What Next for Mankind?

About 5 billion years ago, our solar system was formed from the gravitational collapse of a giant cloud of dust, molecules and atoms, much of which was left over from the Big Bang itself. A small amount, however, was generated by the death of giant stars as they blew themselves to pieces in what is called a supernova. When things began to settle down from the violence of the creation, the solar system consisted of our Sun with 8 attendant planets (the ninth, Pluto, has been demoted to a dwarf planet), an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, comets, meteors and other sundry bits and pieces. Initially the Earth was awash with volcanic and earthquake activity as it cooled down, but eventually it became relatively stable although even today volcanic and seismic activity continues.

So, how long more can mankind continue to live on the Earth? Baring the possibility of humanity blowing itself to bits or destroying the environment, we must consider our Sun as the most likely cause of Earth’s demise. The Sun will continue to burn at its present rate for another 5 billion years. It will supply all our energy needs during that time and assuming we don’t do something daft, will also continue to sustain us. However after that time has expired the Sun will begin to go through a number of changes where it will eventually expand into what is called a red giant. This means that its outer surface will expand almost to the distance of the Earth. If we are inside that expansion the complete planet will be utterly destroyed. If we remain outside it, the atmosphere and oceans will be boiled off and everything on the surface will be burned to a crisp. We had better be gone by then.

Of course, we have only been around on this planet for about 200 thousand years and while we made some pretty major advances early on (discovery of fire, the wheel etc.) our technology has really only taken off since the late middle ages. Since that time it has progressed in leaps and bounds to our electronic computer age today. We have managed to send a man as far as the Moon, which is less than a quarter of a million miles away, a dot in the ocean in comparison to the distance to our second nearest star, Proxima Centauri, a mere 25 million million miles. And that was by putting him in a little capsule on top of a massive rocket and hurling him upwards into space.

Looking on the bright side we still have a long, long time to figure out how to get permanently off of this planet. We have already taken the first steps, by building the international space station. But it is a tiny step, and the worry is that with the world in a financial mess, there’s not much money around where people are prepared to invest in long term projects. Of course, the whole idea that we should run our affairs tied up in money and power is ridiculous but that’s another article. In the meantime we have to have an optimistic outlook that we’ll get to our goals eventually.

Wrapped up with the idea of leaving planet Earth is the concept of reaching another planet and colonising it. Or even terraforming Mars. That in itself is an interesting concept and certainly a tremendous challenge. How could we transform the hostile atmosphere and environment of Mars into an Earth like state? The main changes required would be the building up of the atmosphere to make it breathable for humans, increasing the temperature and preventing the atmosphere leaking away into space. We could start by importing a very large quantity of water which in theory could be obtained from ice asteroids or the icy moons of Jupiter or other planets as there does not seem to be enough of the substance frozen in the Martian poles. Once there was enough water to form an ocean or two, plant life such as plankton could be introduced into the newly formed sea. This would start converting the atmosphere from its present format to oxygen. These things will be possible in the future even if the technology is a little beyond us at present.

But we don’t need to go to another planet. Why shouldn’t we use the concept of O’Neill cylinders? Gerard O’Neill was a professor of physics at Princeton and in a 1976 book he proposed the idea. Using materials from the moon he envisioned building a huge cylinder in space about 5 miles in diameter and about 20 miles long. This would rotate in order to create an artificial gravity while humans could live on its inner surface. This could accommodate hundreds of thousands of people. Other designs could house even more people. And not only would these massive space stations of the future be able to hold so many people, they would not have to stay in the one place, or even orbit one star. They could travel slowly through space which would mean that after many generations the descendants of the first intrepid space farers could reach planets orbiting distant stars. In the meantime the inhabitants of these colonies could live their lives exactly as they did on Earth, working and raising their families.

