Laser Beams and the New Earth Sky of Deceit
No, I haven't started dropping acid (this title will make sense shortly) and yes, I did take a few days off. This article on laser communications between planets reminded me of one of my early experiences in new context, one that is a microcosm of human history.
I remember looking up at the night sky as a kid the first time I understood the speed of light and realized what I was looking at - "old light". Some of it was just a couple of seconds old (moonlight), some a few minutes, most of it many years, millions or even billions of years old. Words fail at that point.
But, today, just like our ancestors who looked at the sky and saw all sorts of wonderful things, there are people today that see something else. Creationists and "Young Earth Scientists" think the universe is roughly 10,000 years old. Creationists look at the sky - and once someone explains the speed of light -- rather than absorb the new context, they choose to bend the universe by explaining God created the light "already on it's way" just for our old pal Adam. That's our "sky of deceit".
However, the new "Young Earth Scientists" are trying to get this stuff taken seriously, so they realized this is silly. But, instead of absorbing the new context, they are literally trying to overturn Einstein, Hubble, Hawking and many others with new hypotheses of all major areas of astrophysics. Read it here for some limbo-bending backwards dancing in trying to explain starlight and the universe. Warning, it will hurt your brain...
But the whole problem with that is laser beams bouncing around space, as in this new test, the speed of light and other relevant physics have to be right, otherwise this stuff would just not work. Especially now given the increasingly long distances we are using. Unless, of course, you decide that it's a "universe of deceit"...
It's amazing how hard we humans will work to reject new context when it's given to us. The time, energy and resources spent on all sorts of things in vain attempt to deny the context that is revealed to us is mind-boggling.
In fact, I think we are, at some level now, suddenly afraid, as a globe, to explore. Space exploration, astrophysics etc. has rocked our world. So has evolutionary biology, biochemistry and genetics. Suddenly, American Idol and School Prayer seem very attractive.
Fortunately, there are those that push on. But with 6 billion of us continuing to overpopulate and overtax our globe, sooner or later, we will get a dose of context that will force us all to take stock.
I remember looking up at the night sky as a kid the first time I understood the speed of light and realized what I was looking at - "old light". Some of it was just a couple of seconds old (moonlight), some a few minutes, most of it many years, millions or even billions of years old. Words fail at that point.
But, today, just like our ancestors who looked at the sky and saw all sorts of wonderful things, there are people today that see something else. Creationists and "Young Earth Scientists" think the universe is roughly 10,000 years old. Creationists look at the sky - and once someone explains the speed of light -- rather than absorb the new context, they choose to bend the universe by explaining God created the light "already on it's way" just for our old pal Adam. That's our "sky of deceit".
However, the new "Young Earth Scientists" are trying to get this stuff taken seriously, so they realized this is silly. But, instead of absorbing the new context, they are literally trying to overturn Einstein, Hubble, Hawking and many others with new hypotheses of all major areas of astrophysics. Read it here for some limbo-bending backwards dancing in trying to explain starlight and the universe. Warning, it will hurt your brain...
But the whole problem with that is laser beams bouncing around space, as in this new test, the speed of light and other relevant physics have to be right, otherwise this stuff would just not work. Especially now given the increasingly long distances we are using. Unless, of course, you decide that it's a "universe of deceit"...
It's amazing how hard we humans will work to reject new context when it's given to us. The time, energy and resources spent on all sorts of things in vain attempt to deny the context that is revealed to us is mind-boggling.
In fact, I think we are, at some level now, suddenly afraid, as a globe, to explore. Space exploration, astrophysics etc. has rocked our world. So has evolutionary biology, biochemistry and genetics. Suddenly, American Idol and School Prayer seem very attractive.
Fortunately, there are those that push on. But with 6 billion of us continuing to overpopulate and overtax our globe, sooner or later, we will get a dose of context that will force us all to take stock.
