Carl Sagans - Pale Blue Dot

I will admit I nicked this from another blog, but that is the great thing of the internet, it is a source of expanding knowledge.  I presume they nicked it from some other site on the internet.  So feel free to pass it in if it moves you, as it should.  Carl Sagan was a true pioneer, a gifted scientist and writer, a visionary, who helped the world understand the beauty of the Universe. He died far too young.

"Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known."

Carl Sagan

Defining Life

I seem to be in documentary mode at the moment, I am watching one called the Privileged Planet; it talks about life, and finding life on other worlds. They talk to SETI, and how there must be at least a few thousand intelligent species in the vastness of our galaxy let alone the Universe. I have no doubt they are right, but I don’t believe in the idea it will be an intelligence or biology like our own. We seem to cloud the issue by using Earth as a standard model on what life is. We have no choice but to do this, since it is the only planet we know with life. But that’s like saying English is the language of Planet Earth and that all languages must be the same or similar. We know this is not true, even if we just look at written language there are many different types. Then there is body language, oral language, emotional language, and sign language, I am sure it is the same with life. We know English but there is also Chinese, and many other forms. The standard model for determining life should be evolution and the ability of atoms, and sub atomic particles to take advantage of the environment they exist in. Nearly everyone would say it is extremely unlikely that intelligent life may live in Jupiter, but we don’t know that for sure, we believe using our standard model of life, our English Language that it is impossible, and maybe it is. It is impossible for our type of life to live there, but it is not impossible to Jupiter’s standard of life to live there, if you see what I mean. Could a life from Jupiter live on Earth, highly unlikely, but we shouldn’t diminish its chances of having life because we feel it is unlikely. Continued survival through a set of rigid laws is what we should classify as life, it may open our eyes to other avenues.


I should have started this post after watching the whole documentary, instead of in the middle, oh well my mistake, I am always too eager. The rest of the doc was about the amazing good fortune we enjoy on Planet Earth. It bases its facts on a book called Rare Earth, which I have read, and it makes it abundantly clear how incredibly wonderful, lucky and special we all are. Every form of life, humans, animals, birds, trees, plants etc, we are all special and not insignificant; they quote Carl Sagan talking about the pale blue dot.

“Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.” Carl Sagan

But I think they are missing the point, as I read into Sagan’s meaning is that in cosmological terms we are insignificant, in the grand scheme of the Universe. I think I may add the whole quote in a later blog.

They quote the number of conditions for our survival to occur; I think I may have written them in an earlier post.

Right Distance from the Sun            Correct type of Sun                Liquid Water

Magnetic Core                                Oxygen rich Atmosphere        A large Moon

Massive Outer Planets                    Quiet part of the Galaxy         Size & Weight

They mention them periodically throughout the doc, and if I am honest when I read the book I thought the same as they do; that it is not by chance. That everything was just too perfect, the Laws of Physics, the natural order, how come this is so perfect. This is one of the reasons I started my quest, to understand the Universe. And my conclusion is no different from the one Richard Dawkins may give, explaining evolution. They are looking at it from the wrong perspective, since we are the ones alive noticing the fact we exist in perfection; we are the culmination we are the present moment. All my ideas started to gel together, and I realised that it is only our perception, our viewpoint, our perspective that gives us this illusion, the Universe, Planet Earth, is perfect for only us, alive now.

If the world is perfect for us, then it might also be perfect for other things. We know it is perfect for everything on this planet, we know this because if it wasn’t they would not exist. We can deduce that any object, part of the Planet Earth exists, and since it exists, it must be because of the conditions it exists in. Meaning if they were not perfect then they would not exist. If this applies to everything on planet Earth, and Planet Earth was part of the same debris, which was the formation of the solar system, it might apply to the solar system, and since the solar system is part of the Milky Way Galaxy, then it may follow these laws also. We could go on forever backwards; everything is part of everything else. The Infinitiverse, the everything, mutated, evolved, multiplied, recreated, and constantly changed until what we see today, which is a tiny part of the original. When we look at Earth and say we are lucky to have all those conditions mentioned above, they are mute; because that is the way it is meant to be. If it were different then we would not exist and some other being would be asking these questions. It would not stop or change the definite constant that everything exists in constant change and environmental adaptability. Imagine there are intelligent beings on Jupiter (I know you it’s a stretch but try to imagine). And they are saying the same things we are saying, how come everything is perfect for Jupiter, we have all these moons, we are well away from the rocky dangerous planets, we are massive and can sustain massive impacts. We have a large magnetic field; they could say the same arguments, why they are the privileged planet. We are a special planet because we are unique, no matter how many times people will fantasise about the fact, we will probably never find other life similar to us, in appearance, in size, in intellect, in substance. But this does not mean there is no other life in the universe.