So this may be the way we will visit and perhaps colonise other planets, assuming of course nobody is already living there. We won’t have to invent the warp engine or any of the other extremely futuristic projects to travel between the stars. While I do believe the application of science will one day be able to overcome the light speed barrier, it will take a very long time in my estimation. One of the ideas on how the warp engine actually operates is that of bending spacetime. The spaceship stays in a bubble of normal space while the space in front and behind is stretched and condensed. In this way the ship rides this wave so to speak. As it takes massive amounts of mass or energy to bend space (even Earth bends it by an incredibly tiny amount) it will be many centuries before we even begin to develop that sort of technology. Of course all this bending of spacetime is only theory. We have no clue if it can ever work in practice. In the meantime all we need is patience as we slowly move through space in our O’Neill cylinders.

Other ideas like moving through the universe involve the use of wormholes. Regions of space light years distant from each other could be connected by a wormhole. Going through the wormhole takes us pretty well instantaneously between the two regions. The analogy is with an apple. To get from one side of the apple to the other, an insect for example, would have to go around the surface. However, if a worm bored a hole through the centre of the apple, this would be a much shorter path between two widely separated areas of the apple. Scientists like to give exotic names to their ideas. Again we would need to be a highly advanced technological civilisation before even attempting such a feat.

And of course we mustn’t forget the old Star Trek favourite, the transporter. The idea that a machine can take your body and send it through space and time to another machine in a different place is quite mind boggling. This to my mind is an even more advanced concept than the wormhole. There are two ways it might work. First, the machine reads the precise position of every atom in your body. Immediately we run into the uncertainty principle, but let’s ignore that. This transporter has a computer with massive memory capable of recording where every single atom in your body belongs, that’s 7000 trillion trillion atoms, more than there are stars in the observable universe. That’s some computing power. Of course with clever algorithms we need remember much less than that, but it is still an awesome feat. Then the machine teleports this information to its sister machine some other place and hence reconstructs you, with all your atoms in the correct position. Now the first transporter has to kill you otherwise there will be two copies of you. The other method is to deconstruct you in the first place (it could still be called murder), send your actual atoms as energy to the other machine and reconstruct you. The question also arises whether the reconstructed you is really you. Of course a more advanced transporter doesn’t need a second machine to work. It can put you down anywhere. Notwithstanding that some scientist recently said that a device like that in Star Trek could be invented within the next 100 years, I think that is rubbish. This technology won’t be invented within the next 1000 years. Then again all guesses as to what the future may bring are usually wrong.

So what will it be like living in an O’Neill cylinder? As the cylinder is spinning an artificial gravity, equivalent to that on Earth, will be created due to the centrifugal force generated by the spin, much like on fairground rides. Therefore, living on the inner surface, you will feel weight, objects will fall if dropped and everything will behave as if on the surface of a planet. However, if we look up we won’t see a normal sky. Instead we will see the buildings, open spaces, fields and so on in use by the people on the opposite side of the cylinder, just as they will see us on our side. Probably in strips along the length of the cylinder will be massive glass windows through which we will see the stars outside although only when the lighting system within the cylinder will have been shut down. We will need to have light and dark cycles to simulate the pattern of day and night on Earth. We will have to have seasons with artificial sunshine, and we will need to fabricate our own wind and rain. The dream of controlling the weather will become reality here. We will need to have sufficient space devoted to farming with real seeds producing real food. We will even be able to take holidays to other parts of the cylinder. Perhaps we can have mountainous regions, forested regions, vast savannahs all populated with their own animals.

O’Neill cylinders may be well and good but others see a different future for mankind. They cite evolution and the fact that we are still evolving. And with the rise and progress of genetic engineering it is not inconceivable that we can nudge our evolution forward and in ways we ourselves may wish. In theory we could increase our intelligence, enhance our bodies so they become disease free, become stronger, faster, live longer. In effect there is probably no limit on our capabilities. Some people may say that is messing with nature and it should not be done. Making ourselves likes gods. But all I can say about that is if it can be done, now or in the future, we’re going to do it.

We could evolve our bodies to be able to survive in different atmospheres which would mean we won’t have to try terraforming Mars or other planets. We could even survive in the cold vacuum of outer space itself. This would mean we don’t have to create artificial atmospheres in our O’Neill cylinders. Make ourselves to fit the environment rather than making the environment to fit us.

