Scientist You Would 'Most' Want To Talk With?

Your 'One on One' with which Scientist?

  • Ray Kurzweil

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Bill Nye

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Stephen Hawking

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lawrence M. Krauss

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    1

Tom

An Old Friend
Over my life I've emailed many scientists to attempt to start conversations. I have received a few replies and I wish I had kept those to share with you now.
I've always been a unique thinker and I have a theory that makes any unique thinking a possibly rich resource. It goes like this:

There are billions of people on this planet and no two minds are alike. Scientists that are trained and disciplined have access to resources to expound on their theories. The little boy or girl in Brazil, the student in China or the Outback bushman from Australia may never have the opportunity or backing to explore their creativity. Scientists are picky eaters of knowledge. They like to argue and prove their points. My theory is that sometimes the semantics of 'science' blinds them to the possibilities. I believe that thinking paths can be influenced by random inputs.

To try to clarify;
Somewhere on this planet of billions of minds may lie the recipe for FTL travel. It may not be from a single individual or even as a FTL thought experiment. It may be one person's observation on how plants grow that opens the thought process to a new thinking track. The scientists racking their brains on some problem that opens up new lines of thinking because some McDonalds cashier says or does something that makes all the pieces fall together. It's not about assigning the 'credit' to the discovery but more about the awakening of considerations that were never considered.

I contact scientists not to show them how smart I think I am or to disprove what they work to prove. It's not about telling them 'how' but more about injecting new considerations into their thinking.

Back in my 30's I sent 40 emails to various NASA department heads. It was the same email detailing ideas on how to get people to Mars. The contents were around 10 paragraphs long and I addressed many different aspects of the trip in detail.
I came home from work one evening and my daughter, 12 yo at the time said she answered a call from some guy that said he was from NASA and she told him to stop prank calling. Back then I had no way to know who it was that called and they never called back.
A few years later I emailed the School For Champions about a question on the Higgs-Boson & Empty Space. The reply I got was not what I expected. The reply stated that the professionals at School For Champions cannot answer my question and they gave me a link to a video and the video speaker's contact email. I watched the two videos related and emailed Professor Kim Griest with my question. I was truly surprised when Mr. Griest emailed back a reply. At the time the reply was that science doesn't know and he included a link to the construction of a new machine being built at a place referred to as CERN.

Now, Back to the topic,
Which Scientist You Would 'Most' Want To Talk With?

For me, put me in a room with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Disconnect the phones and secure the room. No specific topic would be needed - just see where our conversation leads. I respect his views not because of his title or his education but because he is able to convey complex ideas in simple terms with enthusiasm. His personality strikes me as someone that might listen to an idea and then give it consideration. He would explain why some idea would or wouldn't work without being an ass about it.
If you presented a new possibility - I feel he would consider that to be a 'New Road' and not an assault on his pride. Scientists tend to think inside the box. They only want to consider things that are inside the box. Mr., Dr, Professor Tyson just strikes me as someone able to use the box to stand on instead of sit in.

I'm not too fond of Bill Nye, Michio Kaku or Lawrence Krauss. To me they give the air of stuffy, stagnant, prideful big-heads. Even Stephen Hawking is locked into his own belief systems to the point he restricts open thinking that might one day prove him wrong. Now, Don't get me wrong, These people are brilliant thinkers but they are restrictive 'in the box' thinkers.

Another Scientist that would be wonderful to talk with is Richard Dawkins. Mr., Dr., Professor Dawkins is very open about evolutionary biology. I believe his imagination of possible alien lifeforms and the alien habitats that might create them falls within my own beliefs. I could see discussing with him the affects of different habitats under alien conditions would have on the evolution of alien life. I believe he would be able to stun me with details in my thread "Describe an Alien Lifeform". I've seen what Kaku came up with for Alien Planet and it is so restrictive and incomplete. Dawkins would need to consider all the details and flora/fauna that shaped the current model. That detail, the need to have it right is what I respect about his opinions.

As a final thought:
What female scientists are noteworthy. I know of mostly men that intrigue me and I feel like I am missing out. There must be female scientists that possess the qualities I seek?

So, Who would you like to talk to?

They have to be alive. No Newtons or Einsteins
 
Even the short quips I write about in the 'Describe Something Scifi' thread might be interesting to a creative thinking scientist like Tyson or Dawkins. Not as what I wrote but in the essence of the ideas that that what was written imply.
Over the next few weeks, I might make it a goal to contact various scientists to share my thoughts with. For every email I will give a quote from my own posts here at CoolSciFi and a link-back to the thread.
What might I get out of this?
I think it would be REALLY COOL SCIFI if one or more of these scientists joined our community and started posting insight and speculation for us to ponder. I used to frequent Michio Kaku's community but his condescending attitude toward the members made me leave and not look back. I joined to have discussions with him and I got preached to. I just went there to retrieve the link for you all and it is no longer a community site. Look at how commercialized he has become. I wonder if his head makes a popping noise when he pulls it thru doorways.

Now, I know that most of these 'Faces' of science have very full plates and finding time to interact on a science fiction community website may not be practical. (They are also restricted to a 24 hour day)
The 'What If' that drives me dictates that I at least try.

I do have a few silly questions that y'all might be able to help me with.

Salutations/Titles
To not offend, is it better to use MR, DR or Professor?

Email Titles
I'm a kook but I'm a specific kind of kook.
I'm sure these celebrities get a gazillion emails from all sorts of kooks on a regular basis.
If they digest their emails like I do, they read the title then who its from and decide from that if they want to open it and read it. Any suggestions on creating a clickable, intriguing title method?

I'm a goofy typist. I have problems getting my point across without excessive background. Assumption can defeat the interest for the true topic but too much background can bore the reader. Any tips on how to determine when more clarification is needed?

Since this is kinda like a personal experiment I will copy my emails to this thread so you can read what I wrote to them. Since they will be presented to you after the send - I can't really fix or change anything but I can read your suggestions for future correspondence.
I will also copy quotes from any responses I do get and you can advise me on possible responses.

It should be interesting to see where this all leads...
 
Contact Neil deGrasse Tyson
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/contact
E-Mail
Recommended method of contact.

Questions About Science
Please submit your questions to the Hayden Planetarium.
Questions About the Night Sky
Please submit your questions to the Hayden Planetarium.
Request a Speaking Engagement
Schools, organizations, and corporations only.
Request an Interview
Students please note that Dr. Tyson is not available at this time due to schedule demands, but he appreciates your interest. He wishes you much success with your project.
Administrative Inquiries
Museum activities and programs.
General Comments Drop Box
General Comments about life, the universe, and everything. All posts will be read, but due to high volume, there will be no replies.
Website Feedback
Problems encountered while visiting this website—no inquiries, please.
Phone
Hayden Planetarium Astronomy Question and Answer Hotline 212-769-5901
Hayden Planetarium Monthly Sky Reporter 212-769-5917
American Museum of Natural History Visitor Information (Including the Rose Center, Space Show Information, and Hayden Programs) 212-769-5200
Museum Tickets (Including Space Show Tickets, Hayden Programs Tickets) 212-769-5200
Hayden Planetarium Shop Information 800-671-7035
Snail Mail
Hayden Planetarium & Department of Astrophysics

American Museum of Natural History

Central Park West at 79th Street

New York, New York 10024

Voice: +1 (212) 769-5913

Fax: +1 (212) 769-5007
 
Home » About Us » Board of Directors
tyson-neil_t233.jpg

Neil deGrasse Tyson
Astrophysicist and Director, Hayden Planetarium,
American Museum of Natural History
 
Contacting NASA

Use these sites to drill down to the contact information for the department you are interested in.

About Us - People Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board's Homepage AIAA Home Page AMSAT - The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation Ancient Observatories | Educators | K-5 Lesson Plans ARRLWeb: ARISS: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station California Institute of Technology CEOSR_Cover CET: Classroom of the Future program Earth Science: Global Change Master Directory Web Site Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Engineering Design Challenge GRIN HSF - International Space Station HSF - STS-114 Human Space Flight (HSF) - FAQs Imagine Mars: Getting Started JPL Missions Mars Exploration: Home MSFC ISO 9000 Home Page NASA - Archive NASA - Exploration Systems - Home NASA - Fellowships and Grants NASA - For Educators (K-4) - Multimedia NASA - Home LoBandWidth NASA - HomeHiSpd NASA - Missions - Highlights NASA - Missions - Timeline NASA - NASA TV Landing Page NASA - Popular Topics NASA - RSS Feeds NASA - Space Research NASA - Space Science - Home NASA - Space Science - Where to Ask Questions NASA - Welcome NASA ADS: ADS Home Page NASA Ames Research Center OpenSource NASA Celestia Guided Activity NASA CORE - Central Operation of Resources for Educators NASA Dryden Flight Research Center NASA Dryden: Research Aircraft Collection NASA Earth Observatory NASA Glenn Research Center Homepage NASA Headquarters NASA History Office NASA Human Space Flight NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas NASA KIDS - a nasa site dedicated to kids - Kids of all ages! NASA Office of Inspector General--Home Page NASA Quest > Main page NASA Space Science Education Resource Directory NASA Spacelink - An Aeronautics & Space Resource for Education NASA Tech Briefs NASA TechFinder - Bringing Technology from NASA to the Marketplace NASA World Wind NASA/ESA Hubble NASA's Langley Research Center NASA's Learning Technologies Project NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center NASA's Stennis Space Center NODIS NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server Office of Personnel Management Site Index Office of Space Operations Planetary Photojournal PSA Education Page Re-Living the Wright Way -- NASA Robin Whirlybird on her Rotorcraft Adventures S.O.N. | Sunspotters | From Students Search Southeast SATS Lab - What is SATS? Space Foundation space news spinoff The NASA SCIence Files™ TiiMS-Texas Institute of Intelligent Bio-Nano Materials and Structures for Aerospace Vehicles U.S. Centennial of Flight Home Page University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program Welcome to NASA's Vision Welcome to StenniSphere!
 
sfc_banner.gif

Succeed in Understanding Physics by Ron Kurtus - School for Champions
Physics
The purpose of these free online lessons is to give you a start at improving your scientific knowledge of physics that will help you become a champion in the field. If you have any questions, send me an email.

