What Happens When the Computers are Smarter Than We Are?

Since I have been alive, technology has been growing at an amazing rate.  The computing ability of electronics has been governed by “Moore’s Law,” in which the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles every 18 – 24 months.  Recently, Time Magazine published an article on computer superintelligence.   In this article, a project called The Blue Brain Project is described as “an attempt to create a neuron-by-neuron simulation of a mammalian brain, using IBM's Blue Gene super-computer.”  They have already simulated a neocortical column from a rat's brain and expect to have a human brain simulated in about 10 years.  In the same article, it is written that Raymond Kurzweil predicts that by 2045, computer intelligence would surpass humans.  This moment has been dubbed “The Singularity.”  It is even posited that humankind may achieve immortality.  [1]  What does this all mean?

Human intelligence has evolved over time and the question is whether or not it will continue to grow at a rate so as to not be caught by machine intelligence, assuming of course that machine intelligence will get there in the first place.  Eventually, though, organic boundaries would take hold, for instance, the speed at which communications happen in our brain is infinitesimal when compared to the speed of electrons in a circuit.  Yet, it’s possible that the human consciousness is too complicated and analog to be replicated by computers.   Biologist Dennis Bray: "Although biological components act in ways that are comparable to those in electronic circuits," he argued, in a talk titled "What Cells Can Do That Robots Can't," "they are set apart by the huge number of different states they can adopt. Multiple biochemical processes create chemical modifications of protein molecules, further diversified by association with distinct structures at defined locations of a cell. The resulting combinatorial explosion of states endows living systems with an almost infinite capacity to store information regarding past and present conditions and a unique capacity to prepare for future events." That makes the ones and zeros that computers trade in look pretty crude.” [2]

I believe, however, that given the current exponential growth of technology, superintelligent computers will be achieved.  “Kurzweil likes to point out that your average cell phone is about a millionth the size of, a millionth the price of and a thousand times more powerful than the computer he had at MIT 40 years ago. Flip that forward 40 years and what does the world look like?”  Once achieved, superintelligence will  not stop there.  In fact, superintelligent machines would take over the development of even higher intelligence, further accelerating its growth.  This is difficult to fathom because we are only aware of our current level of intelligence.  According to the Singularity Institute, trying to imagine what superhuman intelligence looks like is the same as chimps imagining what human intelligence looks like, or, people in the 1500s trying to imagine today’s technology.  [3]  To us, superintelligence would be magic, godlike.

How will these superintelligent entities behave?  Lev Grossman writes:  “Would that mean that the computer was sentient, the way a human being is?  Or would it just be an extremely sophisticated but essentially mechanical automaton without the mysterious spark of consciousness — a machine with no ghost in it? And how would we know?” [4]  How would a soulless intelligence act?  Whether or not a superintelligent machine has a soul, will they be good, evil, or both?  This may depend on who creates and/or controls the machine entity.  Now, what happens as these entities continue to evolve?  Will they have morality?  How do we program morality into them to prevent them from becoming evil and wiping out all life as we know it?

Then there is the question of the disruption of natural evolution.  Would a superintelligent machine “species” be happy with us and other species competing with it for limited resources?  Time:  “You don't have to be a super-intelligent cyborg to understand that introducing a superior life-form into your own biosphere is a basic Darwinian error.” [5]  It is clear that even if it has the best of intentions, machine superintelligence would be very disruptive to the natural order of things.  That being said, there is enough human evil in this world that evil superintelligence would also be created.  Can we prevent this from happening?  Certainly it would threaten the very existence of the human race.  Because of the great unknown of the behavior of a soulless superintelligent entity as well as the ever present factor of human evil, I see as the best way to manage this potentially catastrophic future development is to attempt to merge the organic human with the machine superintelligence.  In that way, our souls which are the Higher Power within us as well as our morality would mitigate the risks of launching an evil “superrace” into our midst.  For the future of our children, let us hope so.

