A Scientific Approach to a Cosmic World View
A Scientific Approach to a Cosmic World View
By Bill J Grossman, MD
Humans are an intelligent species who live in a vast universe without boundaries. Until very recently we were only able to perceive and interact with only a very small portion of the world around us. The main things that separates humans from the rest of the species on this world is our desire and ability to exert control over our environment and a capacity for language and symbolic thought.
During the Paleolithic period (The Old Stone Age), about 25,000 years ago, humans lived in small bands of hunters and gatherers in small geographical territories. These Paleolithic humans had evolved their five senses in order to interact with the components of nature that were necessary for the survival of the species. Ancient man needed to be able to perceive the indigenous flora and fauna, geographical terrain, and changes in the weather in order to survive. In the last 25,000 years we have evolved as far as our brain processing and reasoning capacity is concerned but it is assumed that the range of our sensory perception is essentially the same as our Paleolithic ancestors.
About 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age), humans developed the ability to exert control over their environment by cultivating plants and breeding animals. It was at this time that tool making became necessary such as tools for plowing, harvesting, making pottery for food storage and weapons for hunting and self defense. One of the most important tools created at this time was Mathematics. This was necessary in order to know when to plant and when to harvest as well as an accounting tool to keep track of animals and pottery urns filled with food.
About 5,000 years ago, human settlements reached a critical size and cities developed. In order to build cities, new forms of mathematics needed to be developed to assist with engineering, city planning, and navigation. Without the ability to develop reasoning, tools and mathematics, humans would never have been able to evolve from the Stone Age to the level of advancement that we have achieved today.
I would like to list here what limits us from being able to be aware of what is really happening in the universe and where we fit in. We will need to retrain our minds to broaden our horizons before we can fully appreciate how the universe works and where we fit in.
1. We are limited to being able to sense only a miniscule portion of the visible light spectrum. We have developed tools such as radios and X-ray machines that help us extend the range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can detect. We have developed telescopes with mass spectrometers that can actually tell us what stars are made of.
2. We are limited by scale. We can’t sense the trillions of symbiotic bacteria that live on our skin or in our intestines which protect us from the bacteria. We can’t detect the microscopic mites that live in our skin and clean it. We developed light microscopes to detect smaller things and when we exceeded the limits of these we invented electron microscopes to see even smaller organisms such as viruses.
3. We are severely limited by our short life span. The average human life span of 75 years is but a nanosecond in comparison with the age of the Universe. This doesn’t give us much time to figure things out. We have developed tools such as language and writing so that the process of Natural Philosophy started by the ancient Greeks continues to this day. We have also developed computers which speed up our ability to perform calculations and the internet which increases the speed of the transfer of information. This is why I am sitting at my computer right now, writing down my thoughts and sending it to anyone on the internet who is interested in taking my ideas and improving on them.
4. We have evolved to be self centered. This is a consequence of the selfish nature of natural selection. Some people have transcended this limitation to care for all humans (species-centric).
Environmentalists have transcended this further and are geocentrically aware. Few people other than cosmologists have been able to expand their awareness even further and develope a cosmic world view.
It wasn’t until about 400 years ago, that Galileo used one of the first telescopes which quickly led to the knowledge of distant moons and galaxies the laws of planetary motion. This elevated our awareness dramatically because it proved that we are not at the center of the universe. It also required the development of a new type of mathematics known as calculus. It was also at this time that Issac Newton postulated the existence of gravity.
This ushered in a period known as The Scientific Revolution, where philosophers like Descartes broke from the superstition of religion and relied more on the power of reason. There are risks associated with an increased capacity to control nature. Consider the atomic bomb, global warming, pollution, and destruction of the environment. We now have the ability to destroy ourselves in multiple ways. In retrospect, our ability to destroy ourselves is a predictable consequence of our growing ability to alter our environment which began in the Neolithic Period 10,000 years ago. It is the hope of reasonable people that our survival instinct will lead to a global cooperation so that that does not occur.
From a geocentric stand point, we are just renters on this planet; we never owned it and never will. When one studies the theory of population dynamics it makes sense. It has been shown that all species increase in population until they outgrow their habitat, and run out of resources, which causes the population to decrease through natural selection. In biological terms, even if we try to annihilate ourselves, some of us will survive and live on and evolve. These people will have metabolisms that will conserve water and calories, be able to withstand higher radiation levels and temperatures, and live on less oxygen and higher amounts of carbon dioxide.
Even if an astronomical cataclysmic event occurs such as a killer asteroid which occurs every 50 – 100 million years or so, and we lose our lease on Earth, some animals and plants will survive, and the Earth will regenerate as long as the water remains.
From a cosmocentric stand point, the Earth has a predictable life span which ends in a few billion years, when our Sun runs out of Hydrogen and starts to fuse Helium. The Sun will then grow to become a Red Giant, engulfing the Earth in the process. The effect of this will be to nourish the rest of the Universe by contributing heavy metals such as lithium to it. Without the life and death of stars we couldn’t have had the nitrogen, carbon and oxygen for life to have evolved on Earth in the first place so it’s only right that we return the favor so other planets can be born to maintain the balance of the universe.
