Carl Sagan said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." That intriguing statement, to me, is a subtle indictment of those who engage in just self-indulgent idleness and a challenge to all onboard the 'Spaceship Earth' to be on the lookout for what is not new; but rather it's to discover what is old that is new again in our own eyes. Better said, it is what has not changed, it is what we are now seeing for the first time in quantum physics.
Our entire universe is now open for new knowledge and understanding to quantify physical changes and phenomena beyond Aristotle's limited five senses of the human body: vision, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. It is now in this uncharted dimension of space-time in which we do not humanly perceive our universe as it actually is—in six dimensions.
- According to cosmological models of the "Big Bang" theory that explain our universe, an overwhelming explosion trillions of degrees in temperature on any measurement scale was infinitely dense. This massive explosion created not only fundamental subatomic particles and thus "matter and energy," but "space and time" itself--which were all determined in less than one millionth of a second after the "Big Bang."
When Nicolaus Copernicus discovered the Earth wasn’t the center of the Universe, everything's changed. When Isaac Newton figured out the law of gravity from a falling apple, everything's changed. When Benjamin Franklin harvested electricity from lightening and Thomas Edison made the first commercial light bulb, everything's changed. Today, as quantum physicists discover our physical universe isn’t real, that it’s just a hologram, everything's unchanged; but we still changed--we just found something old that is new again in our own eyes. After all, we all live in a really old, old place in a bigger older neighborhood, our universe.
Quantum physics and brain research offers a new and radical approach to spiritual evolution based on the recent scientific experiments. Given that the physical universe which looks and feels so real to us could be actually an unique holographic projection from our own brain, akin to flight training simulators and virtual reality games, is very contrary to what our five senses have transmitted as perception.
Due to the discovery of particles as discrete units or 'quanta' of all matter, quantum theory defines all objects and physical materials as 'virtual' components; they are not solid matter, per sae, but merely composites of sub-atomic particles. Since they are too small to see with the naked eye or touch to feel them, in particle physics the matter is bombarded with radiation which interacts to detect dynamics which can be measure electronically for their presence. So this means that a hardwood floor or a granite rock is not really solid at all even though it sure feels like it, especially if you hit your head on it.
At the time of this 1966 Time magazine article, Carl Sagan announced, "There were two important criteria for a planet to support life: The right kind of star, and a planet the right distance from that star." Of course, he was referring to our sun and earth, the two most important stars in our lives.
Sagan continued, "There are roughly about octillion planets, 1 followed by 24 zeros; then the planets capable of supporting life should be about septillion, 1 followed by 21 zeros." With those spectacular odds, a celestial search hoped to find other life through the Extraterrestrial Intelligence Project, SETI, which was then launched in the 1960's that would hopefully turn up something soon. But by 1993, the researchers after a vast radio telescopic network for coded signals transmitted into the cosmos had yielded a silent universe that was deafening which only discovered bubkis, zero followed by nothing; Congress after thirty-three years finally defunded it in 1993 while some privately run organizations have continued on in the past twenty years or so in vain.
Astronomer Carl Sagan - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)First reactions to the SETI Program was it's a failure; however to its credit, it really had increased our knowledge into what was not true. Furthermore, there were far more necessary factors for life discovered than what Carl Sagan supposed back in 1966, fifty years ago. His two parameters grew to 10, 20 and 50, but so did the number of life supporting planets decrease accordingly too. The number dropped to a few thousand planets and has still been in free-fall since. As more factors continue to be discovered, the numbers of planets that support life may turn to zero, including our own earth too--which probably even means we shouldn't be here either.
Fifty years later since Sagan said there were 'two' important criteria, today there are more than 200 known parameters necessary for a planet to support life--every one must be perfectly met, or the whole thing falls apart. Astrophysicists now know the values of four fundamental forces--gravity, the electromagnetic forces, and the 'strong' and 'weak' nuclear forces. The fine-tuning necessary for life to exist on a planet is nothing compared to the universe existing at all in itself. So, the odds against life in the universe are simply even more astonishing too.
If the ratio between nuclear strong force and the electromagnetic force had been off by the tiniest fraction, then no stars could have ever been formed at all--and there goes our sun, earth and our own life. So the notion that the universe just happened defies common sense, it would be like tossing a coin and having it come up heads 10 quintillion times in a row...Oh, Really?
It's ironic that we are even existing, discussing existing while science suggests that we cannot be existing by the result of just any random force. In assuming that an intelligence created these perfect conditions, doesn't it require less faith than it is to beat the inconceivable odds just to come into being within a hostile universe?
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BIO: Carl Sagan (1934–1996) was an American astrophysicist who did much to
popularize the sciences, especially into astronomy, during his very illustrious career. Carl Sagan co-wrote and presented "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage," a unique television series which then brought the heavens into viewers' living rooms. His legacy lies mostly in the advancement of humanism. Carl Sagan had discovered a real profound spirituality in experiencing a total wonder and majesty of the universe.