Profound Events In Modern Science

Science has had many a profound impact on our lives since the turn of the 20^th Century and not always a positive one – depending on who you talk to. There have been literally hundreds of significant scientific concepts, events, including inventions that have had a profound impact on our individual selves and our society. Any list doesn’t bring justice, and there will be howls of protest for omissions, but still, here’s a baker’s dozen that I feel are pretty profound.

Here are some reasonably profound events in science from 1900 to date that I feel are important in the broader historical, social and cultural context.

1) Sputnik (1957): Unless you lived through it, it’s hard to imagine the impact that the launch of the Soviet artificial satellite Sputnik had all of a sudden on the public awareness of outer space as an actual place where things could happen. The shock-horror to the American psyche was profound, resulting in a massive boost to American science and technological education, acerbating the Cold War, and of course resulting in the Space Race which culminated with the first landing on the Moon (1969). Without Sputnik, there still might not have been any human involvement in space and space exploration in general, and where would we be without artificial satellites in orbit today.

2) Humans in Orbit (1961 to date): It may be ho-hum now, but back in the era of Project Mercury people were glued to their TV screens for the coverage of ‘man into space’. Ditto of course the first voyage to the Moon (Apollo 8) and the first landing on the Moon (Apollo 11). When the two Space Shuttle disasters happened, both re-awakened interest in no uncertain terms. Equally, the Russians were rapped in the many early successes of their space program while America suffered early humiliation after humiliation. But in an era of the Vietnam conflict, civil rights riots in the streets, the Cold War, and of course terrorism, manned space flight gave people something positive to cheer about. Further, there have been massive technological spin-offs as well that have filtered down to the general public. 

3) Modern Communications (1900 to date): It’s hard to believe that not all that long ago, a mere six or seven generations back, it took months to correspond between say Europe and America, or across America, or from America to Australia. However did those poor tweens, teens and young adults cope without instant communication feedback via their Facebook, Twitter or emails way back in those dark ages (how sad: sob; sob; sob). But then along comes wired technologies like the telegraph and telephone cabling and wireless technologies like ham radio and telecommunication satellites, the airplane sped things up too and then finally comes along the Internet and everything that’s i-this-gadget or i-that-doohickie, or i-the-next-damned-gizmo that’s under the proverbial sun (that you have to upgrade every six months). Whether ultimately this entire instant “I just gotta be in touch with everybody everywhere 24/7” will prove its worth or not remains to be seen. Back six or seven generations ago, if you had something to say and it took months to reach the person intended, it probably was important. Can one conclude the same today?  Recall how the automobile revolutionized everything and not necessarily for the better.  

4) Quantum Physics (1920’s): Though the first inklings of what would become quantum mechanics surfaced at the very turn of the century, the subject bloomed into a scientific revolution in the 1920’s. It wasn’t very long before applications were found, and today quantum physics is ultimately responsible for contributions to over one-third of the global economy in various gizmos and gadgets and their applications, many of which are in the possession of you readers.

5) First Nuclear Chain Reaction (1942) & Trinity A-Bomb Test (1945): Collectively these two experimental events gave rise to all of the nuclear issues part and parcel of our world today. That first chain reaction demonstrated that nuclear fission was more than just a theoretical idea and that controlled fission would lead to a nearly unlimited energy supply; uncontrolled fission, as demonstrated at Trinity, goes ka-boom, as in the A-Bomb. When controlled, radioactivity has many applications today, nuclear power (which doesn’t give off greenhouse gas emissions but has other issues) being of course one; nuclear medicine another; and radioactive traces are employed in all sorts of environmental work. Nuclear weapons, nuclear arms control, nuclear terrorism, radioactive waste, and related issues are of course on the opposite side of the nuclear coin.

6) Radar (1940’s): RAdio Detection And Ranging (RADAR) was developed in secret just before and during World War Two. Quite apart from all those obvious military applications, radar is central to modern airline operations and safe flying; the same applies to maritime safety; it’s a common tool for police in keeping those with a tendency to put the pedal to the metal under control; its use is obvious in weather forecasting and warning systems; radar helps keep track of all those bits and pieces we’ve put into orbit, and it has applications in geology (ground penetrating radar) to map subsurface terrain, even in astronomy bouncing radio and microwaves off the surface of nearly moons and planets be it from the ground or from space probes. Unless you’ve been caught speeding, you’re probably quite appreciative of all that radar does for you.   

