Saturday, July 18, 2015

Lifes Little Mysteries

 
Brighton Publishing LLC
Copyright© 2015

ISBN 13: 978-1-62183-311-6
First Edition
All rights to the contents of this blog are Reserved

Life on this planet and in this Solar System is unique in many fascinating and unbelievable ways. Is life possible beyond our Solar System? And could it be possible that the seeds of life were brought to our solar system. Perhaps life began from chance encounters at the microscopic level with amino acids and chance chemical encounters. Lets explore some of the many possibilities.

First of all there are those that speculated that life on earth began as a result of millions if not billions of years of chance chemical encounters. To some extent I agree. Over time trillions upon trillions of chance chemical encounters occur. But to create life, as we know it, requires much more than just chance encounters. Fore instance take the relationship between RNA and DNA. The stuff of life. How could these two disparate molecules co-conspire to create a living thing. DNA is the book of life but it cannot do anything on its own. RNA needs to unzip it, check it, throw away what is not needed or recognized, reassemble it to make proteins, know when and where to put those proteins and enzyme's, and know when to begin the process and when to stop. The whole of this process needs to purposefully work together in a self sustaining way to promote life. Obviously, these two molecules need to do more than this but this describes some of the main requirements to make a living thing. This process seems to have been purposefully and intelligently created. However, it could be that we simply cannot fathom the complexity of the universe and the billions of years of its existence. Or the fact the universe is so finely tuned for life that life was inevitable. Let's explore life and its possible history in the following paragraphs..

Are we unique to this universe. I doubt that we are. From the very beginning the cosmological constants required to bring about life as we know it needed to be put in place with exacting precision. I list a few of these exacting requirements in the 'Puzzle Keeper' blog. In order for the universe to exist at all required that at the beginning it needed to be isotropic and homogeneous. In other words: At the moment of creation the energy that appeared out of the vacuum of space needed to exist as a perfectly smooth expanding volume, in an energetically evolving state of expanding density. The slightest difference in energy density or the rate of expansion would be reflected today as areas in the universe that are not like our own,  or another possibility would be the universe would not be sustainable, or any number of other possibilities. Without those cosmological constants being exactly as they now appear to have been we would not be here to observe it. (Google: Fundamental and Cosmological constants)

So the universe appears to be the same everywhere we look. That would imply that everywhere we look there is the possibility for life. How far back in time could we expect life to have originated? In order for life to have evolved, certain elements needed to have come into existence and those elements had to form compounds of elements to produce life. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur are the most common. All of these elements are below Iron in the periodic table. So conceivably these elements could have existed early in the evolution of our universe. Elements above iron are formed by supernovae solar explosions. It has been estimated that the first supernovae's could not have occurred before one to two billion years after the beginning. With the first supernovae explosions came the elements above iron in the periodic table. The heavier elements are needed to form rocky planets in order to sustain living things as we know it. But rocky planets (metalized planets) are not required for life to begin. So pre-living things could have first appeared nine to six billion years ago during the early evolution of galaxies. Existing as free molecules and compounds of molecules having the ingredients of life. A lot depends on our definition of a living thing. And the most basic definition implies that a living thing must be able to reproduce. So if this is our definition than perhaps six billion years ago is logical. If we expand our definition of life to be; 'A living thing must be able to reproduce and metabolize other elements or compounds of element to be considered a living thing,' than that narrows down the time frame to be after the birth of rocky planets where concentrations of heavier elements are found. Keep in mind that planets are not all rocky and all planetary systems take time to coalesce into livable, life sustaining, planetary systems.

Rocky planets could have first existed some nine to seven billion years ago. Over time their numbers increased as the cosmic debris of supernovae explosions coalesced. If we believe that self sustaining life evolved from chance encounters with rudimentary elements and compounds of elements, than it is hard to believe that life was complex, or that RNA and DNA were cooperating to make a living thing much before seven billion years ago. RNA is less stable than is DNA.This fact may have promoted a diversity of RNA and DNA encounters. But still, in order to make a living thing, as we know it, many complex encounters, processes, and environmental incentives needed to be in place. This means that either life is rare and diverse or that life was promoted by some added mechanism. What that mechanism might be is unknown. But somehow RNA and DNA needed to co-conspire to create living things.