This brings a second major development into play when the singularity is achieved: the possibility for immortality.  Assuming that we can successfully control machine superintelligence, the prospects for enormous life extension become possible.  Kurzweil suggests that biotechnology and nanotechology will allow us to engineer the human body to extend life indefinitely.  DNA could be literally reprogrammed.  [6]  Singularitarians, those who believe in and are preparing for The Singularity, believe that old age and death are just “diseases” that can be cured.  There are examples today of biological advances that support their view.  From the Singularity Institute web site: “…it's well known that one cause of the physical degeneration associated with aging involves telomeres, which are segments of DNA found at the ends of chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, its telomeres get shorter, and once a cell runs out of telomeres, it can't reproduce anymore and dies. But there's an enzyme called telomerase that reverses this process; it's one of the reasons cancer cells live so long. So why not treat regular non-cancerous cells with telomerase? In November, researchers at Harvard Medical School announced in Nature that they had done just that. They administered telomerase to a group of mice suffering from age-related degeneration. The damage went away. The mice didn't just get better; they got younger.”  [7]   Researchers at Berkley University as well as other universities are further studying this enzyme as a lifespan enhancer.  [8]

Given the exponential growth in intelligence, which will be applied to all scientific fields including biology, it may well be possible for the organic human form to solve the riddles of aging and death and to extend lifespan indefinitely.  Even if this is not achieved, it may be possible that a human being could integrate their mind into a machine superintelligence and continue life as a machine entity.  I argued earlier that this may be required in order to keep machine intelligence under control.  This, however, brings up more questions.  Lev Grossman writes: “If I can scan my intelligence into a computer, am I still me? What are the geopolitics and the socioeconomics of the Singularity? Who decides who gets to be immortal? Who draws the line between sentient and nonsentient? And as we approach immortality, omniscience and omnipotence, will our lives still have meaning? By beating death, will we have lost our essential humanity?”  I ask these very same questions and one additional one: if we “scan” our minds into a computer entity, does our soul also transfer to the machine or does it stay behind in the discarded organic shell to be liberated by death back to the spiritual realm?  This is the key question, for if the soul does not transfer, does that leave behind a soulless machine race that has no purpose or spiritual guidance?  And what kind of a world would that be?  Would that ironically be the extinction of the species Homo sapiens?  Or because all human souls would ultimately enter the spiritual realm, would that be the final rapture?

Finally, is immortality a good thing for humankind?  I contend not.  If we have forever to do anything, does anything get done?  What happens to art, music, literature, human relationship, vocation, and even the art of thought?  I predict everything would stagnate and life would become profoundly boring.  Why get out of bed, there is always tomorrow.  Another question is the impact of immortality on the limited resources of our planet or solar system.  If no one dies and babies are continually born, what happens to those resources?

If the organic form were still necessary, would machine intelligence discard it entirely because it no longer was useful, soul and all?  Is that our ultimate fate?  Finally, if death is extinguished, do we miss out completely on the experience of the spiritual realm? 

The only way I see that such a profound world-changing event may be managed is if the human race somehow is able to unite in common cause, as one entity.  The Dalai Lama: “In a world in which demographic growth and progress in communications have put us in very close contact with our neighbors, the very survival of humanity depends on our working together. That is why more than ever, we must look upon humanity as one entity. The problems that we face go beyond individuals and nations. We can only resolve them through an effort of shared responsibility.” [9]  By coming together before The Singularity, the issues of what happens to the soul, how to ensure that machine superintelligence is benevolent, and how to manage life extension without snuffing out the drive that is the amazing beauty of the human race may successfully be balanced and managed.

We only have 34 years to get it together.  Will we?

References:

1.         Lev Grossman, http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2048138,00.html

2.         Ibid

3.         http://singinst.org/overview/whatisthesingularity/

4.         See [1]

5.         See [1]

6.         See [1]

7.         http://sciencematters.berkeley.edu/archives/volume6/issue46/story1.php

8.         See [3]

9.         https://www.facebook.com/DalaiLama

Our Next Evolutionary Challenge

About 3.5 billion years ago, the first life forms evolved on earth.  The first life forms were prokaryotes, very simple single cell entities.  As the years passed, by the process of mutation, life continued to become more and more complex, until approximately 400,000 years ago, Homo sapiens emerged. [1]  In quick fashion, we became the dominant species on the earth and are now set at the pinnacle of our next stage of evolution, the unification of our species.  If the human species acted as one entity, both mentally and spiritually, we would be a formidable life force that may have the ability to expand into the universe.  Unfortunately, we are far away from this ideal.

What stands in our way?  Just one thing: ourselves.

From the earliest days, humans gathered into small clans, mostly for protection against the harsh realities of nature.  This was the beginning of our social evolution.  Now, these clans would often fight with other clans in order to ensure the survival of the clan.  As we developed, the clans became larger and therefore so also did the social networks.  Also, the fights became larger and ultimately became wars.  Eventually large countries emerged.  The United States of America, the country I am fortunate to live in, emerged with a highly developed democracy and strong national values.