7) First SETI Experiment (Project Ozma – 1960): Let’s for once try to answer that age old question “are we alone in the cosmos”. Make it so, and so it came to pass where experimental time and money was put where only just before the theoretical mouth was. As we are all too aware, that first experiment, conducted by Dr. Frank Drake, failed to detect ET. In fact every SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) experimental effort to date has failed, but there has to be a first time for everything, and Project Ozma was the first SETI effort, and the significance lies in the fact that for the first time ever, and it’s our generation that’s making it so, exobiology (or astrobiology) has become an experimental instead of just a theoretical science, albeit on still in search of its subject. 

8) Flying Saucers (1947 to date): More books, articles, websites, and documentaries have been done about the subject of UFOs than any other aspect of science. Yes science, since there is a case to be answered even if it is a social one, but even the possible connection with extraterrestrial life makes the study a profound and of course interesting one. Alas, if 65 is considered normal retirement then UFOs should already be pensioned off. Despite that, they do keep on keeping on despite all the best debunking efforts by those self-appointed to act as ‘professional’ sceptics.

9) Chariots of the Gods (1950’s to date): It has been pointed out that it would be extraordinary in terms of probability that ET via those pesky UFOs would pick the last generation or two to show up. This is true. However, negating that little objection, there’s the concept of the ‘ancient astronaut’ – ET has been around for over 100 generations (minimum) with suggestive evidence (not proof) cobbled together from anthropology, archaeology, literature, religions and mythology. While author Erich Von Daniken has been the most visible of the ‘ancient astronaut’ proponents, he wasn’t the first to advocate the idea that ET played a role in the development of mankind. The central issue of profoundness is that any study that suggests that intelligent extraterrestrial life exists, and even more to the point, has had a cultural impact on human society, can’t be easily shrugged off.   

10) King Tutankhamen’s Tomb (1922): Ever since Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, Egyptology has been big business for publishers, private collectors, museums, Egyptian tourism, etc. However, Egyptology really took off in the mainstream consciousness following the discovery of the Pharaoh known as Tutankhamen, or the Boy King’s tomb, by archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter. The impact on archaeology in general and Egyptology in particular has been and remains profound. There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t heard about Pharaoh Tutankhamen, and worldwide exhibition tours of artefacts found in his tomb attract huge crowds. 

11) Discovery of Penicillin (1928): We all know about that wonder drug penicillin, discovered rather accidentally by Alexander Fleming, which has been responsible for saving more lives than you can shake a stick at. That gave rise to a whole potpourri of antibiotics, but it also gave rise to the Pandora’s Box of antibiotic resistance and the rise of the super-bug, an issue that is both current, ongoing, and of concern to anyone and everyone ever likely be suffer from an infection. 

12) The First Heart Transplant (1967): Anyone who was around at the time can remember the massive amount of press coverage that very first human heart transplant that took place, in Cape Town, South Africa, under the direction of Christiaan Barnard. Back then, this was Big News. Thousands of human heart transplants are now preformed annually and of course it is no longer Big News – unless you are one of those on the receiving end.   

13) Genetic Code (the Discovery of DNA in 1953) & Associated Human Genome Project (2000 to date): Hands up anyone who hasn’t heard about Watson and Crick and the discovery of the substance and structure of DNA in 1953. No hands up? Well that’s not surprising as it is one of the most famous of the famous of scientific achievements in relatively modern times. Ultimately that discovery (along with massive amounts of additional genetically relevant biochemistry since then) has morphed into the Human Genome Project, the importance of which has yet to reach full potential. But full understanding of our genetic makeup is an important tool in coming to terms with all those hundreds of genetic afflictions we can suffer from, and curing (or preventing) same. 

