The Ecocosmology Blog has pointed out for some time that the human species must become space travelers or perish, along with all the other life on planet Earth, when the Sun changes from the life supporter into the death bringer.In the mean time, those Tenets of Ecocosmology also indicate that we must take care of the Earth, or we will not last long enough to develop space travel, because, since that task is larger than life at the moment, it will take more time than we may have.
None other than Dr. Stephen Hawking is in agreement with the Tenets of Ecocosmology, and has gone on record to point that out:
Stephen Hawking: I believe that the long-term future of the human race must be in space. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load.(Big Think, emphasis added). This kind of language is enough to get Dr. Hawking branded as a "professional lefty" by White House Press Secretary Gibbs, because denial and spin seems to be the Gibbs illusion of choice.
I see great dangers for the human race. There have been a number of times in the past when its survival has been a question of touch and go.
Such denial for adults of government calibre really is negligence that borders on, or crosses over the border into elite criminal insanity.
It does not matter that much when one can argue that Gibbs, Obama, and other world leaders are the best that humanity has to offer, or that climate change deniers and neoCon warmongers are much worse than them.
No, what really matters is that when even the best are criminally insane, Dr. Hawking's pointing out of the obvious becomes little more than "useless wisdom".
stephen hawkings, quite the genius and also the one who makes einstein and post-einsteinian physics accessible to the comprehension of the layperson, such as me. but he has his blind side, as don't we all. he spoke out recently to say that it is "likely" that there is intelligent extraterrestrial life 'out there.' and now this pronouncement that we have to get off the earth in 200 years, or else.
ReplyDeletenow back in the mid-1950s, enrico fermi, the brilliant physicist for whom chicago's fermi lab is named... stated flatly that "the odds that there is no extraterrestrial influence on the past, present and future of the planet earth and humanity is zero." and he also said that "the mathematical odds are that somewhere out there, some folks more or less like human beings are speaking something more or less like english." and this was a man in the know who did not tend to exaggerate.
the hubble space telescope has taken us to the point of knowing that there are some 125 billion galaxies in this universe. that's a prety remarkable advance from when, in 1921, hubble discovered that those lights out there aren't just stars, but galaxies and 'found' the first one. hope he put his name on it. the average galaxy has some 4-5 billion stars in it. and so far, 1/3 of all stars seen have some bodies around them, a solar system. this means on the order of quadrillions of stars with solar systems. and if this is any example, this sun has at least 3 planets which have, or may have had, or could have life pollinated/exported to them (venus, earth, mars.) but there is no particular reason to expect that all life must follow the earth pattern. so how about jupiter, saturn, uranus, neptune and their many strange moons?
in 1978, i read a cover story article in old life magazine saying that with the technology that existed at that time; it would take 30 years to terraform mars to human habitability. that was over 30 years ago, eh?
so the real picture is of at least hundreds of trillions of planets likely to have life. and over time, that means what we call 'intelligent life.' and that means that 'out there' are billions of ancient civilizations which have actually failed to wipe themselves and their planets out. and that means societies so advanced we might not even see them if they were sitting next to us, with technologies literally beyond general comprehension; cultures for whom travel across the cosmos in a flash has been a reality for billions of years?
next point... our species has rabies and is rapidly destroying our home for the profiteers. as albert grosvenor IV, the 4th generation publisher of the national geographic wrote so well in a recent editorial... "with the ascendancy of the corporate state, nature has become little more than a business warehouse in the process of a liquidation sale." la vie en fumer, poof! we want to export this disease of war and corporatist ecotastrophe throughout the universe? that would not only be criminal, it would be stupid.
and sorry to say, stephen, we don't have 200 to cure ourselves. this ecosystem is going down now and armageddonists rule. fix our problems... then consider expanding outwards and seeking out 'friendly aliens.' (btw... why has most of SETI been made inaccessible to FOIA? why hide what isn't?)
Nice reply to Dredd. The Koch brothers are always looking for new consumers. We may have fifteen years left for the industrial world.
DeleteTaz,
ReplyDeleteIt is much, much less about genius than it is about common sense.
As to ecology, it comes down to don't sh*t where you eat, and as to religion it comes down to don't sh*t where you get baptised dipsh*t.
When it comes down to cosmology there is no genius needed to realize that the Sun is going to wipe out the Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury and all life on them.
Read Life According To Science with common sense in mind, no genius required.
tazdelaney,
ReplyDeleteThe real question is not is there life out there, the real question is "will there be life here on Earth in the future?"
If governments keep trying to destroy us in order to save us they may succeed.
Stephen Hawking again backs up the tenets of ecocosmology: Link
ReplyDeleteAnd again (Stephen Hawking Warns That Aggression Could 'Destroy Us All').
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