| Real History | Equality | Importance | Determining Rightness | Main Web Site | Mysticism |
Original: 2014-03-01
Revised: 2014-03-29
According to Hawking, at about 4 billion years after the Big Bang, life could have started in other star systems. About 5 billion years before life started in our stellar system. Meaning that about 8 billion years after the Big Bang there might be thinking life at a level of technology similar to our own.
Thus, thinking life at our level might have started thousands, millions of times elsewhere in the universe. Why haven’t we heard something from or about them?
Thinking life will take the same path everywhere in the universe. Meaning it will be based on mysticism for millions of years, as an artifact of the search for understanding of cause and effect. To create “laws of nature”. Thus, their societal system will have one leg on mysticism, and its institutionalized version known as “religion”.
And, their societal systems will have another leg on coercion, because of millions when physical prowess was more important than mental.
Thus, as the planetary population increases and agriculture is understood, societal groups will be based on coercion and mysticism. With individuals who control the lives and property of all others being the “leaders ” of the specie. They will thus have an unsustainable societal system, plagued by crime, famine, genocide, inflation, poverty, racism, unemployment and war (civil, ethnic, religious, tribal [national]). And they will not be able to handle environment anomalies.
They will not learn that as an animal specie their actions must be within the laws of nature. Specifically, the laws of thermodynamics. Which, for a thinking specie means individual actions in life must not intentionally degrade the quality of life of others. As this will invite an equal and opposite action, meaning the original action was not the best use of the resources (energy) of life. Energy has not been conserved, and entropy – the enemy of life — has been created. And the specie is headed toward non-viability.
The most critical, important and necessary event in an evolving, thinking specie is when someone creates an epistemological tool to determine rightness in knowledge. Which will give birth to technology. And could, but probably will not be, also be used to vet their societal knowledge for rightness. Making it possible to eliminate mysticism and societal fallacies. And eliminate all their societal problems.
But, almost no thinking specie will be successful in eliminating coercion and mysticism as the basis for their societal system. With ever-increasing chaos in societal life, they will self-destruct. Probably within 100-200 years of acquiring the technology to “radiate” their presence in the universe.
Thus, there should be 200 year blips announcing the presence of thinking species circulating around the universe. Maybe millions of them passed us when we could not detect them? Obviously, there has been no lasting society of thinking beings in the past few billion years?
We — Homo sapiens — probably have a very, very narrow, short window of time left to do it. Do what? It is in the preceding few paragraphs. You must only think clearly and rationally, employing Newton’s Method to create a theory rather than a hypothesis.
I could tell you what we must do, but — given the enormity of the fallacies and mysticism involved it is more likely you will understand, believe and implement the solution what you yourself arrive at it.
We know from Hawking[ 01 ] that the conditions will be right for life
to begin to appear in the universe about 4 billion years after the Big Bang. Meaning that thinking
species can begin to appear 7 to 8 billion years after the Big Bang. Taking 3–4 billion years
for a thinking specie to appear after life itself has started.
But think of this: it is now 13.7babb. Thirteen point seven billion years after the Big Bang. For
convenience sake we can say that life on this planet started 3.7 billion years ago, meaning about 10
billion years after the Big Bang? But, with the possibility of life in the universe starting at 4
billion years after the Big Bang, and thinking life appearing 4 billion years later, there is a
period of at least 5 billion years during which life could have appeared elsewhere in the universe…‽
If we can see light from stars that came to life 13.7 billion years ago, why can we not detect the
artifacts of energy created by earlier thinking beings that should have appeared, say, 5 billion
years ago?
Okay, you say that would be very weak, and unlikely we could detect it? But if we should survive as
a viable specie, which is in doubt and part of the subject and reason for this essay, only a million
years from now individuals should be generating and using amounts of energy we can only imagine.
After all, how much energy does it take to propel a space vehicle at hundreds of thousands of miles
per hour? At a speed, say, equivalent to the speed our local star, the sun, revolves around the
center of the galaxy?