And there’s a dozen dozens more, like the Discovery of X-Rays (1895) so that date is eliminated from ‘modern’ science, though where would modern medicine and dentistry be without X-Rays as well as applications in materials testing, etc. Most of the applications took place in the 20^th Century. Anyway, as I said, there are many more examples that could, probably should be included, but space is limited.

Honourable Mention: Where’s Einstein’s Special and General Relativity? Well, Einstein’s Relativity only rates an honourable mention since it has relatively little impact or application, apart from GPS, in modern society. When (and if) we start to boldly go, then horses will change their colour.

More on Symmetry, or Lack Thereof

Scientists in general and physicists in particular, love symmetry. In fact, humans in general love symmetry. There’s something far more pleasing to the eye if something is symmetrical rather than asymmetrical. Unfortunately for scientists at least, much of the cosmos, from our Universe down to humans, aren’t symmetrical.

Mathematics is the foundation of all of the sciences, and with some exceptions tends to reflect symmetrical operations and relationships. Easy examples are 1 + 2 = 3; 2 + 1 = 3; 3 = 2 + 1; 3 = 1 + 2. However, mathematics is still an intellectual and abstract field that exists within the realm of biological (perhaps artificial) intelligence. It’s not an obvious part of nature.

Physics & Chemistry: On the micro scale, there is indeed a great deal of symmetry. An electron is symmetrical with its antimatter counterpart, the positron. It’s like the yin and yang. The electric charge of a proton matches that of an electron. Many molecules are symmetrical, like methane, though the water molecule isn’t. Also, physics and chemistry tend to have reversible (symmetric) actions. You can combine hydrogen and oxygen to form water; you can turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. Energy can turn into matter; matter can turn into energy.

There are obvious cases at the macro level where there is symmetry – for every action there’s and equal and opposite reaction. But, as a general rule however, the transition from the micro to the macro tends to also be a transition away from symmetry to the asymmetrical.

Space: Space appears symmetrical. Up balances down; left balances right; back balances front; north vs. south; east vs. west.

Time: There is in physics this phenomena that time ‘moves’ or flows in one direction – from the past to the future, although that’s only apparent on the macro scale. Any one fundamental particle looks and acts the same whether filmed from past to future, or run in reverse, from the future to the past. However, when grouped together, it would be odd for thousands of particles to start from a position of uniform distribution then all move such as to clump together. That is to say, you won’t find a box full of air where all the air is clustered or huddled together in one of the eight corners. 

Energy: Energy is like time – left alone it flows overall in just one direction – from high concentration to low concentration. That is to say, your cup of tea, left standing, doesn’t further warm up left to natural processes or forces, but rather cools down.

Matter: Whether matter exists in a gaseous, liquid or solid state, you’ll never find absolute symmetry. One cubic centimetre of air wouldn’t be absolutely symmetrical with respect to the mixture. Even if it were just a cubic centimetre of say oxygen, the density of the molecules will vary from location to location. The same applies to say sea water, even pure distilled water. And as for solids, well we all know any diamond has some flaws or imperfections, even the best of them. Snowflakes on the surface look like perfect six-sided symmetry, but up-close-and-personal, there again will be slight flaws.

The Earth Sciences: Geology, Oceanography and Meteorology don’t tend to be associated very much with symmetry. Some rock crystals will be symmetric, but more likely as not with flaws that spoil the perfection as noted above. I suppose if you drop a rock into the ocean, the ripples will spread out in a symmetrical fashion, but quickly become distorted due to differing local factors operating at different points. I guess water evaporating is sort of symmetrical with rain falling, but that’s a bit of a stretch.

The Universe: Our Universe is asymmetric with respect to antimatter vs. matter. The Universe is 99 and 44/100’s % pure matter – probably more. This is strange since theory predicts that there should be equal amounts of matter and antimatter at large. The Alpha and the Omega of the Universe isn’t symmetrical either. The Universe started with a Big Bang, yet will expand forever and end in a Heat Death. A Head Death is when the overall temperature of the entire cosmos is uniform. In contrast, our Universe would have exhibited far greater symmetry had the Alpha been the Big Bang, and the Omega the Big Crunch – a cyclic universe.

