thoughts from a brokenSoldier

     I was looking through some sites for the purpose of finding information on religion and insightful quotations about it when I came across this one that contained a quote from Albert Einstein that set the imaginative part of my brain ablaze:

"Nobody, certainly, will deny that the idea of the existence of an omnipotent, just, and omnibeneficient personal God is able to accord man solace, help, and guidance; also, by virtue of its simplicity it is accessible to the most undeveloped mind."

     - Albert Einstein, In Science and Religion, (1941) 

(Bold mine for emphasis)

     This started within me a train of thought that led me to wonder about the nature of our species, specifically concerning our tendencies in handling those that we perceive to be outside or beneath our sphere of being.  When Einstein uttered the phrase "undeveloped minds," he was obviously referring to the minds of those humans not yet comparable - in our xenophobic and self-centered sense of the terms advancement and civilization - to those of the more advanced, civilized humans of the world.  But it isn’t hard to see that religion, in its inherent conceptual simplicity, would likely be the first offering - besides aggression - we extend to any species that comes along in their evolutionary process to the point of reaching the levels in both intellectual complexity and social interaction that set our kind on the path to the sort of civilization we enjoy today.  This journey, for all we know due to our limited ability to interact with species not our own, could very well have already begun.

     The question, should such a thing come to pass, then becomes one of collective introspection.  How will we handle any other species that emerge on this planet with the kind of intellectual, communicative, and social complexity and interaction on which we have had a monopoly for so long?  Will we become moral and kind stewards for these conscious beings of such emergent intelligence and communicative development, or will we become domineering masters of these creatures?  The question is one that will be central to our own image of ourselves as a species.  Many a science fiction work has been penned that populates its plot with alien races deemed to be evil because they treat others in this controlling, disdainful manner, while portraying humans as a moral force in the universe.  Unfortunately, if our track record with those races we have previously viewed as inferior is any indication, such portrayal is - at best - wishful thinking, indeed.

     If we take the former course and treat these new beings with respect and care, then we could possibly reap untold benefits in numerous endeavors, because we’d have a species of beings that would possibly stand with us and support us in such things as exploration of space and advancement of global freedom (depending, of course, on the inherent nature of whatever species it will be). But if we take the latter, we assure ourselves of one of two outcomes, both of which are interminably bleak.  Either we will have to deal with innumerable conflicts and fights to keep such creatures in their "place," or we face the very dark prospect of extinguishing the only other species on our planet to ever rise above their environment to take control of their own collective destiny.  As an individual human, I am not prepared to saddle myself with such a deplorable action, but sadly I do not have the amount of confidence in our species as a whole to harbor such moral inhibitions.  And that, in and of itself, is a less than promising indication - for I am sure my sentiments are not singular to me - that we are more likely to take the more sinister and self-serving path of the two.

     My best guess is that we will hold true to the nature we have shown so faithfully thus far;  there will be a contingent of us that demands respect and consideration for such beings, while the great majority of our species will be averse to the concept of including anyone or anything else as equals in our little corner of the universe.  So what about it?  What do you think we - as a species - will eventually do should this circumstance come to pass?  I’m wondering if there are any of you out there that hold a positive view of our species in this respect, concerning the injustices we have visited upon those less fortunate in the process of development than those that have come to dominate this world.  Maybe, just maybe, humanity will surprise us, should this ever come to pass.  For the sake of our descendants, I certainly hope so.

     I’ll leave you with a paraphrase (I can’t remember the exact words) of the final line from the book Next by Michael Crichton that frames this entire question.  At the end of the work, a man is walking with a chimpanzee that has been transgenically bred, and can talk and understand verbal interaction almost as well as a small child.  He is walking along, holding the hand of this remarkable creature, when another man comes up to him and utters a question that chilled me to the core in terms of my optimism on this very subject.  

     Showing the worst parts of our nature and tendencies, he asked the man with the chimpanzee, in all seriousness, if he could "get one of those" so he could use "it" to work his farm.  If we continue in these solipsist - and frankly, arrogant - ways, then we are doomed to repeat our history of conflict and disregard for all those that are not considered to be "us."  If not, we have a very real chance of being the species that began the explosion of life that might one day spread across this corner of space to prosper and endure.  To me, the former is unacceptable, and the latter is simply irresistibly enticing.

NASA’s Phoenix Lander has an Oven Full of Martian Soil

I came across the above article while I was one of my regular trips through the NASA mission sites (what can I say, I love all things space), and the picture with the article just got me.  Often, at night, I’ll go outside and just stare at the moon.  This has been a habit all of my life, and when the moon isn’t there I find myself looking at stars and wondering how many rocks like ours are floating around them.  I could go into pages trying to explain why, but Einstein said it best:

If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. 

I react the exact same way during the times I find myself gawking at the moon.  I find that while I’m looking, I’m imagining the individual peaks and valleys, wondering if I’m looking anywhere near where the Apollo 11 astronauts left their footprints, and daydreaming about fulfilling my lifelong dream of seeing the Earth from so far above.

So when on the site for the Phoenix Mars Lander, I came across this photo, and it struck that nerve within me that fills me with Einstein’s ‘unbounded admiration.’ 

 

I know it may pass by some as a trivial photo of the first step of a planned mission, but to me this photo is amazing.  To me, this photo is visual confirmation that we have come all the way from Earth and managed to land safely, get everything up and running, and dig a hole on a planet that is - at its record closest approach - well over 55,000,000 kilometers away from us. I guess I still haven’t lost that childhood admiration for such things, and frankly, I hope I never do.  

While on Mars, the Phoenix lander will perform the above task countless times, placing the dirt onto a screen to sift it into one of eight ovens in its Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer instrument (TEGA).  Once the dirt has filled an oven, the TEGA will bake the soil in order to determine its chemical makeup, giving scientists a better understanding of the "volatile ingredients" within, with one of their main targets being the water content of the soil on the Red Planet.

The soil was excavated from an area of Mars that has been unofficially named "Baby Bear," a locale previously unexplored.  And it certainly didn’t take long to run into the first of what will surely prove to be many unexpected results during the lander’s exploration of our celestial neighbor.  In scooping and placing the dirt onto the screen, they found that the dirt was falling through the vibrating screen at a much slower rate than expected.  The screen, with dirt on top, was vibrated on three different days -  June 6, 8, and 9 - with only a few particles getting through to the oven.  Peter Smith, the principal investigator for the Phoenix mission, commented on the new development, displaying that enthusiastic curiosity so important to such an ambitious mission:

"There’s something very unusual about this soil, from a place on Mars we’ve never been before," said Phoenix Principal Investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona. "We’re interested in learning what sort of chemical and mineral activity has caused the particles to clump and stick together." 

Their curiosity might be temporarily satisfied when they get the results of the oven test - but surely not for long, for whatever questions are answered, it is inevitable that more that will pop up in the course of the mission.  And that is what makes the trip all the more worth it, in my eyes.  After all, you can’t learn anything without such questions.  The answers to such questions will have untold benefits, providing answers to questions concerning the origin and evolution of our own small corner of the universe.  And on a more personal note, I’m looking forward to learning those things, because they will undoubtedly provide me with countless more hours of daydreaming and wonder when staring out into the night sky.