What about incorporating some machine parts into our bodies? Of course that is already being done with artificial limbs, hips, pacemakers and so on. But what about a radio transmitter and receiver made of bio material inserted into our brains? This, for example, would allow connection to a massive knowledge bank where anything we might want to know would simply require thinking about it. Sort of being wired up to the internet without having to use a computer.

However, the main challenge we have as a race of humankind is the ability to be able to put wars and hatred to one side. We need to grow up. And fast. The Earth is not going to be able to support us as we are. We simply cannot continue to plunder its resources and pollute its environment. We cannot continue to overpopulate it. We have to sit down and take a long hard look at ourselves. Do we want to head for the stars eventually? And that urge is in our blood. After all we came from the stars. Most of the atoms of which we are composed were cooked inside a star long ago. So let’s put our puny differences aside, stand together and head for the great unknown. Otherwise we might as well blow the planet to pieces right now.

Theophany

I’ve always enjoyed dreaming. I’ve had some beautiful dreams, some mediocre dreams, some frightening dreams, and some nasty dreams. With the exception of the nasty ones, I enjoy them all.

Nothing, however, prepared me for the dream I had last night. I suppose you could call it a theophany, a type of dream where God himself appears. Now, being an agnostic and not a particularly good sort of guy, I was sort of surprised that he should bother his head to appear to me. The famous old question pops to mind, why me? But I guess I have to accept it. He just came walking into my dream, long white hair and beard flowing, looking exactly like Michelangelo portrayed him in the Sistine chapel.

“I want a word with you,” he said.

Well, I certainly wanted a word with him. I’d often thought that if the God thing were true, on my death I would love to be able to sit down and ask him questions. Hard questions. So now it looked like I might get my chance.

Turns out that he wanted the same thing, the chance to explain himself a little. Why and why to me, he wouldn’t answer. Just smiled and said, “Why not?”

I suppose different people might have different questions they might want to address to the creator of the universe, but I wanted to ask him the really basic ones. Like who made God?

The argument of cause from effect is one of the more convincing arguments about the existence of God until you look a little more closely. Everything has a cause. Your existence is caused by your parents, whose existence in turn was caused by their parents. And on we go. So what caused the universe itself? Surely it had to be caused by something. Well, we can say it was caused by God who is the unmoved mover. But the logical step is surely to ask what caused God? Why stop at God and assume he is uncaused? So basically it is as absurd to say that the universe was uncaused as it is to say that God is uncaused. Does that imply if I don’t believe in God then I have to accept that the universe is uncaused? It just is, so to speak?

This is a question where the issue of infinity comes into play and humans can’t get their heads around that. Therefore, why should we even begin to think we can get our heads around the whole area of where the universe came from, not to mind about God?

Of course with current advances in cosmology and physics, there are opinions about how exactly the universe came into play. One idea is that the Big Bang, generally thought to kick our current universe off was in turned caused by the collapse of a universe which came into existence before our own. Quite possibly a universe which was not as complex as ours and probably didn’t harbour any intelligent life. This in turn had a universe preceding it which was even simpler. And so back to a time when an initial quantum disturbance (whatever that might mean) just popped into existence. This simplest of universes collapsed on itself giving birth to a slightly less simple universe and so on.

But come on, what caused the initial quantum ripple to appear? And we’re back to the same old roundabout. It reminds me of the story of a wise old sage who was asked the question what holds the earth up. He said the earth rested on the back of an elephant. But what holds the elephant up? The elephant stands on the back of a giant turtle. The sage knew, of course, where the questions were leading, and continued that it was turtles all the way down from there.

I think, says God, you just have to accept that I am!

Not very satisfactory at all, but he wasn’t budging from his position. I wondered if God himself really knew the answer to this greatest of mysteries. Maybe there are things even he doesn’t know.

So I suppose the next best question was why did he make the universe?

You try sitting in eternity with nothing else to do and see what happens. A rather terse answer I thought, but I guess it was easy to see his point of view. Wouldn’t making a universe and seeing how it turned out be a really challenging thing to do?

So what about us? Humanity? Well, says he, something like that was at the back of my mind, but I was a little surprised how it turned out. Evolution began on some planets which eventually led to life and intelligence.