Most of the objects within the Universe aren’t symmetrical. You have the irregular galaxies, but even normal spiral or elliptical galaxies aren’t symmetrical down to the last nitty-gritty detail. Stars aren’t perfect little spheres, but seethe with solar activity which distorts perfect symmetry. On the other hand, a Black Hole should exhibit near perfect symmetry, except, like stars, they too can seethe with activity and give off energy in the form of Hawking radiation which won’t be uniform at the quantum level.

The Solar System: There’s certainly no symmetry with respect to the bodies that orbit Mr. Sun either with respect to spacing between the planets, or the size of the planets. And you get one-off bits like the asteroid belt (of rocky stuff), the Oort cloud (of cometary stuff), and the Kuiper Belt (more icy stuff in the main). Asteroids and all the smaller bodies tend not to have enough gravity to pull them into a uniform spherical shape and so have irregular shapes.

Planet Earth: Well for starters, there’s this tilt to the Earth’s axis. Then too the division between land masses and oceans isn’t symmetrical, and never really has been due to plate tectonics. The Earth isn’t even a perfect sphere due to its rotation.

Life: Terrestrial biology is composed of biochemicals, complex molecules usually composed of various arrangements of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, which can have a right or left handedness to them. Our biology, or rather biochemistry, is in the main left-handed. 

Humans: Humans have no top-bottom symmetry; nor front-back symmetry; only left-right symmetry, and that is only superficial. The right and left sides of our outer shell aren’t quite identical, as in, for example, the way we part our hair. The left and right side of our faces are ever so slightly different as you can see if one matches two right sides together and two left sides together, then view both at the same time. They don’t look absolutely identical. Of course on the inner anatomical level you are well aware there’s no real left-right symmetry, since our heart leans to the left; our stomach and liver are on opposite sides, etc. And the left and right sides of our brains aren’t apparently the same with respect to the bits and pieces they hold sway over.

Human Technology: Relatively few manufactured goods are totally symmetrical. Certainly not our automobiles which have left-right symmetry, except for the steering wheel and location of the gas cap. Your house may look symmetrical from the outside, but the interior layout most certainly isn’t (although a typical dog house probably has near perfect left-right symmetry). A dice is apparently symmetrical left-right, front-back, and top-bottom, but the faces have different patterns. A bowling ball has those finger holes to offset otherwise perfect symmetry. However, even when things are totally symmetrical, say ball bearings (though on a micro scale there would be irregularities – peaks and troughs), that’s of little interest to the physicist or other scientists who look for symmetry in the natural world.

Further recommended reading:

Gleiser, Marcelo; Imperfect Creation: Cosmos, Life and Nature’s Hidden Code; Black, Inc.; Melbourne, Victoria; 2010:

Mission Impossible (Or Highly Improbable): Part One

In Alice in Wonderland (or was that Through the Looking-Glass – I can never remember which one of the two it was*) it’s stated that it’s possible to believe many (as in six) impossible things before breakfast. Science and associated philosophies have had to deal with impossibilities and wildly improbable things, some of which are straight forward, and some of which aren’t – perhaps to the point where something possible is in fact impossible and fundamentally wrong. Conversely, something considered impossible might in fact be possible and fundamentally right. 

A cautionary note: when it comes to what’s possible or impossible; plausible or implausible; probable or improbable, majority doesn’t rule. This isn’t a democracy. If a billion people believe nonsense, it’s still nonsense. This however is in contrast to what has been proven beyond a reasonable scientific doubt. If a billion people continue to disbelieve something that has been proved, then it’s those billion people who are nonsense, not the idea.

Time and time again the self correcting nature of scientific investigation has invalidated the norm of the day, resulting in a paradigm shift. Often the seemingly impossible has proved to be possible, even inevitable. Sometimes what’s been believed to be obviously plausible as proved to be anything but plausible. So, if today’s science says something’s impossible – well, maybe. If I say something is impossible – the same caveat applies. I tend to argue from common sense logic, which, as any philosopher or historian of science will tell you is no sure pathway to what is, and isn’t.

FIRSTLY, let’s list just a few once-upon-a-time scientific impossibilities that have proved to be anything but.

It used to be quite obvious that the Sun went around the Earth – any other configuration was considered impossible.

