Translating to Reality

Language is a strange and wonderful thing. It connects us to others, makes civilization possible and, like the air we breath, goes almost unnoticed. For humans its primary essential carrier is sound, (vibrations in the air). Sensativity to vibrations became a valuable survival trait very early in life's slow evolution. Even before living cells began to join and share functions, early bacteria developed primitive methods of monitoring and responding to their immediate surroundings. Evolution is driven by subtle advantages, introduced by chance, that are carried forward in nature's genetic language. As nature's language evolves it instructs each host cell how to grow and react. Instructions that degrade the host cells ability to survive also reduce the genetic pattern giving the instructions chances of survival. The language of life is modified when its instructions produce favorable or unfavorable living forms. Advances in detecting and differentiating subtle differnces in vibrational patterns have continually proven to be valuable and have been replicated and improved. After three and one half billion years of chance modifications being tested against changing environments the test results for vibrational sensitivity are in and have resulted in complex mamilian ears. The parallel evolution of mutualy beneficial traits is common, especially as multi celled organisims proved their worth in life's struggle against rapidly changing conditions. In humans the parallel evolution of an attuned ear with an articulate tongue proved especially beneficial. Being able to describe situations and to give directions gave cooperating humans an advantage over competing species. At first simple human languages were made up of only a few descriptive nouns and a few calls to action but it was a clear and powerful advantage. Language quickly became an advantage that promted continual refinment and the genetic traits that spell out the better ear and the more articulate tongue flourished. At first language was simple and spoken but with the first rough depiction of an animal scratched on a flat stone, language took on another dimension. The verbal sound coded to match a real animal was now also associated with a symbol, the symbol could evoke the sound and reading and written language were born. At first the scratches were primarily of objects with some showing action and common symbols developed. Tribal members capable of looking at the symbols and translating the visual into a verbal account were held in high regard as the process of making scratches on a stone talk seemed magical. Human language has evolved on its own to accomodate more than objects and actions and now encompasses ideas shapes, numerical relationships, and fantasies and the scratches on the stone have become symbols for sounds that have little or no pictorial accuracy. The learned now literally hear the symbols talk inside their head with no need for vibrations in the air and the trick is no longer one held solely by priests and the priviledged. Learning to read is now an essential ability necessary for societal functions but the translation process from symbol to sound hasn't changed. You learned whatever language you speek by listening to those around you. In school you learned to represent vowel and concenent sounds on paper by making scratches with a pencil. You then learned to translate the scratches back into sounds and made the scratches talk. Eventually you learned to let the symbols talk inside your head without verbalization, eliminating the need to vibrate the air with tounge lips and vocal chords in order to communicate. This silent method of communicating with scratches has advantages and disadvantages. It is not immediate and is innapropriate where spontinaity or an immediate response is required. Sending a note to someone instructing them to "Get Down" a bomb is about to go off, or texting your enjoyment during sex are obvious illustrations. Vibrating the air between us is still an essential method of exchanging information, be it face to face, public speeches, cheering at a sports event or calling your grandmother on the phone on her birthday. Scratch communications, (writing), has the advantage of permenance. Some American Indians called writing; "words that last". On the book shelf in front of me is a copy of "The Illiad", quietly waiting for me to open it and let Homer speak directly to me, without vibrating the air. As long as I can translate the scratches on the page into my inner voice, Homer and hundreds of thousands of others from the past can speek to me. Learning to translate symbols to sound, blueprints to a building, instructions into actions, and ideas into reality, is the trick that sustains us as superior to other life forms and at the same time makes us the most dangerous life form on the planet. Of the three mandates evolution has placed on us; "Explore and learn, Be of good council, and Be a good Steward, being of good council (respecting the gift of language) may be the more important as we translate our beliefs, our ideas, and our attitudes into reality.

What are we really voting for?

