, if I think I'll need the information at a later time, I either save the text file I've been recording data in, or load the data into another program.

Sure, I might be able to memorize all those URLs and what was on each of the pages I visited: but I've found it more useful to recall the gist of what I found - and have the detailed information available if, and only if, I actually need it.

I'm sure that isn't the way Plato and Socrates worked: but it works for me.

But then, I may be a little less bothered by change than some folks.

Related posts:

• "Motivation: Carrot and Stick; or Steering Wheel"
  (June 1, 2010)
• "Facebook, Privacy, Small Town America and a Village of 6,830,000,000 people"
  (May 31, 2010)
• "BBC 'Map' Video: Digital Worlds"
  (May 1, 2010)
• "Lemming Tracks: Change Happens"
  (March 6, 2010)
• "Data-Driven Art: For an 'Overwhelmed' 'Hive Mind???' "
  (January 27, 2010)
• "The Skunk Works: Why Doesn't Everybody Work This Way?"
  (August 31, 2009)
• "The Threat of Dangerous New Technologies: It's Not All That New "
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 23, 2009)
  Particularly
  • Writing as (Dangerous) Information Storage and Retrieval Technology

More:

• "The Future: Just Like Today, Only Different"

Rabbit Philosophizing

"Austin"
Jeff!, via Disapproving Rabbits (May 13, 2010)


(from Jeff!, via Disapproving Rabbits, use w/o permission)

"That which is seen
cannot be unseen."

A sort of 'bottom line' is that the human brain - and mind - share the GIGO principle with computers: Garbage In, Garbage Out.

The rabbit looks like he's seen something - that he wishes he hadn't.

A Thought for the Day: Self-Esteem and Lunatic Asylums

"The men who really believe in themselves are all in lunatic asylums."
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy; p. 14
English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936)
From The Quotations Page

I don't know if what is now a tired old phrase, "self esteem," was in use when Chesterton wrote "Orthodoxy," around 1908-1909: but I'm pretty sure that's what he had in mind.

A limited-pages edition of "Orthodoxy" (1909) is available online, on Google Books. The "all in lunatic asylums" quote is on page six of that edition. It's in a chapter titled, "The Maniac."

Another edition is also available on Google Books. This one is a facsimile of the John Lane, publisher, edition.

The full text of "Orthodoxy" is available in the Cyber Library.

Harbors, Barbers, Doctors and Walt: Quotes

"Crazy Quotes"
Damien at the Speed of Life (undated - and, for the most part, timeless)

" 'There's always another way to do things and that's your own way.'

" 'Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.'
Mark Twain

" 'Ever wonder if illiterate people get the full effect of alphabet soup?'
John Mendoza..."

There's more: Benjamin Franklin on doctors and barbers; Rodney Dangerfield on a second opinion; Aeschylus on words.

Some are funny, some are serious, some are both.

And a few are, I think, top-rate advice. Like this:

" 'Sometimes we reach the boiling point before we realize that the stove is on. Become aware of your feelings – keep your eye on the stove.'
Karen Dougherty"

Not all of the quotes include who's supposed - or assumed - to have said or written them. Which I'd rather see, than a list where nifty quotes are attributed so someone - whether or not the person making the list is sure.

One more thing: There's something that's not quite a quote - it is, but it's not the aphorism/one-liner that many others are. It's about what happened to a fellow who was fired for lack of creativity. His name was Walt.

---

A tip of the hat to rileycentral, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this post.

It's Alive! Okay: Now Tell Me What "Alive" is

"What Is Life? A New Theory "
Space.com (February 11, 2010)

"Biology is often called the study of life, yet in the history of the field, experts have never agreed on just what, exactly, life is.

"Many attempts to classify life focus on a list of requirements, such as the ability to reproduce, to carry out metabolic reactions, to grow, to defend against injury, and others. Yet exceptions to each of those can be made for things that are generally accepted to be alive. For example, mules and worker bees cannot reproduce, but surely they are alive. And bacteria, when frozen, are completely inactive but still are alive.

"Biologist Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis of Wageningen University in the Netherlands has come up with a novel solution that does not ask life to meet a long list of abilities....

"...'What [my idea] does is it turns the whole thing completely upside down. I focus on the minimal absolutely necessary properties and I don't care about any facultative properties.'..."


(from Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis, via Space.com, used w/o permission)

"This graph shows the operator hierarchy as a winding path towards higher complexity."

There's a pretty good explanation of Gerard Jagers op Akkerhuis' new definition for what's alive, and what isn't, in the article - and a clarification of what may be a common misunderstanding of what he's saying.

A good definition, that nails down why one thing is alive and another isn't, would be handy. What I learned in biology, decades back - and what my kids have learned, more recently, wasn't entirely satisfactory.

I'm no expert, but it looks like we've got a somewhat better handle on being able to say why moss is alive, and the rock it's on isn't.