Physical Science consists of the studies of Astronomy, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science (coming soon). It is concerned with physical properties of objects, as opposed to the study of the characteristics of living things, as done in the Life Sciences.
Succeed in Understanding Physical Science by Ron Kurtus - School for Champions
The purpose of these free online lessons is to give you a start at improving your scientific knowledge to help you become a champion in the field. If you have any questions, send me an email.

 
Human Knowledge: Foundations and Limits
By Brian Holtz. This text, freely redistributable as html, PDF, eBook, or ascii, is
memeware: if you find your copy useful, please propagate it.
Cover: Human Knowledge: Foundations and Limits

  • How did the universe begin? How will it end? What laws govern it? Why are those laws as they are?
  • How old is the universe? How big is it? What happened before the Big Bang? Does the universe have a center? An edge? What is the universe expanding into?
  • What is life? How did life arise? What explains its complexity?
  • Is there life and intelligence beyond earth?
  • How do politics and economics work? What system is best?
  • How and why do men and women behave differently?
  • How and why have human civilizations developed differently?
This evolving hypertext is a systematic statement of what humanity does and does not know, and can and cannot know, about the answers to these and hundreds of other such questions. It summarizes what human civilization has learned, identifying for each subdivision of human knowledge its fundamental concepts, principles, mysteries, and misunderstandings. It asserts a worldview of scientific positivism and libertarian capitalism that it predicts will guide future human thought and action.

Last updated 2005-06-09 Site statistics

Old But Interesting
 
First Email - No reply expected:
To the Manifestation of the Universe known as Neil deGrasse Tyson

I said:
Dr. Tyson,
I am conducting an experiment concerning the personability of scientists. As a member of the CoolSciFi community https://coolscifi.com/
I wrote the following concerning you.
https://coolscifi.com/threads/scientist-you-would-most-want-to-talk-with.57744/#post-1794259
Lets keep this between us for obvious reasons.
~~QUOTE~~
Now, Back to the topic,
Which Scientist You Would 'Most' Want To Talk With?

For me, put me in a room with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. Disconnect the phones and secure the room. No specific topic would be needed - just see where our conversation leads. I respect his views not because of his title or his education but because he is able to convey complex ideas in simple terms with enthusiasm. His personality strikes me as someone that might listen to an idea and then give it consideration. He would explain why some idea would or wouldn't work without being an ass about it.
If you presented a new possibility - I feel he would consider that to be a 'New Road' and not an assault on his pride. Scientists tend to think inside the box. They only want to consider things that are inside the box. Mr., Dr, Professor Tyson just strikes me as someone able to use the box to stand on instead of sit in.

I'm not too fond of Bill Nye, Michio Kaku or Lawrence Krauss. To me they give the air of stuffy, stagnant, prideful big-heads. Even Stephen Hawking is locked into his own belief systems to the point he restricts open thinking that might one day prove him wrong. Now, Don't get me wrong, These people are brilliant thinkers but they are restrictive 'in the box' thinkers. ~~end quote~~
~~Another quote~~
Even the short quips I write about in the 'Describe Something Scifi' thread might be interesting to a creative thinking scientist like Tyson or Dawkins. Not as what I wrote but in the essence of the ideas that that what was written imply.
Over the next few weeks, I might make it a goal to contact various scientists to share my thoughts with. For every email I will give a quote from my own posts here at CoolSciFi and a link-back to the thread.
What might I get out of this?
I think it would be REALLY COOL SCIFI if one or more of these scientists joined our community and started posting insight and speculation for us to ponder. ~~end quote~~
~~Quote~~
Now, I know that most of these 'Faces' of science have very full plates and finding time to interact on a science fiction community website may not be practical. (They are also restricted to a 24 hour day)
The 'What If' that drives me dictates that I at least try. ~~end quote~~
~~Final Quote~~
Over my life I've emailed many scientists to attempt to start conversations. I have received a few replies and I wish I had kept those to share with you now.
I've always been a unique thinker and I have a theory that makes any unique thinking a possibly rich resource. It goes like this:

There are billions of people on this planet and no two minds are alike. Scientists that are trained and disciplined have access to resources to expound on their theories. The little boy or girl in Brazil, the student in China or the Outback bushman from Australia may never have the opportunity or backing to explore their creativity. Scientists are picky eaters of knowledge. They like to argue and prove their points. My theory is that sometimes the semantics of 'science' blinds them to the possibilities. I believe that thinking paths can be influenced by random inputs.

To try to clarify;
Somewhere on this planet of billions of minds may lie the recipe for FTL travel. It may not be from a single individual or even as a FTL thought experiment. It may be one person's observation on how plants grow that opens the thought process to a new thinking track. The scientists racking their brains on some problem that opens up new lines of thinking because some McDonalds cashier says or does something that makes all the pieces fall together. It's not about assigning the 'credit' to the discovery but more about the awakening of considerations that were never considered.

I contact scientists not to show them how smart I think I am or to disprove what they work to prove. It's not about telling them 'how' but more about injecting new considerations into their thinking.

Back in my 30's I sent 40 emails to various NASA department heads. It was the same email detailing ideas on how to get people to Mars. The contents were around 10 paragraphs long and I addressed many different aspects of the trip in detail.
I came home from work one evening and my daughter, 12 yo at the time said she answered a call from some guy that said he was from NASA and she told him to stop prank calling. Back then I had no way to know who it was that called and they never called back.
A few years later I emailed the School For Champions about a question on the Higgs-Boson & Empty Space. The reply I got was not what I expected. The reply stated that the professionals at School For Champions cannot answer my question and they gave me a link to a video and the video speaker's contact email. I watched the two videos related and emailed Professor Kim Griest with my question. I was truly surprised when Mr. Griest emailed back a reply. ~~end quote~~

I don't expect a reply to this but please try to find time to look at CoolSciFi. There are a few of us that try to expand our thinking and being as it is a speculative animal we try to make it all work. It would be nice to have some opinions from the science community.
Thank you for your time
Tom.

....sending (filling out captcha)
Sent...
Notification said:
Your message has been sent.
 
Last edited:
Email #2 - No reply expected
Describe Something SciFi - Then Consider it for Science

I said:
Dr. Tyson, You are going to get a kick out of this...
https://coolscifi.com/threads/describe-something-scifi.48378/

>Highlights<
An exercise in creative writing. In a paragraph or three, describe something that fits into the Science Fiction genre. Something you made up yourself.

Some Subject ideas:
A futuristic weapon or weapon system
A planetary defense system
A spaceship or starship (Interior or Exterior)
Futuristic clothes
Scifi handhelds
Futuristic computing systems
Futuristic furniture or appliances
Areas of deep space - voids, nebulae or clusters
1st appearance of new planets or moons
Effects of stars with different attributes than the Sun
1st Sight of alien life
Describe an intelligent alien
A unique civilization
A unique society concept
The Effects of emerging from cryo-sleep
The Effects of Faster than Light travel
The Effects of high gravity on evolution
The Effects of low gravity on evolution
A habit of an alien culture (smoking, drinking, doing drugs, etc...)
Futuristic human habits
Futuristic human diseases/afflictions
A new use for an old item

Finally... Everything you write is yours. You may do as you please with any content you write yourself.

Short Story Ideas?

Aliens addicted to a device like people are addicted to phones...

A radical group that un-invents technology and the repercussions of such an event

Discovery of very high technology microbial life forms

Discovery of evidence of ancient advanced technology on Pluto or in the Oort Cloud

A response to the Voyager message as soon as it passes beyond the Heliopause. Realization that the Sun's shock boundary insulates us from heavy alien communication systems.

AI Singularity occurs by accident in a slacker's computer in his/her Mom's basement. Said AI saturates the entire planet.

The discovery and isolation of a solar wavelength that renders all power sources obsolete and its collector is a simple solar panel the size of your thumb.

The discovery of a vibration frequency that causes steerable dimensional vortexes that can be traveled.

The discovery of a gravity particle that can be manipulated.

Discovery of an enzyme in the deep ocean that instantly repairs body cells and cascades the effect.

What if Life as we know it is not Life as it really is?
For a moment, consider this:
Life may be a planetary force that is a single lifeform and all the plants, animals and germs are part of that as a whole instead of individual life forms.
What we think of as separate individuals are really nothing more than manifestations of a single living thing.

Considering that we are within the Universe and we think, feel and dream, Isn't it likely that the Universe thinks, feels and dreams? Is it aware of our sentience even tho we are not aware of its? I'm 53 Solar Cycles but the Universe is 14 billion years old or more. Given that much time and the uncertainty of Chaos, the Universe could be the supreme intelligent life form. All other life within it is just a manifestation of itself.

The Alien ship appeared in the center of the armada, pulsed once and disappeared again. I watched the horror unfold as the pulse radiated thru the fleet, jamming my control stick into a vertical dive to purchase safety from it.
The pulse passed thru the immediate ships effortlessly and continued out in a blossom of death. I watched in sadness as each ship slowly dissolved into atomic dust. The few ships that were able to maneuver from the horizontal radius of it streamed off in all directions like a swarm of bees.
There were some remaining ships that only partially escaped and they were dissolved in all manner of ways. Half-dissolved panels and structures littered space along with partially dissolved people.
The weapon they used was indefensible. It was some type of pulsing wave that destabilizes the atomic bonds that hold atoms together. Its edge cuts like a knife and the pulse wave scatters the elements that made the matter like a blast wave.
The only saving grace is that it radiates outward on a plane similar to a ripple in a pond and is only about a kilometer wide and dissipates in less than a minute. The biggest fear is we have no idea how to track the alien ships and the pulse recharge time is unknown.
Too small of an effect to endanger Earth but it would certainly split the moon.
Was this a small weapon or their largest?
Who are they and where are they from?
Are they heading for our Sol System?
Is there a defensive strategy?
How do we track their ships?

Too many questions, Too much death and destruction and this is but our first contact. (Higgs-Boson Manipulation?)

History will write that it was Mankind's first megastructure.
Poets and singers will tell the tale of the world's first cultural union.
People will forget the significance and accept it as a normal condition.
It's really quite remarkable...

The Filament is what its called.
Covering the entire planet is a tiny web of conductive nano structure mesh.
It absorbs energy in all forms. From sunlight to movement. Storing the energy within itself.
Energy that can be tapped with a simple RF-type signal.

No more fossil fuel, no more wind turbines, solar panels, batteries or power plants. No more wires, fuel tanks or collectors. No condensers or amplifiers and most important, no maintenance required.
At the sea floor, in the deepest trench to the highest peak of a mountain. A continual covering, absorbing, gathering and releasing. Stretching and growing along our changing planet surface.

Cortez One Probe
Mission:
Send back molecular signatures from the interstellar void.
Application:
Use the molecular signatures to construct molecules and elements found beyond the Solar Bow Shock Boundary.
Practical Applications:
Diarite - Elemental construct harder than natural diamonds but silicon based
Pheophren - Blood additive that carries more oxygen
Triazatine - Additive that makes carbon nano-tubes mutable
Aminoblyte - Genetic absorptive that renders all genetic switches turned on
Many, many more...
Duration:
Fission powered mechanically indefinite lifespan. Funded by marketing of new materials and patents.
Controlling Institution:
UWSA - United World Space Authority

Ketchup - Who Knew?
Back in the early years of the 21st Century mankind was helpless against the effects of cosmic rays.
All until a simple space accident by hungry astronaut.
Randy Boudir haphazardly sprayed a packet of Ketchup onto a cosmic ray detector in the old ISS.
He hurriedly commenced to clean up that awful red mess from the sensor and noticed it had stopped registering any cosmic rays. As he wiped the mess away, the detector once again started spurting forth data.
On a hunch, Randy spread more ketchup onto the detector and it went eerily silent again. A simple swipe confirmed his discovery.
Next time you take your trip to one of the outer planets just remember that its only a thin film of ketchup that protects you from a relentless shower of deadly cosmic rays.
Thanx Randy!

PPBs
Personal Plastic Bottles
Nobody remembers how this got started but it is a mega world-wide business now.
It seems humans have adopted a need to carry around their own personal plastic bottle. Some are filled with liquid, some with material and some are empty but everyone carries one.
About the size of a standard 16oz drink bottle they range in color and contents to match each person's personal preference. It's kinda like those old cell phones everyone had to have. I guess when the ocular implants became the communication mainstay they opted for something else to carry around.
I have my own PPB (who doesn't) but it's just not that important for me to always have it in my possession. I've seen people really freak out if they misplace theirs.
Silly Humans...

Deep within the Earth's crust there are a series of fabricated shells of super density. Our hardest drill bits have no bite on that mysterious substance.
It wasn't until the late 21st Century that we discovered the true nature of these constructs.
During the early days of life on this planet all life was anaerobic. These life forms exhaled oxygen and polluted the atmosphere making it deadly to them. They moved underground to escape the hostile oxygen levels.
Over the eons these life forms became sentient and grew. Their scientists mastered the elements and created these huge shells as an airless habitat so they could flourish.
Three Billion Years of evolution resulted in a lifeform that is superior to the surface dwellers in every way.
Now, They want their planet back...

The Sculptor Void
Wormhole Leo1263b opened mankind to new galaxies late in the 31st century. After establishing commercial trade routes and habitat worlds were found we expanded like locusts. Leo1263b had been stable for the last 2000 years according to our historical records. All that changed 73 solar days ago when the wormhole lost stability. Over 1,000 vessels were lost and billions of souls were stranded in the Leo Supercluster. No hope of ever returning or even contacting our empire.
Our end of the wormhole remains stationary but the other end materialized in the Great Sculptor Void.
Probes sent to find the lost ships actually found them, frozen and dead. From the data we received from the probes, before they too went dead, indicated an intelligent force within the Void. A hostile intelligent force.
Their ships emerged into our space shortly after our last probe went silent. Huge black balls with no indications, lights or propulsion method visible. Their attack was strange. According to recordings salvaged later, the huge spheres released a flotilla of pitch black orbs that absorbed all the energy of the ships and crews. We found the ships and everything aboard them completely frozen.
No sign of the strange ship or the mysterious black orbs can be found. It is believed they returned to the Void and the wormhole remains stable. Our scientists are working on a defense for the energy depletion weapon but so far every attempt involves using energy which will just give them more of what they steal.
Back in the 19th Century mankind used projectile weapons. Our weapons currently vaporize their targets using high energy discharges. They are completely futile against this enemy. Projectiles carry kinetic energy which may or may not make them vulnerable to the enemy's absorption spheres. Tests are being made to try freezing the projectiles to near absolute zero in hopes of a stealth impact.
Zycroptionium (once called Dark Matter) may be a defense or a shield since it has properties similar to their orbs. Zy blocks the transference of energy like an inert mass. It neither absorbs or radiates energy. In fact, the enemy's ships appear to be made of it or something similar. Work is currently being done to find a way to coat our ships and the new projectile weapons with Zycroptionium. Zy is expensive and difficult to extract but it can be synthesized. The problem is that the synthesizing process creates a massive energy signature that is sure to be a bright glowing target for the enemy.
We just got notified that Leo1263b is now active. Probe telemetry shows two ships emerging...wait 16..no, 60! My GOD! Its a steady flow and not slowing! 1000, 2600, 4000...

Cell Theory
We thought we knew about plants. We were so wrong.
When Professor March devised a way to increase the sensitivity and speed of his galvanic sensors it was a minor scientific accomplishment. When he hooked them up to a Ficus he expected nothing more than just a bit more response signal. His discovery changed our very way of life.
During his test of the new configuration he externally stimulated different parts of the plant and recorded the results. What he didn't expect was results before the stimulus. The plant was anticipating.
The anticipation was not the only change his detector revealed. The plant was communicating. Communication so subtle and so fast that no detector had ever captured it.
On a whim, Professor March hooked the sensors up to a severed cell and found that not only was the communication happening, it was happening at the cellular level.
The Ficus was subjected to a series of stimuli that defined a yes or no answer. It was tested for prime number logic and not only did it learn quickly it was very good at it.
A Turing test was devised to determine if it had consciousness. The Ficus passed.
Professor March put together a team and started testing random plants the same way. They determined that all plants are conscious and intelligent. Work continues as the team attempts to teach the plants our language. Their response signals are so fast they are able to flash off alphabetical representations of letters with incredible speed. The team have dubbed this ability as "Cellular Response Typing".

The 'Side Effect'
Its been 3 generations since the medical nanites were made mandatory. People stopped dying. Even if someone were to be decapitated simply placing their head near their body initiated auto repair. Children still grew into adults but stopped aging at their physical prime. Below is some of the unexpected side effects of this wonderful technology.
Bathrooms became obsolete.
The nanites break down body waste into its atomic components and reuses the atoms to maintain the body. Houses and buildings started being built without toilet facilities and many older homes had theirs removed.
Medical facilities became obsolete.
Nobody ever got sick anymore. Injuries were healed or prevented by the nanites immediately. Schools and universities closed worldwide. Pharmaceutical companies closed down and there was no need for doctors, nurses or and support personnel.
Funeral homes & cemeteries became obsolete.
Since nobody was dying anymore, there was no need for burial facilities.
Riskier lifestyles became the norm.
Since nanites controlled the pain threshold and make instantaneous body repairs, people were able to perform death defying acts on a regular basis. Personal protection devices and methods became obsolete. Not only could someone walk into a burning building they could jump from an airplane without a chute and work in space without a suit. Volcanologists would drink a solution and the nanites formed a heat barrier around their bodies allowing them to stand in volcano magma.
Reproduction became an lucrative business.
For two people to reproduce, both had to have the nanites reprogrammed to allow their bodies to manufacture the sperm & eggs. Worldwide population growth slowed to a trickle. Children were born with their own nanites and pregnancy only lasted for 5 months. Regional reprogramming facilities sprang up and prospered from the costs.
Explosion of arts.
With longer life came an increase in artistic talent. From drawing to dancing, expressionism became the new drive in people's lives. Great display halls were built and the music recording business failed. Each region had an army of performers that toured to represent them. World domination switched from a power base to a talent base. It was a great honor to be chosen to represent your region and it became the most coveted job in the world.
Explosion of technology.
With the increased creativity there was also a technology explosion. Space and ocean based facilities sprang up at an incredible rate. The Moon and Mars were populated and a new base is being built on Titan supported by the Jupiter/Saturn Mining Corporation. A great space port was constructed at the equator in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Cities sprang up in Antarctica and on the North Pole. High speed magnetic transportation systems were built that allowed worldwide travel in hours.
Personal farming became the standard.
Since the nanites only needed raw materials and very little of those, there was no need for a large food supply. People started eating once per month. Kitchens were removed from homes. Restaurants and grocery stores became obsolete. The nanites in saliva allowed you to consume anything your body needed by just placing your mouth against it. Don't worry, human nanites have protection protocols so you can still kiss your honey.
Wars became obsolete.
Since bodies heal instantaneously war and assaults no longer had any affect. Nanites could morph your body to form a hard protective shell or separate your parts to avoid excessive damage. The world's military forces were disbanded. Weapons were recycled.
Prisons became obsolete.
Using the reprogramming industry, deviant behavior was reprogrammed. Brain damage was repaired and personality disorders were diagnosed and therapy became the new society measure. Huge institutions grew worldwide and each community had their own team of therapists.
Religions became obsolete.
Aside from the few that chose to keep their religions there was no longer a reason to believe in an afterlife. Churches closed and all the drama, fighting and racism related to the opposing views died shortly after. People became content with life and pursued active productive lifestyles in harmony.
The world population is 9,864,799,331. There are 161,800 on the Moon and 78,064 on Mars. Another 50,270 in the outer reaches. We average 700 new souls per year and ZERO deaths.

They're Not Here For Us

Our scientists never detected it until it was as close as Jupiter and slowing down. Strangely, It was coming in above the Solar Plane directly over the Sun. I guess we just weren't looking in the right direction. I mean, It was huge! Estimated to be one quarter the mass of the Sun. So huge that before long you could see it plainly in the daylight sky. It stopped advancing around the distance between Mercury and Venus but directly over the Sun.
The world gazed up at this intruder with frightful eyes. The shining bright rectangle to the east of our familiar star. For 3 weeks mankind questioned its purpose? Its origin? Some people hid in caves and underground shelters. Others went mad with fear. The scientific community agreed that a probe of some type must be launched to gather information on our new huge celestial partner. Eight months later, due to a worldwide pooling of resources the people of planet Earth readied the launch of our mechanical emissary.
The mission would take 4 years to get to the vicinity of the object. We gathered all the information we could with our ground and orbit based instruments. The only thing left was an up close and personal encounter. Eighteen months into the trip the craft went silent. It was still on its way but it was no longer sending back any data at all. Shortly after that the object started to change. You didn't need instruments to see what was happening, all it took was a look in the daylight sky.
You could see that the object was a sorta rectangle box and it was spinning slowly on its axis with the Sun. When the change started it looked like huge flower petals were opening on both ends. It resembled a huge glowing barbell in the sky. The petals opened for 23 days, extending out like a satellite dish on each end. Once both ends were open it stopped moving. What we had was the Sun with a huge glowing dumbbell beside it. Our visitor remained fixed for the next 144 days. Then all hell broke loose.
Suddenly, with no indication of an energy buildup or change in appearance, a huge beam of energy erupted from the end farthest from the Sun. It shot out into the Universe with incredible ferocity. The beam stayed on for 6 full months and it could be seen not only during the day but at night as well. Lighting up our atmosphere in a bright glow. Night turned almost day-like. Then as quickly as it started, it stopped. For the next 31 months it just remained with its barbells extended. Suddenly one day it closed back up.
Sixteen days after it closed our spacecraft started transmitting again. The pictures that were returned showed a giant rectangular box like thing with no indications of structures on the surface. It was smooth. The scientific communities worldwide analyzed the incoming data. It had signatures from the deepest detectable infrared to the fasted gamma. From the data, this thing was hotter than the Sun!
Five months later it changed yet again. This time, like last time, our spacecraft went silent but this time it opened in its midsection. Great spires erupted in all directions. They grew to different sizes at a multitude of angles. The sight in the sky resembled a spike ball with two boxes on either end. The spires grew for 46 days and stopped. Twenty three days later it pulsed something and a cloud could be seen dissipating around it.
The object hit the Earth at the equator in the Pacific Ocean. There was no sound, no shock-wave. Hell, you didn't even see it. It was Doppler that picked it up. Choppers were sent to investigate the area and the found a 2 meter hole in the ocean. The hole didn't refill with water? What the...? A probe was released into the hole and right before it crushed from the pressure it sent back data that there was a solid object located some 300 miles into the Earth. Shortly after that an intense bright beam emitted from the hole and the water closed back in.
The object beside the Sun then closed back up. It left our system shortly after that. Did they try to contact us? What is that object buried so deep in our planet? What does this all mean? During the next year there was great speculation on the strange visitor and the thing they put in the planet. We learned something very important exactly one year to the second from the day that object came to Earth.
One year, to the second, the object emitted a high end gamma pulse directed to the same spot where the Sun's strange companion was at. Its been 30 years since that first pulse but every year, on the second, it pulses again. We have now detected other pulses from celestial bodies in our Solar System as well. The Moon has its own pulse interval as does Venus and all the other planets, moons, asteroids and comets. We have tracked back on the pulses and have discovered millions of new bodies in our system. Asteroids with moons that have moons, comets that have never been detected because they are so distant and infrequent, even Pluto sized planetoids far out in the Oort Cloud. Everything and I do mean everything natural in our Solar System has a gamma signature being directed to that spot.
Our spacecraft, the one we sent so long ago to find out what our visitor was, well it sent back data that there is an object at the very spot where the huge object was. Right above the Sun. The Gamma beams reflect off that object and out into deep space.
The people of Earth are sure they are not alone. The best guess is that our Solar System has been mapped by some outside force. They didn't come to meet us. Its just a mapping program for some Universe Encyclopedia or something. I wonder if we will get tourists?

"We Are The Universe Trying To Figure Itself Out"

Thank You for reading
Tom

Captcha entry
Sent...
 
3rd Email
God and Our Cherished Delusions - A Connection or a Delusion?

I said:
Hi again Dr. Tyson,
I hope you are finding these entertaining but also thoughtful.

This posting resulted in no responses but I think people are just afraid to comment.

I Wrote:

GOD
Was first and will be the last
Created Everything
Is in everything
Is all powerful
Is All Knowing

YUP!

The UNIVERSE
Is the first thing and will be the last
When it came to be everything that could be created is or was created
Everything ever created is part of the universe
The laws governing the Universe is absolute
Every reality, imagination and belief is the Universe trying to understand itself.

YUP!

You, Me and every other living thing in existence is part of the Universe. Not a separate part but the Universe itself. From the smallest quantum particle to the largest super-cluster of galaxies its all part of the Universe. Everything that happens, is thought or believed is the Universe doing so.

When someone believes there are ghosts, the Universe is believing there are ghosts. Our Dreams are the Universe dreaming. Our Songs are the Universe singing. Our Fears are the Universe fearing. Everything everywhere is the Universe experiencing existence.

Our common delusion is that we are separate from the Universe. We are somehow not "in" it. Our minds refuse to acknowledge this one simple common fact. The Universe is continuing to expand. It is expanding not only in occupied space and matter it is expanding in belief and learning. It is aware of itself because We are aware of it.

Everytime one of us has an idea, a belief or imagine something, the Universe expands to encompass it. The Universe is not just a physical conglomeration of matter, it extends into the concept of the paranormal, psychic and religious beliefs.

Mankind believes the Universe to be about 14 billion years old. We may be wrong but given the evidence so deduced and discovered I think its pretty accurate. It's also believed by observation that it is still growing. It is expanding in all directions at once filling the void that is not Universe. One of those voids is the imagination.

There are things that the Universe can not do. It can not go outside itself. Let me explain. If you try to imagine yourself outside of the Universe. Being part of the Universe the Universe has tried to imagine itself outside of itself. By doing so, the Universe has created an area beyond itself and has therefore expanded to create it.

Is the Universe alive? Well, yes, It is. Life is within the Universe so the Universe is alive. Is Death the end of the Universe? NO. When something dies, wheter it be a particle, a star, a plant or you, The energy is redirected back into the Universe. The essence of you being is reunited with the essence of the Universe.

I watched a segment of The Universe on TV that explained a theory that everything that can be imagined will happen eventually over the life of the Universe. From werewolves to space invaders. It may be billions of years in the future or billions of years in the past.

I'm not attempting to persuade anyone of a belief system. I'm not saying any specific religion or thoughts are wrong. This is my own attempt to make sense of God and Science. Unlike so many people, I can see the connection. I'm just trying to share what I see.

Thanx for reading.
I would love to see some discussion...

Thank You for Reading
Tom

Sent...
 
Notification said:
You cannot send more than 3 messages per hour. Please try again later.

Unfortunately, due to high volume, we cannot reply to messages left in this mailbox. We always appreciate hearing from you and thank you for your understanding.
 
Todays email,

Energy, Time & Gravity - A Reference of View

I said:
Hi Dr. Tyson,
Going to try to give you something to read today as well. https://coolscifi.com/threads/the-energy-discussion.57681/
~~Quote~~
Anyone that knows me knows that I am just a mechanic. You also know I think in very strange ways.
Lately my mind has been occupied with the concept of Energy. I have some concepts, queries & observations to make that I feel might be worthy of some discussion. It will be interesting to see where this leads if it leads anywhere.

Energy may be the source of probability dimensions. Follow me as I try to explain this complex thought.

You have a point.
.
I don't recall if the point is one dimensional or zero dimensional but there is a theory of Zero Point Energy.
Feel free to look it up.
Now, this point-
.
tiny as it might be, is also locked to relativity. If you were at a certain scale close enough to this point it might look like a sphere. I'm talking extremely tiny.
Now take this point (Lets say it is a point of energy), the smallest base unit of energy.
If you place an imaginary line thru the center of such a point and bisect it. You now have something radiating from it at what now becomes two ends, Lets say a top and bottom. Now, you bisect the point 90 degrees from the last point and what you get is a plus sign.
+
You continue to bisect the point at angles until you have a star pattern.
Now since this is a point, You turn the reference to the side 90 degrees and do the same thing.
Now, you have a 3 dimensional star.
If you continue to turn the reference and bisect soon you have a dot.
A sphere that has no more room for more bisections.
But if you move the reference of relativity to a larger point of reference you now are back to a point with things poking out in all directions. Since all lines are at right angles to the center the farther you look away from the center the more room there is for more bisections. So instead of the point only being able to be bisected 36,000 times there is now room to bisect the bisections. Again, each one equally bisecting the arcs. As your view moves larger, more macroscopic even more bisections are possible. Soon you are bisecting at the pico-second of an arc. As your view expands so does the ability to bisect. These lines could be said to extend to infinities. Lets not get stuck on infinity because infinity is difficult to comprehend.
In this fuzzy creation, at the center, is still the point.

I think that Energy in its smallest manifestation is a point. The fuzzy bisecting lines we just imagined are the essence of the point radiating outward.
The same inference can be done with gravity. If gravity were a point.
So what do we have. We have a fuzzy point that exists in such a relativity that it fills even the empty pace between atomic components.
You place such a point beside another such point. Then add another and another and keep adding points along a trajectory and soon you have a line -
_
But, the Universe is not a flat 2 dimensional place. You need to do the same thing with the line as you did with the point. Now you have two lines of points that look like
+ again. Adding more lines in all directions and soon all the places you can reference is filled with points.
We can't reference these points because they are at such a scale that any observing method is distorted by its own composition of points. There is no area of pristine emptiness needed to isolate the detection. Imagine trying to use your camera to take a picture but it is so sensitive that the exposure not only sees the lens but the air between the lens and the detector. Not to mention the surface of the detector itself.
A computer, given the correct physics and relativity data might be able to simulate such a sight. I don't know.

At the scale I am referring to the Higgs Field is huge. The Higgs Boson consists of a cluster of these points. Between these bosons are even more points, one right next to the other on all possible sides. These points of energy are living and dying relatively instantly. It 'looks' like they are percolating. They have bonding actions that stabilize into particles and that bond and stabilize into matter.
All matter everywhere, from quarks to galactic super-clusters are composed of these points of energy.

In string theory, the string vibrates from the percolation of the lifespan of the points that comprise the string.

Taking this consideration we can apply the point scenario to probability.
You have Time as a point.
For every point there are emanations of probable outcomes and improbable outcomes for each one. Around the time point are other time points that are based on that angle of probability. Time becomes non-linear and becomes a cluster which fills all possible angles from every possible point. Our minds can't handle the overload so we only acknowledge specific paths of those points. That path zig-zags at different probability angles within the time dimension. The pathways we acknowledge are of such minute deviation time seems to flow in a line to us.
The relativity scale we can comprehend is in the macro. We think our decisions are what propagates our timeline but the propagation occurs far below and far faster than we can acknowledge.
Example: You comb your hair one way and your day unfolds a certain way.
At the relativity scale I refer to, You might not have any hair, you might have hair but in one probability there is an extra atom in one of those hairs. This is even a macro scenario. Perhaps the energy percolation in between the leptons inside the atoms of one of those hair is slightly different. This opens an infinity of probabilities that implies an infinity of dimensions.

I know if you are still reading you are laughing but stay with me.
This point reality (? name needed) is true within the Universe's macro scale as well. Here is where the depiction in science is faulty in my opinion.
In describing the gravity of mass in the space-time fabric it gets shown as a blanket type thing with boxes drawn on it. You have stars and planets depicted as sitting in these gravity pockets that interact with other masses near them. They show Black Holes as deep funnels in this representation. I always find these graphics misleading. Like our point of energy, our point of time and now the point of gravity, the fabric should be shown to affect space-time at all possible angles from the point. According to the popular gravity well graphic - only one bisection is shown where in what I understand about gravity. It exerts itself in all directions.
Okay, you say "But the planets are circling the Sun in a disk shape" The disk shape of the debris that resulted in our Solar System is from the accretion process that formed the system. The gravity of our star is the same above it as it is on the side but there is no mass above or below it that can be influenced by it. If mass were to become available at those angles we would see the same type of pattern we see only as a single disk right now.
The Black Hole shows up as an accretion disk because the matter falling into it is in a disk. The gravity is the same in all angles but the debris is only present at certain angles. Gravity is not one sided. It is a point.

So, you are reading this and thinking "What does this have to do with science fiction?"

Orientation
Any point no matter its relative size can be approached at any angle.
Reference
Any point approached gets assigned a top and bottom according to how it is referenced

If you approach a galaxy from afar and as you get closer you see it as standing on its edge. When you reach that galaxy you orientate your view to a familiar point of view that allows you to make sense of what you see.
You assign it a top and bottom. Left and right. We do this when we reference our Sun everyday.
Our maps are drawn to establish our planet as a top and bottom with north, south east and west.
In reality, most of us are seeing the Sun to the side yet we think it is above us. We think north is the top of our planet because we have been trained to see it that way. In science fiction, all these references decrease the plausibility of the story. Imagine if you came to Earth and it was from above the solar plane. You would see the plane rotating in one direction. From below the Solar plane you would see it rotating the opposite direction. If you came to it from the edge it might appear to be rotating upward or downward depending on your orientation.
Energy, time and gravity points are like this view. At all possible angles.

Okay, sorry. My brain just locked up. Perhaps I will be able to add more later.
I ask, for discussion purposes, What are your thoughts?
Does this make sense?
Is it pure fantasy?
Is it possibly true?
Can anything or has anything I mention been or currently being tested?

~~Different Post/same thread~~
Questions/Thoughts
1. Is Planck Units the smallest known measurement of Energy?
In physics, Planck energy, denoted by E P, is the unit of energy in the system of natural units known as Planck units. where c is the speed of light in a vacuum, ћ is the reduced Planck's constant, and G is the gravitational constant. ~ Wiki
I know that energy is measured in Joules but how much energy is in one joule?

2. At Absolute Zero (the cessation of all movement at the atomic level) does energy still exist?
True Absolute Zero is commonly referred to as Singularity. It only exists as a theory. Our current science can get really close to True Absolute Zero but have yet to attain it.

3. Theoretical AZ would be no movement at all. If atomically all movement is stopped, does that include stopping the Universe's vibration cycle as well? If I recall correctly this concept was explored in an episode of Star Trek? Could changing or stopping the Universal Frequency of the Universe move that particle out of reality and into another dimension?

4. I have read that thoughts, feelings, will & desire have a frequency to them. In my mind, frequency being movement and movement being energy it makes me think that Thoughts are composed of energy. Being composed of Energy, wouldn't thoughts be measurable and mutable? Broken down to pure Energy, might thoughts be considered a Force?
What we call our Soul might be broken down to Energy as a packet? Since that Energy is within the boundaries of our Universe those packets vibrate at the Universal Frequency as well. Energy cannot be created or destroyed according to our current levels of understanding. Given that the Universe is entirely composed of Energy in one form or another and the baseline frequency locks the energy to this plane, when we die, wouldn't our packets of 'Soul Energy' release back to the aether? This indicates that 'We' are 'One' with the Universe.

5. On a different note ~ Quantumly, a personality might be transported/manipulated by technology. In Quantum technology, observing changes it? I think they call this phenomena 'Spooky'. Actual science has been documented proving it can be done. I don't know the details but I ponder a possibility...
If Soul Energy exists (I believe it does), might technology one day be developed that allows it to be 'Observed and Manipulated' before it renders back into the Universe?
This is not a new idea, Soul displacement travel has been done many times in Science Fiction. What I am implying is real science and actually doing it. Granted, the source body would have to die.
In actual experiments of Quantum Teleporting I believe they require a source destination for the information being sent. That would inhibit trying to use that technology to explore the Universe. The development of Quantum Computers might actually make limited 'Soul Transference' a reality.
~~End Quotes~~

Now, You are probably thinking I am on some serious drugs. I'm not but I do think differently than most people I know. Just for a moment, give it some thought.

I've been watching some of your recent lectures on youtube. I find the facts interesting and your speculation enlightening.

Thank You for taking the time to read my speculation.
Tom

Sent...
 
Another one sent...
He probably thinks I'm a kook = Oh well...
My Pursuit of Discussion - Sample My Insanity
i said:
Hello Dr. Tyson!
I'm looking at my contributions to CoolSciFi.com and I find tidbits of discussions that you might find fun.
Remember that I believe random thought paths lead to new discoveries so I offer up some of my randomness. If only one thing I write leads to some new way of thinking or some hidden consideration all will be justified in my book.
Well, Here goes...
~~~***~~~
Space Battles: Lasers or Projectiles
https://coolscifi.com/threads/space-battles-lasers-or-projectiles.48583/page-2

A few years ago I read an article about what the best space ship would be like. The article was slanted toward propulsion systems and only briefly touched on weapons. In that article the best possible design of a space ship was reasoned to be a sphere with propulsion covering it. Space is a near vacuum and micro-gravity. You can't bank in space. There is nothing to bank against.

Using this realization, Projectile weapons being fired would play havoc with attitude control. Newton's 3rd Law states "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." There would need to be some kind of Mass Compensator to nullify the projectile's launch reaction. Using this as a guideline, Lasers would be the most efficient weapon.

With a spherical propulsion system, a really fast computer and plenty of fuel, a weapons/tactical station could fire a simultaneous burst of propulsion from the opposite side of the craft nullifying the reaction mass of the projectile launch. The calculations could not be done manually because proximity of objects on the stabilizing side would affect the amount of propulsion needed.
If you fired a round(s) while alongside another ship, not only would you blast off from the ship you are protecting, the ship you stabilized against would also deflect. Your counter propulsion would need to be reduced from what it would be if alone in space.

Laser firing would also be a complex maneuver. Photons have mass as well. The mass is tiny compared to a bullet but it is mass all the same. Targeting a laser on a moving target in the same spot will take a tremendous amount of calculations in the propulsion systems attitude controls. Currently (as far as I know) lasers operate by using heat to burn thru a material. They do not actively punch into it - the process takes time. Time on target on a moving target from a moving source. Not only is there lateral movement there is also radial movement that will need to be compensated for in targeting.

A projectile weapon can also be used as a proximity weapon. If an explosive charge is detonated in the vicinity of a craft that is near other crafts the reaction against the craft can cause it to collide with anything nearby. In those types of battles, a Defensive propulsion protocol would be needed. In a heated battle the computer systems of both the offensive and defensive ships would be severely tasked. In my opinion, battles would be long and drawn out with very few shots fired. You wouldn't see all out, fierce exchanges like in movies.

Plus remember this. If you are moving at 900 mph and you fire a weapon lateral to your direction of travel, your ship is going to veer away from path at 900 mph. Without considering compensation of reaction mass you go into a spin or a spiral. Even small fighters would need massive computing power to be effective.
~~~***~~~
for every particle a laser reflects from the beam strength is diminished by the loss of those photons
~~~***~~~
You have this big box of vacuum with the same microgravity in it as you find in space.

Floating in the center is a gun. It fires and the bullet moves one way and the gun the other, all away from the explosion in the middle.

Now there is a rail-gun floating. The mass of the bullet is far less than the mass of the gun.
It fires and the bullet moves faster than the gun but both move because the magnetic repulsion that fires the bullet also fires the gun.

Now there is a powerful flashlight floating. You activate the beam and it continues to float unchanged. What you don't see is the beam end is getting slightly hotter than the battery end. Over time the beam end expands against the cooler battery end and there is movement. Lasers are extreme flashlights. Conditions in space are extreme temperature variations. Firing a laser would be the least costly in mass compensation but it would still need some stabilization.
~~~***~~~
Navy ships still have much more resistance than space ships. Keels and thrusters keep the straight-line course.
Water and air are thick substances compared to vacuum. The technology currently exists to maintain a target with mounted gyros and computer controls to make accuracy possible. Buoyancy features of the ship's design prevent rollover to a degree that can be compensated for.
As cool looking as Space Battleship Yamato is, The physics of a real space battle would send it spinning uncontrolled thru space. The stabilizers on the keel, the deck and the aft sections would do absolutely nothing in space. Firing the forward or aft guns would make the whole ship tumble end for end in space even if fired in line with the ships hull. Firing them starboard or port would spin the ship on its ventral axis. Any combination of directional firing would have it flip flopping in any number of crazy spins.

On the lower picture of the seafaring Yamato you can see a keel stabilizer rail. Those rails, the width of the ship and the resistance of the water helps prevent roll over during side firing. In space there is no resistance. Those keel rails could be two hundred feet wide and have no affect at all.

On the upper picture if you follow the line of the gun barrel, firing would set that path to motion. Even if the ship was thrusting from its main engines firing the forward guns in straight-line as pictured would cause the ship to veer downward. The aft guns firing would veer the course upward.
The Borg Sphere is the closest I have found to the most effective Space Battleship design. Even it is not quite right for a battle. Not only would it need firing tubes all around it, those firing tubes would have to also double as counter thrust jets. Firing tubes would need to be stationary, using the sphere's attitude controls as targeting. If the firing tubes were gyro targeting a series of angled fires could set it to spinning wildly. That would call for some very serious computer power to stabilize.
The Borg use a pulse laser system of condensed photons. Our technology is far from that reality. Even if equipped with our best laser systems of the near future, this design would require serious computing power to maintain time on target. Radial and lateral drift of the sphere would have to be accounted for as well as target movement. Even with gyro mounted firing the lasers would need to be pulsed in a targeting sequence to keep the heat on the targeted point. It might look like a strobe moving around the sphere as the nozzles heat up cherry red to white hot. I think it would be a cool effect to see.
~~~***~~~
Blurring the Genres - Nanotechnology
https://coolscifi.com/threads/blurring-the-genres-nanotechnology.48323/
Nanotechnology is a real science that may someday become a practical application for everyone. Artificial Intelligence and Supercomputers are a reality that stands to open new doors for actual technology. With this in mind, lets take a look at our current genre categories and see how this new technology might blur the lines between science fiction, fantasy and horror.

With advanced nano-tech and nano-assemblers, we may be able to someday construct anything atom by atom. Gene splicing and embryo generation will be controlled at the atomic level. It is even reasonable to think that new amino acid strains might be developed creating new forms of life. The possibilities are endless when construction is in the atomic playground.

Imagine a world with a special room filled with Utility Fog and a supply of base material. You tell the AI controller what you want to create and in a few minutes, hours or days you have the fully rendered creation right there in front of you. Built atom by atom it is solid, real and if it is organic,very much 'alive'.

From the point of storytelling this scenario could merge the genres and morph it into its own genre. Based on expanded scientific theories it would be science fiction. But the story might explore creating a creature or a villain or a magical staff. What would you call a walking stick that is constructed of nanites and is controlled by a hidden control panel? With its own nano-AI you tap in a preset code and the nanites build a Balrog or create a personal force field. All you would need is a fancy robe and a pointy hat.

Imagine a world, a real future, 1000 years from now. I doubt it will take that long but just imagine for a minute that nanotechnology reaches its intended goal. Werewolves are real, anyone can build anything anytime. Force fields can be constructed and you can walk on the sea floor while a nanite force field holds back the water. People can live on the moon with nothing more than a nanite skin for protection. City ships are built from asteroid material and are traversing the galaxy with hundreds if not thousands of people asleep in a nano-constructed AI controlled stasis. Our bodies stay young and vital with lifespans that reach into millennium. We can heal instantly and morph our appendages at will into any structure we require. Using materials found within our solar system a habitat/energy collector encircles the Sun as we harness the power of a star. For entertainment we game in reality. Fighting monsters and creatures that have not even been dreamed of yet. Our dreams and nightmares materialize before us under our full control.

Atomic inspection of fossils allows us to recreate living extinct flora and fauna. Minute mineral differences are mapped and whole DNA chains are assembled by association. Baseline organic structures from other planets are expanded upon and mutated to create life from compounds found through-out the solar system. New plants and animals emerge. Mars is terraformed.

The possibilities stagger the mind and it is all based on current science.
Its like Stephen King writing Star Trek based on Wizards of the Coast.

I'm thinking Speculative Fiction has a long and interesting future.
~~~***~~~
Sent...
 
Exceeded the post word count - here is the rest of the email in postable segments - I sent the entire work as one email...

I also said:
Capturing The Soul at the Moment of Death
https://coolscifi.com/threads/capturing-the-soul-at-the-moment-of-death.57689/
Perhaps it is possible to detect and even contain the soul upon death. There are a few things that may be getting in the way and I think they are worthy of discussion.

Camera Speed:
Perhaps all we need is the right recording speed. Current high-speed cameras may be too slow to capture the phenomenon. A thousand frames per second may not be fast enough. Maybe we need Giga-Frames per second?
Resolution:
High-def and blue ray resolution may not be clear enough to isolate the photons of the image. The whole conversion process may occur only in detail comparable to neutrinos. Neutrinos can only be resolved by slowing them down in the substrate of the detector. Perhaps we need to create the proper substrate?
Timing:
This is a very complex concept that deserves extensive consideration. How long does it take and at what time during death does the soul actually leave?

Lets explore the act of dying and the reality of what actually happens.

Clinical Death:
At one time we 'believed' that death occurs when the body stops breathing. Our science has changed that time to when our brains stop functioning from lack of oxygen. I think it is safe to say we all understand that and accept it as the defining moment of death.
Body Death:
Anyone with any education in Biology knows that our body is made up of cells. We know that those cells are created, function and then die only to be replaced with new cells. When new cells are no longer being created the body dies.
Energy Depletion Death:
Energy cannot be created or destroyed. If you don't know that - Google it.
All matter in the Universe is created and composed of energy. Even the cells of your body are made of matter. That matter is also composed of energy. Even dead matter has energy.
Complete and utter death cannot happen as long as there is matter containing the energy that was you. Only when the last eruption of energy converts the final remaining matter has death truly occurred.

This brings me to a question about the soul.
Belief of the Soul:
Anyone alive senses the energy that makes up their bodies. We label that sense of energy the Soul.
Our perception of personality is how we accept the sense of soul. We 'feel' our body's energy and project that sensation as a center mass of self. When we witness death, we assume the soul has left that body to go somewhere else.
Reality of the Soul:
Nobody actually knows what the reality of the soul is. Our bodies shed dead cells through-out our lives but those cells are not sensed as they decay into base energy. Amputees that lose limbs do not sense their limbs as they decay. The sense of self is severed from the whole. In the case of amputees, they do sense phantoms of their limbs as if they were still attached. This aura of soul happens within the mind.

What is the Mind?:
The mind is a series of chemical reactions within our brains that control our bodies and shape our perceptions. Drugs, alcohol (which is a drug) and lobotomy changes the patterns of reactions inside our brains which changes our perceptions and body control. Our senses also change our perceptions of reality but our minds use experience and imagination to make sense of those changes. We substitute reality with belief so we can function.

To Prove the Soul is a Reality:
As I think on this it occurs to me that there is only one way to prove there is a soul after death. Proving this may open the door to methods to capture and possibly relocate it as an entity.
Here is what we need. What we need is not necessarily what we can do;
1. A willing, living subject ready to die.
2. A true void
- Not just a vacuum a complete void of energy. No light, no air, not protons per square centimeter. Absolute nothingness at absolute zero.
3. An inert recording device.
- This will prove to be the most difficult obstacle. A recording device constitutes mechanical moving parts. Inserting this device into a true void renders the void simulated not true. Absolute Zero is the cessation of all movement. Movement is heat - heat is energy. The device itself would introduce energy into the void that could contaminate the results.
For that matter, even the walls of the containment area might contain heat. Even the forces used to create a magnetic containment must have something to act upon. That bubble of containment would have an event horizon which would release energy.

Let's say we created something that serves our purposes. What might we see?
Isolated from all surrounding energy the person (the subject) would glow with energy being released as the body decays. With nothing to move to, that energy would be trapped around the body. As more energy is released by more decay the glow would get brighter and hotter. When the last bit of matter is converted to energy all that would remain is the energy that once was that person.
I hope you can follow me because this is where it gets really weird.
When the void is broken that energy gets released into the energy of the Universe. It explodes in a rapid release that saturates all matter in all directions. This is where your giga-frame per second camera comes into play. Up until you broke the void, every bit of energy that was that person is trapped. Even the soul.

Moving that energy void into a construct that can absorb the radiated energy entirely might also transfer the soul to that object.

I didn't say it would be easy - LOL
~~~***~~~
The Comet
https://coolscifi.com/threads/the-comet.57564/
When scientists detected a strange new comet entering the Solar System there was concern that it might impact the Earth. Computers churned out trajectory calculations and our new comet was going to miss us with a wonderful margin. On its first pass thru the inner planets it would impact the Sun and be gone. And it came to pass.

We recorded its flyby and the uneventful impact with our star. Life went on as if nothing happened. The data was released and the world treated it as a non-event. One full year later all life on our planet was changed.

Unknown to the scientific communities that observed and studied this intruder from the stars, this ball of icy dirt had a core of an unknown material from far off in the center of our galaxy. It impacted our star and created a disturbance in the photosphere. The radiant light from our Sun started changing ever so slightly.

We started seeing a faint glow around every living thing on the planet. From insects to forests, life appeared to have an aura. Over time, this aura grew stronger and more vividly colored. Not only could we now see a life force, we saw the mood as tints of hazy color splashed against a light or dark fuzzy glow.

At first, scientists tried to find a cure for our strange new visual acuity. Eventually it was discovered that the phenomenon was not in us but in the light coming from the Sun. There was no 'cure'.
A panel of world renowned scientists set forth to help mankind deal with this new-found vision. Studies were done to try to identify the meaning of the colors and shades that differed not only person to person but moment to moment. Plants, animals, insects and even bacteria were studied and noted for their visual changes.

The test results were released to the internet and the entire world society was changed with those results. People grouped together according to their baseline color groups. Family, religion and social groups fell apart and became new groups of similar mood people. Everyone on the planet could see love, anger, hatred, good, bad and all the emotions and mood states that make up our complex personae.

As we became accustomed to our new-found ability we found that we could distinguish not only someone's baseline essence but we were able to read even the slightest mood fluctuations. Lies showed up as a greenish tinge around the head of the person while love showed as a deep blue blotch at their midsection. The population started to segregate according to the severity of the light or dark tinge that surrounded us all. It was found that the darker the overall tinge the more apt someone was evil. On the opposite side, white tinge indicated someone was good. The colors ranged the spectrum but the tinge remained. None were pure white or black but some had come very close.

Plants and animals also had the tinge. Most were a light grey but some predatory species had darker auras while some of the herbivores were very light. Plants were almost always white. Bacteria were almost always black.
It was a huge concern when harvesting food that all lifeforms being harvested expressed the red hue of fear. Harvesting became a night business.

The phenomenon did not manifest under artificial light. Seems it only could be viewed in sunlight, direct or reflected. The term 'Exposed' now meant that you were to be exposed to sunlight so others could read you. Courts became an open air affair. Dating became a daytime activity and overcast days resulted in empty streets. The society of the whole planet changed.
~~~***~~~
Encyclopedia Universe
https://coolscifi.com/threads/encyclopedia-universe.48296/
May 18, 2073
Steven Wayne Mills, using the Canyon Quantum Supercomputer, discovers the photon signal from our nearest galactic repeater. A mere 28.8 light years from Earth and it is believed to be the size of a large marble. It pulses the signal at 2 billion hydrogen electron shifts and is stable.

The God Photon, as it has been deemed, contains quadrillions of information packets which changes with each pulse. Sometimes packets enlarge, sometimes new packets emerge but it grows geometrically. CQS is tasked to isolate a single packet and extract the data. With the whole planet's data storage at it's disposal it is only able to store the first section of one packet. This section is now called School because it is the instruction data that is used to unlock the contents of the packet.

School is sent to the Deep Water Data Supercomputers in the Indian Ocean and is slowly understood. DWDS has determined that the language of the Universe is not mathematics after all. It is a language of emotions and experiences. Each symbol in the alphabet represents an emotional state, a specific experience or is used as a combiner. This Master Alphabet is more than 16 trillion characters and still growing. It is hypothesized that a single word in this encyclopedia could represent a whole lifetime of observation, feelings and tasks. A single sentence might contain all the history of the rise and fall of a nation. A single paragraph that might encompass the lifetime of a whole planet.

We learn from School that the Universe is saturated with repeaters and beacons. Beacons are used to gather up the ever changing conditions in it's range of influence and that data is updated and pulsed on a single photon. This Encyclopedia Universe is actually a repository of the whole Universe that is updated in real-time from a human perspective. As of this moment we can only read the most basic information. There is, however, a sub-module that has been discovered that hints at Reading Requirements but at our present limited computing ability we are unable to decipher the building requirements of the Reader.

What we do know, using the most basic information gained, is very little. There are still elements we can not decipher and a billion or so simple characters that are still to be identified. Not that we are fumbling about. We have identified that there is not a single species responsible for its creation but that it has been operating for around 8 billion years and is a collection of information condensed by every civilization that has been Schooled. In addition there is an artificial element that monitors the real-time changes in a sphere of influence that adds information as well. We also know that photons are faceted and each facet contains a separate set of packets dealing with specific boundaries we think of as galactic super-clusters.

...to be continued

...December 28, 2106

Mark Rheyas Smith and his personal AI: Veebus accurately map the School alphabet onto High Density Reader Film (HDRF). At 2130zulu school001.0hdrf is mainstreamed to the planetary AI. Two hours later planet Earth transmits its first information pulse confirming our understanding of School's alphabet sequence.
Immediately the photon signals from all surrounding Repeaters is modified. The sequenced alphabet is returned with an additional sequence that is different. It is determined that the second, modified sequence is a correction of mistakes in our transmission. There is also a new 'letter' included that contains a mixture of all the written languages of Earth.
Using the 'Earth' symbol dynamics, it is discovered that this symbol converts the Schooling Alphabet to our planet's language. It is discovered that the Reader is not a mechanical device nor an organic appendage. It is an Axion based modification to the surface area of the brain's dendrites. In essence, the Reader is you. Any being with a firing synapse is capable of being fitted with a Reader. AI and mechanical intelligence is not.
The ramifications of creating a Reader immediately sent shock waves thru our planetary society. AI and humans had mixed reactions but for different reasons. Even tho the science is not yet developed to construct a Reader, the impact that such a thing could exist sends society into turmoil. From what School is implying, once the reader is applied to one being it cascades to all life on the planet. Sort of like a plague. The planetary AI, Erdee, initiates a campaign to find a cure for the Reader before it can occur. As Erdee locks out people from School data, people begin unplugging from Erdee. Individual computing systems start capturing and mining the School modules on HDRF. Scientists begin to experiment with genetic coding and radiation frequencies.
A chimpanzee, Frank, has been chosen as the first life form to receive the Reader. Frank is isolated in a subterranean vault and the reader is pulsed into his optic nerve. Frank immediately passes out.
After 6 hours a team in hazard suits is sent into Frank's chamber to determine his condition first hand. The team is equipped for brain surgery just in case. As soon as the team breaks the seal and begins to enter Frank's chamber, Frank sits up and immediately says "There is no danger." The team passes out. Alarms blare and doors shut and lock. Frank laughs and rubs his hairy chin. "Humans".
Six months of intense scrutiny of the 11 occupants of the 'Cell' reveal no detrimental physical or mental conditions. Of the 11 subjects, none have offered any insight as to the nature of the condition. They are not smarter or different in any way except their eyes have a distinct glow in darkness. In light the glow is indefinable.
Months turn into years and years pass into decades. Kept alive and in good health by an army of robotic servitors the "Eleven" show no signs of any detrimental effects of the exposure. Frank grows into a sentient and rather likeable 'guy'. He demonstrates all the social skills of a human being but has little quirks that are determined to be species unique. While he can eat meat he prefers fruits and vegetables. He still holds an aversion to open flames but can work with controlled fire. Frank passes after 22 years and his body is moved to a different chamber and is robotically autopsied. Aside from the blueish tint of his optical nerves and related brain areas there is no physical changes or contaminates to be found. As a precaution, Frank's body is cremated and compressed. The resulting pellet is then sealed into a tomb.
The remaining 'Ten' infected continue in isolation with nothing more than robotic visitors and holographic projections as company. As they slowly succumb to the ravages of time, one by one they are added to the 'Tomb'. No new information has been gleaned for a very long time. They possess no new knowledge of School, the Reader or the Encyclopedia.
~~~***~~~

What really would happen if aliens came to this planet
https://coolscifi.com/threads/what-really-would-happen-if-aliens-came-to-this-planet.5765/page-4
Discussion in 'Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy Talk' started by Stebsis, Jul 16, 2012.
My Reply Excerpts~~
If you follow panspermia, extraterrestrial life may not be superior to us and it may already be here. Given the context of the topic, The {Aliens} have made a choice to visit our planet. The fact that we assume that they operate on a similar set of motives is unrealistic.

The result of a superior {Alien} visit for humanity would be manifold.
In today's world of the self-absorbed society and massive delusional thinking, we humans would be faced with Realities and Truths. Concepts we hold dear would be rewritten. Money is important to us but its the concept of wealth and ownership that is the delusion. The very idea of a community may come into question. The power hungry among us will seek an alliance but that concept may not be available anymore. The hard truth is that not many of our concepts are universal. Our species is limited to what it has figured out and what it contrives. Nature is brutal and will kill you. The concepts that govern an extraterrestrial species may be so foreign to our thinking that we may not recognize it. What would happen to humanity? Confusion, Suicide, Murder and Mayhem in the masses. Few will be able to handle reality when thrust upon them but some may embrace it. For those, Enlightenment may unlock new potentials.
~~~***~~~
Alien = For references in this discussion it describes a being not from Earth. A being that has mastered interstellar travel. A species that developed under different starlight, gravity, atmospheric pressures, radiation limits and physical attributes. A civilization that had different milestones, value systems and food supply. Their advanced technology may be older than the human species. It's heritage may be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions years old. Its lifespan may be counted in millennia or decades. Their population might exceed 100 billion or a trillion or more.

Mankind = Our current animal form is only about 2 million years old at best. Our entire recorded history is less than 10,000 years. Space travel is less than 100 years. Most people cannot trace their lineage back more than a few generations. Our society operates within the span of 3-8 years at best. Our technology is growing but as a people we have stagnated. We seem to be unable or unwilling to break the greed barrier. We refuse to think as a people and act for the future.

Time is one thing that might make an impact on us if we encounter an advanced alien species. Our concept of time is based on our planetary and stellar movements. Time is measured by atomic decay but it is referenced on the second, minute, hour, day, week, month and year. Basically the movement of the Sun in relation to the Earth.
Keplar shows that there are a multitude of planets orbiting a multitude of stars. Those planets are not only different sizes than our Earth, they orbit at different speeds. I am willing to bet that their rotational periods are different as well. An Alien may not see time as we do. If it is an ancient species that lives for millennia they may not even acknowledge time as we do. If they reference time at all.
To us humans, an alien may take decades or more to respond or...They may operate so lightning fast we cant keep up. Their time-frame could be based on the lifespan of a certain type of star or the duration of a boson. In any case, the vast distances that they had traveled will have been manageable.

It all boils down to relativity.
The aliens could be tiny or huge. They could be structured or blobs.
We imagine aliens use technology based on machinery. They use a device, fly a craft and manipulate objects.
We imagine they have an agenda, value life and are curious. We would attempt to communicate based on our greed, curiosity and community socialness. Our mathematics system is based on the unit. We declare that it is a fundamental part of nature but an alien may not perceive units like we do. We might attempt to communicate with light but an alien may not register light like we do. Even here on Earth there are creatures that exist without light sensory apparatus. Our sequence of light flashes may not even be seen. The same with sound and touch. Imagine an alien that evolved on a planet where the composition of the atmosphere was caustic and it never developed the sense of touch. Not only can there be restrictions of senses that we take for granted there might be senses that are highly developed. Senses that we can't fathom. There might be shared senses but they could be so highly attuned our demonstration may seem out of focus to them.

Why Here...Why Earth?
In our vanity we think we have something that an alien might want, covet or cherish. We think that we might make a good food source, our water or mineral content is needed or we are unique and worth studying. Its all based on our own thinking. Speculation of an alien's motives for visiting our planet makes for good science fiction.
Would the aliens be here to pass judgement on our species? Are we a threat to interstellar space? Do they care if we destroy our planet? Is it a humanitarian effort because the want to harvest our star? Are they responding to our radiation signals from radio or TV? Did they find the voyager record and decipher its contents? All this is based on concepts that we humans have. Are we on a navigation chart? Do aliens navigate?

Happenstance and Chaos?
Chaos is part of nature. There is a pattern to it in macroscopic and microscopic detail. An alien's motives, if they even have motives, might be based on chaos. Chaos does not mean destructive. Chaos is neither bad or good. Chaos is random interaction. Might a species that is a billion years old embrace chaos?

Few people on Earth today could understand an alien presence let alone deal with their actions. Whether hostile or benign we would be driven insane by their visit. Our preconceptions of the Universe and natural laws would be crushed and many people would not be able to handle it. Some of you might say that is why they remain hidden. Do you hide from a tree? Do you hide from a worm and try to understand what it thinks? These questions are even incorrect. They are questions based on human motives and references. They may not even acknowledge us.
~~~***~~~
What if baby aliens can split atoms as easily as playing with blocks? Their kindergarden vastly surpasses quantum physics? Its difficult to comprehend a lifeform that is far superior and of alien origin. We are locked into analogies that have been evolved into our grain. But all of our anologies have one thing in common. They are all from the Earth.
~~~***~~~
 
Continues...
In addition I wrote said:
As powerful as an atom bomb is and all of our nuclear weapon testing combined can't compete with the nuclear fusion of our little star. If something were looking the Sun would wash out anything we can create on Earth. Combine that with the diameter of our radio signals expanding into space and anything that could detect our presense has a background of stronger emmissions to wade thru. They would have to be looking specfically at us, at the right time and in the right wavelengths.

A mechanical based alien is possible. I guess anything is possible including things we currently think are impossible. The mechanical part may not even be something we think of as mechanical. Wires and circuts may not be the best way to use energy. Even Tesla discovered that. Tesla had a system invented that harnessed free energy. Aliens may be far more advanced. Aliens may be able to manipulate matter on the sub-atomic scale as easily as we convey our feelings with a look of approval or dismay. Advanced science resembles God-Like powers.

We are aware of the concept of mind-uploading. It could be possible for an alien culture that is 500 million years old to upload themselves or a piece of themselves to anything. With spooky theory one alien might explore 100,000 worlds at the same time with 100,000 constructs and be instantly aware of each one at all times. From micro devices to megastructures. Kinda like Von Neumann Probes but living entities and of various sizes, functions and attitudes. But again I am limited to assuming aliens have attitudes.

We base our ideas on what we know and can imagine. Its all based on life on Earth. It's all born of Earth. It's all created from one tiny planet circling an average star. Just the right temperature. Just the right radiation. Just the right size moon. In just the right place in the galaxy. The Goldilox Zone is more than just our distance from our star. An alien may be from a different Goldilox Zone.

Think about if Mankind made it to an alternate Earth. Lets say it has the right pressure, atmosphere and gravity which is very unlikely. Does it have a moon? Our Moon is more to us than just something to bark at. Does it have an Iron Core? If that core is more dense or not as dense it will affect us. The thickness of the mantle, the radiation wavelengths of the parent star or nearby stars, Elemental composition of the topsoil and crust. So many variables and each one in very little differences will affect us. Our minds, concepts and bodies evolved from the conditions of this planet in this star system at this time/place in the galaxy. An alien from another star system will evolve under those conditions. Their minds, concepts and bodies may not evolve even closely similar to ours.

It's tough to imagine a truly alien being. Tougher still to try to imagine one that is more advanced than us. If we can even detect their presense I think we would be hard pressed to even understand what we were seeing.
~~~***~~~
The way I see it, the atmosphere and other natural conditions like radiation levels, temperature and gravity dictate how, when and where life evolves. It's been proven that life does not need oxygen to exist, no sunlight either. Archeology can date a time on Earth when there was no oxygen and life existed. The oxygen was the by-product of that life and it saturated the planet. It not only killed most of the life on Earth it caused Iron to rust.
We define life by a set of specific parameters based on what we have learned about our planet. Just because we have not witnessed other factors that lead to life doesn't mean they don't exist.
We know of multiple forms of water. H2O is only one form of water and the form that we need to survive. There could be a planet or moon somewhere that has more heavy water than what we are accustomed to. Life that forms based on heavy water will have different qualities than life on Earth.
Our Star burns at a specific temperature. It has a specific amount of gravity and emits a specific range of radiation.
A Star that is larger than the Sun might have more gravity and thus not emit the same radiation. It might not shluff off key elements needed for our type of life. The temperature might be higher causing different types of emissions. It's density may have a different pull on its celestial neighborhood. This would change the atmospheric weather conditions for its planets and moons. Bigger storms or a lack of storms might elevate atmospheric generated electricity or decrease it significantly. The composition of the Sun is also an evolutionary factor for life on Earth. A blue giant star will have different effects on any life in its reach.
Our Moon dictates life on our planet as well. We have deduced that our moon is the result of a collision with our planet. It is unique to Earth. It's size, orbital speed and distance dictates our evolutionary path. Try to imagine life that exists with no seasons. The planet instead has zones of habitat. Migration habits would change, fertility might be based on something besides cycles, weather patterns might be predictable and zone specific. Now, with those changes in mind, what affect would they have in the development of intelligence.
For humans and higher forms of life on Earth, intelligence seems to be the ability of an organism to gather, store and utilize experiences. Human are set apart from others because we can imagine, predict and plan. We can act on predictions and construct apparatus to achieve a goal. Our imagination allows us to go beyond simple tool usage to allow us to modify behaviors and tools to result in more efficient systems. A beaver uses a rock to open a clam for food. We don't see the beaver farming its food or making a better opener. It is intelligent enough to know that it can use the rock and does, but it is not superiority intelligent to go any farther.
Given the size and density of the Universe it can be assumed that there are a multitude of beaver type life out there. With beavers showing up on this one planet where humans also exist it is then feasible to think that human level life is also abundant. As humans we are ever expanding our designs as we gain more knowledge. This leads me to believe that there is also an abundance of higher-level intelligence in the Universe.
Our planet and Star are about 4.5 Billion years old. Life formed here about 3 Billion years ago. Our Sun has an expected lifetime of about 10 Billion years. It is an average star. There are stars that will live much longer, Have lived much longer.
The Solar System wobbles as it goes around the galaxy. It dips in and out of the Milkyway's orbital plane. The Milkyway moves in space as well. We are near the point in the Galactic map that the Solar System was about 250 Million years ago.
We are right near the point where there was an extinction event. Give or take a few million years and miles. Is there something in that region of the galaxy that is harmful to life on our planet? Fifteen Galactic Years ago our planet was at a different part of the galaxy. Is there some quality in that spot that is conducive to the creation of life? Is there a cloud of elements that the planet passed thru that coated our surface with life? Could there be other regions in other galaxies with similar qualities?
We take aspirin for headaches. Does aspirin affect amoebas the same way? Are there elemental clouds in the Universe that only affect certain forms of life? Clouds of some chemical combination that changes the ability of an organism's intelligence level? What if there is a species that has found that element for their physiology and have exploited it. Not only is time a factor in intelligence, physiology is as well.
Our reasons for our opinions on human intelligence are quite different. You base your opinion on concepts having to do with morality and belief where I base mine on discovery and utilization. Your opinion is valid from a human perspective. It is a perspective that an alien may not recognize. Looking at our science and technology level, my opinion sees that we are very low on understanding the true nature of things. We have advance a long way in a short time by our standards but an alien that can master stellar or galactic travel may see us as infants in intellectual prowess.
Life is just life. We humans wrap all kinds of glory around it but an alien may not even consider life at all. Try to imagine a society that has no value of life. It is almost impossible for us to fathom. If life were not in the thought process then neither would death be a consideration. With no death, no need for a God. Try to imagine a society with no God, ever. Not the absence of God, No God ever. Our religion is meant to do one thing. It is a way for some humans to control other humans. An alien culture that has no God will be very different than what we understand. Flip the coin and you may have an alien culture that takes religion to different extremes. Plus, there are 360 degrees of the edge of the coin that can result is even stranger iterations of culture. Variations are endless.
First I must inform you that the Borg are not Mythical, They are Fictional. They were created by a human for a human TV show to act as antagonists. As far as I am concerned their concept is as limited as their depiction. But you enjoy them and that is your prerogative.

Could Borg exist? I guess they could given the vast expanse and unknown nature of the Universe.
Would they be able to 'assimilate' Earth? Probably.
Could we stop them? Hell, we can't even stop a rock.

On superiority scales are the Borg highly advanced? Not in my opinion. Superior to humans but not to what is possible. IMO, The Borg are not much more intellectually, scientifically or morally advanced than we are. They are not even superior to many aliens in the Star Trek Universe. Even the ones that are supposedly far advanced are a far cry from what might actually exist. The Q, The Caretakers and The Cytherians are even limited when considering the potential intelligence that may be out there. I see all superior intellect in fiction as just concepts that are limited by our own imagination. Imagination that is founded by our limited knowledge of nature. The Universe is so vast and Chaos is so rampant that combinations of factors could and possibly already have created beings far beyond our comprehension. Not only mentally but physically.

I once sponsored a topic asking people to describe what alien life would be. Sadly there was not much participation. The more I read science fiction the more extreme my ideas become. As I read science facts I find that many of my ideas of aliens change. As time progresses, fiction will unleash concepts of aliens that are more and more strange. My issue is not with different concepts but with limited concepts. To me, the best science fiction depicts something that is unique and unrecognizable. It creates a new path for my imagination to explore.
~~~***~~~
 
Back
Top