(Courtesy of William P. Chiles)
“How to Avoid Stephen Hawking’s Dark Prediction for Humanity” by Stephanie Pappas (livescience.com)
Stephen Hawking, of the University of Cambridge, delivers a speech about why humanity should go into space on April 21, 2008, at George Washington University. Credit: Paul. E. Alers/NASA via Getty Images
Stephen Hawking thinks humanity has only 1,000 years left of survival on Earth and that our species needs to colonize other planets.
The famed physicist made the statement in a speech at Oxford University Union, in which he promoted the goal of searching for and colonizing Earth-like exoplanets. Developing the technology to allow humans to travel to and live on faraway alien worlds is a challenge, to say the least. But is Hawking right that humanity has only 1,000 years to figure it out?
The dangers Hawking cited — from climate change, to nuclear weapons, to genetically engineered viruses — could indeed pose existential threats to our species, experts say, but predicting a millennium into the future is a murky business.
Sustainable living?
If climate change continues apace, it will likely lead to a great deal of friction for the human species.
“There may be incredible amounts of food and water stress in some regions; combined with sea-level rise, this will lead to massive numbers of environmental refugees — enough to make the Syrian diaspora seem simple to absorb,” said Shawn Marshall, a professor of geography and a climate change researcher at the University of Calgary in Canada.
Humanity is surviving now only by depleting the planet’s natural resources and poisoning its environment, Sterman told Live Science. The nonprofit Global Footprint Network estimates that humanity uses up the resources of 1.5 Earths each year, essentially overdrawing from the planet’s natural bank account. The problems of sustainability can’t wait 1,000 years, Sterman said.
“Whether we can prevent damaging climate change, and the broader issue of whether we can learn to live within the limits of our finite world, will likely be determined this century,” he said.
Emmanuel Vincent, a research scientist at the University of California, Merced and founder of the outreach organization Climate Feedback, echoed the call to make sustainable decisions now.
“It is important to remind [people] that one cannot predict whether a catastrophic event will wipe out humans within the next thousand years,” Vincent told Live Science. “What Hawking is doing here is speculating on the risk that this will happen, and he estimates that the probability of extinction is high. While I agree that this is possible, I would like to emphasize that this primarily depends on how we manage to prevent such catastrophic outcome as a society.”
Human extinction
This doesn’t mean humans will necessarily go extinct if we make poor choices. Climate-wise, the planet is currently about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than preindustrial averages, Marshall said. (The past year has set multiple modern heat records.)
In comparison, temperatures during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods were about 10 degrees C (18 F) warmer than preindustrial averages, or about 25 degrees C (45 F) compared with today’s 16 degrees C (29 F), Marshall said. Yet life was quite abundant at that time, he told Live Science.
“It would be a habitable but rather different world,” he said. “We’ll run out of fossil fuels before we evaporate the oceans away.”
So humans probably won’t manage to actually bake themselves in an oven made of greenhouse gases, though tropical areas may become too hot for habitation, Vincent said. The real question is whether humans would be able to handle the upheaval that climate change would bring as coastlines vanish, diseases spread and weather patterns change.
“On its own, I don’t see how climate change would lead to human extinction,” Marshall said. “It would have to be through the social unrest triggering nuclear warfare, or some other societal implosion as a result of the environmental degradation.”
Already, there are warning signs beyond warming temperatures. About half of global wildlife has been wiped out over the past 50 years, Vincent said. The situation is serious enough that many scientists believe the planet is in the midst of its sixth mass extinction.
“Anyone who thinks we can solve these problems by colonizing other worlds has been watching too much ‘Star Trek,'” Sterman said. “We must learn to live sustainably here, on the one planet we have, and there is no time to lose.”
Original article on Live Science.
Book: “The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You”
ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited, 2010 – Psychology – 730 pages
Emotions – especially the dark and dishonored ones – hold a tremendous amount of energy. We’ve all seen what happens when we repress or blindly express them. With The Language of Emotions, empathic counselor Karla McLaren shows you how to meet your emotions and receive their life-saving wisdom to safely move toward resolution and equilibrium. Through experiential exercises covering a full spectrum of feelings from anger, fear, and shame to jealousy, grief, joy, and more, you will discover how to work with your own and others’ emotions with fluency and expertise. Here is a much-needed resource filled with revolutionary teachings and breakthrough skills for cultivating a new and empowering relationship with your feeling states through The Language of Emotions.