Once upon a time, our Universe could not be anything but static – neither expanding nor contracting. Einstein however knew the Universe should be contracting because of the attractive force of gravity. To counter that, and keep the static Universe he and the science of the times believed in, he invented his ‘cosmological constant’, a repulsive force to exactly counter gravity’s pull. He later called that his greatest blunder. However, that ‘cosmological constant’ has recently resurfaced in the form of ‘dark energy’, so Einstein might have been right after all!

Those Black Holes, while existing on paper in relativity theory, could not actually exist in reality - in practice they were quite the impossible object.

No one in their right mind would believe that it was possible that mankind had any actual evolutionary relationship with ‘lower’ life forms.

That matter actually consisted of indivisible bits called atoms - the atomic theory was nonsense.

That ‘island universes’ were actually independent conglomerations of stars and not nebulous entities part and parcel of our own Milky Way Galaxy was deemed impossible by experts.

Catastrophism in geology was considered a no-no for much of the time since it began as a legit part of earth science. All geology (especially landforms) could be explained as a gradual softly-softly, slowly-slowly, process. Violent events need not apply to explain things. Tell that to the dinosaurs! Of course we know better today. Catastrophism has taken its place and role playing in the geologic scheme of things.

Speaking of geology, the idea of continental drift was once considered preposterous pie-in-the-sky stuff. How dare a meteorologist (Alfred Wegener in 1912) tell geologists what should have been bleeding obvious! Geologists of course countered that there was no physical mechanism that could push continents around. Well, there was as it turned out, only we may no longer call it continental drift but rather plate tectonics. So, the meteorologist could the geologists flatfooted after all. 

Once upon a time, the concept of nuclear energy was pie in the sky – a subject no scientist would take seriously.

Prior to the initial test, there were ‘experts in explosives’ who said that the A-bomb would never work.

Powered flight was once considered impossible – balloons were the only feasible means of air travel.

Rocket travel was utter bilge as there was nothing in space for the rocket’s exhaust to push against.

It was impossible for the human body to travel faster than the speed of a (fill in the blank) without suffering fatal physiological consequences.

The sound barrier would never be broken. 

It was considered impossible for stones to fall from the sky – witnesses to the contrary are damned. Today, we incorrectly call them ‘shooting stars’; more correctly meteors, and when then hit the ground, meteorites. 

The Titanic was ‘unsinkable’.

The city of Troy was mythology, pure and simple. There was no such place in reality. 

SECONDLY, let’s look at a few really bona fide actual or statistical impossibilities according to today’s scientific thinking.

It’s impossible to divide any number by zero.

It is impossible to travel at the speed of light if you have mass. That’s because at light speed, mass becomes infinite; time stops; your length contracts to zero. However, travel faster than the speed of light seems to be okay (albeit with weird consequences), if only one could figure out how to get from sub-light to faster-than-light without actually crossing the speed of light threshold. It’s like driving your car from zero to sixty km/hour without actually passing through the 30 km/hour region. 

It is considered impossible for a macro object to escape from a Black Hole. To escape from a Black Hole would require passing through that speed of light threshold.

Perpetual motion machines are a big no-no. There’s no such thing as a free lunch! No country’s patent office will even remotely consider proposals for devices that operate on perpetual motion ideals.

It’s apparently impossible to get around the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle part and parcl of quantum physics. Einstein tried for decades to do so and failed each and every time.

It’s impossible to ever reach a temperature of absolute zero (zero on the Kelvin temperature scale) where all molecular, atomic and subatomic activity ceases and all is motionless. It’s impossible because it violates the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and also because of the vacuum energy, also known as quantum fluctuations. At the extreme micro level, virtual particle pairs pop into and out of existence borrowing from the, and returning energy to, that energy reserve that pervades the cosmos – quantum foam. Finally, energy is spread across the Universe, and can not be created nor destroyed. Although the Universe is expanding, that just means that available energy is being spread thinner and thinner – the energy density of the Universe is therefore decreasing**. But, as long as our Universe retains a finite volume, that density can never reach zero.

