space – Harmonia Philosophica

Space signals. Darkness. Self.

A research team using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has detected the faintest millimeter-wave source ever observed. By accumulating millimeter-waves from faint objects like this throughout the Universe, the team finally determined that such objects are 100% responsible for the enigmatic infrared background light filling the Universe. By comparing these to optical and infrared images, the team found that 60% of them are faint galaxies, whereas the rest have no corresponding objects in optical/infrared wavelengths and their nature is still unknown. (1)

With the universe expanding at an exponential rate, it is highly possible that we will never know the answer to that question. And it is also highly probable that some billion years ago Earth received numerous more “signals” from worlds which are now so far away from us that their signals do not even reach us anymore.

In an ever changing cosmos, we care to examine the past.

In an ever changing world, we are in agony to explore the future.

In an ever changing existence, we tend to ignore who we Are.

Darkness is all around us. But it was not always like that. Once upon a time there was light everywhere. Once upon a time we saw light within ourselves. Once upon a time we cherished Earth. Now we look into the deep space…

Extraterrestrial life. Theology. Human suffering.

Some months ago top US astronomers gathered in front of congress to let them know that extraterrestrial life exists without question. Their main argument was the size of the universe, emphasizing that there are trillions of stars out there, with one in every five most likely harboring an Earth-like planet. It’s also important to keep in mind that planets do not have to be “Earth-like” in order to harbor life. You can read more about that story here.

This time, NASA and the Library of Congress have teamed up bringing together scientists, theologians, philosophers and historians from around the globe for a two day symposium in order to discuss how to prepare the world for extraterrestrial contact, whether it be microbial organisms or intelligent beings. (1)

But what if extraterrestrial life exists?

Does it matter for philosophy? Does it matter for religion?

Are there different types of “existence”? Are there different types of “being”? What kind of pure honest philosophy depends on the phenomena? Does love change depending on who you are? Does pain or suffering stop depending on who you are? Does it matter if you are from Earth or from Mars? Would Christ act differently had he not come to Earth but to Saturn?

Know thyself…

Love your enemies as you love yourself…

Everything is One…

Fragments of wisdom echoing through the Universe. Transcending time. And space. Flying through the empty space, passing by Earth, passing by Mars, leaving our solar system, passing the edges of the galaxy, reaching the depths of our hearts…

Speed of light. Speed of change.

Were physicists all wrong about the speed of light? You might think so, given the stories posted recently about a new paper suggesting that light travels a bit more slowly than the 186,000-miles-a-second figure that’s familiar to generations of science geeks.

“The speed of light has almost mythical significance in physics”, Tyson told The Huffington Post in an email. “But to be honest, the headline in this case needs to say something like ‘New Calculations Suggest that the Speed of Light May Be 0.0000003% Slower Than We Thought,’ which then might not have garnered any headlines at all”.

In the paper, Franson argues that a “corrected” value for the speed of light might help explain a puzzle stemming from observations of a supernova that exploded in 1987.

Following its explosion, astronomers observed photons (particles of light) and nearly massless particles known as neutrinos streaming from Supernova 1987a, Franson told The Huffington Post in an email, adding that photons and neutrinos have been thought to travel at roughly the same speed. But the first photons from the supernova, which was located in a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way known as the Large Magellanic Cloud, were observed much later than the first neutrinos — a discrepancy that astronomers were hard pressed to explain.

Franson’s paper offers calculations suggesting a possible explanation for the anomaly, as he explained in the email:

What is new about my calculations is that they suggest that a gravitational field may slow light down slightly more than it does other particles, such as neutrinos. Neutrinos have extremely small masses and they travel very nearly at the speed of light as a result. My calculations suggest that the velocity of light may be slowed down by a few parts per billion more than the neutrinos. (1)

We observe.
We “discover” (create?) limits.
We observe again.
We “discover” those limits do not exist as we thought they were.
We observe.
We discover that…

Well, you get the meaning…

Primates, astronauts, experiments. The necessary (?) ugly side of science.

When we think about primates in space, we usually think of Ham, the monkey that preceded NASA’s Mercury astronauts on a suborbital Redstone mission. But more than a decade before this notable primate flight there were a series of monkeys named Albert who were also launched to gather data about the effects of spaceflight on men. They flew as part of Project Hermes, a program that saw recovered V-2s launched in the United States, and they are among the often overlooked heroes of the early space age.

The first V-2 Blossom to carry a monkey (missile 37) launched on June 11, 1948 with Albert I on board. The rocket reached a peak altitude of 39 miles before its ascent was cut off by a failed valve. Though the rocket didn’t explode, Albert I likely didn’t make it to apogee. He’s thought to have succumbed to breathing problems in his cramped cabin. But he would have died anyways; the parachute system also failed.

A second V-2 Blossom (missile 47) with another rhesus monkey launched on June 14, 1949. Albert II fared slightly better than his predecessor. He survived launch to reach an apogee of 83 miles, but he didn’t survive the landing. This time, the capsule’s parachutes failed to open; the monkey died on impact. A silver lining, at least for the humans running the test, was that biomedical data from Albert II was transmitted successfully to the ground throughout the flight.
Two more rhesus monkeys named Albert III and Albert IV also died on their V-2 Blossom flights. (1)

How important is the thing you search for?
How ready are you for it?
Are you strong enough to test your own theory?
Or are you a coward who just wants to test it on others?

Sure science needs experiments.
Does it mean that it needs death?
Sure we need tests of new spacecrafts.
Sure we need tests of new medicine.
But there was a time when pioneers of aircrafts tested their own new creations and risked their own lives.
There was a time when scientists tested radioactive material on their own self.

Let’s re-examine the fundamental axioms of our science.
Most “primitive” civilizations had almost the same medicine as we do (we literally use the same herbs in many occasions) and yet they did not kill millions of other beings in the process of discovering them.
Samans and wizards in most “primitive” civilizations used to travel to more vast distances only with the mind. (yes, Princeton has validated that – see “Non local consciousness” article at Blogger)

How progressed are we really?
How men are we really?
Trust your ideas.
Test them your self.
Or else you will always be lesser then a monkey…

Curiosity, microbes, observing.

A recent study of swabs taken from the rover before it launched found its surfaces contained 65 bacteria species. Engineers are supposed to put spacecraft like Curiosity through a stringent cleaning regimen before launch. Yet certain species of bacteria are known to survive even NASA’s cleanrooms. Wondering about what remained on Curiosity even after cleaning, scientists from the University of Idaho and California’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory swabbed different parts of the rover before sending it off. After gathering and characterizing their bacteria, the scientists exposed them to harsh conditions, including desiccation, ultraviolet light exposure, extreme cold and extreme pH levels. About 11 percent of the bacterial strains they found survived at least two conditions. (1)

The premise that we can observe something without affecting it is one of the major dogmas of science today.
Destroying that illusion it is the first step towards the truth.
Realizing that observing something is what makes that something exist is the next step.

Towards understanding what is in front of our eyes.
Which is actually behind them.
Inside our minds I mean.
Well, you know what I mean.
Observe me well.
I am here.
Close your eyes.
I am gone.

Mars here we come!