The shear complexity of the relationship is beyond comprehension. Independently these two compounds cannot do anything other than to exist as compounds of familiar elements. There had to be an instance, as these two molecules emerged, where they began to interact. How might that interaction have emerged? In today's more complex life forms there is DNA which is encoded with just four common elements, The order, length and encoding of these four elements define a living thing. But that is all it can do on its own. DNA alone is like a book on a shelf collecting dust. It will stay on the shelf collecting dust and deteriorate until something comes along and opens the book. therein lies the mystery. The first 'DNA' books could have been a very small books collecting dust.The story within it remained undiscovered until another molecule 'RNA' opened the book and read it. That's the real mystery. How, and why, did these two very different molecules come together to create a third 'living' entity, defined by the DNA codes. It had to either happen by accident or by design.

In today's more complex living organisms there exists different RNA (mRNA, tRNA) molecules that assist in opening, error checking, and reading life's DNA book and making proteins.  These RNA molecules then fold and transport those proteins to where they need to go. All the while keeping the encoded message held within the DNA book intact for future use. What about the first ever attempt at making a living thing using these two molecules? How might that first instance of cooperation between the two have occurred? In my mind it must have evolved in much simpler primitive organisms, and then evolved to become more complex over time. The difficulty with pursuing these questions is that behind the question is an undeniable feeling that the whole of the process has to be purposefully driven. It seems there is an intelligence behind it. It does not seem that given the billions of years of chance encounters, life, as it has come to be known, would ever have occurred given the probability of it occurring by chance alone.

 

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Could earth have been visited by Aliens in the past?


Brighton Publishing LLC
Copyright© 2015

ISBN 13: 978-1-62183-311-6
First Edition
All rights reserved 

Could Aliens have visited earth in the past and how might that be possible given the complexity of the effort.

Let's think about that for a moment. I can think of several reasons why another civilization might want to attempt to visit earth.

First: And the most obvious, is that they are explorers like ourselves. They seek knowledge and possibly relationships with other earth like inhabitants. They may simply be Von Newmann probes seeking to discover and observe new worlds. They are quite probably from this galaxy. They would undoubtedly be secretive about their purpose and would, on a small scale, intentionally interfere with earth based life forms to learn what they can about how life has evolved to adapt to our environment and to discover the level of our intelligence.

Second: They may have had to leave their planet due to some cosmological catastrophe that has driven them to find a new home. In which case we may wind up being the victims in their search for a new place to call home.

Third: Given the distance they had to travel to get to earth and the difficulties in surviving in outer space. They may be so advanced that they can control gravity, time and space. They may not be like us as all. They may be advanced machines that can control and manipulate, at the quantum level, their own existence. And the existence of others.

Fourth: They may be 'Beserkers' seeking to colonize and exploit other worlds for their own benefit.

Fifth: They may be 'Watchers"  similar to Von Newmann probes. Seeking only to understand the nature of other civilizations and to promote a certain predetermined future agenda or future life form outcomes. They may use this information and ability to advance a social outcome.

There are instances in our past where persons seem to have somehow acquired knowledge well beyond the present general knowledge of the time.  In the past there have been unanswerable events that seem to defy the abilities of the times. Moving great blocks of stone over hundreds of miles is a mystery that remains to this day. Descriptions of certain objects in history seem other worldly: Ezekiel's wheel for instance. Paintings and glyphs that depict other life forms. And many unexplainable instances in more recent history.All of these occurrences seem to point to an extraterrestrial visitation. We may find that because they have existed for perhaps millions of years they have found the secrets to successful co-habitation in our galaxy and they are directing us to move in a more desirable direction to accomplish a mutual and beneficial sharing of this galaxies natural resources and defenses. Earth may be being groomed to join a larger galactic community.

Monday, June 22, 2015

Should we be trying to contact Aliens?



 
Brighton Publishing LLC
Copyright© 2015

ISBN 13: 978-1-62183-311-6
First Edition
 
 
Timeless Awakening addresses one side of this issue. But here is the main point - If an alien craft or entity of any kind has the ability to transport itself to earth over billions of miles of empty space. Than it also has the ability to take us out in what could be a very unpleasant way. Alternatively, Aliens could conceivably advance our knowledge of the universe we live in and, in the end, pave our way to the stars.  Do we take the chance that we benefit from an encounter or should we keep quiet and make no attempt to search our Galaxy for extra terrestrial life?