No matter what the merits of reincarnation are (and there are none IMHO), it is impossible to recall past lives. The egg and the sperm from which you were conceived had no past memory of your alleged past lives since they came from individuals not so related to your past existences. So, you started out from the get-go with no memory. Any and all memories you now have started from day of conception onwards – full stop***.

On a lighter note, films often give you impossibilities. You know they are impossible, but you accept them anyway, at least while the film is running. Superman’s flying comes to mind, or for that matter the original premise behind the various attributes of all our celluloid superheroes. It’s impossible to have any such of a thing as an invisible person. That person would be functionally blind as light would pass right through their eyeballs. A standard of sci-fi are insects the size of houses – impossible as they would quickly die of suffocation.  A fifty foot human is also impossible because their scaled up legs get scaled up far less than the increase in body mass, and so the individual couldn’t stand up. Similar physiological problems arise if you shrink humans to standard insect size. The standard impossibility is hearing the noise and sounds a spaceship or space battles make while in the vacuum of space. I’m sure any readers could think up dozens of other examples. Most films never get the science right, but of course it’s just entertainment not to be taken as accurate representation of reality.

Lastly, there’s one impossible thing you just can’t think of and believe before breakfast, or any other time. It’s impossible to think that you don’t exist (either as an actual or simulated being) for who’s doing the thinking if not you? Therefore, the famous observation and quote, “I think therefore I am”.

To be continued….

* Having since looked it up, I’ve confirmed it as the White Queen’s statement from Through the Looking-Glass.

**There’s one caveat to that. If ‘dark energy’ is a property of space, and if space is expanding, then the amount of ‘dark energy’ is not thinning, but increasing. More space means more ‘dark energy’.

   

***When I mentioned this observation to a friend, she immediately suggested that the memory of a past life or lives was due to the implantation of your soul. It’s your soul (assuming there is such a thing) that has the memory.

Actually I was under the impression that it was one soul per person, but maybe not. One soul might be passed down from one person to that person’s reincarnation to that person’s reincarnation for however long the process goes on for. Maybe like in Doctor Who you only get so many regenerations (or in this case reincarnations).

Anyway, I was also under the impression that the soul is intangible or nebulous – it has no actual substance, a thing that can be examined in the laboratory and under a microscope.

Memory however has to be something part and parcel of the biochemical’s and biochemistry and energy flows that happens in your brain whenever you remember something. Memory must have some physical substance – it has mass and energy. Memory can be affected by chemicals and energy. A soul doesn’t have mass or energy and presumably can’t be influenced by external influences. So, if your soul contains the memories of your past lives, then no amount of foreign drugs, disease or injury will make you forget past lives because the soul is indestructible. Sorry, but if you have a memory of a past life then I suggest that memory, even though it’s a false or delusional memory, can be affected by physical influences, like drugs, disease or injury.

Immortality: Who Wants To Live Forever? Part One

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes”, so the saying goes, and while much has been written about taxes, death, or the lack of death, the latter is my topic under consideration. The question I pose is, can technology deliver on what religion promises, but probably can’t deliver on - that is to say, the promise of life eternal.

Assuming that there is no actual afterlife, or reincarnation, then perhaps one can try for (near to actual) immortality, or at least as much immortality as the ultimate fate of the Universe allows for, and cheat death. I believe Woody Allen is quoted as saying something along the lines of, ‘I don’t want to achieve immortality through my films; I want to achieve immortality by not dying’! How can immortality by not dying be accomplished, if indeed it can be accomplished?

Some cautionary notes first of all, and that is physical immortality could be as downbeat as any afterlife. While nearly everyone wishes for immortality, whether they realize it or not, this is a case of be wary of what you wish for, least you get it. Immortality (which doesn’t preclude death by accident or design – just natural [aging] death), if achieved, would be a very boring existence as you’d end up spending trillions of years in a dark, intensely cold, lifeless (heat death) Universe. Looking at current observational evidence, our Universe will keep on expanding, and expanding at an ever accelerating rate at that, continues to ever cool as stars and galaxies ultimately die as their energy supply becomes exhausted and what energy there is becomes diluted throughout an ever increasing expanding volume. Such is the predicted fate of our cosmos.