The point I am making is that in the 4 billion years or so since our specie started to evolve (as
part of the evolution of life itself), and in the intervening period of five billion years since
thinking life should have evolved elsewhere, there should be thousands if not millions of planets
with thinking species? If so, why haven’t we heard from them?
That is part of the main idea behind this essay…
All thinking species will, in principle, evolve in the same way everywhere in the universe.
Meaning, that physical prowess — as contrasted with intellectual prowess — are the most important
trait for survival during the early years. Hundreds of thousands of years. Millions if we think also
of the genus Homo. With this concept that there will be Tribal Chiefs and groups will be controlled
by coercion.
The other main characteristic will be that of the concept of “wonder” and the need to understand
cause and effect in their world. But without a system for determining rightness[ 02 ] in knowledge, all resulting hypotheses[ 03
] will not be right for hundreds of thousands of years.
Thus, societies of thinking beings will be based on coercion and mysticism. Force and deception and
fraud. Mysticism? Through usage, the mystic concepts will be institutionalized as what we call
“religion”.
Together, the basis of what we call “politics” in the English language. It will be “the way” as the
increasing number of Homo sapiens begin to group together. And we will have the great
ruler/dictators/monarch of Mesopotamia. The Pharaohs of Egypt, Alexander the Serial Killer. Should
we really say he as “Great”? But we do, yes? With later Homo sapiens seeking to emulate him, rather
than contemporaries such as Archimedes, Aristarchus, Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Euclid, Hero of
Alexander and the others.
Because the specie has no way of validating knowledge for rightness, and in the beginning they have
little understanding of cause and effect in their world, everything they believe about this will be
“not right”. I prefer that to “wrong”, to emphasis the concept of rightness in knowledge.
The creation of a tool for determining rightness In knowledge is the most important event for any
thinking specie. A necessary one if they are to create technology. And, vastly more important, to be
able to vet their societal knowledge for rightness. If they do not do this, apply the tool to their
societal knowledge, they will be forever mired in mysticism. And a societal system that will soon
lead them to non-viability as a specie. Another reason for writing this essay.
With this tool — which I have renamed Newton’s Method — you can create science[ 04 ] rather than the dark matter of mysticism.
Slowly will come an understanding and knowledge of agriculture and of metallurgy and the
domestication of some other animals.. And with increasing number of individual Homo sapiens they
will begin to group together.
All of this corroborated by written history when “history begins at Sumer”. And we are told of the
great kings and kingdoms of Mesopotamia. The Pharaohs of Egypt, Alexander, the Greek, Persian and
Roman rulers.
That, in the “Western” world, these become the ones who must be emulated, and we have Genghis Khan,
Napoleon, the kings and emperors of France, England, Europe. And their Middle, Near, Eastern and
Asian counterparts. Always with the accompanying “high priest”, the conserver of mysticism.
We must think of what has happened here. As it is the cause of all our societal problems. The reason
we have not heard from other thinking beings in the universe, and probably will not do so. The
reason why, without change, we will not be able to stop creating excessive CO2 and handle the result
of this. The reason why, without change, we — Homo sapiens — will become first non-viable as a
specie. Then extinct.
With the ultimate tragedy being that we may well be the only surviving, thinking specie in the
universe. But not for the reasons pontificated by the conservative religious fanatics of the Muddle
Ages [sic]. There: I got that off my chest.
We must think of the breaking news. Think and wonder if this is the best that thinking life could
ever become. Born into a sea of societal problems and fallacies. Live through these during a long
and somewhat depressing, long life. Bequeathing them as our legacy to our hapless descendants.
And now, wonder how we got here. And how to get out of this. What caused it? Is it rational that we
live as we do? What history have you ever read where the author would think and wonder why things
happened? Where we should learn from what truly happened, ensure it do not continue to happen. And
we would instead create a viable societal system in which we as individuals only do that which
creates a better life for us as individuals, and does not intentionally degrade the quality of life
of others?
