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Friday, February 13, 2015

You Are Here - 2

You are here in a warped galaxy?
In the first post of this series we took a look at the psychological challenges that the notion of You Are Here (YAH) maps generate.

And some other stuff.

We got "here" through no fault of our own, no thought of our own, and no good or bad of our own, so, we should be aware of the cognitive ruts and highways "here" (e.g. Choose Your Trances Carefully, Raised by Animals).
You are here in an inverted warped galaxy?

Today I have posted a Hubble photo together with its inverse version, just to illustrate that the world and universe can look different to different folks ... because we are all here too (click on them to enlarge them).

Notice that when the galaxy is inverted what was light at the center becomes dark at the center.

The way civilization treats this planet one would think we are in a warped galaxy with darkness at its center.

And that we are on a planet in that darkness where we have no clue about how to properly take care of it, and thereby take care of our civilization at the same time:
" ... a new analysis released today says the drying will be even more extreme than previously predicted—the worst in nearly 1,000 years. Some time between 2050 and 2100, extended drought conditions in both regions will become more severe than the megadroughts of the 12th and 13th centuries." (US droughts).
...
"The first Yamal sinkhole made headlines all over the world. A crater with a diameter of up to 60 meter, the phenomenon was soon branded the Black Hole of Yamal. Scientists believe that the hole was created following the release of gas methane and subsequent collapse of permafrost.

The eight new sinkholes are smaller in size than the one discovered in July last year. The researchers believe that the bigger sinkholes are likely to be surrounded by smaller ones, and are now mapping the peninsula in order to be able to predict the sites for new holes." (Methane Sinkholes).
...
"Scientists had long thought the giant East Antarctic ice sheet was barely affected by global warming and that its glaciers were stable. It turns out those assumptions were wrong.

A team of scientists returned on January 26 from a 7-week expedition to East Antarctica with the bad news: warm ocean water is melting the huge Totten glacier from below.

Totten is East Antarctica’s largest glacier. It drains an area more than double the size of Victoria and holds enough ice to cause a 6-metre [19.685 ft.] sea-level rise." (Antarctic Eastern Ice sheet melt)
So long as our nomenclature allows for "light" to mean one thing to one person, but another thing to another person, our communication will be strained or broken, and our lives and deaths "here" may mean less.

Same with the meaning of "darkness."

As it is, we live on either an idiom planet, or in an idiom galaxy.

The following idioms may be instructive in that light:
One man's meat is another man's poison

One man's trash is another man's treasure

One man's loss is another man's gain
(Idioms @Free Dictionary). And let's not forget what we blogged about over the past few days, that one man's climate change is another man's wrath of God (Doom Is A Government Department - 3, Weekend Rebel Science Excursion - 39, The Paradox of Barbarian Civilization: Dangerous Religion).

The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.

"Mykonos", by Fleet Foxes (lyrics here):



2 comments:

  1. Good points Dredd. Our vaunted intelligence has resulted in our coming demise - as Mayr (and you) pointed out, it's a lethal mutation rather than an evolutionary benefit.

    i guess it takes some kind of mass self-discipline, maybe akin to hive-mindedness, to keep ones species in line. It's too bad we don't exist on pure sunlight like plants. Design flaws (or maybe we're perfect - and doing exactly what we're here for).

    Tom

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  2. The Antarctic Eastern Ice sheet melt piece is surprising.

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