There’s been numerous wonderful science reveals on tv, many accessible on DVD and/or on YouTube. Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” instantly involves thoughts and “MythBusters” whereas extremely entertaining has numerous stable science content material too. Nevertheless, IMHO, the cream of the crop, the perfect of the perfect, has been the “By means of the Wormhole” sequence hosted by actor Morgan Freeman. Every of the episodes examines a type of nebulous Large Questions in science and philosophy. Listed below are the questions requested concerning the broad topic of life and the thoughts, our thoughts, and my private opinions on every.
SEASON ONE: How Did We Get Right here?
If requested the query about your final origins, you may reply that you simply had been of this or that nationality, maybe with ancestry from this or that different place. Maybe if you happen to’re a bit extra clued you’d say “Africa” because the birthplace of the human race. If you happen to’re actually clued, you may say the oceans, the undoubted place the place life itself obtained its begin. However little question, it doesn’t matter what, you’d say you had been “terrestrial” – of this Planet Earth. Alas, you are still not clued sufficient. You are extraterrestrial. We’re the aliens, immediately and not directly.
Origin of the Universe
* As soon as upon a time there was this Large Bang.
* Since we’re part of the Universe, and because the Universe had an origin (the accepted customary mannequin being the Large Bang occasion some 13.7 billion years in the past), that alone of necessity means we’ve got an extraterrestrial legacy since every thing that makes you, you was born in that occasion, thereby in a way of talking making you 13.7 billion years outdated!
Origin of Our Stellar Photo voltaic System & Earth
* Because it was to start with, nicely so too did our Solar and Planet Earth have a starting.
* We’re Star Stuff. Our photo voltaic system, our Solar, the planets, together with Earth, had been all fashioned out of the stays of extraterrestrial fuel, mud and particles from older stellar techniques, scattered to the 4 interstellar winds by supernovae explosions, over 4 and a half billion years in the past. Thus, that too alone, regardless of which means you slice it, means we (as beings half and parcel of our stellar system) are extraterrestrial in origin.
Origin of Life
* The terrestrial origin of life could have occurred inside that petrii dish/take a look at tube known as Planet Earth – Or possibly not. IMHO it occurred means too rapidly and means too quickly put up Earth’s formation to most likely have been a solely terrestrial occurring. There’s an alternate known as panspermia which expands each the time and area accessible for all times’s origin by many order of magnitudes.
* Panspermia is the concept Earth was seeded by cosmic spores or microbes that had been expelled from another planetary abode in another stellar system and drifted throughout the gulf of area. An extremely tiny fraction of those cosmic spores lands on appropriate planetary environments, the place they survive and thrive and evolve. Our Earth was one such place for his or her fortunate touchdown. It is akin to a plant producing thousands and thousands of spores – 99.999% of which fail to land on fertile floor; however that tiny fraction that does is all it takes to maintain the species conserving on conserving on.
* Ballistic panspermia is a slight variation on conventional panspermia in that the microbes or spores are contained in the protecting overlaying of a stable object – mud or tiny rocks, even huge rocks. These, alone with their microbial passengers get blasted off house turf by incoming ballistic objects (impacting meteors), escape their house planet and some ultimately, by likelihood land on one other appropriate abode. That Mars rock, ALH84001 that triggered such a stir a number of years again is one such instance of a possible case historical past of ballistic panspermia.
* Directed panspermia is one more variation on the theme, solely on this case there’s intelligence behind the scenes, both sending out canisters of microbes willy-nilly in a shotgun method, and/or directing that canister particularly at a selected goal.
* The upshot is that if terrestrial life’s origin was through a type of panspermia, then we people, being a species of terrestrial life, in the end had an extraterrestrial origin. If a Mars rock filled with microbes impacted Earth billions of years in the past, nicely, we is likely to be the Martians transplanted from the fourth rock to the third rock from the Solar. Maybe our origins had been even farther a-field. Maybe some cosmic gardener planted life right here billions of years in the past, possibly even caught round to fertilize, domesticate, prune, and weed that backyard.
