Category Archives: Evolution

A Thinking Earth Brain

Our brains use electrical impulses to create thought and awareness. “Neurons generate electrical signals that travel along their axons. When a pulse of electricity reaches a junction called a synapse, it causes a neurotransmitter chemical to be released, which binds to receptors on other cells and thereby alters their electrical activity.” – From Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain

Organic Brain uses Electricity

What if organic brains are a relatively new player in the use of electricity/energy to create thought? Lightning is electricity. There are approximately 30-100 lightning strikes on the earth per second. That comes out to millions of strikes every day.

Lightning Strikes 30-100 times per second

In addition to lightning discharges, there are lesser known discharges called Sprites. “Sprites are large-scale electrical discharges that occur high above thunderstorm clouds, or cumulonimbus, giving rise to a quite varied range of visual shapes flickering in the night sky. They are triggered by the discharges of positive lightning between an underlying thundercloud and the ground.” –http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_%28lightning%29

Earth’s Cerebral Cortex…maybe

Furthermore, there is an electromagnetic field that surrounds the earth and permeates everything on it.

Electromagnetic Brain, Scaffolding, Grey Matter?

Over the course of thousands or millions of years, the number of lightning discharges approaches the number of electrical signals generated in a living brain. Could the earth-brain be working at a slower rate than ours? In other words, operating over a longer time span. Would this earth-brain necessarily contain only one consciousness? Or even consciousness at all?

A thinking organism need not have an immediate or timely way of physically manifesting it’s will. Or maybe it does not need to manifest it’s will at all. We tend to think that intelligence evolves only when Darwinian, survival of the fittest scenarios force it to. Maybe intelligence can emerge from a series of complex natural processes.

Imagine this series of events. A “slow” working planetary brain emerges. The resulting environment within this planetary brain allows for a faster organic brain to evolve. The life forms with the organic brains invent faster computer brains. We, our brains, our intelligence could be one rung on a ladder of intelligences.

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A New Genetic Memory for Our Species

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Human babies are born with the innate ability to mimic the facial expressions of the people around them. Experiments were conducted with new born infants where the mother waved her tongue and the infant was able to duplicate the action.

The ability to mimic a facial expression is an example of a genetic memory with which we are born. In short, stuff we are born knowing how to do. If the knowledge of how to mimic facial expressions can be genetically imprinted in our brains, why not calculus or String Theory or The Constitution?

Our species has gone through eras where society, culture and/or knowledge have been lost in large catastrophes. Subsequently we had to start from scratch every time. What if people were simply born with all the knowledge they needed to live in our society? It would certainly safe guard our species from the next culture erasing catastrophe.

On a lighter note, perhaps people could be born with the latest and greatest education in ALL fields. Each human being an expert at Math, Engineering, The Humanities, Languages, Philosophy, you name it. This knowledge would become as basic to our species as the ability to regulate heart rate or breathing.

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What if Galaxies are Artificial Constructs?

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I was recently reading about the Kardashev Scale. It’s a method of measuring a civilizations level of technological advancement. “A Type I civilization uses all available resources impinging on its home planet, Type II harnesses all the energy of its star (See Dyson Sphere), and Type III of its galaxy.” So let’s assume there have been Type III civilizations that have existed at some point within the billions of years the universe has been around. These civilizations would have the ability to move stars and interstellar matter on a scale we can barely comprehend.

On a recent episode of Through the Wormhole, physicist Michio Kaku, postulated that a wormhole could be created by arranging stars in to a tight orbit around each other. A wormhole could be a gateway in to another universe, a way for a species to escape our universe. Because ultimately our universe will come to an end. This eventuality represents a challenge to a long-lived, advanced species. In much the same way, our species faces the relatively short term challenge of relocating our entire population from this planet. Our sun will destroy the earth in a few billion years, if not sooner.

Astronomers have found evidence of stars orbiting blackholes in the center of galaxies. See diagram below.

What if the billions of galaxies we see represent the constructs of billions of species who have reached Type III status?

Could galaxies be constructed wormhole factories?

Galaxies could be wormhole factories in the making, escape routes for advanced species. Our species, so far, could be the equivalent of microscopic mold growing on a damp floor, in a small room within a massive car factory; An incidental development in the grand scheme of things.

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Norton Anti Virus for Humans

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Have you ever noticed how your computer gets slower over time? Those of you with Macs are probably less likely to know what I am talking about. But you Windows users who frequently surf the web understand.

The internet and our computers have become complex ecosystems of viruses and programs interacting in ways that we cannot predict. Your computer accumulates viruses or other malware by virtue of simply doing day to day activities. Over time these accumulated bits of interacting code (malware and programs) start to slow down your computer. Like an aging mind. What if the aging process is a result of a biological equivalent of the over accumulation of “programs” and “malware”?

Over the course of our evolution, our DNA and our Microbiomes may have accumulated opportunistic life-like processes (some life forms too) that cause us to age. I don’t want to limit it to life forms as we know it because there are some biological processes and interactions that are somewhat life-like, but not exactly alive.

Human Microbiome

Unlike a computer, our operating system is not so easily hacked. Hence, it takes generations for other life processes to cozy up to a larger organism like us and integrate. The end result is the same. A gradual overload/decline of/in the system. Maybe we can develop some sort of a biological “Norton Antivirus” that goes in and removes the harmful life processes that cause us to age.

First Contact: Everyone, Everywhere, Simultaneously

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Hollywood loves alien invasion movies. Usually there are ships with aliens inside. These ships come down in to our atmosphere and fire weapons that look like ours, except “on steroids”.

Lazers on Steroids

And there are exchanges between the human army and the alien army…it looks similar to war as we know it. That’s great for entertainment value. However, an alien invasion would probably come to us in ways we can hardly imagine. I’ll try anyway.

Matrix-Borg Style: If an advanced civilization wanted to incapacitate us without killing us, this is a great option. They would simply “replace”, at the biological level, our perceived reality with one of their choosing. It would happen instantly to everyone, all at once.

Direct biological interface to their technology

Their technology would allow them to work with vast numbers of organisms simultaneously, transporting them somewhere and connecting them biologically to their technology.

The Dishonorable Route: Advanced societies may be capable of matter/energy transport. It would be a simple matter for them to transport a vital organ out of all of our bodies all at once from orbit. We would probably never see them coming. Or they could simply transport all of us in to orbit and let us burn up during re entry.

A Kind Whisper: Technological advancements could lead to something similar to mental telepathy. Advanced visitors from another world may be able to tap directly into our minds from orbit. If they had good intentions, a visitation may be very pleasant indeed.

They’ll make us feel even better than this

Knowing the biology of our species and how to control the emotional aspects of our brains, a well-intentioned alien would make us feel very good about first contact. It might be a kind voice (accompanied by endorphins) that appears in all of our minds, telling us who they are. At the same time, they could share certain experiences and their intentions. This would occur in the brain of every human on the planet simultaneously. The result of this mind communication/manipulation being; an instant warmth towards, and acceptance of, these new visitors.

It is very doubtful that a visit from an advanced society would lead to any kind of drawn out conflict. It is more likely that anything they wanted to have happen, would happen quickly and without warning. One day we could all be going about our business and then an hour later a worldwide, hopefully positive, transformation has taken place…human evolution..it’s next leap, rapidly and unexpectedly.