By Bill J Grossman, MD
Humans are an intelligent species who live in a vast universe without boundaries. Until very recently we were only able to perceive and interact with only a very small portion of the world around us. The main things that separates humans from the rest of the species on this world is our desire and ability to exert control over our environment and a capacity for language and symbolic thought.
During the Paleolithic period (The Old Stone Age), about 25,000 years ago, humans lived in small bands of hunters and gatherers in small geographical territories. These Paleolithic humans had evolved their five senses in order to interact with the components of nature that were necessary for the survival of the species. Ancient man needed to be able to perceive the indigenous flora and fauna, geographical terrain, and changes in the weather in order to survive. In the last 25,000 years we have evolved as far as our brain processing and reasoning capacity is concerned but it is assumed that the range of our sensory perception is essentially the same as our Paleolithic ancestors.
About 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age), humans developed the ability to exert control over their environment by cultivating plants and breeding animals. It was at this time that tool making became necessary such as tools for plowing, harvesting, making pottery for food storage and weapons for hunting and self defense. One of the most important tools created at this time was Mathematics. This was necessary in order to know when to plant and when to harvest as well as an accounting tool to keep track of animals and pottery urns filled with food.
About 5,000 years ago, human settlements reached a critical size and cities developed. In order to build cities, new forms of mathematics needed to be developed to assist with engineering, city planning, and navigation. Without the ability to develop reasoning, tools and mathematics, humans would never have been able to evolve from the Stone Age to the level of advancement that we have achieved today.
I would like to list here what limits us from being able to be aware of what is really happening in the universe and where we fit in. We will need to retrain our minds to broaden our horizons before we can fully appreciate how the universe works and where we fit in.
1. We are limited to being able to sense only a miniscule portion of the visible light spectrum. We have developed tools such as radios and X-ray machines that help us extend the range of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can detect. We have developed telescopes with mass spectrometers that can actually tell us what stars are made of.
2. We are limited by scale. We can’t sense the trillions of symbiotic bacteria that live on our skin or in our intestines which protect us from the bacteria. We can’t detect the microscopic mites that live in our skin and clean it. We developed light microscopes to detect smaller things and when we exceeded the limits of these we invented electron microscopes to see even smaller organisms such as viruses.
3. We are severely limited by our short life span. The average human life span of 75 years is but a nanosecond in comparison with the age of the Universe. This doesn’t give us much time to figure things out. We have developed tools such as language and writing so that the process of Natural Philosophy started by the ancient Greeks continues to this day. We have also developed computers which speed up our ability to perform calculations and the internet which increases the speed of the transfer of information. This is why I am sitting at my computer right now, writing down my thoughts and sending it to anyone on the internet who is interested in taking my ideas and improving on them.
4. We have evolved to be self centered. This is a consequence of the selfish nature of natural selection. Some people have transcended this limitation to care for all humans (species-centric).
Environmentalists have transcended this further and are geocentrically aware. Few people other than cosmologists have been able to expand their awareness even further and develope a cosmic world view.
It wasn’t until about 400 years ago, that Galileo used one of the first telescopes which quickly led to the knowledge of distant moons and galaxies the laws of planetary motion. This elevated our awareness dramatically because it proved that we are not at the center of the universe. It also required the development of a new type of mathematics known as calculus. It was also at this time that Issac Newton postulated the existence of gravity.
This ushered in a period known as The Scientific Revolution, where philosophers like Descartes broke from the superstition of religion and relied more on the power of reason. There are risks associated with an increased capacity to control nature. Consider the atomic bomb, global warming, pollution, and destruction of the environment. We now have the ability to destroy ourselves in multiple ways. In retrospect, our ability to destroy ourselves is a predictable consequence of our growing ability to alter our environment which began in the Neolithic Period 10,000 years ago. It is the hope of reasonable people that our survival instinct will lead to a global cooperation so that that does not occur.
From a geocentric stand point, we are just renters on this planet; we never owned it and never will. When one studies the theory of population dynamics it makes sense. It has been shown that all species increase in population until they outgrow their habitat, and run out of resources, which causes the population to decrease through natural selection. In biological terms, even if we try to annihilate ourselves, some of us will survive and live on and evolve. These people will have metabolisms that will conserve water and calories, be able to withstand higher radiation levels and temperatures, and live on less oxygen and higher amounts of carbon dioxide.
Even if an astronomical cataclysmic event occurs such as a killer asteroid which occurs every 50 – 100 million years or so, and we lose our lease on Earth, some animals and plants will survive, and the Earth will regenerate as long as the water remains.
From a cosmocentric stand point, the Earth has a predictable life span which ends in a few billion years, when our Sun runs out of Hydrogen and starts to fuse Helium. The Sun will then grow to become a Red Giant, engulfing the Earth in the process. The effect of this will be to nourish the rest of the Universe by contributing heavy metals such as lithium to it. Without the life and death of stars we couldn’t have had the nitrogen, carbon and oxygen for life to have evolved on Earth in the first place so it’s only right that we return the favor so other planets can be born to maintain the balance of the universe.
posted by The Adventurer at 1:03 PM
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