In conclusion, we’ve got an extraterrestrial legacy as a result of 1) we’re a toddler of the Universe – a toddler that originated out of the origin of the Universe; 2) we’re star-stuff; 3) the origin of life was most likely ‘on the market’ someplace and migrated to Earth.
SEASON TWO: Is There A Sixth Sense?
Extra probably as not, most of us most likely have the notion that we’ve got a way of actuality that transcends the usual 5 senses. We sense once we are being watched or we could have premonitions to do that or keep away from doing this. Do you declare to have distant viewing or extrasensory notion (ESP) and/or the associated idea of telepathy? That’s most likely a perception inner to you – your private psychological delusion.
There are however 4 bodily forces that act upon you or can affect you. There’s gravity. There’s the sturdy nuclear power that holds the atomic nucleus collectively. There’s the weak nuclear power which lets atoms break up aside – radioactivity. Then there’s the electromagnetic (EM) power. Solely the latter might clarify ESP/telepathy since it’s the EM power that transmits data from A to B on the pace of sunshine through photons – seen gentle photons, gamma-ray photons, radio wave photons, microwave photons, X-ray photons, infrared photons, ultraviolet photons, and so on. To obtain data immediately into your mind, bypassing your regular 5 sensory channels and organs (sight, sound, style, odor and contact) restricts instantly what a part of the EM spectrum may very well be at work.
It will probably’t be seen gentle because the thickness of your cranium blocks that out – your mind resides in everlasting darkness. If it had been infrared or ultraviolet your mind would warmth up and fry or get sunburn. If it had been microwaves, you’d expertise an eternal ‘hiss’ in your mind as a result of cosmic microwave background radiation – a leftover from the Large Bang. It is not radio waves since you are not bombarded with 24/7/52 data from radio stations round you – to not point out all that radio noise given off by interstellar hydrogen and different components and compounds which are in interstellar area. In truth, each a part of the EM spectrum may be rejected for these kinds of causes.
That is fairly aside from the truth that if you happen to had been telepathic, how might your sanity address the choosing up of the ideas 24/7/52 of all these odd-bods and sods round you?
If distant viewing had been even potential, why are there spy-in-the-sky satellites; the U-2; eves-dropping bugs planted; industrial espionage is rampant; pc hacking (cyber-spying) ditto; intelligence brokers just like the fictional however all too actual 007 and companies just like the NSA or CIA, and all method of different espionage equipment half and parcel of our fashionable society? Distant viewing, and so on. could be the nice equalizer. It might lead to a degree taking part in discipline amongst all nations and nationalities. There may very well be no secrets and techniques in any medium, from paper to gray matter that is protected. That is not the way in which the world works, so ESP and telepathy, and so on. is simply a lot BS. On a extra private degree, you would ‘see’ successful scratch-it lottery tickets with out scratching, and choose accordingly. College students would all get 100% on their exams.
In addition to, if ESP/telepathy/distant viewing had been actually potential, given all of the scientific put-up-or-shut-up experiments which have been carried out, why is not this customary data in all of the related textbooks? The worldwide implications of such skills, over the course of human occasions, wouldn’t have produced the form of historical past we all know at the moment, since from Day One, human society would have been an Orwellian society as a result of Large Brother would have been watching you! In truth everybody could be ‘watching’ everyone else. Once more that not the way in which of the world, so after all it is no shock that these ESP and associated experiments have all resulted with out decision in favour of the claimants.
There simply is likely to be a (slight) case to reply in spite of everything. That telepathy is not, is not silent one or two means crystal clear communication over huge distances between two separate brains or minds. What telepathy is likely to be is that obscure sense that there is one other thoughts on the market, shut by although, that has some resonance with your personal. The traditional case is that sense that you simply simply know that another person is watching or gazing you despite the fact that you’ll be able to’t see who it’s.
There needs to be a medium by which this switch can nicely, switch from them to you. That medium apparently is Earth’s electromagnetic (EM) discipline. Mind ideas or exercise is electromagnetic in nature. It maybe is likely to be barely potential for these mind EM waves to be carried through Earth’s EM discipline to a different particular person’s mind. That different particular person would at greatest simply have a quasi-vague sensation that they had been sensing, nicely, one thing, with out having the ability to put a definitive finger on the specifics to many decimal locations.
The non-human proof is how massive flocks of birds or colleges of fish can in close to unison activate a dime. Because the “flip” command is not vocal, and visible observations would make for unacceptable lag instances, the thought is that the communication is EM in nature from mind to mind at gentle pace through Earth’s EM discipline because the in-between medium.
Nevertheless, there’s one absolute motive I am satisfied telepathy does not exist. As I’m going about my every day walkabout routine and related observations, I am eternally passing out psychological ideas and pictures of what I consider most of the deadbeat drivers and different lesser types of humanity I spy with my little eyes. My ideas have a tendency to not be very complementary to say the least. However because the lowlifes and rift-rafts have not ever proceeded to right away cease their lowlife actions and drop what ever rift-raft issues they had been as much as, to as an alternative change path in the direction of me and beat me concerning the warmth and physique unto a bloody pulp for my unflattering ideas, I conclude telepathy does not exist. If it did, I doubt I might be typing these ideas now.
Escape Clause: Aside from particular results on make-believe TV and within the films, and works of literary fiction the place all issues are potential, there’s one other realm the place something goes – digital actuality; video video games; simulations of all types. It is in truth a simulated Universe that resides within the guise of pc software program. Software program may be programmed to present rise to pictures or experiences of out-of-the-body happenings; close to loss of life experiences; ghosts; previous lives; astral planes; and ESP. You might have existence in different dimensional realms just like the well-known 2-D “Flatland”.
So, it is a trade-off. If you happen to settle for inconceivable issues like ESP earlier than breakfast (and lunch and dinner too), then it’s essential to imagine in one other – you do not exist as flesh-and-blood; your ‘actuality’, together with say telepathy, resides in a pc. Who programmed…the simulated Universe is one other query.
That escape clause apart, if after multi-decades of inquiries and analysis into the plausibility of telepathy, and so on. there’s nothing, no exhausting proof to persuade students, lecturers and skeptics of the bona-fides, then I feel it is protected to conclude that if it ain’t occurred by now, it isn’t going to. These actually are inconceivable issues. It is not rocket science in spite of everything to return to once-and-for-all conclusions about these points within the affirmative in the event that they had been in truth points that had any chance of an affirmative decision.
SEASON THREE: Is There A Superior Race?
Sure, there’s a superior race (or breed as I want), albeit it will depend on precisely what one means by “superior”. There are clearly genetic variations between the races, fairly aside from pores and skin shade. Some races are typically both extra immune or extra inclined to numerous afflictions. Races may be informed aside by their unifying facial options. Hair textures and predominate colours differ racially. So, it most likely comes as little shock that when pinpointing any particular trait that is decided by genetics, some races can have roughly of what makes up that trait.
SEASON THREE: What Makes Us Who We Are?
That is the outdated nature vs. nurture argument. It is apparent that it isn’t an both/or argument. On the character facet, there’s your genetic heritage, in addition to all these little happenings nature throws at you want accidents and illnesses and that you simply throw at your self through the meals you eat and the drinks you drink and the medication (authorized and in any other case) you’re taking. On the nurture facet, there are inputs from mother and father, mates, family, academics, members of the group and the mass media. There’s additionally you manipulating you by choosing and selecting numerous highways, pathways and byways.
However, and as is sort of all the time the case, there is a however that complicates issues, the scoreboard may learn not nature vs. nurture however free will vs. determinism. If the universe is a clockwork universe the place trigger and impact guidelines completely and the legal guidelines, rules and relationships are fastened and absolute, then the universe, together with you, unfolds because it ought to in a predetermined means. From the nanosecond of the Large Bang, what makes you who you might be was as sure as loss of life and taxes.
The opposite half is all that nebulous stuff that nature and nurture instills into you – your thoughts, consciousness, consciousness, persona, sense of self, and so on.
SEASON THREE: Mysteries of the Unconscious
Have you ever ever had a posh thought leap all of the sudden, virtually and even unbidden, into your aware (the self-aware or self-conscious) thoughts? Why? Was it your aware thoughts that introduced it to the fore, or your unconscious (in any other case extra technically often called the unconscious) thoughts? Chances are high, it was your unconscious (unconscious) thoughts. It has been proven that your unconscious thoughts makes up your thoughts for you break up seconds earlier than you are consciously conscious of it. It is virtually as if it was predetermined.
Your unconscious thoughts bubbles alongside underneath the radar with out an precise aware enter out of your self-aware you, processing, ever processing. What ought to be random effervescent like boiling water ought to subsequently lead to a multitude – a hodgepodge. As a substitute, you appear to get a purposefully and linearly directed nebulous one thing which as a minimum anticipated time pops by your gray matter’s ‘wormhole’ that hyperlinks your unconscious thoughts along with your aware thoughts. Your aware thoughts can’t seemingly draw out of your unconscious thoughts the nebulous one thing you want while you want it.
So how does your unconscious keep on the straight and slim with out your aware enter? I do not know, however it apparently does. When your aware ideas go off the rails, say you are distracted by one thing not related to the duty at hand; nicely you’ll be able to rapidly power your aware thoughts again on monitor to the duty at hand. You do not have to do this along with your unconscious because the unconscious apparently cannot be distracted.
So I wonder if the world’s biggest thinkers – scientists, philosophers, inventors, writers, and so on. weren’t actually aware thinkers in any respect however derived a lot of their inspiration from their unconscious.
It is not your aware thoughts that connects the dots, it is the unconscious. How usually do you hear, and even inform your self, “I will sleep on it” (which is why it’s most likely a good suggestion to all the time have pen and paper or a Dictaphone subsequent to the mattress)? How many individuals can relate to fixing an out of the abnormal psychological puzzle of their desires, or the answer involves them ‘out of the blue’ whereas preoccupied with one thing associated. There aren’t any instruments, solely the assets in your personal thoughts. In truth if you happen to consciously attempt to provide you with an authentic artistic thought, you will most likely fail, however while you’re in psychological impartial gear – eureka.
Ever instantly neglect one thing you considered simply minutes earlier than and can’t now for the lifetime of you consciously recall? Throw your thoughts into impartial and while you least anticipate it, there it’s again to the fore once more. Now rapidly, write it down!
Listed below are just a few different examples the place the unconscious guidelines your roost.
We’re all conscious of hypnosis drawing out reminiscences locked away, within the unconscious after all. You don’t have any management in your aware means to recall. It takes a extra excessive type of that “gotta put my thoughts in impartial”, the hypnotic state, to deliver the info to the fore. After all unethical or badly skilled or newbie hypnotists can implant false reminiscences or manipulate these already there thus producing unreliable outcomes.
It is by no means extraordinary for a minority (10 – 25%) of completely regular grownup people to have a minimum of one vivid hallucination throughout their lifetime – a product of their unconscious that is most likely rather more widespread in kids’s ‘make-believe’ like there is a monster within the closet or their inevitable invisible playmates. As our minds get older and mature, we turn into much less prone to have unconscious hallucinations, however they’ll nonetheless occur.
Maybe related, we have almost all skilled involuntary (as to topic) daydreams, which, like sleeping desires, is a product of the unconscious.
Talking of sleep, while you fall asleep you go into lockdown mode courtesy of the unconscious so you do not bodily act out the actions you dream about. That is sensible in any other case you would do your self and others in your fast neighborhood a critical mischief, however you don’t have any management over that lockdown course of.