(Google Books)
“The Book of Urizen” by William Blake
Title page of The Book of Urizen, copy G (printed 1818). In the collection of the Library of Congress.
The Book of Urizen is one of the major prophetic books of the English writer William Blake, illustrated by Blake’s own plates. It was originally published as The First Book of Urizen in 1794. Later editions dropped the “First”. The book takes its name from the character Urizen in Blake’s mythology, who represents alienated reason as the source of oppression. The book describes Urizen as the “primeaval priest” and tells how he became separated from the other Eternals to create his own alienated and enslaving realm of religious dogma. Los and Enitharmon create a space within Urizen’s fallen universe to give birth to their son Orc, the spirit of revolution and freedom.
In form the book is a parody of the Book of Genesis. Urizen’s first four sons are Thiriel, Utha, Grodna and Fuzon (respectively elemental Air, Water, Earth, Fire, according to Chapter VIII). The last of these plays a major role in The Book of Ahania, published in 1795.
Background
In autumn 1790 Blake moved to Lambeth, Surrey. In the studio of his new house he wrote what became known as his “Lambeth Books”, which included The Book of Urizen. In all these books, Blake completed their design composition, their printing and colouring, and their sales from that house. Blake included early sketches for The Book of Urizen in a notebook containing images created between 1790 and 1793. The Book of Urizen was one of the few works that Blake describes as “illuminated printing”, one of his colour printed works with the coloured ink being placed on the copperplate before the page was printed.
The Book of Urizen was printed from 1794 until 1818 and was larger than his America, A Prophecy. Only eight copies of the work survive, with many variations between them of the plate orders and the number of plates. All the surviving copies were colour-printed.
Poem
Copy G, plate 7. Urizen is cast out from eternity
The story deals with a struggle within the divine mind to establish and define both itself and the universe. It is a creation myth that begins before creation:
- Earth was not: nor globes of attraction
- The will of the Immortal expanded
- Or contracted his all flexible senses.
- Death was not, but eternal life sprung. (36-39)
The creator is Urizen, a blind exile who was kept from eternity and who establishes a world that he could rule. As such, he creates laws:
- Laws of peace, of love, of unity;
- Of pity, compassion, forgiveness.
- Let each chuse one habitation:
- His ancient infinite mansion:
- One command, one joy, one desire,
- One curse, one weight, one measure
- One King, one God, one Law. (78-84)
Copy G, plate 21. Los, Enitharmon, and Orc are depicted; Los with his usual attribute of the hammer
However, Urizen suffers a fall when he creates a barrier to protect himself from eternity:
- And a roof, vast petrific around,
- On all sides He fram’d: like a womb;
- …Like a human heart strugling & beating
- The vast world of Urizen appear’d.
He is chained by Los, the prophet, from whom Urizen had been rent:
- In chains of the mind locked up,
- Like fetters of ice shrinking together,
- Disorganiz’d, rent from Eternity.
- Los beat on his fetters of iron (190-193)
Los forges a human image for Urizen in the course of seven ages, but pities him and weeps. From these tears Enitharmon is created, who soon bears the child of Los, Orc. Orc’s infant cries awaken Urizen, who begins to survey and measure the world he has created. Urizen explores his world and witnesses the birth of his four sons, who represent the four classical elements. From these experiences Urizen’s hopes are crushed and his:
- soul sicken’d! he curs’d
- Both sons & daughters: for he saw
- That no flesh nor spirit could keep
- His iron laws one moment. (443-446)
In response, he creates a web of religion, which serve as chains to the mind.
Adam and Lillith
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Lilith (1892) by John Collier in Southport Atkinson Art Gallery
Lilith is a figure in Jewish mythology, developed earliest in the Babylonian Talmud (3rd to 5th centuries). Lilith is a dangerous demon of the night, who is sexually wanton, and who steals babies in the darkness. The character is generally thought to derive in part from a historically far earlier class of female demons (lilītu) in ancient Mesopotamian religion, found in cuneiform texts of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylonia.