Thought for the Day: Like, Wow

"The truth is more important than the facts."
Frank Lloyd Wright, US architect (1869 - 1959)
The Quotations Page

You can't argue with logic like that.

Interestingly, some of the buildings he designed are still standing.

Seriously? I'm a bit of a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture. But that's the sort of - thought? - that makes me glad the 20th century is over.

Politics, Disasters, News, Viral News, and a World of Wonder

"Shock and Awe: Viral News Is Good News"
Epicenter, Wired (February 9, 2010 )

"The way I see it, the perfect popular news story has at least one of the following elements: blaming Barack Obama, hating Sarah Palin, or sex. If someone wrote an article called 'Obama to blame for sex that made Sarah Palin stupid,' it would probably break the internet.

"But, according to a new study, I might be wrong.

"In a world full of negative news, scandals and gossip, what makes a story go viral, and get shared by readers? That's the question two researchers from the University of Pennsylvania answer in a recent study...."

"...If there's a common thread running through frequently e-mailed stories it's that popular ones force people to look at the world differently. Surprising stories, and particularly ones that either reverse an existing idea or make people realize the scale of the world, were e-mailed. Science stories did surprisingly well, even longer and more complicated ones, because they shook what people thought they knew...."

"...the stories that got passed around the most were those that were 'surprising, practically useful, emotion laden and positive.' Practical information was shared often, but positive and inspirational articles were the most viral. Awe, according to an algorithm created to judge the tone and emotional content of articles, was actually the biggest predictor of whether or not a story would be frequently e-mailed.

"And the idea holds: Right now, the most-e-mailed story from The New York Times isn't about earthquakes, or governors who may or may not have had sex with that woman. It's an opinion column called 'America Is Not Yet Lost.'..."

Well, whadaya know! I'm not the only one.

I've written before, why this blog is called "Apathetic Lemming of the North." (September 9, 2007) It's not that I don't care about things: it's that I don't care - deeply, irrationally, frantically - about the 'right' things. Or, for much of my academic career, left things.

From the looks of this admittedly-limited study, most people aren't writhing in agony over the vast right-wing conspiracy, global warming, whoever is in the White House at the moment, or which Congressman's aid turned up dead this year.

There's a world of wonder and awe out there: maybe old-school news editors might consider looking up from their Class of '69 yearbooks and taking a peek.

Thought for the Day: Why Look to the Future?

"I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life."
George Burns, The Quotations Page

Aerosmith, "Dream On," and an Orchestra

"Aerosmith-Dream On"

cnx6325, YouTube (August 24, 2008)
video, 4:51

"Orchestra Arranged and Conducted by Michael Kamen"

Aerosmith's no Nat "King" Cole. But then, Nat "King" Cole is no Aerosmith. I like the music of both: but your experience may vary.

This video is one of the more coherent performances of "Dream On," for which I'm grateful. Aerosmith is able to make himself understood, when he wants to. And, this time, he apparently wanted the audience to understand the words, as well as the feelings.

That "Orchestra arranged" is an accurate description, by the way. Aerosmith's backed up by what appears to be a full orchestra, or something close.

Sometimes, I'm just as glad to not hear the lyrics. In this case, not so much. A sample, from the start:

every time that I look in the mirror
all these lines on my face getting clearer
the past is gone
it went by like dusk to dawn
isn't that the way
everybody's got their dues in life to pay

yeah, I know nobody knows
where it comes and where it goes
I know it's everybody's sin
you got to lose to know how to win

half my life's in books' written pages
live and learn from fools and from sages
you know it's true
all the things come back to you
(elyrics.net, used w/o permission)

I'm not in full agreement with the theological implications of some of the thoughts expressed, but that's a topic for another blog: maybe A Catholic Citizen in America, someday.

Philosophically, what impressed me with "Dream On" in the early seventies (I think it came out in 1972 or 1973) - and still does - is the acceptance of personal continuity: The idea that what a person does has an effect on the person. That may be obvious, but the idea that actions have consequences hasn't been particularly popular in some circles, over the last few decades.

The music? I like it, but again - your experience may vary.

High Price New York City Decor, Feng Shui and All That

"Tranquil by Design"
Home & Garden, The New York Times (December 30, 2009)

"FOR many people, 2009 has been stressful, and the home a natural place of refuge. The furniture and interior designer Clodagh, known for her earthy, soothing aesthetic, has some advice for those looking to create comforting surroundings to see them through 2010, whatever that may bring.

" 'Your home environment should be your nanny,' said the Irish-born Clodagh, who is based in New York and goes by one name. It should make you feel 'welcomed and warm,' she said, as soon as you walk in the door.