A society, civilization, group of thinking beings that does not rise, decline, fall and disappear.
Recognizing that with the increased number of human beings and the “connectivity” of society, that
it will not be simply a single political entity or empire that dies. But all of Homo sapiens.
Think again of the empires of Mesopotamia, of the Pharaohs of Egypt. Of Alexander. And Napoleon!
With the costumes, the galas, the soirées! Of the millions who died, the vast property destruction.
With France and Europe being impoverished for a hundred years. Glamorous, yes? But not good for Homo
sapiens in the long term.
This could not happen without large-scale coercion and deception, yes? If there was not the accepted
notion that there must be a political ruler. That someone — a system — must control the life and
property of all.
We must think further, that this has been the system throughout recorded history. And that it does
not work. If it did, we should all be living under the rulers of Mesopotamia. Or, at least, the
Pharaohs of Egypt. But wait! Democracy is the answer, yes? So why aren’t we all Greeks? The first
great democracy. But, well, we know that was not a true democracy, yes? The reason we are not all
Greek.
“Come on, what are you trying to say…?!”
That we have adopted and continue to use a failed societal system that is inconsistent with and
attempts to contravene and subvert the laws of nature under which we evolved as a thinking specie.
A system that institutionalizes the concept of force and fraud. Interfering in and controlling the
lives of others. Knowing full-well that, eventually the person to whom you do this will retaliate.
If you think about it, this is also a law of nature:
Interference in the life of an individual will eventually result in retaliation and interference in
the life of the original interferor.
Which wastes the resources of the original inteferor. Is not in their individual best interest.
Wasted, lost energy is entropy, yes? Entropy is the enemy of life. It disorganizes the matter that
was organized by the concept of life. Especially thinking life. Which is confirmed by history, yes?
(Sorry. I like certain rhetorical things. It and repetition can be good to emphasize something.).
All this would seem to mean that it is better for individuals to get on with making a better life
for themselves, without doing something that might tend to reduce that possibility for others.
Now I am tired, and for the moment do not know what to say next. Having squeezed out that law of
nature. And understanding of which is necessary if we are to survive as a viable specie. There is no
chance that I am wrong, as what I say is consistent with history and the laws of nature
Ah, yes. Another cup of coffee got me back on track… This is a personal history as well as a
societal history, so I can make personal statements like that. Makes history more interesting. But
someone will tell me it makes it less “scholarly”. But remember, the footnotes.
You must see that this present course can not continue? This interference in and attempt to control
the life and property others. Either as “organized foreign policy” or “domestic policy” of a
political entity. The standard policy for all political entities. Or as a basis for your personal
life. I am sure that as an individual you do feel that? It is an intuitive thing, yes? That if you
interfere in the life of others, eventually they will do the same to you. So why bother? And, again,
intuitively, you don’t do it. You want to concentrate and your own life, making it the best that you
can. And without someone interfering in and controlling your life, you can do that.
Yet… this is not what we do, yes? We have slowly, over hundreds of thousands of years adopted and
maintained a system based on and requiring interference in and control of the lives of others.
Remember…? It is “the way”. A form of mass hysteria. We somehow believe — against the lessons of
history — that with a ruler and ruling party group, we will somehow behave better? That there will
be no crime or wars.
That a “system of [unnatural] laws” will prevent this. If upon thinking about it, you believe this,
then as my great and wonderful teacher said, “… you will believe it when I tell you that elephants
roost in trees”.
We have drifted a long way from an elegant, organized discussion of the time from the Big Bang and
the eventual creation of “goldilocks” planetary systems and the creation of thinking life. Yet what
I have said represents Positive History. True history. True, what has happened. And what must
happen.
Including that there were — and are — extraterrestrial thinking beings and societies “out there”.
But, like us, they didn’t last long. Probably about 200 years or so of time during which they had
acquired the technology to create energy that would be radiated out from their planet for a few
hundred years and then be gone. Lots of “200-year blips”.