The Next Step

Certain key themes seem to raise their heads throughout history, one being; we live in dreadful times and the end of the world is near. The second is that a hate figure is the cause, and third that a special super being will come and save the day. Isn’t it strange, we seem to allow this thinking to control our lives; we want to believe in a saviour someone who will set us free? But if and when a saviour arrives, they will not bring the end of evil, the end of hardship, then a great battle between good and evil, the Armageddon. The will unite the world in harmony and peace, they will bring trust to everyone, they will tear down the divisions, they will change the consciousness of humanity forever. Then we the people of the world will bring the end of evil, the end of hardship and misery. I believe when the consciousness of all humanity is striving for the same goals, the same freedoms and not just the freedoms of the few who believe as you do, but all people. When we are all pulling in the same direction then the next evolution will begin. Once we think as one, and not as enemies or divided groups with different viewpoints, we will be able to communicate on a higher level with the rest of the Universe. I don’t mean take away a man’s free will and unique individuality as a person, I mean, the segregation and divisions, caused by distrust, deceit, greed, power and control.


The antichrist of today is greed, selfishness and inequality, the messiah is the one to end the misery for all and bring peace to all, a decent living to all, no more wars, no more unnecessary death, and hunger. They won’t bring joy to the chosen few and death to everyone else; they will bring the beginning of the next step, in the evolution of this planet.

The One Percent and the Tea Party

I watched two interesting documentaries yesterday; the first was a documentary about the new ultra right wing political group, the Tea Party which is gathering a following in the US. The second a documentary about the uber wealthy, the one percent in the US that owns everything. Although different they were essentially the same, they were about greedy, selfish people that think they deserve more than everyone else for whatever deluded reason they see fit to think about. The Tea Party doc was on the BBC by Andrew Neil, a former US political correspondent; was particularly scary, seeing the falseness and apparent neo-Nazi ideology that festers like an open wound in America. I understand where they are coming from; they have lost much and feel they want to go back to what they call a more free society without ‘big government’. But they are deluded into thinking the cause of this disaster is what they call, the tyranny of the Democrats. They are so blinded to selfishness, they do not realise, the reason they are in the mess they find themselves, is because of the very people like themselves, the Republicans, and the insanity of eight years of Dopey Dubya. American politics is incredibly confusing; it seems that if any loony can raise enough capital they can get what they want. It shows that in America any crazed idea if popular will happen. If it was suddenly popular to bring back slavery, or gladiators fighting to the death in Stadia, you feel some loony would try to lobby for its inclusion. I know this is an extreme example but when you hear some of the things that get thought about in the US, is it really that extreme.


The doc showed contrived interviews between the silly Sarah Palin, and Glen Beck, which baffles me how anyone could be so duped into believing the nonsense they spout. Glen feels Sarah Palin is the woman to change America, and she believes it because she raised an army veteran, how the hell is that a reason to be president of the most powerful country in the world; to say my heart was racing at the terrifying thought if that ever came true. When are people going to wake up and realise that greedy selfishness, and looking after number one and only thinking of yourself, and what you have, is divisive. It is the ultimate doom, it doesn’t help you, it hinders you, look back at history, every greedy selfish me, me, me, society eventually falls. I am not sure if people in the US can see the doc, if you can watch it, because these Tea Party extremists look like a cross between the early Nazi party and the Political side of the Klu Klux Klan.

To add there is a brilliant rant by Matt Damon, on YouTube, it is brilliant and sums up Sarah Palin to a tee.  here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6urw_PWHYk

And here is a one from John Cleese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMyNk8J1c8g&feature=related

And Bill Maher http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2OUJ8ZUTiI&feature=related

This last one is silly Sarah herself http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntEE9Zy-qQQ&feature=related

The One Percent doc was by Jamie Johnson, son and heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, his family are billionaires, but he wrestles with the inequality of having so much, when so many have nothing. Jamie because of his standing and status speaks to many of the wealthiest people in the world or their children. Maybe giving their children so much privilege and a decent education has allowed them to see how dreadful the world is for so many people. To hear some of these billionaires talk you would think they were the saviours of the world, and that they in some way deserve all this power and privilege. Imagine if every billionaire or everyone with over 100 million dollars gave one percent of his wealth to the people of their countries, an equal share just to help people. How much money would that be? How much would you get? How much would it change the lives of millions of people? If you take the personal wealth of the top three, that total is approximately $150 Billion, yes it is incredible to think, and one percent is $1.5 Billion. Now that is only the top three, now I am sure they will argue they give millions of dollars every year already, and they do but that still doesn’t take away the fact that they make far more, and the way the world works means they get more and more whilst everyone else gets less. If I remember rightly America was supposed to end the classes make everyone equal in God’s eyes, and give everyone a chance to make it big. Today’s society reminds me a similar system of the past, when wealthy land barons owned everything and serfs did their hard work for next to nothing, the time of old medieval England. The weird thing is if you compare the two docs, realistically the Tea Party should be totally against the wealthy one percent, but they are not, they don’t mind them. They don’t mind them having more money than many countries. What I find amazing is they are pissed off at the people at the other end. The ones with nothing, they say are sponging off them, taking their hard earned money. It’s an incredible oxymoron, and quite bizarre, I find it incredibly confusing, bewildering to the point of incredulity. The division in America will affect the whole world, and if we are not careful, nearly 150 years after the last American Civil War there may be another one looming.