So we’re not the only intelligent species in the universe? He replied with a smile, of course not. Wouldn’t it be an awful waste of space if the whole shebang was created just for you? You haven’t managed to contact any of them yet, but you can take my word for it that the universe is teeming with life, intelligent and otherwise.

What about evil and suffering? Why all this suffering?

Ah, I knew you’d get around to that. I know the existence of evil is one of the greatest reasons why people reject me. I could say it was a toss-up between you having free will or not having free will. But that’s a rather lame answer. I could also say unless you experience evil you can never know good. But then you’ll say why do I allow children to suffer. Let me assure you, I don’t allow anybody to suffer. I don’t will any of the bad things to happen either. I created this universe and allowed it to run its course. You do know that many scientists say that even a tiny adjustment to any of the constants in the universe, such as the ratio of the proton to the electron, would cause it to be lifeless? In fact, it’s the only way I could have created the universe. You have to remember God can’t do things which are impossible. Further you should consider the ratio of a little bit of pain over a minute time span in the great scheme of things as against an eternity without pain. I realise this isn’t satisfactory, but it’s the best I can offer.

No doubt it’s tied up with the suffering bit, but why death? Couldn’t you have made us immortal and live in happiness all the time? Like angels, although I doubt they exist.

Well, angels do exist but not as you imagine them. You don’t have a guardian angel, for example. They were not created by me but have been around as long as I have, which in your mind you might call eternity. While they are almost equal in every way to myself, they simply lack one power and that is creation. However, when you die they will help you to adjust to the next level and so on, but I’ll speak about that shortly.

I can also tell you that devils don’t exist. It would be a pointless creation. So no war in heaven, I’m afraid. In fact, the only rebellious creatures are made of flesh and blood. And as I mentioned earlier, you are not the only creatures to inhabit the universe. As a flesh and blood being, you go through a life of learning in order to prepare for a life beyond. And yes, that means going through death. But death is nothing to be afraid of. It’s a preparation for the next life but you’ll only see that from the other side. And I know that many people learn nothing in this present life, but there are very many who do. They are simply further on the road to their final destination. I’ll speak more about this later when you ask me about heaven and hell.

Well then, I guess there’s no time like the present. What about heaven and hell? Do they exist?

Yes and no. Listen, a lot of religions believe that if you are good in this life you go straight to heaven in the next life. But think about it. You cannot go from this extremely limited life straight into eternity. The transformation would be too much to take. In fact it would spiritually kill you. When you leave this life you do enter an afterlife but this is only the first of many. This afterlife which can last a short or long time depending on the person, is a time for contemplation of your time in what I like to call your earthly life. This earthly life is the first of many lives you will experience. The second life is what you call the afterlife. This is where you might experience heaven or hell, but it is not physical. Imagine you have done something very wrong to somebody and you are genuinely sorry for it. You experience remorse. This is what the afterlife is like as you look over what you did with and in your own life. You will feel remorse for the things you did which hurt others. So for example a really bad person will experience huge remorse, maybe almost unbearable. While a really good person will not experience anything like this. Nobody is perfect of course, and all will go through this process. But it is not all about dealing with your earthly life, it is about preparation for further lives to come.

I reminded him that he had already said there were no devils. So who was responsible for evil? He replied that evil was simply the negation of good. Some people do choose evil and we shouldn’t try to blame evil on some being like Satan. We are ourselves to blame for evil. Just look around at the wars going on even today. Look at the history books and the human race has been busily killing for centuries. No wonder the bible wisely says that when the Jews were defeated and hauled off to Babylon, they had only themselves to blame. Like the Americans today have only themselves to blame for 9/11. That is not to say they deserve it, but look what they have done in the third world and elsewhere. You can’t do what you want and get away with it.

But this might be well and good, but what about the evils of an earthquake, or a tsunami? Surely man can’t be blamed for them. Of course not, but as I’ve pointed out before, the universe is as it is. There was no better way to do it. Remember this world you are living on is far from stable. It is only about four and a half billion years old. It is still cooling down from its birth pangs and will continue to suffer earthquakes and volcanoes and other natural phenomena well into the future. In fact, I can tell you that mankind will have long left this planet for outer space before the planet cools sufficiently to be totally stable, and then it will die.