Since the birth of this country, there have been two World Wars and the Cold War, the latter being a stand-off that barely kept the two most powerful countries at the time from hurling enough nuclear weapons at each other to destroy all life on the earth.  Fortunately, that never happened, but even today, there are enough nuclear weapons to destroy ourselves several times over.

That may not be our biggest threat.  More insidious is the polarization occurring in our country today.  There are diametrically opposed political views that split the country, with no real attempt to understand the other side’s concerns.  People hide behind ignorance rather than to learn the facts about an issue and why the viewpoints may differ.  We hoard what is ours, yet, there are those in our midst that do not have food to eat or shelter to protect them.  We still discriminate against those that are different from us in any way, whether it would be color, religion, occupation, upbringing, or some other factor.  We even struggle in our personal relationships – with spouses, family members, and our friends.  In these relationship struggles, often the issue is simply not living by the Golden and Platinum Rules: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you;” “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them.”

In order to reach the next stage of our evolution, our species needs to achieve social justice at a global scale.  Social justice is the concept where all people have equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities. [2]  In our country, we are far from having social justice.  We squeeze the budgets of the school systems in the inner cities, where children are lucky to get a high school diploma, much less get enough education to find and hold a satisfying job, while in a neighboring suburb, the rich residents send their children to exclusive private schools and the most prestigious colleges.  There is still insidious discrimination in this country against minorities, foreigners, the lower classes, and even to this day, women.  Does a high school graduate from a poor section of Boston, MA who comes from a poor black single parent family have an equal chance to a high school graduate from Newton, MA, who comes from a rich white two-parent family, even if the former has BETTER grades in school?  Only when we are totally honest with ourselves that this isn’t the case can we then take positive action toward leveling the playing field.

One of the sad facts of our society is that an agenda of social justice is not being driven by our elected officials, many of whom are elected on platforms of lowering taxes, whether or not they support gun control, their professed position on creating jobs, or their stand on abortion.  The average voter could easily argue that government is not the most efficient way of distributing wealth or enforcing measures ensuring social justice.  Anyhow, social justice is not the government’s responsibility; it is responsibility of each and every one of us.  It is the right way to treat each other, all of our fellow human beings.

Every human being on the planet has a soul, our spirit within.  This very fact should be enough to revere each other, for each of us carries a piece of the Higher Power, or in my professed faith, God.  If we simply remember that fact, it is far easier to treat each other with positive emotions: love, compassion, empathy, kindness, interdependency, and respect for each other.  We can learn to suppress the negative emotions, such as anger, hatred, jealousy, and greed.  We can choose to uplift each other and share with those less fortunate than us.  Help someone in trouble.  Take an inner city youth under our wing and nurture them into a rewarding adulthood.  Invite a poor family over for a holiday meal.  Most importantly, do someone we don’t know a favor.  Little gracious acts of kindness go a long way to uniting people together.  Think globally, act locally works not only for the environment but for social justice.

If everyone acted like this, what would happen?  People would unite together and truly uplift each other.  As we unite together physically and mentally, something greater happens.  Our souls unite.  We get a little closer to our destiny, the next logical step in our evolution.  Mankind evolves together as one entity.  Think about how powerful a positive force this would be.  We would start revering nature and do whatever it took to reverse the damage we have done to our planet.  We would then be poised to start proliferating into the solar system, perhaps even our galaxy.  Our scientific advancement and further evolution would result in higher and higher intelligence; we would do things considered impossible by today’s scientific standards.  As a benevolent race in a warm universe, could we ourselves in some distant lifetime actually claim to inherit the universe?

It takes just one simple concept to further our evolution: social justice.  Think globally, or if we choose to think of grander designs, think universally.  Act locally.

[1] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101230123554.htm

[2] http://www.naswdc.org/pressroom/features/issue/peace.asp

Coal - a Blessing or a Curse?

So as I watch oil prices skyrocket due to the turmoil in the Middle East, I am reminded that the United States has a huge reserve of coal.  So, why don’t we just burn more coal for electricity and convert more coal to synfuels for automobiles and chemical manufacture?  Coal already generates 54% of the power in the United States, [1] so it seems logical to expand its usage. 

