superluminous velocity

Since the dawn of man, we have stared up into the sky at night and wondered what the stars are. The ancient Greeks believed that their gods existed as the planets in the night sky, and they may not have been far off. Given the age of the universe, and the laws that govern it, it is highly probable that a race exists in the far reaches of space with such advanced civilization as to be considered godly by ancient Greek standards. The fear of this type of unknown power is prevalent in human culture; spanning from the ancient Greek mythology to modern science fiction. The movie “Independence Day” features an alien race that travels from world to world consuming everything and destroying the inhabitants in the process: a terrifying and unlikely premise. If an alien race visits Earth, the violence that ensues is far more likely to be as a result of human society’s faults then that of ill intent on the part of the visiting race.
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Ever wonder about the nature of life itself? What is it, what are we, what are we doing? It’s astounding that such complex systems as humanity can be extrapolated from the need for some sugary amino acids to copy themselves. Life itself is a serious issue to adress in my Extra-terrestrial Life class (Aliens for short). One of my favorite definitions of life comes from an article appropriately entitled “Life Itself”

Life is a self-perpetuating, self contained chemical phenomenon that extracts or manufactures high energy nutrients from its environment, excretes waste material of lower chemical energy, and surfs the energy difference between food and shit to go on living.
–Lonely Planets by David Grinspoon

Apparently not every surfer is from California.

So is that it? By that definition, every human action, thought, and feeling are the results of an overgrown chemical equation. I wonder if there isn’t somthing significant about a larger group of beings, a network of life. For example, we are made up of a network of cellular life which is in turn made up of a network of organelles, in these nested systems all parts are alive. Does this mean that by extension a house is alive because it is made up of a network of inhabitants? What about a city or country or planet?

Assuming that we human beings are not the sole proprietors of this enormous universe, can we fairly call the whole thing alive?

42.

In this modern day of flying cars and space aged hair-doos, it’s easy to forget the darker side of science. Everything is so cool and dandy, who would think that cellphones might cause deadly braincancer? Radium (a highly radioactive material) used to be perscribed like tonic water mere decades ago.

We caught on when people’s jaws started falling off.

The shadowy spectre of the darker end of the scientific spectrum frightens me. In light of the fact that I perfer fear from knowledge over ignorance, I keep a running list of possible world ending (read: changing the face of the world as we know it) scenarios:

6: Nanobots aka Grey Goo overrun the planet, replicating itself with Earth’s mass, and we all die.
5: Biotechnology weapons or accidents (aka Green Goo)infect the populace, or force us out of our massive niche, and we all die.
4: AI Overthrows mankind, likely for some kind of social problems, and we are all enslaved, or killed (we all die)
3: MAD (Mutually Assuered Destruction aka: Nuclear War) creates massive fallout, and we all die or mutate.
2: Accidental Ignition of the Atmosphere (Likely due to Fusion reactors) planet is incinerated, and we all die.

1: Antibacterial Soap causes bacteria to build up resistance to antibiotics and we all die. (ALREADY STARTING TO HAPPEN, JAPAN STOP USING SO MUCH ANTIBIOTIC HANDSOAP!)

So remember, always look both ways before you ross the street.

Everything goes in stages. If there is anything that the human brain does naturally it is break things into pieces. For example: time, colors, races, etc. It is interesting to note the similarities between the developement of an individual’s perception with that of the entirity of society.

Shortly after birth, infants have no concept of self or surroundings, they often hit themselves with their own limbs and then panic, this is very similar to the animalistic lack of understanding humans began with. The next thing that developes is a sense of self, this is similar to the social tendancy to identify and name society itself (IE tribes or Europeans or whatever). Infants quickly develope a sense of self importance similar to being the center of the universe;

“I cry, they run over. I smile they coo. I must be the most important thing.”

As age increases, perception becomes more complicated, it remains largely self centered but the concept of others (other planets in this metaphor) becomes evident, and eventually leads to the understanding of a larger order in surrounding.

One of the most important and critical steps is the ability to think logically, and displace one’s self to view situations from another’s perspective. We have only just gained this skill through the discovery of relativity. On the human scale, our society has the perception abilities of a 13 year old.

Mazel tov society. You’re now a man. (/woman)