Does science contradict religion? This whole area has been a bone of contention for many long years. Scientists seeming to line up on the atheist side with theologians and their comrades lining up on the theist side. This has been going on since the days of Galileo if not longer, but has come into prominence particularly since Charles Darwin and others introduced the idea of evolution. This rumbles on today with the creationists and literal interpreters of the bible insisting that the earth is only about six thousand years old while the scientists saying the earth is four and a half billion years old. Unfortunately for the creationists they are wrong. It is strange that they accept the literal words written in an ancient book. The bible was written by men trying to make sense of the universe they found themselves in. They knew nothing of modern science. And neither could you expect them to.

If you look carefully enough you will find that when men used their intelligence to consider and discuss the difficulties faced by scientists and theologians, they often found themselves in close agreement. After all if two disciplines are searching for truth, and there is only one truth, they both can’t find different things.

One of the most famous cases of religion going against science is the story of Galileo. He said that the earth revolved around the sun. This contradicted certain passages in the bible which implied that the earth was stable and the sun revolved around it. Well, in those days that’s what everybody thought and the writers of these particular sections of the bible were no different. Nicolaus Copernicus, an astronomer, first proposed the theory of heliocentricity in the early sixteenth century. Johannes Kepler, another astronomer and mathematician, published a work which expanded on Copernicus’ work which found a welcome reception among some Jesuits known for their scientific achievements. Of course, the heliocentric theory seemed to contradict the bible which was a very sensitive issue for the church. Besides the protestant reformation was in full swing and when Galileo went to Rome to see Pope Paul V, he turned the matter over to the Holy Office (in other words, the inquisition). They issued a condemnation of the theory, but that was all it was. No further action was taken or expected to be taken. Unfortunately Galileo was a stubborn man and at his insistence Cardinal Bellarmine, one of the most influential Jesuit theologians of the day, issued a certification which forbade Galileo to hold or defend his theory, but did allow him to conjecture it. In fact, he was granted permission to write a book on the subject. And a new pope, Urban VIII, advised him to simply present arguments for and against heliocentricity. Unfortunately Galileo wrote the book using two characters to argue both sides of the case. Arguing the case against the theory was the character Simplicio. The pope thought he was being made fun of. Besides Galileo attacked one of the Jesuit astronomers to boot and hence the famous trial took place where Galileo was placed under house arrest. Contrary to some opinion, he was never tortured and was looked after very well for the rest of his life. Not that that forgives his treatment, but at the end of the day it was all a bit of a misunderstanding really.

I was reasonably happy with God’s answer as I know there are many religious people who are very open to science. Unfortunately there are many who have closed minds. But that’s the nature of people and you’ll find people who are very open to new ideas and people who are closed to them in every strata of society.

So I thought I’d get a glimpse into some current scientific investigations. For example, are there extra dimensions to our universe? Is time travel possible? But he wasn’t having any of it. He said that it is for us to find out and that the seeking of knowledge is one of the greatest gifts we have and which actually plays a very large part in keeping the human race going. It is one of the defining characteristics of the human race.

So I asked him about free will. I told him I was pretty sure we didn’t have it. Maybe we can make a choice between going for a walk and not going for a walk but after that there didn’t seem to be much evidence for it. I mean we don’t get to choose where we are born which has a huge effect on our lives: what religion we are, what colour we are, whether we are rich or poor and so on. We don’t really get to choose what our likes and dislikes are: I didn’t decide one day to read up on science and religion rather than politics or business. I just like those subjects and don’t like the other ones. Also, do really evil people choose to be evil? Can a child molester help himself? Does he even know it is wrong. We’ve all heard about people who have no conscience. Surely that’s not something they can help.