" 'I really try to design irritations out of people's lives and to bring in elements that will make them feel better,' said Clodagh, who has followed the tenets of feng shui for 25 years and designed a number of wellness studios and spas, including YogaWorks in SoHo, Sasanqua Spa at the Kiawah Island Club in South Carolina and White Horses Spa at Doonbeg Lodge in Ireland. Her latest book, 'Your Home, Your Sanctuary,' written with Heather Ramsdell, focuses on how to make every room in the home tranquil...."

Feng shui? I'll get back to that.

The New York Times' Home & Garden article gives the reader a sort of once-around-the-store experience for products that Clodagh handles - and mentions some of her other commercial ventures. They sound like nice stuff: although a bit out of my class.

Still: there's some good common sense there. Like getting an uncluttered space (not likely, in my case) and discarding items with bad vibes associated with them.

Feng Shui?

Basically, it's "rules in Chinese philosophy that govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to patterns of yin and yang and the flow of energy (qi); the favorable or unfavorable effects are taken into consideration in designing and siting buildings and graves and furniture". (Princeton's WordNet) You may have seen "qi" spelled "chi."

There are quite a few flavors of feng shui. The NYT article doesn't say which . I've got an introductory book on one version - but haven't really studied it. Yes, feng shui involves philosophies and ideas that grew in the east end of Asia. And yes, I'm quite sure that there are feng shui hucksters out there.

But I'm not willing to ignore feng shui, or ideas about qi/chi, because of the hucksters. Any more than I wouldn't 'not believe in' electricity because of a dishonest television repair shop.

Which brings up another point: 'Mystical' chi may be, in some people's minds. But the resources I've run into allow me to assume that it's about as other-worldly as infrared light or wind. Not being able to see something doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Enough. I'll be on a soapbox, next.

A Thought for the Day: Fences

"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up."
G. K. Chesterton, The Quotations Page

This idea came up in the dialog of "A Man for All Seasons" (1966), a fictionalized account of St. Thomas More's life - and how he handled being caught between the King's will and God's. Not the most tranquil spot to inhabit.

As I recall, a eager young man had expressed a desire to chase down the devil, no matter how many laws he had to break in the process. Sir Thomas More commended the young man on his zeal to pursue evil, but pointed out that laws were like fences. They work in both directions.

Then Thomas said something like this: 'So you knock down the last fence between you and the devil, and he turns on you: what then?'

I played with the idea of fences and why they're there a few years ago. Don't worry, the story isn't 'religious.'

"The Village, the Fence and the Sign"
Brian H. Gill (1996)

---

Sir Thomas More was beheaded by King Henry VII of England's government in 1535, recognized as a saint in 1935, and recently declared the patron saint of politicians and statesmen.

Adventure, Inconvenience, and Uninteresting Subjects: Thoughts for the Day

"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered."
G. K. Chesterton, The Quotations Page

He's got a point.

Here's a Chesterton quote I've used as a slogan once or twice:

"There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person."
G. K. Chesterton, Heretics (1905), The Quotations Page

"Little Regularities" - A Thought for the Day

About the 'laws of Nature' -

" 'Your mistake is to think that the little regularities we have observed on one planet for a few hundred years are the real unbreakable laws....' "

Grace Ironwood, Chapter 17.4, "That Hideous Strength" C. S. Lewis (1946)

Related post:

• " 'My Mind's Made Up: Don't Confuse Me With the Facts' "
  (March 3, 2008)

Impartiality, Political Stances, and the Human Condition

Thoughts for the day:

"Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance."
(The Speaker (December 15, 1900))

"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." (- Illustrated London News (ILN), (April 19, 1924))

G. K. Chesterton, via The American Chesterton Society)

---

Remember: "Impartial" isn't the same as "apathetic" and the Lemming is apathetic only in the sense that I don't care about the 'right' things. (September 9, 2007

A Few Thoughts About Labor Day

This is Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer in America, a three-day weekend devoted to outdoor grilling; gridlock; and for most, the last chance to get a really painful sunburn until next summer.

I think it's a good idea to kick back and relax from time to time. Just the same, I also think that the best sort of relaxing isn't doing nothing: it's doing something different.

"A mind always employed is always happy. This is the true secret, the grand recipe, for felicity...."
Thomas Jefferson, to Martha Jefferson, 1787, quoted in "The Jeffersonian cyclopedia" John P. Foley (1900)

That "mind always employed" doesn't have to mean solving problems with differential calculus, sculpting a bust of Palls, or unscrewing the inscrutable. It could be perfecting your golf swing, paying attention to the sights, sounds, smells and sensations of a lake, or reading that book you were going to get around to.

Enough philosophizing. My second-oldest daughter got married this weekend, and I've got to catch up on sleep.