Well, it turns out coal is quite dirty and has a huge environmental impact.  A typical 500 MW coal plant generates each year as air pollution: [2]

·         3.7 million tons carbon dioxide (CO₂);

·         10,000 tons sulfur oxides (SOx), which lead to acid rain and respiratory issues;

·         500 tons of small airborne particles, which can cause respiratory issues and even early death, as well as haze;

·         10,200 tons nitrogen oxides (NOx), which among its obvious hazards also forms toxic ozone;

·         720 tons of carbon monoxide;

·         220 tons of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), hydrocarbons, which form ozone;

·         170 pounds of mercury (Hg).  Less than one gram will make all the fish in a 25 acre lake unsafe to eat;

·         225 pounds of arsenic (As).  Causes cancer in 1% of all people who drink water containing 50 parts per billion;

·         114 pounds of lead and 4 pounds of cadmium.

In addition, the coal plant generates as solid waste 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000 tons scrubber sludge containing heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury, chromium, and cadmium.  Over ¾ of this gets disposed of in unlined, unmonitored onsite landfills and impoundments.  The plants also use cooling water, which gets discharged into waterways.  The thermal pollution causes thermal stress to fish and also contains chorine and other toxic chemicals used to treat the water.  [3]

The coal of course needs to be mined.  60% of all coal is strip-mined, an environmentally destructive technique which deforests over 300,000 acres of forest and destroys 1000s of miles of streams.  Then the coal needs to be transported to the electricity plants.  This takes 14,600 rail cars for each 500 MW plant.  The locomotives burn more fossil fuel and generate NOx.  [4]

One report commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force reports that pollution from Indiana coal plants has led to 347 deaths, 584 heart attacks, and 264 visits to the emergency room in the Greater Chicago area.  And these figures are exceeded in the New York and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.  Fortunately, the EPA has recently reached an agreement with Northern Indiana Public Services to close one plant and to install scrubbers on three others.  [5]

The EPA by January 31, 2014 will finally issue rules to reduce the amount of toxic heavy metals and other pollutants entering the air and waterways.  These rules are over 30 years overdue.  The Clean Water Act requires the states to set limits on the discharge of pollutants from power plants, but the states have largely ignored this.  This source also mentions the toxicity of As and Hg in the waterways.  “Power plants produce more toxic waste than any other industry in the U.S.”  A major issue with using pollution controls is that, although the toxic metals are kept out of the air, they are collected as solid waste and wastewater, which still leaves the environment at risk if discharged into waterways or improperly in solid waste disposal.  [6] 

There may be a renewable substitute to coal.   A company called New Earth Renewable Energy has created a renewable coal-like product and claim that it burns clean without toxic metals, sulfur oxide emissions, and is carbon neutral.  It comes from a plant called ArundoDonax, which is a very robust plant and a formidable CO₂ consumer.  [7]  This solution sounds too good to be true.  At any rate, the technology seems to be several years from being commercially available and there is little reputable literature either for or against the material on the Internet.  And it is unclear what the cost of such a material will be.  If it is true, though, it could be a revolutionary way of reducing the negative impact of coal on the environment.

One thing that is clear is that we can’t give up coal immediately.  The European Union is as a result promoting research to help lessen the impact of coal on the environment: [8]

1.  Clean coal technologies (CCT): target to scrub out NOx, SOx, and particulate containing heavy metals from the air emissions from a coal plant.  Although not perfect in that what is captured becomes a solid waste that needs to be disposed of, at least these toxins are kept out of the air;

2.  CO₂ capture and storage (CCS): is an effort to keep the CO₂ out of the environment, provided that it can be safely sequestered underground;

3.  Raising the conversion efficiency to electricity a mere 10% will reduce pollutants and CO₂ footprint by the same percentage.  Technologies exist today to increase efficiency by over 40%.

Industry in Europe has challenged themselves to build 10 – 12 zero emissions fossil fuel power plants. (ZEP TP).  [9]  Europe is taking a big gamble in front-running these strict types of environmental standards, but don’t they have it right  - sacrifice now for the betterment of humanity?  Of course, these technologies will likely raise electricity costs, but is that a bad thing?  Higher prices will promote electricity conservation and allow alternative energy to be more cost competitive.

Coal is by far a dangerous source of energy which, unfortunately, is abundant in the United States and China, two major energy consumers.  It is too large of a sacrifice to make too quickly to ban the use of coal; meanwhile, while we continue to develop renewable sources of energy to replace the fossil fuels, cleaner coal-burning and waste/carbon dioxide sequestering technologies may be adapted.  Efficiencies of coal plants may be increased to reduce the impact of the waste products per BTU of energy produced.  Finally, energy conservation efforts need to be adopted world-wide to reduce the need for fossil fuels and to allow the emergence of clean, renewable sources of energy to take hold.  These types of measures will help us protect the amazing planet we live on as well as preserve our amazing species.