A stream of them, but for hundreds of thousands of years we didn’t have the technology to “see”
them. And before that. And unless we get our act together, we will be gone in a few decades, and
thus not able to those “blips” of a future time.
The realization slowly sinks into me that there must not be a civilization “out there” that has made
the transition from one based on coercion to one not based on coercion. None within billions of
light years of us, yes?
What can we learn from this? We must understand that we are “in extremis”. Living on borrowed time?
But I really question of there is the will power and the time. The fallacies, the mysticism, is too
deeply ingrained.
Which was reinforced only a few hours ago (about 10:00 hours GMT on March 31st, 2014). When I was
reading the latest report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). And thought of
the millions of people (billions…?) who do not wish to think of and be bothered by the laws of
nature.
Reminding me of something said by the great Aldous Huxley in 1949. In the FOREWORD(?) to his Brave
New World. When he was predicting the worldwide increase in totalitarianism that was see in the US
and other placed. THE STATEMENTS.
Recently I had been thinking of the “isolationists” of the 1930s. And, when seeking further
historical information I “googled” the term and found that statement “Isolationism is a category of
foreign policies institutionalized by leaders…” And had strange, mixed emotions at that statement.
For several reasons.
Because I was thinking that perhaps the “isolationists” were merely people who were tired of
interfering in the lives of others and having it done to them. Saw no point in it. Just wanted to
get on with their lives.
But now I see it can be considered as the “policy” of a political entity. Again, so
institutionalized are our fallacies. Our ignorance, our level of mysticism. And again the thought
that once we as a group of individual Homo sapiens agree that it is okay for someone else to control
our life and property… to cede the duty and responsibility for providing us with a “good life”… that
this immediately becomes “open ended”.
Then the only thing left is when the coercion will be applied. For how long, how often. Under what
circumstances? How much? And your must realize that you will not make this decision. They will make
it. You, I and all the others of the political entity created to do this will find we — all us
individuals — have lost control of the monster we have created.
And we all know now where this must lead, yes…? To non-viability as a thinking specie.
And, as I say, increasingly I wonder if there is the understanding, will and time to change.
Even though it would be easy to create a situation in which it would be profitable for each
individual on the planet. Those who started changing, and those who haven’t yet done so.
I am old and tired now, and will not write more in this essay. I have written many things, mostly
longer. A few shorter. And although they are right on an absolute basis, I don’t really like them.
They are not complete, as this is not.
I think I understand now that I will die with my face distorted in a final scream of agony. Know
that no one has understood, that nothing is being done, and my specie too will, over 3+ billion
years have risen, stumbled, declined and disappeared.
I can’t die with the feeling, the satisfaction, that I have done something important in life.
Especially thinking that the work of “the immortals” has all been in vain. Archimedes, Aristotle, de
Broglie, Einstein, Eratosthenes, Faraday, Galambos, Oberth, Parnia, Pasteur, Semmelweis, Scipio,
Ørsted… Zemansky. I mention some of them because I knew them.
I can’t name them all. I can’t chisel their names onto a stone and hurl it out into space. For what?
Only a Nixon can do that. The pyramids, tombs of the Pharaohs. The presidential libraries.
There will be no individuals from some extraterrestrial thinking specie that will visit this planet
some time millions of years in the future. Comb through the detritus of yet another thinking specie
that did not make it.
One time I had a vision in my mind. That we — Homo sapiens — would survive this crisis. And that, as
any specie who did so, we would learn how to extend human life. To millions of years. Why not? There
is no shortage of resources in the universe, only a shortage of clear, rational thinking.
And, as a Specialist in Dying Civilizations, I could go on an interstellar voyage of exploration.
Eventually encountering another thinking specie to which I could impart the knowledge of what was
wrong with their society and how to fix it. Which would provide royalties to finance the
continuation of the voyage.
I should not leave this thought in here. As it might confirm to you the thought that I am
delusional, and you will disregard my message.
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