Science and math now play major roles in the politics of democratic societies. The ability to measure, manipulate and predict voting outcomes has become a science used extensively by parties, super pacs, lobbiests and campaign managers. The actual beliefs, character and issue positions of canditates have become secondary to applied and controlled sets of carefully crafted image campaigns and prepared statements and responses. Candidates for political office have become created personas molded to get desired responses from carefully measured aspects of the voting public. The actual individuals, shaking hands and making speeches, have become disquised, coached and prepared images more than actual individuals. Candidates are chosen for recognizable names, public status, and their measured appeal to specific portions of the electorate. Carefully vetted candidates are more like actors on stage in front of elaborate backdrops than true individuals seeking a leadership role, and asking for our trust and approval. Election poles and results have begun to give all voters pause and make all of us question, not weather the election was rigged by manipulating vote counts, but, how much, each of us may have been manipulated by statistical analysis and slick advertising to make the selections we did in the voting booth. The same science that manipulates our politics is also used to manipulate our shopping, our social behavior and to insure trial outcomes by the careful selection of juries. The innate propensities for certain behaviors by individuals and groups of individuals has always been with us but, unmeasured, the outcomes of group decisions seemed random and somehow fair. Political candidates were real people asking for our vote, our choice of products was a thoughtful selection we assumed was of our own free will, and juries composed of random opinions was thought to meet out fair and imartial justice. These assumptions may have been naieve but we felt empowered by our freedom to choose and took pride in the expression of our individuality. Now, we leave the grocery store or the polling booth wondering if our chioces were really our own. Are we becoming sheep hearded subliminally by teams of wealthy big brother corporations or rich individuals? The uncertainty raised by the power of statistical analysis echos all around us and is making us suseptible to even more manipulations by those playing on the increasing tendancy to paranoia it brings on. Some of those playing on paranoia are simply unethical radio hosts using public uncertainty to increase their ratings and income, but others are pushing our emotional buttons to gain control and change the way our democracy works. Freedom is not simply freedom from big government, it is also freedom from the imposition of religion, freedom from manipulative political indoctrination, and the freedom to participate openly in a diverse cultural mix under the umbrella of a compasionate government that molifies extreems and recognizes everyone's contributions. The only way to keep the sheep herders at bay is think for youself. Question your emotional responses to political differences, they are probably the result of a long and persistant indoctrination by your family, your friends, your church, and the community you live in. Try reason instead of preprogramed emotions. You may find your opinions havent changed after hate and anger are removed from the equation but you can now vote from an informed position instead of as an angry pupet. Induced political paranoia serves no valuable purpose in a democracy. Become as independent in your thinking as a cat. No one has ever been able to herd cats.

Defending the Faith

Be it a faith based organization, an ethnic group, or a nation state dependent on a common set of cultural beliefs, groups define themselves by pointing out who they are not, as well as by defining who they are. Any organization that finds outside influances threatening or is unwilling to allow compromises its basic beliefs or principles has to expend energy and assets to maintain its integrity. Alternate systems and beliefs are viewed with caution and often as a treat. It is these self defining systems that create most of the cultural tensions, conflicts and wars, and religions are not exempt. As the world becomes more secular religions become more defensive and with few options beyond converting non believers, some go to extreems and attempt to eliminate the threat by killing or suppression. A devout individual or organization with no alternate perspectives to fall back on can easily become frustrated when their belief system is threatened or compromised even when the treat is imagined. This same emotional impulse to distructive action can also be triggered by powerful or charismatic leaders and has been used often to create chaos and killings on massive scales. When a set of beliefs become the primary definition of self for individuals or a group, paranoia is a natural result and violent reactions become a possibility. The Middle East is being torn apart by conflicting belief systems, and tension is growing in the West as simiar conflicts have found their way into democratic political systems. The wisdom of the founding fathers of the United States to keep church and state seperate has never been more poinient as this vital seperation is slowly being narrowed by subtle and persistent manipulative political efforts. Having served as a security guard in front of abortion clinics to keep protesters from blocking driveways or causing a traffic accident I have been confronted directly by individuals driven by their frustration as they threatened me and others and deflected any attempt to reason with them. A mutual understanding was impossible. Any argument was met by a display of their holy book or a rush to recite the rosery. The gates to any mutual understanding were closed tight as the protestors shouted and prayed and attempted to disuade abortion clients and convert anyone who would listen. For them their was only their faith and no outside influances would ever disuade them or get their attention. Their minds were closed. Disturbed by the growing encroachment of religion into our politics I occasionally watch one of the many religious television programs. A recent program got my attention as the hosts and a guest author seemed to be revisiting the Scopes trials in a slightly different way. The author was highlighting his recent book, "Stealing from God" and describing how any secular argument against God must draw on the reality around them,(which were obviously created by God), and were therefore arguing against God by using his creations. It reminded me of arguments by Thomas Aquinas proving God by his creations. The Host's comments were how watching an earth mover at a construction site was a perfect anology that prooved the necessity of a creator. The author had obviously been willing to confront disbelievers in debate and had a favorite question that he claimed always put an athiest back on his heels. The question was; If Christianity is true would you become a Christian? He felt that the usual hesitation to answer was proof that he had made an irrevocable point that couldn't be countered. In fact he was just bringing up the old paradox about liars always telling the truth.....and the hesitation was the realization that it was a trick question and there was no answer. The correct response should have been a responding question; If Christianity is not true would you become an athiest? The extreems of religious TV programing and their increasing numbers, may be evidence for a growing frustration by the devout. The silliest in early indoctrination programs for children is Veggie Tales, a cartoon about moral behavior by carrots. It took me a long time to extricate myself from the unthinking flock and a lenghthy indoctrination, but now that I am a part of the real world again, aware of my responsibilities to my community, my country, all of humanity, the planet, and all life, I am not about to cop out again. Far more important than ten commandments that promise a false pass to a life after death if followed, are the mandates imposed by 3.5 billion years of chance evolution bringing us to our advanced state of awareness. To ensure the future of our planet, our species and a continuance of the natural order and balances that allows life to thrive on Earth, we must do three things; Explore and learn Be of good council and Be a good steward

Weighing in on the Fermi - Hart Paradox

Years before we began to confirm the existance of exo-planets we began looking for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Assuming that an advanced life form would be following advances similar to our own and would be using similar technology, we began to listen to the nearby stars hoping to intercept their version of Saturday Night Live. We have been listening for a long time, but the rest of the universe remains mute. During this early period we convinced ourselves that it was unreasonable that among the 200 billion stars in our galaxy our sun would be the only star with a planet supporting life and that humans would be the only technologically advanced life form. For most humans the question was as moot as the universe was mute and were satisfied with science fiction stories and entertaining monster movies to answer the question. Our top scientists, however, took the paradox seriously and, like scientists always do, began developing formulae based on probability and statistics to find answers. But without evidence their efforts only expanded the paradox. As Fermi shouted out in frustration while having dinner with Teller and other scientists; "Where are they"? Now we have discovered that most stars have planets, that the sun is a large star, not an ordinary star, and that we have been missing the most common stars, red dwarfs, which often have multiple planets. We have also discovered that some of the three hundred moons in our solar system have conditions suitable for the development of life, and the statistical guesses made by Fermi, Teller and Hart were far short of the hundreds of millions of possibilities projected by or recent discoveries. "Where are they"? The paradox, now deepened, has prompted many speculative answers. Tecnologically advanced life forms destroy themselves on a regular basis before they have much to say to their neighbors in nearby solar systems or, that living forms rarely evolve to a level where tecnology emerges or, that advanced life forms choose to keep quiet for safety, out of paranoia, or because they are stealthy hunters or, they use communication methods we can't monitor or they have been monitoring us and finding us unsuitable for contact are avoiding us and on and on.... I choose to respond only to the proposition that we are not hearing the echoes of other advanced civilizations because very few life forms advance to an aware state allowing an investigative approach to their surroundings using tools to enhance their senses. Our observations and comparisons of lines of development of hundreds of extant and extinct phyla and species makes it clear that fragile chemical messages formed from ordinary matter optimize the possibility, the continuance, and the adaptable progressive compexity of the energy concentrations we call life. Form and function emerge better suited to fit new environments and to persevere, not because the better are chosen, but because the less suitable are eliminated. The process only works if there is a large number of living options to be measured against the totality of the conditions in which they exist, and if the testing is subtle and only small differences, directed by randomly produced chemical directives, are eliminated or continue. The form and function of living forms are not adjusted directly, only the chemical language that directs their emergance is adjusted as the form or function directed by these chmical directives succeeds or fails. The living form struggles to survive and reproduce in the short term, The gene struggles to survive and reproduce in the long term, and both are prompted by solely natural causes similar to sea foam forming on the sand of an ocean beach. The process, following natural paths is similar to the patterns of atoms and moecules and minerals combining to form succesive states of increasing complexity. We observe and agree that matter follows the same formative patterns throughout the universe and can reasonbly assume that life also follows natural formative patterns in developing adaptive forms and functions. But what of the reasoning abilities needed to transform basic minerals and chemicals into tools and the technology needed to allow cooperative advanced civilizations to develop? Beyond regulating the simplest of living processes genes are inefective in producing further complex developments until early ways to interface with the environment emerge. These random changes are genetic accidents that improve sensitivities to temperature/ chemical conditions or internal conditions and each random adjustment that improves survivability is passed on and over time these advances in microbial awareness become cumulative, lead to parallel developments in form and function and create a partnership between the development of compexity in form with advances in awareness that leads to advanced sensory and cognitive abilities. This parallel progression is evident in all life and is so interdependent that one can assume a reasonable number of exo-planets would follow the same patterns and continued to a maximum optimization of awareness until, like humans, it assumes control of adaptive evolution and overrides natural selection by random genetic abberations. This is a state of development requiering advanced technology and advanced communicative skills, but not necessarily a pace of awareness similar to ours. The many planets that orbit red dwarf stars circle closer in and have a year lasting less than a month, and days of random lenghts. We may be attempting to communicate with an advanced life form with a pace of awareness faster than a humming bird or slower than a snail. Time may not be the only thing that is relative in our strange universe, but the extreeme numbers of planets and moons in our galaxy hints at similar numbers in hundreds of billions of other galaxies and we need to look for other reasons for not finding electromagnetic evidence for advanced life and we need other methods for finding it. The numbers are too large to ignore and the elements needed for life too common. We are alone but where are they?

A Flatul Beginning

As a child I played with rockets and cars powered by small Co2 cartridges. The cartridge was placed in the toy and a spring loaded needle was used to puncture a plug in the end of the cartridge. When I pulled the plunger back and released it, the needle opened a small hole in the cartridge and the compressed Co2 was released with a loud hiss, and a cloud of condensate was created, as the potential energy stored in the compressed gas was released. According to current scientific theory our universe started in a very similar way and, (in spite of having been poorly named "The Big Bang"), it, like the energy that propelled my toys, was held in a small compressed state, (not big), and was released as a great hiss, (not a Bang). We can still detect the hiss as microwave background radiation. My toys were powered by the release of potential energy. So is the universe. When the energy that powered my toys was released it created movement and a condensate,(dry Ice). When the energy that is now the universe was released it created movement and condensates consisting of new forms of energy, one of these is matter. As Einstein has pointed out, matter is a form of energy. E=MC2. The energy release that powered my toys was converted from the potential energy created when the Co2 was compressed and was converted into inertial energy upon its release. The universe began as a compressed singularity and when its stored energy was released, both movement,(time), and other forms of energy were created. Initially, as the compressed energy was being released, there was a great rush called the inflationary period, after that momentum took over. The last term, "T", in Einstein's basic field equation for general relativity is a stress energy momentum tensor describing this momentum. All of the energy released from the singularity at the birth of the universe and all of the energy released from my Co2 cartridges is still with us, it has only been transformed and occupies a greater space. We have now identified some of the basic condensate energies resulting from the creative release, (I think of it as a three dimensional fart), including; electromagnetism, the strong force, the week forces and a special energy condensate called matter. We have yet to identify the most prevalent energy causing the universe to expand at an accelerated rate but, (the acceleration theory is based on the assumption that the speed of light, (our measure of time), has been constant as the universe expanded and may be leading us to a false conclusion). When the Co2 escaped from my toy cartridges it created a temporary energy deficit and a dry ice condensate that existed until the heat energy dissipated when the Co2 was compressed was recaptured. As the deficit was resolved by drawing in heat to overcome the cold period deficit sublimation occurred, the dry ice was converted from a solid state to a gaseous state and the deficit was resolved by converting the re-gathered heat energy into the inertial energy of molecular motion in the re-formed gaseous Co2. A similar energy deficit seems to have occurred as the universe was released that created the primal condensates including particles of matter, electrons, photons, quarks and gluons but, unlike my toy cartridges, it has not been resolved because of an entanglement between quarks and gluons in color glass condensates that make up protons and neutrons. This energy deficit may help explain the tendency of these entanglements to warp the space between them in an attempt to clump together. Mass then becomes warped space as Einstein described without the need for time as a part of the equation, and gravity becomes a topological feature of space. My interpretation of the creative event may stink as a well developed theory but fits well with those that are.

When The Stars Speak

It had been a bummer of a day. Jake had not only flunked his astronomy exam, he had also lost his girl friend when he claimed to be smarter than her. In Jake’s mind none of this was his fault and, feeling sorry for himself, he purchased a six pack of beer and found a secluded park bench near the campus rose garden. As he opened his third beer he noticed a single bright star in the darkening sky and impulsively started to recite a poem he had learned as a child. “Star light star bright, first star I see tonight, I wish I may I wish I might……………..” Before he could finish, Jake was rudely interrupted by a deep commanding voice. “You don’t really think stars grant wishes…Do You?” Jake looked around. There was no one there. “Up here”, the voice said. “You started the conversation now finish it!” Jake looked back at the star and remained silent. “Yeah, smart ass, its me, I can tell your enjoying a few of my photons, so what the hell do you want?” Jake muttered a few unintelligible words, his gaze transfixed on the brightening star. “Speak up man. I can’t hear you!” Jake had always thought of stars as friendly twinkling lights, but this star was an angry SOB. “I was just wishing,” Jake replied. “It didn’t mean anything.” “You’ve got that right.” The star replied. “You think of yourself as something important and me as a tiny bright spot in the sky, but you have it backwards. You are the tiny spot and I am an enormous nuclear furnace. I was already shining long before your solar system formed and am blasting radiation in all directions, up, down, to the sides and behind me. The tiny bit of light you see is an infinitesimally small part of all my radiation and there are millions of life forms on your tiny planet and on millions of other planets looking at me from all directions and only you and your species assume, that since you can see me, you own me. You depend on a star you call Sun, which in my opinion is a really dumb name, for the energy that allows you to live, and are made of stuff created in the belly of stars long dead. There are only a few billion of you humans. There are millions of billions of stars, more stars than all the grains of sand on your planet, and yet you claim the right to pick out one of us and get wishes granted. You really need to get a grip on reality!” Jake sat very still. The sun was just beginning to peak over the campus buildings behind him. The six pack was empty and the stars were gone. Jake’s inflated ego had been flattened. He went to his astronomy professor and begged to take the test again. His professor smiled and shook his head No. Jake then found his girl friend and asked for forgiveness, she told him to get lost. Later that night Jake crossed the campus after his last class keeping one eye closed. He glanced quickly at the wishing star but kept his mouth shut and quickly looked away. ................................................... Before we were blinded by city lights and before we viewed the stars again through telescopes, man marveled at the star filled sky and imagined Gods revealing themselves, outlined by dots of light. Before the stars began to speak to us through science they were benevolent lights in the heaven put there to guide and aid mankind. Now that we understand their language they are revealing themselves as massive balls of fire, exploding with forces that echo throughout the universe, collapsing into black holes, revealing their ages, showing off their planets, and asking us to put our self agrandizing egoes aside, and yet, we like Jake, close our minds and ignore our new perspectives and the mandates imposed by being a part of the marvelous spectacle that surrounds us. We are born of the dust of exploding stars and gathered by gravity and chemistry to become the vessel of nature that allowes her a mirror in which to view herself. We are indeed priviledged, but we are not free to ignore what the stars are telling us. They have waited a very long time for us to listen.

Are Black Holes Hollow?

     We have long observed that  matter attracts matter. Setting aside electrostatic attractions and magnetism, there remains an attractive force that causes an apple to fall toward the center of our planet and holds our planet in a nearly circular path as it orbits the Sun at 66,000 miles per hour. We have described this mysterious force in great detail but haven't explained it. To measure this force, and to create a unit we can use to compare the attractive force generated by various concentrations of matter, we created a mental construct we call mass. We establish the value of our construct by observing relative motions created by the attractive forces of various massive objects. A small object is accelerated toward the earth at 32 feet per second per second, and orbital velocities and distances are used to estimate the stable acceleration of large orbiting objects like planets and moons. Until recently this relationship between a concentration of matter seemed absolute. Without matter there could be no gravity and matter could not exist without producing gravity. This absolute relationship is explained by assuming that mass warps the space surrounding it and further it warps time. As if this isn't confusing enough, we have extended our concept of mass to any accelerating force resulting in mass becoming, not a weight, but a potential energy dependent upon position and motion.
    We could rename mass,              "the potential energy of separation" or,
    when mass is in contact without relative motion,
                                                        "the pressure energy of contact"
These alternate descriptions are in concert with measurements and descriptions currently associated with our construct, "mass", and are only an alternate view of the same mysterious force tending to draw everything in the universe back together into one big, or very small, clump.
    Recently we used our advanced capability to calculate orbits and mass, to measure the revolutions of whole galaxies and found, that either our math or our understanding of matter and mass was wrong. Unwilling to give up current long proven scientific assumptions we concluded that there must be an enormous amount of invisible mass creating enough gravity to explain the observed anomalies and, "dark matter" was added to our conceptual repertoire. An easier explanation would have been welcomed but using new telescopes to observe the bending of light from distant objects, the presence of dark matter seems confirmed. But have we really described gravitational effects accurately?
    Newton was the first to describe gravity in mathematical terms by inventing the calculus, and in between a detailed examination of the Bible in an attempt to calculate the exact date the world would end, he also developed formulae to describe gravitational effects under special conditions. One of these conditions was gravity in and on a massive hollow sphere. On the surface of the sphere gravity attracts toward the sphere's center, but inside the sphere, on its inner surface or anywhere else inside, there is zero gravity. The formula is simple and can be found on the Internet.
    Another curious effect arises from gravity's pressure energy of contact. On the surface of a massive solid sphere gravity attracts all things toward the sphere's center, but inside, if mass is distributed equally, matter near the surface is attracted by all of the matter below extending to the other side of the sphere, but as one measures pressure deeper in the sphere, the matter above begins to have an upward attraction and there being less matter extending to the other side the attraction toward the center is decreased. The mass above and below continue to increase and decrease until we reach the center of the sphere where they are equal and at zero gravity the pressure energy created by zero gravity also becomes zero. From this perspective the highest pressure energy occurs, not at the center of the solid sphere, but at about 2/3 of the way from the surface to the center. This disparity from the assumption that gravity increases from the surface of a massive spherical, or disk shaped object, at a constant rate from the surface, or rim, to the center raises questions about conditions at the center of  planets, stars, black holes and the rotational integrity of galaxies.  Galaxies may be more stable than thought, and black holes, surrounded by massively compressed shells, may be hollow and the paradox of black hole evaporation from the event horizon may be answered if the black hole also has an inner event horizon and acts as a secure vault for
antimatter as matter evaporates outward and antimatter evaporates inward. In the matter of black holes, quantum theory and relativity may be reconciled if black holes have hair on both sides of their event horizons.