[1]        http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/coalvswind/c01.html

[2]        Ibid

[3]        See [1]

[4]        See [1]

[5]        http://rusustain.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/epa-deal-will-close-indiana-coal-fired-power-plants-polluting-chicago

[6]        http://www.sustainablecitynetwork.com/topic_channels/environmental/article_7bbefd8e-ec7f-11df-b687-00127992bc8b.html

[7]        http://www.newearth1.net/downloads/E-Coal.pdf

[8]        http://ec.europa.eu/energy/coal/sustainable_coal/sustainable_coal_en.htm

[9]        http://eur-ex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52006DC0843:EN:NOT

Creationism vs. the Big Bang – Looking God in the Eye.

We scientists believe the universe exploded from a singularity 14 billion years ago, forming everything we know today.  Five billion years ago, a dust cloud in our galaxy condensed, forming the Sun and the planets in our solar system.  The third planet was the right distance from the Sun for liquid water, the right size to hold an oxygen atmosphere, life formed, and eventually the species Homo Sapiens emerged.  We humans often question the meaning of our existence.  Well, it turns out we apparently have a genetic disposition to the spiritual, [1] so I would like to explore the religious perspective on the creation of the universe and how it relates to the story that science has returned to us.

Christianity: Genesis 1 1:4: “In the beginning when God created the heaven and earth, while the earth was a formless waste and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters, God said ‘let there be light’; and there was light.  God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.”

John 1 1:5 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being with him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

Recognizing that thousands of years ago there was little scientific understanding, the Scriptures are surprisingly close to what science believes.  There was essentially nothing.  God wills there to be light.  Light = big bang?  As in most other religions, the difference between light and dark is stressed.  Although the ancients were referring to day and night, when the writing is carefully examined, creation began when God sparked light in a previously dark pre-universe.  John writes that God is “the Word” and light is again associated with God.  The reference to language is compelling – could he be saying that that God is, like, a universal language of some sort?  When I hear that, I think about our understanding of Natural Law, mathematics, and how they reflect the very fabric of the universe, and further speculate that math is a universal language.

Buddhism: They believe that creation of the universe is cyclical and we are in essence spirit beings.  “At the beginning of each kalpa (cycle) land forms, in darkness, on the surface of the water. Spiritual beings who populated the universe in the previous kalpa are reborn; one of them takes the form of a man and starts the human race. Unhappiness and misery reigns. This is the interval that we are experiencing today. Eventually, the universe dissolves; all living creatures return to the soul life, and the cycle repeats.”  [2]

“ Lama Shenpen Hookham of Buddhism Connect writes: "The Buddhist view is that everything… is illusionlike…the illusion is created by infinite intricate connections that are not anywhere and not in time. Time and space are part of the illusion that is emanating from that Primordial expanse - so it is all very mysterious… evolution is not in itself a full story or full account of life on earth…” [3]

In short: the universe forms from darkness (Big Bang), spiritual beings are reborn into the new universe (life emerges), life struggles, then the universe dissolves (the Big Freeze).  Living creatures die and return their souls to the spirit world.  Repeat.  And the Buddhists accept the mystery that the universe and existence itself are illusions.

Hindu: “…universes form from the breath of the God Vishnu's breath…‘With each breath, countless universes emanate from Vishnu in seedlike forms that expand. Then Vishnu multiplies Himself in as many forms as there are universes and enters into each universe.’

“…One started with the sacrifice of the primal man, named Purusa. His body was the entire universe. The lower quarter of his body became the earth; the rest became the heavens…” [4]

Vishnu creates numerous parallel universes, and “Primal man” became a universe.  This supports a concept on multiverses I wrote about earlier on.  Also, is there a possible reference to a super-race of beings that inhabited the universe or, for that matter, created our universe?

Islam: “When describing the creation of the ‘heavens and the earth,’ the Qur'an does not discount the theory of a ‘Big Bang’...‘the heavens and the earth were joined together as one unit, before we clove them asunder’ (21:30).  Following this big explosion, Allah ‘turned to the sky, and it had been (as) smoke. He said to it and to the earth: 'Come together, willingly or unwillingly.' They said: 'We come (together) in willing obedience'’ (41:11). Thus the elements and what was to become the planets and stars began to cool, come together, and form into shape, following the natural laws that Allah established in the universe…It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course’ (21:33).”  [5]

The Big Bang is referred to in the Qur’an, then Allah coalesced the heavenly bodies from the resulting “smoke.”  The balance of the story parallels the Christian perception.