What is God?

You know what I feel, what I understand about everything that exists, the reasons we pine for a god, the reason is we are all an essence of something greater, and more powerful than we can ever imagine.  We crave the one god, the one person in our eyes to explain the miracle we see around us every day.  But maybe, it is not a one god we are craving, but a desire to share a kindred oneness with the Universe, and all other things that exist in it.  We are a small part of this and we are made up of it, we exist because of it, and we find it hard to wash it away with cold hard facts.  I know why people are religious because in a way everyone has their own religion, identity, and status.  My religion says there is something about the universe we are part of that is more alive than we know or realise. It is likely that many higher powers exist but are not what a human accepts as a god figure or supernatural being.  The Universe or Infinitiverse is incomprehensible to a human at present.  Though I believe it is far more than the physical world, and we will soon know without the need for faith, the biggest of questions, why are we here? Why do we exist? What is the Universe? What is life? What is God?

Healing Hypnosis

I feel light today, incandescent, luminescent, a radiant bloom of youthful joy, umm like apple crumble and custard. I wish this was a feeling I could have more often, where did it come from? It is a new feeling, a warm feeling on a cold and gloomy day. I woke up at some ridiculous time this morning it was nearer to midnight than it was to dawn, it was early and I had a terrible sore throat, it had been getting worse for a few days. A friend said there was a bout of something called white throat, I think that is what he said. People had sore throats with white spots at the back of the throat. My mind imagined these white pustules, filling the back of my throat as I lay there, with each swallow; I sensed razors slicing slowly across these white furuncles.

I decided to try something, I had recently added some hypnosis tracks to my IPod, they were my attempt to try and sleep, I had tried many other methods and now I was at the hypnosis stage. One of the tracks I noticed was a healing track, and so I listened to it intently, it slowly lulled me into a trance, and I went deeper and deeper, and into a garden, and down some stairs, deeper and deeper I went. In front of me was a great hall, and a healing room. I entered the healing room, and lay and the marble bench. Above was pure white light, and around me many crystals, I chose some crystals and created a spectrum of light. The track said choose, a golden colour for the heart, and a green colour for the joints, and I chose a blue colour for my throat, and red for my mind. I felt a wave of enlightened warmth fill me, I felt it in all the places I imagined the light to go to, I willed myself to firmly believe the light was working to heal me to take away my sore throat.


Now some 8 hours later, I have no sore throat, I have no tennis elbow either, which has been giving me jip was months. And my knees feel great too.

Now the question is was it the hypnosis, or was it my mind? Or was it a mixture of the two, the hypnosis unleashed the potential of the mind to heal the body. Wow wish it worked like that all the time, then again I will try tomorrow something else and see if that works. It doesn’t work with sleep though now I know it does work it may work with sleep, that is how weird the mind is or at least my mind.

How to Create Artificial Gravity in Space

Before I write this, I want to assure people that this is just a flight of fancy, wild imagination, and in no way based on any knowledge of the science behind how this may work. It was thought of as an aid to constructing the concept of artificial gravity, for My Universe. I have hummed and hawed about whether I should add it as pure imagination, but I have just found it written in one of my note pads, so here it is.


How to create artificial gravity in space

To create artificial gravity involves basic deception, you have to deceive the brain of the human and the brain of the spaceship or station. Start by creating a virtual centre of gravity for the space station or ship, like a weight on the end of a crane, outside the space station, ship etc. Once established, change the air pressure inside the spaceship, station, object, or whatever, so that it is also a virtual representation of Earth’s ground pressure. Once the two are in unison, force the air in the direction of the centre of gravity. Add a weak magnetic field to the floors and make sure it attracts any object above it.



When I thought of this, it was to help me with my book (no never, you will say). Yes I theorised this concept so I had a plausible (at least in my mind) way to create artificial gravity. Even though I know it is not likely to work, well let’s say the probability of winning the lottery is more likely than my artificial gravity idea being correct. But I was chuffed with the idea.