An abnormal aware degree psychological puzzle is likely to be how you can get from A to B on the bus when your automotive is within the restore store. These are the types of abnormal day-after-day psychological gymnastics that often require instruments – hammer and nails; a cookbook; a practice timetable; a desk of trigonometry capabilities; and reminiscence. Nevertheless, to be able to make the most of them, you’ve got to have ideas of them filed away in your unconscious cubby-holes, so on a regular basis psychological, and apparently aware exercise have obligatory roots within the unconscious, in any other case, no go.
Simply as an apart, there’s one other model of unconscious exercise that often offers with physique language. How usually do you see somebody speaking on the telephone to another person, neither celebration can see the opposite, but most likely each events are making all kinds of hand gestures and utilizing other forms of physique language as in the event that they had been speaking face-to-face? In all probability fairly ceaselessly – it is the norm. Otherwise you see a girl sitting on a bus or in a café or some such, and he or she’s preening her hair, operating her fingers by it however not even conscious she’s doing it.
If you solely have microseconds to behave, say while you’re standing within the batter’s field 60 toes, 6 inches away from the pitcher’s mound and a quickly rotating baseball is heading in the direction of you at 95 mph, do you stand there and consciously crunch the numbers earlier than your go/no-go swing, or simply flip the difficulty over to your unconscious to go for it, or let the ball move you by. Ditto that for an outfielder chasing down a fly ball. In such conditions your aware thoughts is nugatory baggage. Intuition, coaching, apply and all these different aspects embedded in your unconscious required come to the fore and takeover. You are able to do the physics calculations at your leisure after the sport.
SEASON FOUR: Can Our Minds Be Hacked?
Talking of thoughts management, when your mind is uncovered and you might be consciousness, neuroscientists can stimulate / contact / manipulate elements of your mind inflicting you numerous bodily reactions and you might be helpless to forestall these reactions from occurring despite the fact that you might be consciousness. You apparently haven’t any free will underneath hypnosis. Then too there’s mind washing, being subjected to carry out an involuntary motion when given a unconscious stimulus. “The Manchurian Candidate” is a novel / movie primarily based on this well-established idea. A milder type of that is indoctrination be in right into a navy mind-set or into a spiritual or cultist mind-set, and even right into a group or nationalist mind-set. Consider “1984”. Subliminal indoctrination through promoting can be a well-established. So sure, the thoughts may be hacked.
Nevertheless, if what is supposed by “hacked” is akin to what we imply by hacking a pc then I am not fairly satisfied. One may be capable of overwhelm the mind through some sort of electromagnetic stimulus at a distance, however really overriding your neural networks to do the bidding of another person, whereas maybe not inconceivable, is not but one thing the common particular person has to lose any sleep over.
SEASON FOUR: Do We Have Free Will?
No, we should not have free will primarily based on two grounds. Firstly, for the time being of creation, all of the legal guidelines, rules and relationships of physics had been decided and set in clockwork-like movement. From that time onwards, every thing was a predetermined trigger and impact; trigger and impact; trigger and impact. The whole lot is unfolding because it ought to all primarily based on these preliminary parameters. Secondly, if we exist in a Simulated (Digital Actuality) Universe, then preprogrammed software program guidelines the roost and we dance to that software program’s tune, and thus to the tune the Supreme Programmer performs. And if God is all-knowing you’ll be able to’t have free will since your future have to be predetermined and knowable upfront. It is already been deposited in-the-bank because it had been. Alternatively God could not have given you free will within the first place since there isn’t any God (or gods for that matter).
SEASON FOUR: When Does Life Start?
If by that query one tries to pinpoint that second in time between conception and loss of life when your life started, nicely, one would on logical grounds should go for the second of conception. There is not any query that sperm cells are alive; there is no query that egg cells are alive, so there’s little level in arguing that the union of the 2 is not alive. Maybe the higher, and tougher query, is when does that egg and that sperm turn into you? Once more, primarily based on logic, the reply is at conception, since at that time you’ve the entire genetic materials that makes you a novel life type. As as to if or not you’ve the identical human rights at conception as you do afterward down the monitor, nicely that is a authorized and philosophical query, not a scientific one.
Source by John Prytz