Even if the fate of the Universe is a Big Crunch, that is, our Universe slows down the  expansion rate, halts, and starts contracting again under the collective gravity the Universe’s mass has, that alone would terminate your immortality quick-smart!

I should note that it’s the fate of the Universe that’s important here vis-à-vis becoming, and more importantly, staying immortal. The demise of Planet Earth is of no consequence.  If you achieve immortality, then by the time Earth goes kaput, you will have had ample time to have packed your bags and left. You’ve fled and escaped elsewhere in the Universe to a location that hasn’t yet gone kaput. But when the entire cosmos goes kaput (in either direction – Heat Death or Big Crunch), then it’s ultimately curtains for you too! It’s hard living the comfortable life when the temperature of the Universe is just a tiny fraction above absolute zero; in the Big Crunch, down a Black Hole you go!

Oh, the other cautionary note is that if you achieve, in your organic body, immortality, you had better have achieved eternal youth as well. There’s no point in living to a ripe old age of several million years if your aging process doesn’t stop! Unlike some of the mythological gods, Norse I believe in particular, there is no endless supply of golden apples to keep you eternally youthful. Apart from that, the mythological gods are given as immortal, or as close to immortal as makes no odds, so if you should come across Zeus or equivalent, you can always ask them what the secret is!

Anyway, for starters, there’s no way (currently known) that, assuming you possess an organic multi-cellular body, that you can stop, far less reverse, the aging (and ultimately the death) process. There is, alas, no combination of vitamins; no health club membership; no fountain of youth; no “Picture of Dorian Gray”; no magic witch’s brew that can, or will accomplish that objective. And while you can eat fruit, nuts and vegetables till you’re blue in the face, they alone won’t see you into the 23^rd Century, far less the 123^rd Century!

A unicellular organism (like an amoeba) can (in theory) achieve a sort of immortality via reproduction – dividing in two (mitosis). Where there was one, now there is two, and since there’s been no recombination of genetic material, both are clones. Continued reproductive mitotic division over the days, weeks, years, centuries, millennia, would see an organism in 2000 AD identical to its ancestor from 2000 BC. Well, you, as a complex multi-cellular critter, can’t divide in two like an amoeba, so that fast track to immortality is out.

Cloning is also out because while that might produce an identical physical body, it wouldn’t replicate the inner you (your brain, your grey matter or your mind) that inhabits that body. A cloned you can’t ever duplicate that inner you. A cloned brain would be a virgin brain – a blank slate. It wouldn’t have your memories, personality, and other facets which are largely environmentally imprinted. 

Anyway, casting those above methods aside, how could you (actually that inner you – your mind) achieve if not infinite immortality, at least near quasi-immortality? The first catch is that what actually needs to be preserved is that inner you. That’s the inner you  that’s part of your physical body you – your emotions, memories, personality, awareness, likes, dislikes, habits (good and bad), etc. Survival for all eternity of your big toe or your wisdom teeth is fairly irrelevant in this context. For that matter, so is your blood, muscles, skin and bone, liver, etc. What needs to survive forever and ever (amen) is the seat of the real you – the inner you. That of course is your brain or your mind. Of course your brain, being organic, and subject to the aging process, can’t survive forever and ever (amen). Even if it could, after millions upon millions of years of living, its carrying capacity for memories, knowledge, etc. would have become exhausted – our brains have trouble in the here and now coping with sensory and information overload. Brain volume doesn’t expand to meet needs above and beyond that of our roughly three score and ten lifespan expectancy. It certainly can’t cope with three million score and ten! However, there’s no point in being immortal without having ongoing sensory inputs, at least sight and sound (you could probably do if necessary without the rest), although all input could be direct and electronic, like how a computer receives data.

And therein we come to the technological fix.

To be continued…

Evidence and the Twelfth Man: How Much Is Enough? Part Two

A phrase has appeared in many popular science books as well as sceptical books about various aspects of the paranormal and pseudoscience, but which has, in classic meme fashion, spread to other subjects as well. That phrase is “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. However, I feel that phrase has well outlived its original purpose, is total nonsense, and has passed its ‘use by’ date by several decades at least. 