In Jewish folklore, from the satirical book Alphabet of Sirach (c. 700–1000) onwards, Lilith appears as Adam‘s first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and from the same dirt as Adam – compare Genesis 1:27. (This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam’s ribs: Genesis 2:22.) The legend developed extensively during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadah, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism. For example, in the 13th-century writings of Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Edenafter she had coupled with the archangel Samael.
Evidence in later Jewish materials is plentiful, but little information has survived relating to the original Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian view of these demons. While the connection is almost universally agreed upon, recent scholarship has disputed the relevance of two sources previously used to connect the Jewish lilith to an Akkadian lilītu—the Gilgamesh appendix and the Arslan Tash amulets. (See below for discussion of the two problematic sources.)
In Hebrew-language texts, the term lilith or lilit (translated as “night creatures”, “night monster”, “night hag”, or “screech owl”) first occurs in a list of animals in Isaiah 34:14, either in singular or plural form according to variations in the earliest manuscripts. In the Dead Sea Scrolls 4Q510-511, the term first occurs in a list of monsters. In Jewish magical inscriptions on bowls and amulets from the 6th century CE onwards, Lilith is identified as a female demon and the first visual depictions appear.
The resulting Lilith legend continues to serve as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.
More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
Einstein on miracles
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
–attributed to Albert Einstein (March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics. Einstein’s work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. Wikipedia
May 1, 1969: Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications
On May 1, 1969, Fred Rogers, host of the (then) recently nationally syndicated children’s television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (named Misterogers’ Neighborhood at the time), testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce Subcommittee on Communications to defend $20 million in federal funding proposed for the newly formed non-profit Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which was at risk of being reduced to $10 million. Subcommittee chairman, Senator John Pastore (D-RI), unfamiliar with Fred Rogers, is initially abrasive toward him. Over the course of Rogers’ 6 minutes of testimony, Pastore’s demeanor gradually transitions to one of awe and admiration as Rogers speaks.
Robin Hanson: What would happen if we upload our brains to computers (TED talk)
Meet the “ems” — machines that emulate human brains and can think, feel and work just like the brains they’re copied from. Futurist and social scientist Robin Hanson describes a possible future when ems take over the global economy, running on superfast computers and copying themselves to multitask, leaving humans with only one choice: to retire, forever. Glimpse a strange future as Hanson describes what could happen if robots ruled the earth.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference, and was featured by our editors on the home page.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin on harnessing the energies of love
“Some day, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”
–Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (May 1, 1881 – April 10, 1955) was a French idealist philosopher and Jesuit priest who trained as a paleontologist and geologist and took part in the discovery of Peking Man. Wikipedia
“The Perfect Man” by William P. Chiles
A man walks out on 5th avenue and manages to instantly flag a taxi. The cabbie flips the meter and in pulling away, says, “Perfect timing. You’re just like Frank.”
“Passenger: “Who?”
Cabbie: “Frank Falstaff. He’s a guy who did everything right all the time. Like my coming along when you needed a cab? Things like that happened to Frank Falstaff every single time.”
Passenger: “There are always a few clouds over everybody.”
Cabbie: “Not Frank Falstaff. He was a terrific athlete. He could have won the Grand-Slam at tennis. He could golf with the pros. He sang like an opera baritone, danced like a Broadway star and you should have heard him play the piano. He was an amazing guy.”
Passenger: “Sounds like he was really something special.”
Cabbie: “There’s more. Frank had a memory like a computer. He remembered everybody’s birthday. He was a wine connoisseur, a food critic, a master of social etiquette and THE statesman whenever it came to diplomacy. And Frank could fix anything. Not like me. I change a fuse, and the whole goddam street blacks out. But Frank Falstaff could do everything right.”
Passenger: “Wow, what a guy!”
Cabbie: ‘He always knew the quickest way to go in traffic and avoid every traffic jam. Not like me, I’m never fast enough in changing lanes or beating a stoplight. But Frank, he never made a mistake, and he really knew how to treat a woman. He always made her feel like a goddess. He would never argue or back-talk her, even if she was in the wrong. He never left the toilet lid up, and his clothing? Always immaculate, right down to a shoe-shine you could see your face in …never a hair out of place, with Frank! He was the perfect man, if there ever was one. No one could ever measure up to Frank Falstaff.”
Passenger: “Incredible, how did you meet him?”
Cabbie: “I never actually met Frank. He died and I married his wife.” 