"The future ain't what it used to be." Probably Just as Well

"I look to the future because that's where I'm going to spend the rest of my life."
George Burns, US actor & comedian (1896 - 1996)
The Quotations Page

"The future ain't what it used to be."
Yogi Berra, US baseball player, coach, & manager (1925 - )
The Quotations Page

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Meditations, 200 A.D.[!], Roman Emperor, A.D. 161-180 (121 AD - 180 AD)
The Quotations Page

Since I was born during the Truman administration, I've been living in 'The Future' for a couple of decades now. We still don't have flying cars or atomic toothbrushes: but we do have the Web, blogs, and hundreds of cable television channels. And people are still the same maddeningly obtuse, refreshingly insightful, energetic, lazy, creative and dull lot they've been all my life.

I enjoyed reading those quips by George Burns and Yogi Berra. They both made good points. I think Marcus Aurelius Antoninus has a good point too. I've met people, off and on, over the years who seemed quite convinced that Terrible Things would make The Future unbearable. That's been a somewhat fashionable point of view for quite some time now.

Sure, we've got problems. But that's nothing new. Plato wrote about Socrates' concerns about a dangerous new information technology, a plague swept the Roman Empire while Marcus Aurelius was Emperor, and a thousand years ago half of my ancestors were enduring raids from the other half.

And yet, we're still here.

I don't think I'm complacent about what hasn't happened yet: but I don't think getting jittery makes sense, either.

Related posts:

• "Inventions: Strange; Feared; and Yet-to-Come"
  Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (August 25, 2009)
• "Good News, Neural Devices Connect Brain, Computers: Bad News, Same Thing"
  (July 11, 2009)
• "Clothing of the Future: 2000 as seen in the 1930s"
  (June 26, 2009)
• "Groundbreaking at Spaceport America: World's First Purpose-Built Commercial Spaceport"
  (June 20, 2009)
• " 'House of the Future' - Another One, this Time in Brussels"
  (June 7, 2008)
• "Cities of the Will be that Was"
  (June 22, 2009)

Bee Communication and Non-Human Intelligence; And a Dying Planet

A quick look at two not-quite-related articles.

"Bee Celestial Navigation and Non-Human Intelligence"
Space.com (August 27, 2009)

"Millions of years ago a group of wasps 'decided to' become vegetarians and so today we have the bee. Some of their cousins 'decided to' quit flying and so became the ants, but that is another story. Although only about 20% of bees are social, honey bees are very social indeed. It has been stated by several biologists that, if it were not for the honey bee pollinating plants, humans would only last 3 or 4 years as our food supply would disappear.

"The female honey bees are the workers of the hive. First, they learn to babysit, then they learn the construction trade...."

"...Bees are the only other species, to date, that have been shown to communicate with symbolic language—that is, they can 'talk' about details of something that is not present. (We note that psychologists dispute the use of the terms 'symbolic' being applied to any non-human communication systems, but bee scientists regularly apply this term to describe bee language.)..."

The bee dances have been known for decades, and we're still learning more about them. I was quite interested in this article, as a pretty good look at one part of the study of bees.

And, bees and how they communicate opens fascinating - if vague - possibilities about how non-human intelligence might work.

"Newfound Planet Might Be Near Death"
Space.com (August 26, 2009)

"A newly discovered planet that whips around its star in less than a day may have been found mere cosmic moments before its demise.

"The planet, WASP-18b, is one of the 'hot Jupiter' class of planets that are huge in size (10 times the mass of Jupiter in this case), but orbit very close to their stars. Their very existence was surprising to astronomers when the first of them were found a few years back. Now they've become common discoveries.

But this scorched, gaseous world is only one of two known exoplanets that orbits its star in less than one Earth day (0.94 days to be exact). Coupled with its hefty mass, this leads to strong gravitational tugs between the planet and its star, WASP-18. (WASP stands for the Wide Angle Search for Planets, run by several universities in Britain.)..."

WASP-18b is likely to fall into its sun quite soon - assuming that our current mathematical models for gravitation, hydrodynamics, and other factors are spot-on. Or, maybe something weird is holding the planet up.

Either way, there's a lot to be learned from observing it.

Somewhat-related posts:

• "Death Rays From Space - No, Really"
  (August 28, 2009)
• "Life on Other Worlds: Evolution, Orbits, and the Galactic Environment"
  (August 13, 2009)
• "Really Old Dust Grains, a Galactic Collision, and a Lively Interest in God's Creation"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (August 10, 2009)
• "Dinosaurs, Mutant Chickens, Evolution, and Faith in God"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (June 29, 2009)
• "A Serious Search for Other Worlds, Life, and - Maybe - Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence"
  (May 29, 2009)
• "Faith and Reason, Religion and Science"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 20, 2009)
• "Catholic Church, Creationism, Evolution, Facts and Faith"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 5, 2009)

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Related posts, at

• "A Serious Search for Other Worlds, Life, and - Maybe - Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence"