The Tau Zero Foundation is a really cool organization that is just getting going. Thhey are still workign on their website, but they have a lot of great information already, and plentyof links to keep you busy.
-EX
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Randon thought about life.
I was born in the mid 80s. That statement can mean a lot of things, but to me in means that I was born long after we discovered that Mars was not full of alien life plotting to attack Earth. Oh well. As far as we know, we are alone. It’s humbling to think about how large, vast, and relatively empty space is. It is full of billions and billions of stars, yet as of right now we hardly have the technology to travel to the nearest one, only about 4.5 light years away, and to get there it would take at least 40 years. Yet, despite the vastness of it all I can’t help but to feel excited about the prospects of exploring new worlds.
The first place many people think of when it comes to the future of human exploration in space is a manned mission to Mars. While this I exciting, there is something that, to me, is much more exciting. That would be a planet orbiting one of the two stars in Alpha Centauri. This planet would be a fantastic candidate for finding life outside of earth. There are currently several projects looking at Alpha Centauri for signs of a planet. According to some models, the only location for this planet would be in the “Goldilocks Zone,” the habitable (for life similar to what is on earth at least) zone for life.
Imagine if a planet were discovered there. We now know of hundreds of extrasolar planets, almost all have been discovered in the last 10 years. I’m sure we will discover hundreds more. What I want is life. Not bacteria, but full blown life, little critters running around doing whatever they do. It would be the most amazing scientific discovery ever. What would it look like? Would it be based off the same building blocks of life that we are? A good chunk of the amino acids that make us up are found in space, so it seems plausible that life has the potential so share some characteristics.
The only way to know for sure is to go there (be it Mars or Alpha Centauri) and see for ourselves. It will only take a little under 50 years to travel to Alpha Centauri and send a message home, so it is within the realm of possibility that we can find extrasolor life with in my lifetime. Who knows, we might even be able to eat them, which would be really odd on more than one level.
-Elijah Xavier
The first place many people think of when it comes to the future of human exploration in space is a manned mission to Mars. While this I exciting, there is something that, to me, is much more exciting. That would be a planet orbiting one of the two stars in Alpha Centauri. This planet would be a fantastic candidate for finding life outside of earth. There are currently several projects looking at Alpha Centauri for signs of a planet. According to some models, the only location for this planet would be in the “Goldilocks Zone,” the habitable (for life similar to what is on earth at least) zone for life.
Imagine if a planet were discovered there. We now know of hundreds of extrasolar planets, almost all have been discovered in the last 10 years. I’m sure we will discover hundreds more. What I want is life. Not bacteria, but full blown life, little critters running around doing whatever they do. It would be the most amazing scientific discovery ever. What would it look like? Would it be based off the same building blocks of life that we are? A good chunk of the amino acids that make us up are found in space, so it seems plausible that life has the potential so share some characteristics.
The only way to know for sure is to go there (be it Mars or Alpha Centauri) and see for ourselves. It will only take a little under 50 years to travel to Alpha Centauri and send a message home, so it is within the realm of possibility that we can find extrasolor life with in my lifetime. Who knows, we might even be able to eat them, which would be really odd on more than one level.
-Elijah Xavier
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Thursday, June 11, 2009
88 and Standing Still
Imagine just having completed a superhuman feat. Maybe you saved a baby from a burning building or you are running away from a trap that you set for a group of North African terrorists. Now, whatever situation you’ve created for yourself, imagine running away from the danger behind you, and insert the theme song from Back to the Future. The majestic melody blares from the brass section, filling your spirit with the satisfaction and vigor that only John Williams can provide. Back to the Future is undoubtedly one of my favorite films, and there are many aspects that make it so. Rich character development, thick plot points, and excellent acting- they all move in concert to create a real masterpiece. But by and far, the part of the movie that I really love is the theme. Time travel is so cool. That’s the only way I can describe it. Since I was a child, I always pondered the details of time travel, and how it would happen. Of course, as I got older, the concept of time travel became less realistic to me. What did become more realistic, however, was the absurd and defeating concept of time. Stepping out of conventional or blinded thought, time is immensely confusing. It exists, with its own definition, in many realms- two of them being physics and philosophy. In some ways, philosophy has done a great amount to answer the question of “what is time”. Still though, there is no consensus, and when truly mulling it over, headaches are more than common.
It can be assumed that most people, at least in Western culture, begin to learn about time in the same way: a linear structure that consists of past, present, and future. Within this structure, time is not infinite, but instead has a starting point. There is an inherent distinction, then, between infinite past and infinite future. In this model, the past is defined, whereas the future is not, leading to separate levels of definition in reference to infinity. Yet, measuring infinity is neither logical nor possible. Infinity is ultimately conceptual. The only left-brain activity it can be used in is mathematics, and even then it is only reserved for answers. Finite past and infinite future cannot work in the same formula, and therefore this understanding was fundamentally flawed. Furthermore, the idea of the present is extremely difficult to prove. If time is infinitely large, then it is also infinitely small. Philosophically, it would be impossible to pinpoint one single moment as “the present”, if all moments can be divided into smaller moments, each stage of which passes by more quickly than the last.
Eastern philosophy, much like other aspects of their culture, has seen time from a very different viewpoint. Hinduism and Buddhism are just two examples of major religions that believe in Eternal Return, the idea the universe is cyclical and will repeat a pattern infinitely. Eternal Return presents time as a completely different manner. In this system, time surrounds existence, whereas Western approaches say time defines it. This understanding of time is harder to refute because it becomes part of a larger definition of the universe. While they still have the understanding that the cycles are infinite, subscribers to this idea don’t see existence within the bounds of time, but instead the bounds of cycles. As somebody who was born in the United States, just trying to understand this world view is difficult, and after a while, it becomes easier to move back to the evolution of Western thought and time.
One of the philosophical movements which has most affected our lives has been the debate between Realism and Anti-Realism. This debate has certainly spilled into the discussion on time, and it’s almost a sure bet that you’ve had these exact thoughts before. Realists believe that things exist outside of the human perception, whereas anti-realists believe that most things do not exist apart from the human mind. Any discussion on time will inevitably fall upon whether or not time exists at all in the first place. From the realist’s point of view, time has a steady and physical existence within the universe. Humans experience time as it exerts its presence upon them. But the anti-realist argues that time, like most things, is a construct of the mind. From their point of view, time is a manifestation of trying to understand existence. We constantly try to struggle with understanding our own existence, and mathematical measurements help us come to terms with that. We deal with those measurements on a daily basis, however, they are all quite arbitrary. For an anti-realist, time is as arbitrary a measurement as any other, used to link distance between events, but still nonexistent.
From a scientific standpoint, it can be argued that time does exist because of its link to the movement of our planet. While it is true that time is maintained in a more relative basis than some other measurements, it is still malleable and works within our needs. During the year, time is changed based on the seasons. Daylight savings is a method to use time to our advantage, and reap the benefits of sunlight. As recently as 2007, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez attempted to change his country’s time by half an hour. Even with the equalizing method of “falling back” and “springing forward”, we still need to step out of cadence and add a day to the calendar every four years in order to keep up with our own measurement system. There is no telling if our system is slightly incorrect, and will need to be revamped in twenty thousand years.
After significant consideration, I have to come to the conclusion that time does not exist in a philosophical sense. What this conclusion argues is that, while time is a visible construct, it is not a natural occurrence. Time can be (and has been) manipulated to serve human needs. There can certainly be a disconnect between what I am arguing as time and what Xavier is arguing as time, but for those thinkers who ponder the world from a sociological standpoint, measuring how fast life is moving is beyond the bounds of a possible definitive answer. That being said, if they ever invent time travel, well, then I am totally disproved.
My name is August Feldner, and none of this is original.
It can be assumed that most people, at least in Western culture, begin to learn about time in the same way: a linear structure that consists of past, present, and future. Within this structure, time is not infinite, but instead has a starting point. There is an inherent distinction, then, between infinite past and infinite future. In this model, the past is defined, whereas the future is not, leading to separate levels of definition in reference to infinity. Yet, measuring infinity is neither logical nor possible. Infinity is ultimately conceptual. The only left-brain activity it can be used in is mathematics, and even then it is only reserved for answers. Finite past and infinite future cannot work in the same formula, and therefore this understanding was fundamentally flawed. Furthermore, the idea of the present is extremely difficult to prove. If time is infinitely large, then it is also infinitely small. Philosophically, it would be impossible to pinpoint one single moment as “the present”, if all moments can be divided into smaller moments, each stage of which passes by more quickly than the last.
Eastern philosophy, much like other aspects of their culture, has seen time from a very different viewpoint. Hinduism and Buddhism are just two examples of major religions that believe in Eternal Return, the idea the universe is cyclical and will repeat a pattern infinitely. Eternal Return presents time as a completely different manner. In this system, time surrounds existence, whereas Western approaches say time defines it. This understanding of time is harder to refute because it becomes part of a larger definition of the universe. While they still have the understanding that the cycles are infinite, subscribers to this idea don’t see existence within the bounds of time, but instead the bounds of cycles. As somebody who was born in the United States, just trying to understand this world view is difficult, and after a while, it becomes easier to move back to the evolution of Western thought and time.
One of the philosophical movements which has most affected our lives has been the debate between Realism and Anti-Realism. This debate has certainly spilled into the discussion on time, and it’s almost a sure bet that you’ve had these exact thoughts before. Realists believe that things exist outside of the human perception, whereas anti-realists believe that most things do not exist apart from the human mind. Any discussion on time will inevitably fall upon whether or not time exists at all in the first place. From the realist’s point of view, time has a steady and physical existence within the universe. Humans experience time as it exerts its presence upon them. But the anti-realist argues that time, like most things, is a construct of the mind. From their point of view, time is a manifestation of trying to understand existence. We constantly try to struggle with understanding our own existence, and mathematical measurements help us come to terms with that. We deal with those measurements on a daily basis, however, they are all quite arbitrary. For an anti-realist, time is as arbitrary a measurement as any other, used to link distance between events, but still nonexistent.
From a scientific standpoint, it can be argued that time does exist because of its link to the movement of our planet. While it is true that time is maintained in a more relative basis than some other measurements, it is still malleable and works within our needs. During the year, time is changed based on the seasons. Daylight savings is a method to use time to our advantage, and reap the benefits of sunlight. As recently as 2007, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez attempted to change his country’s time by half an hour. Even with the equalizing method of “falling back” and “springing forward”, we still need to step out of cadence and add a day to the calendar every four years in order to keep up with our own measurement system. There is no telling if our system is slightly incorrect, and will need to be revamped in twenty thousand years.
After significant consideration, I have to come to the conclusion that time does not exist in a philosophical sense. What this conclusion argues is that, while time is a visible construct, it is not a natural occurrence. Time can be (and has been) manipulated to serve human needs. There can certainly be a disconnect between what I am arguing as time and what Xavier is arguing as time, but for those thinkers who ponder the world from a sociological standpoint, measuring how fast life is moving is beyond the bounds of a possible definitive answer. That being said, if they ever invent time travel, well, then I am totally disproved.
My name is August Feldner, and none of this is original.
Warning - Your time is tick-tick-ticking away
In a system, a process that occurs will tend to increase the total entropy of the universe. – Second Law of Thermodynamics
This week I will be doing something that I didn’t think I would do. I am taking last week’s post and somewhat building off of it. Go back and read it now, it will save me a lot of explaining. So let’s start with the idea of life being a series of brief moments, think of it like a frame in a movie. Keep that though in the back of your head as you read this. Also, it might seem like I am going nowhere. That might be true, but we’ll have to wait and see until the end,
Time is weird. So is our perception of time. So is others’ perception of our time. You can thank Einstein for that one. It is part of Einstein’s theory of special relativity. The property is called time dilation. Let’s say there are two people in space, Robert and Candice, just kind of floating at the same velocity. They both have clocks that are in sync with each other. Let’s also say it’s currently 5 o’clock, and we are drinking manhattans, although that is somewhat irrelevant.
As they drift along, their clocks remain synced. Bur Robert is somewhat impulsive (he also might have had one too many manhattans) and he decides to turn on his super futuristic jet-pack-type-thing and zoom off at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Pretend that Candice can read Roberts clock at great distances, Candice looks down at her clock and sees it ticking away normally, the second hand moving around the clock at a normal pace. She then looks at Robert’s clock. Something strange as happened. The second hand on his clock is moving very slow. Robert then catches a glance at Candice’s clock. It seems to be moving very slow too. He checks his own clock to make sure; it’s moving at the “correct” speed.
This is the world of relativity. Other cool stuff happens too, but I won’t go into that right now. The important concept for this article is as follows: the faster you travel relative to another observer the slower time will pass for you. The same happens when you are close to a high gravity body (slowing of time). The math behind this is fascinating and beautiful. And it’s been tested too! On the Apollo missions they had two clocks that were synced when they left Earth, and when Apollo returned, more time has passed on the clock in the ship (due to the ship being further away from Earth’s gravity, time moved quicker). When you fly on an airplane time will move slower, but at those speeds the difference is just about insignificant.
And this brings me to a complaint I have about science fiction, especially Star Trek. They never account for time dilation, probably because it you make for less interesting stories. Imagine the hero flying to rescue a planet form the evil empire that is invading, traveling at a large percentage of the speed of light he arrives at the planet to find that not only is he too late to rescue the people, but the evil empire has collapsed long ago and now monkeys rule the planet (note, this is kind of what planet of the apes is about, which is cool!). Most science fiction invent some kind of faster light plot device like hyperspace to get around this problem, but I almost feel like that is cheating.
So we have established that time is elastic, but what about its flow? Can time go in reverse? What about sideways (I’m not even sure if that’s a real concept)? Take a look at the quote at the beginning one more time and give it a think.
What does that mean? What is entropy, and what does it have to do with time? Entropy is a complex subject, with lots of sub topics, so I’m going to use a simple version of it. In large systems, such as a room or a universe, entropy is the universe evening itself out. Say we have a large room. It is completely closed off, and because we have magic powers we are able to put a hot gas at one end of the room, and a cool gas on the other end. We let the imaginary barrier down and the gases mix. As this happens, the higher energy hot gas particles will have random collisions with the lower energy cool particles, transferring some of the heat via kinetic energy. If we let the room sit long enough the temperature will be consistent throughout the entire room. This is entropy. Statistically, it is possible for the system to separate itself again, but the chances are very small.
It also occurs at the atomic level through radioactive decay. Over a period of time (sometimes minutes, sometimes millions of years, depending on the element) the atom will decay from one element to another, until it has shed all of its sup atomic particles. If the universe keeps expanding, its ultimate fate will be a universe that is full of these subatomic particles drifting through space. No planets, no stars, no gas clouds. It will be very boring. If you want to read a really cool story about this, check out Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question (http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html).
Entropy moves forward. It is the arrow of time. Although in the short term it is possible to reverse entropy (like in biological systems), in the long run it is inevitable. In this grand scale time seems to flow with entropy. Only one direction is possible when the scale gets large enough.
Time to bring everything together! Last week I talked about how life is a series of chance events. This combined with entropy leads me to believe that time is forward flowing, a small event occurs, time moves on, and another small event occurs. These events make up the flow of time. Once something has happened you cannot go back and undo it. The universe has split and we are in the one that we are in. Time can move slower or faster depending on our perception of it, but never backwards.
However, because of other properties of relativity, you might be able to curve space-time and…well…that’s another entry.
From my world to yours,
Elijah Xavier
This week I will be doing something that I didn’t think I would do. I am taking last week’s post and somewhat building off of it. Go back and read it now, it will save me a lot of explaining. So let’s start with the idea of life being a series of brief moments, think of it like a frame in a movie. Keep that though in the back of your head as you read this. Also, it might seem like I am going nowhere. That might be true, but we’ll have to wait and see until the end,
Time is weird. So is our perception of time. So is others’ perception of our time. You can thank Einstein for that one. It is part of Einstein’s theory of special relativity. The property is called time dilation. Let’s say there are two people in space, Robert and Candice, just kind of floating at the same velocity. They both have clocks that are in sync with each other. Let’s also say it’s currently 5 o’clock, and we are drinking manhattans, although that is somewhat irrelevant.
As they drift along, their clocks remain synced. Bur Robert is somewhat impulsive (he also might have had one too many manhattans) and he decides to turn on his super futuristic jet-pack-type-thing and zoom off at a significant percentage of the speed of light. Pretend that Candice can read Roberts clock at great distances, Candice looks down at her clock and sees it ticking away normally, the second hand moving around the clock at a normal pace. She then looks at Robert’s clock. Something strange as happened. The second hand on his clock is moving very slow. Robert then catches a glance at Candice’s clock. It seems to be moving very slow too. He checks his own clock to make sure; it’s moving at the “correct” speed.
This is the world of relativity. Other cool stuff happens too, but I won’t go into that right now. The important concept for this article is as follows: the faster you travel relative to another observer the slower time will pass for you. The same happens when you are close to a high gravity body (slowing of time). The math behind this is fascinating and beautiful. And it’s been tested too! On the Apollo missions they had two clocks that were synced when they left Earth, and when Apollo returned, more time has passed on the clock in the ship (due to the ship being further away from Earth’s gravity, time moved quicker). When you fly on an airplane time will move slower, but at those speeds the difference is just about insignificant.
And this brings me to a complaint I have about science fiction, especially Star Trek. They never account for time dilation, probably because it you make for less interesting stories. Imagine the hero flying to rescue a planet form the evil empire that is invading, traveling at a large percentage of the speed of light he arrives at the planet to find that not only is he too late to rescue the people, but the evil empire has collapsed long ago and now monkeys rule the planet (note, this is kind of what planet of the apes is about, which is cool!). Most science fiction invent some kind of faster light plot device like hyperspace to get around this problem, but I almost feel like that is cheating.
So we have established that time is elastic, but what about its flow? Can time go in reverse? What about sideways (I’m not even sure if that’s a real concept)? Take a look at the quote at the beginning one more time and give it a think.
What does that mean? What is entropy, and what does it have to do with time? Entropy is a complex subject, with lots of sub topics, so I’m going to use a simple version of it. In large systems, such as a room or a universe, entropy is the universe evening itself out. Say we have a large room. It is completely closed off, and because we have magic powers we are able to put a hot gas at one end of the room, and a cool gas on the other end. We let the imaginary barrier down and the gases mix. As this happens, the higher energy hot gas particles will have random collisions with the lower energy cool particles, transferring some of the heat via kinetic energy. If we let the room sit long enough the temperature will be consistent throughout the entire room. This is entropy. Statistically, it is possible for the system to separate itself again, but the chances are very small.
It also occurs at the atomic level through radioactive decay. Over a period of time (sometimes minutes, sometimes millions of years, depending on the element) the atom will decay from one element to another, until it has shed all of its sup atomic particles. If the universe keeps expanding, its ultimate fate will be a universe that is full of these subatomic particles drifting through space. No planets, no stars, no gas clouds. It will be very boring. If you want to read a really cool story about this, check out Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question (http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html).
Entropy moves forward. It is the arrow of time. Although in the short term it is possible to reverse entropy (like in biological systems), in the long run it is inevitable. In this grand scale time seems to flow with entropy. Only one direction is possible when the scale gets large enough.
Time to bring everything together! Last week I talked about how life is a series of chance events. This combined with entropy leads me to believe that time is forward flowing, a small event occurs, time moves on, and another small event occurs. These events make up the flow of time. Once something has happened you cannot go back and undo it. The universe has split and we are in the one that we are in. Time can move slower or faster depending on our perception of it, but never backwards.
However, because of other properties of relativity, you might be able to curve space-time and…well…that’s another entry.
From my world to yours,
Elijah Xavier
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