Taoism: “Chinese art and culture and Confucianism speaks of the yin and yang or the dark and the light. They are supposed to be the creative power that sustains life and being. Yin and yang are natural forces behind even the gods. According to the theory, there was a time of utter chaos, mist and emptiness. Suddenly, there was a colorful light from which all things came to be…The heaven and earth yielded two strong forces - yin and yang. While yang is hot, fiery and male, yin is moist, cool and female. Left alone they are capable of destroying the world and together they generate balance and harmony. The belief is that yang created the sun and the moon came from yin. Together they created the four seasons and the five elements and all kinds of living creatures…” [6]

Dark and light are creative forces even mightier than the gods.  The Universe started empty, then “Suddenly, there was a colorful light from which all things came to be,” or, the Big Bang.

So what’s the common theme in these beliefs?  A supreme entity existed before the universe formed.  The entity did something and the Big Bang happened or the universe (and several others) was created.  What I find fascinating is that these stories were all written thousands of years ago, before modern science.  So is the story of the creation of the universe wired into our minds somehow?  Carried by our spirit within?  Or even programmed right in our genetic matter, as per the compelling Time article “The God Gene.” [7]

To further understand what happened, what does science say existed before the Big Bang?  “As physical entities, time and space can change - suffer distortions - as a result of gravitational processes.  Gravitational theory predicts that under the extreme conditions that prevailed in the early universe, space and time may have been so distorted that there existed a boundary, or "singularity," at which the distortion of space-time was infinite, and therefore through which space and time cannot have continued.” [8]  And just at the point of the Big Bang, if it indeed was created from a supermassive black hole, imagine the space-time distortion at t = 0 – it would be infinite!  How can this be rationalized with our limited understanding and perception?

Thanks especially to the Hubble telescope, we strive to look as far back into the Universe as we can to understand what happened.  If we succeeded in observing the Big Bang itself, would we be looking God in the eye?

Since the very day man became self-aware, we question why we are here.  We have a genetic disposition toward spirituality.  Many including myself believe that we possess a soul.  The soul is our spiritual entity within.  If the ancients understood the “Big Bang” genesis of the universe, is there any doubt that we have a spirit within, genetic hard-wiring toward the spiritual, and that our existence is Purposeful?  Most importantly, will we learn to treat each other as though we possess Spirit within despite our numerous differences?

Are we ready for the message we will receive when we look God in the eye? 

References:

1.         http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,995465,00.html

2.         http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_denom2.htm

3.         Ibid.

4.         Ibid.

5.         http://islam.about.com/od/creation/a/creation.htm

6.         http://www.buzzle.com/articles/creation-stories-for-different-religions.html

7.         See [1].

8.         http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/big-bang.html

Is Humanity a Virus?

A friend and I were discussing sustainability and she brought up the concept that in the earth’s ecosystem, humans are an invasive virus.  At first, I was a bit taken back.  Humans a virus?  I always thought we were amazing, that we could do anything, and nothing stood in our way provided that we just figured out how to “get it together” and act in each other’s best interest.  It did not take long at all for me to realize that she was right, and there were examples in nature that support that we indeed are a virus, a shock to the system.  [1]

One comparison to man’s impact on the ecosystem can be drawn from invasive species.  The Great Lakes have been under attack from invasive species since the 1800s, a total of 25 invasive fish species alone.  The invasive species have had a significant impact on the existing food chain by competing against the native life forms.  The Zebra Mussel is an especially notorious invasive species.  Introduced into the Lake St. Claire ecosystem in 1988, in just 22 years they have eliminated the native clams and are clogging pipes and screens to power plant cooling water supplies and municipal water supplies.  The Great Lakes ecosystem is also suffering from invasive plants that have eliminated natural flora and hindered water recreation.  [2]  And the Great Lakes are just one of numerous ecosystems that have been invaded by foreign species.  I remember when we lived in rural New Jersey along the Musconetcong River, there was an invasive water plant - I believe it was water chestnut - that essentially overwhelmed the entire river bank on the Bloomsbury side of the river.

Now look at mankind.  Man has overtaken the entire globe with the exception of the frigid poles.  Does that make man an invasive species?  Absolutely.  When bringing up the subject of invasive species, man is responsible for bringing most of them into areas where they are non-indigenous.  Man impacts every single ecosystem.  We plunder the natural resources of our world, typically leaving behind irreparable damage.  We raze the Brazilian rain forests acre by acre, killing off thousands of species in the process, forever wiping out pristine forest land, and removing critical carbon dioxide absorbing flora.  And this is just one example of pristine forest land being decimated.

We pollute the water.  Take for example the Gulf of Mexico.  Just this week, 26 baby dolphins washed up dead on-shore between Louisiana and Alabama.  This is more than 10 times the typical number.  Although not yet conclusively tied into the Gulf oil spill last summer, the oil spill is certainly a major suspect in the deaths.  [3]  After all, man poured 206 million gallons of crude oil into the waters; the environmental impact of this disaster will have permanent negative effects on the Gulf’s ecosystem.

The Industrial Age led to the prodigious consumption of coal, oil, and natural gas.  This has led to acid rain which is destroying our forests and has led to large increases of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  There is still controversy whether or not the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide has led to irreversible global warming.  If it is true, warmer temperatures will have unknown and profound effects on the ecosystem.  There is no controversy, however, in the effect of the release of halocarbon refrigerants into the atmosphere and their effect on the ozone layer, leading to the famous ozone hole over Antarctica.  It is lucky for us that the hole is over Antarctica, where we don’t live, otherwise, we and other life forms nature would be suffering from much higher levels of cancer and other damage from the exposure to solar radiation normally absorbed by the ozone.

Then there are more insidious forms of invasiveness.  Take urban sprawl in the United States.  Over 50 years ago, people lived in the cities or towns where they worked and, if not, lived near rail and transportation centers that made it easier to take public transportation.  At any rate, they lived closer to work, so if they drove, the distances were much shorter.  When I was a young child, my father always lived within 10 miles from work.  Then people started to migrate into the suburban regions, pushing the suburbs ever farther away from the centers of work.  Eventually, even industrial parks sprang up in the suburbs.  Today it is very common for people to commute more than 20 miles one-way to work and even 50 or more mile commutes are not uncommon.  Because the most likely commute is from one suburban area to another, the one-passenger automobile is the rule.  What is the impact?  More gasoline burned.  More time wasted in heavy traffic and therefore less quality time to live.  More scrap automobiles and tires.  More pollution.  Ever larger houses and properties require two wage-earners to support the added costs, leading to an even higher commuting impact.  And the increasing area of the urban sprawl consumes forests and other rural land.

So there is no question that humans are an invasive species, a virus that has had a profound impact on the Earth’s ecosystems.  What do we do about it?  At the individual level, make intelligent purchasing decisions, live closer to work, carpool or take public transportation, repair/recycle/borrow as opposed to replace and throw away, and be mindful of the proper disposal of household waste, much of which may be hazardous.  At the industrial level, have sustainability policies, optimize energy consumption, reduce the use of toxic chemicals, reduce waste, recycle, and reuse.  At the government level, promote and reward environmentally sound practices, punish and tax environmentally unsound practices, and when weighing various options, weigh all impacts of the decision including unintended consequences.  Most importantly, we all need to understand that the very future of our children, our grandchildren, and the survivability of the human race may depend on the actions we take today in protecting our environment and therefore the future of mankind.

1.         Conversation with an anonymous friend who is very knowledgeable in the field of sustainability.

2.         http://www.epa.gov/glnpo/invasive/

3.         http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/23/us-dolphins-gulf-idUSTRE71L7T620110223

The Chance of a Lifetime

We scientists believe that the universe started in a cataclysmic event we call the “Big Bang” and has been expanding ever since.  This is evidenced by the red-shift of far away galaxies and, the farther away the galaxy, the larger the red-shift.  Red-shift is a phenomenon where light is shifted to longer wavelengths due to the velocity that a galaxy is traveling away from our frame of reference. [1]  So will the expansion eventually stop or keep on going infinitely?  The prevailing belief, and there is evidence to support this, is that the universe is going to keep on expanding.  However there are two big unknowns: the existence and amount of “dark matter,” or matter that we can’t perceive, and “dark energy,” which is akin to negative gravity. [2]  Dark matter would pull everything back together; dark energy would rip it apart.

If the universe recontracts, the universe dies by way of the “the Big Crunch.”  Perhaps the Big Bang reoccurs and we have a cyclical universe, perhaps it doesn’t.  If the universe stabilizes, it survives until all the stars burn out due to lack of hydrogen.  If the universe expands infinitely, the universe dies by way of the “Big Freeze.”  In the Big Freeze, matter is infinitely scattered, the temperature drops to absolute zero, and the universe is lifeless. [3]  As it turns out, it will be billions of years before the universe’s fate is realized.

So what does that mean to humanity?  The universe is estimated to be nearly 14 billion years old.  The earliest bones found from the species Homo Sapiens are 195,000 years old.  The genus Homo emerged about 2 million years ago.  No matter how it is measured, the time of our existence so far is infinitesimal by cosmic standards. [4]  Will our existence be fated to be a tiny blip in the cosmic scheme of things?  Or, will we evolve into a race that has staying power in the universe and potentially has the ability to help mold the universe?

Dyson’s Eternal Intelligence hypothesis proposes that it is possible for a life form, suitably advanced and adapted, to persist indefinitely in a universe fated to the Big Freeze.  They would survive by alternating between active and dormant phases.  John Barrow and Frank J. Tipler (1986) “propose a Final anthropic principle: the emergence of intelligent life is inevitable, and once such life comes into being somewhere in the universe, it will never die out.” [5]  Both of these hypotheses argue that intelligent life, suitably advanced, can survive the “Big Freeze” as well as themselves and random fate and therefore conquer entropy.  Nicolae Kardashev invented a scale to rate intelligent life based on their capacity to harness the energy of their planet, their solar system, or their galaxy.  [6]  And James N Gardner in his book Biocosm,  speculates that highly advanced beings may create universes as part of a multiverse, even having the capacity to design fundamental constants.  [7]

So taking this all into consideration, the first thing that comes to mind is “are we the product of intelligent design?”  Did ancient superbeings from our universe actually establish conditions that allowed life to be spawned on our planet as well as others?  Or an even wilder idea: did superbeings from another reality create our universe and light the spark that led to the genesis of life?  Granted, we have no evidence that there are such beings and if they did exist, they would be indistinguishable from gods according to our perception.

When conversing with a friend about these concepts, she reminded me that we are an egotistical species and overexaggerate our importance in the cosmic scheme of things.  We dream of mastering our galaxy and even the entire universe when we have yet to demonstrate that we can successfully use the resources of our one planet without irreparable damage.  We have not proven that we can coexist with others of our same species, especially if they have different beliefs, have different upbringings, have different appearances, or live in different neighborhoods.  Finally, we have not proven that we will not annihilate our kind or even our very planet in our neverending quest to have more things, more power, more money…

Is there a way we can unite together as a species, act as a common organism, master our planet without ruining it, and eventually colonize the universe?  Or will we become an insignificant event, an accident snuffed out by a cruel universe or worse, ourselves?  We can choose how we treat each other and our fragile planet.  It requires a decision to revere our fellow man and make personal sacrifices to do the right thing for mankind and the Earth, allowing our future generations to flourish.

We humans are wired to do the right thing.  We have a disposition for empathy, love, kindness, interdependency, and respect for each other.  Unfortunately, they are often overcome by anger, hatred, jealousy, and greed.  Learning to control these emotions allow the positive ones to flourish.  We have a disposition to take care of our surroundings and to revere nature.  This is currently challenged by modern technology, the financial pressures to make ends meet, and the desire to have more and more things.  Immersing ourselves in the latter prevents us from seeing the amazing things our natural surroundings have to offer.  And in enjoying the amazing and each other’s company, happiness can be found, even if we forego luxuries.  In the process, we have less of a negative effect on our ecosystem.  “Think globally, act locally.”  The little things matter: use a high efficiency fluorescent light bulb in place of an incandescent bulb.  Buy an energy efficient vehicle and forego the SUV.  Plant a tree – or two.  Recycle, repair, and reuse rather than throw out and replace.  Forego the most advanced gadgets and go back to enjoying the simple pleasures in life.

Finally, we need to live by the Golden and Platinum rules: treat others as we want to be treated and treat others as they want to be treated.  Treat each other with empathy.  Value, affirm, respect, and support each other.  Love each other.  Appreciate our differences.  Get it together.  If we unite as a race and take care of our fragile Earth, our world becomes a better place and we just may have a chance to further our evolution and our eventual impact on our universe.

[1]  http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr1/en/astro/universe/universe.asp

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_fate_of_the_universe

[3] Ibid.

[4] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050223122209.htm

[5]  See [2].

[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

[7]  See [2].