Continued from yesterday’s blog…

Okay, we have to come to terms with the fact that lots of extraordinary claims have in fact come to pass, with rather ordinary evidence. Let’s list just a few once-upon-a-time scientific impossibilities (extraordinary claims) that have proved (via ordinary evidence) to be anything but.

It used to be quite obvious that the Sun went around the Earth – any other extraordinary claim of another configuration was considered impossible.

Once upon a time, our Universe could not be anything but static – neither expanding nor contracting. Einstein however knew the Universe should be contracting because of the attractive force of gravity. To counter that, and keep the static Universe he and the science of the times believed in, he invented his ‘cosmological constant’, a repulsive force to exactly counter gravity’s pull. That was his extraordinary claim. He later called that his greatest blunder. However, that ‘cosmological constant’ has recently resurfaced in the form of ‘dark energy’, so Einstein might have been right after all!

Those extraordinary Black Holes, while existing on paper in relativity theory, could not actually exist in reality - in practice they were quite the impossible object. There’s massive evidence now that they do indeed exist.

No one in their right Biblical mind would believe that it was extraordinarily possible that mankind had any actual evolutionary relationship with ‘lower’ life forms. Evolutionary biologists can give you lots of ordinary evidence to the contrary.

That matter actually consisted of rather extraordinary indivisible bits called atoms - the atomic theory was nonsense. The atomic theory was an extraordinary claim. Particle physicists can give you ordinary evidence to the contrary.

That ‘island universes’ were actually independent conglomerations of stars and not nebulous entities part and parcel of our own Milky Way Galaxy was deemed extraordinarily impossible by experts. Ordinary observational evidence eventually proved otherwise.  

Catastrophism in geology was considered an extraordinary no-no for much of the time since it began as a legit part of earth science. All geology (especially landforms) could be explained as a gradual softly-softly, slowly-slowly, process. Violent events need not apply to explain things. Tell that to the dinosaurs! Of course we know better today. Ordinary evidence shows that Catastrophism has taken its place and role playing in the geologic scheme of things.

Speaking of geology, the idea of continental drift was once considered extraordinarily preposterous pie-in-the-sky stuff. How dare a meteorologist (Alfred Wegener in 1912) tell geologists what should have been bleeding obvious! Geologists of course countered that there was no physical mechanism that could push continents around. Well, there was as it turned out, only we may no longer call it continental drift but rather plate tectonics. The ordinary evidence is in; geologists accept it.

Once upon a time, the concept of nuclear energy was extraordinary pie in the sky – a subject no scientist would take seriously. Does anyone dispute the evidence for it today?

Prior to the initial test, there were ‘experts in explosives’ who said that the A-bomb would never work. That it would would have been an extraordinary claim to the contrary. The evidence that it did work is evident now. 

Powered flight was once considered extraordinarily impossible – balloons were the only feasible means of air travel. Today, the verdict is in.

Rocket travel was utter extraordinary bilge as there was nothing in space for the rocket’s exhaust to push against. Yet the moon landings became so ordinary that the public quickly got bored with them.

It was impossible for the human body to travel faster than the speed of a (fill in the blank) without suffering fatal physiological consequences. Any person suggesting the contrary would have been forced to provide extraordinary proof.  Of course quite ordinary proof proved most satisfactory to counter the claim.

The sound barrier would never be broken; to suggest otherwise was an extraordinary claim. Again, it’s now quite ordinary to break the sound barrier; no extraordinary evidence was required, just the sound of a sonic boom.    

It was considered impossible for stones to fall from the sky – witnesses to the contrary be damned. Today, we incorrectly call them ‘shooting stars’; more correctly meteors, and when then hit the ground, meteorites. Picking up a meteorite is ordinary; although claiming it fell from the sky was once upon a time an extraordinary claim.  

The RMS Titanic was ‘unsinkable’. To suggest otherwise would have been extraordinary. The very ordinary evidence now rests at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.

The city of Troy was ordinary mythology, pure and simple. There was no such place in reality. To suggest the contrary was an extraordinary claim. Today, nobody doubts the ordinary evidence backing up the city’s reality.  

To be continued…