Here are some elements of the question that we should consider:

First there is the human cost/benefit ratio: China, the European Union, the United States  and to some extent Russia are main players in this high stakes question.  These four countries are currently spending billions on space technology as well as arms that otherwise could go on to solve issues concerning more immediate problems. I don't think I need to list them. There is much to do here on Earth to enhance the welfare and living conditions of millions of people living in poverty. There is much to do in terms of our environment. We could be investing in cures to rid ourselves of some of the most devastating of diseases. In other words; we collectively have much to do here at home to promote our continued survival. Aside from the knowledge we attain from space exploration and the jobs created as a result, there are only a few real reasons to invest in space technology. We do learn a great deal about the universe we inhabit and we do develop new and remarkable products as a result of research into materials and earth sciences. But I believe those benefits pale in comparison to other more immediate problems with society and our destruction of the environment.

Secondly: Is it even possible to not already be flooding the Galaxy with information of our existence? The electromagnetic energy we produce is a signpost to who we are and how far we have advanced in terms of our technological abilities. Even with the background noise of the universe an advanced, intelligent, Alien civilization can ferrite Earth out. Although, we have only been able to produce the required energy levels within the last hundred years or so. The distance the electromagnetic energy can be detected is constrained by the speed of light so our cosmological detection radius is on the order of 100 light years. This, in terms of just our own Galaxy, is infinitesimally small.

Thirdly: Look at what we have accomplished in just the last 100 years - think what we will accomplish in another thousand years? Think about how much more advanced they are than we are. In the book I have just finished, I present a window into the possibilities. The possible results of an Alien encounter are mixed. Obviously, if they have found us and have, somehow, traveled great distances to introduce themselves. - They are not afraid of us or afraid of what we might do to them. That alone is enough to make us leery of their intentions. If Aliens are anything like humans they are, by nature, curious. But they also might take offense at how we go about accomplishing certain aspect of our existence. Fore instance, they may  require that we disarm ourselves, stop burning fossil fuels, limit population growth, stop polluting what they may consider important resources such as water. They may, like Christopher Columbus, stick a stick in the ground and say ' This is ours'. They may carry their own set of diseases that we have no immunity for. The possibilities are endless.

No I think we stay to ourselves and improve our lot in life and invest in the sciences only as it relates to improving the human condition. That includes improving the Earths ability to sustain life.

So we have to ask ourselves - Do we really want them to know we are here?

Of course it is possible that intelligent aliens have visited earth in the past. Look for my next post.


Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Authors introduction

 

Brighton Publishing LLC
Copyright © 2015

ISBN 13: 978-1-62183-311-6
First Edition
 
 
Amazon review: This was a compelling, thought-provoking sci-fi page-turner. It definitely gets you thinking and keeps you engrossed until the very last page. I didn’t want it to end, and I hope there will be more to come in the near future because I can’t wait to see what happens next.

I am glad you enjoyed the book and yes there is more to come.

I have seen many technological advances in my lifetime; the introduction of the first black and white television, the first man to set foot on the moon, lasers, satellites, probes to mars and the outer planets, and weapons of mass destruction. Assuming we evolve for another ten thousand years without first destroying ourselves, what changes might we expect to see? This is a difficult question and quite impossible to, in actuality, imagine.

The ‘TIMELESS AWAKENING’ takes us on an imaginary technological journey to look at an advanced civilization that has survived over tens of thousands perhaps millions of years, and has developed the means and the knowledge to control and manipulate the most fundamental physical laws of our universe. What would this civilization do with this knowledge? What other abilities might they also have? And how might they use their knowledge to explore and manipulate other life forms throughout the universe? What conflicts might ensue and what if there were more than just one advanced civilization for other worlds to confront. The ‘TIMELESS AWAKENING’ presents a real future possibility.

On a personal note: I had a great deal of fun writing this book. My previous book 'The Puzzle Keeper' was difficult and took me over thirty five years to complete. It was my first attempt at writing so, I suppose, I could have done a better job of it had I developed any writing skills. 'Timeless Awakening' took only five year and, like the Puzzle Keeper, it began with a single question posed to myself. 'How did the known polymaths in history come by their intelligence? I thought, at the time, that I should look deeply into the question and write a technical paper on the question. However, given the 35 years it took me to write the first book I thought the better of it, and instead decided to have a little fun with the question. I had no outline to follow, Instead I just started writing and it all spilled out. I was as curious and fascinated about where the next chapter would take me as I hope the readers of the book will be.

ENJOY.
 
Timeless Awakening is now available in ebook format.  Release 6/20/2015