He looked at me and said, with what I can only describe as an authority and wisdom beyond my understanding, ultimately each individual knows what is right or wrong. And even a man without a conscience knows deep down. He may choose to ignore this, but he knows. And that is probably the most important aspect of free will which you all have. True, you don’t choose your birthplace or circumstances but in the great scheme of things this is not important. You are a human being made in the image of myself. Of course when I say image, I am not speaking physically but spiritually.

So why do you keep yourself such a secret? Why don’t you tell people you exist? He smiled and said that if he were to stand on a mountain top and proclaim his glory, half the world would still not believe. Besides, this is a journey for each and every man. Each person must take this trip alone. People ask who they are. Well, they know who they are. They are humans descended from other humans who in turn are standing at the head of a long chain of evolution stretching back more than 3 billion years when the first one-celled creatures appeared. And even they are products of a molecular evolutionary process stretching even further back. You are only at the very beginning and as I pointed out earlier, your quest for knowledge and understanding are one of your main driving forces. But you have to give it time. To understand everything now would simply destroy you. Your minds simply couldn’t take it. You must be patient. Knock and it shall be opened to you, but I never said how long it would take.

Tell me about Jesus Christ. Was he your son? Did he have to suffer so much? Did he actually rise from the dead?

Forget all about the holy trinity stuff. That again was something thought up by the early church in an attempt to understand. In order to show mankind a glimpse of the way he should be going, you could call it a clue, I myself came upon this earth as a man and I was called Jesus Christ. I preached basically that the kingdom of God is within all of you. You don’t need God to tell you how to live your life, you already know it, but many of you ignore it. Look, it’s the most logical thing in the world. Do unto others what you would have them do to you. If only everybody would follow that simple concept, think how much better things could be. I realise that in itself won’t stop earthquakes, illness, disease and so forth. But these things are in your own hands. Look how far you have come in the few millennia you have been on this planet. You can now cure many ills, you are living much longer, your science has taken you far and to the moon. On the other hand you should be ashamed that you have not cured hunger and starvation for 13% of humanity which is an estimated 925 million hungry people. You still seem incapable of settling serious disputes without killing each other. You still seem to have an incredible lust for money and power. Do you not stop to think that all this ends at the grave? You can’t take it with you. You ignore what is more important. And don’t say it’s just the other fellow. Take responsibility for your own actions. Think about what you do. You’re not as innocent as you think. But I’m not here to castigate. I’m here to teach.

I suffered as a human as many humans suffered in the name of justice throughout history. Today in western countries I would be ignored as a rabble rouser. In less democratic countries I would just vanish. But 2000 years ago the world didn’t have human rights organisations. A troublemaker in Jerusalem was simply crucified by the Romans. Problem solved. I didn’t choose to die in that way, but I knew it would be like that. But the most important thing was for me to get my message through. It has reached some of you, but sadly has missed too many. And yes, I did rise from the grave. It’s no big deal. But it wasn’t as effective as when I came into a little room among a group of terrified men and women and gave them the courage to get up and go out and preach fearlessly my message to the world. Of course, as with everything in human hands, it kind of got out of control. Paul was one of the hardest working of my followers, making my name known far and wide, but it was really the Roman emperor Constantine whose decision to embrace Christianity, as my sect became known, which converted the entire Roman world. Some centuries later the catholic church became so powerful that they really moved away from my simple gospel and became as corrupt as any group could be. In the twentieth century the only pope to come even close to where he should be was John XXIII. Unfortunately John Paul II put paid to that and hurled the church back into the middle ages once again where it has become stuck.

But I don’t really want to go down that road now, besides it’s time for me to take my leave and let you wake up and think on what I’ve said.

And that was it. I woke up filled with thoughts about this most unusual of dreams. Questions which I hadn’t asked but should have, came flooding into my head. But then I started thinking about the answers I had actually got and thought maybe I didn’t do so bad after all.

So what do you think? Did I ask the questions you might have asked? But you know the whole thing is made up. I never had such a dream. I would like to have such a dream. I would like nothing better than to put these questions to God. But, he doesn’t exist, does he? If not, I’ll never be able to question him. Then again, I’m not an out and out atheist. I’m agnostic. I don’t know if God exists or not. I sure hope he does and if he does exist, then maybe one day…