A Thinking Earth Brain

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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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Retro Causality

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One of the more interesting concepts being discussed lately and making it’s way closer to main stream is Retro Causality. For the purposes here, it means the future can effect the past.

Some interpretations of Einsteins theory of relativity lead to the idea of the “Block Universe”. A universe where the past, the present and the future exist simultaneously. We simply live in the illusion that there is a direction to time…forward. See the diagrams below.

Past, present and future exist simultaneously

2D, 3D, 4D (Time)

Rather than flowing forward, different points in time are represented as different dimensions within the block. Like one amorphous loaf of bread, something that happens to one crumb within (say the growth of mold) effects the crumbs next to it, no matter the direction.

Some say the Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University may have evidence to support this theory. Apparently, information about the tragic 911 attacks was accessed by our collective unconscious before it occurred.

Planetary Life Forms Around a Neutron Star (Pulsar)

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Many astronomers and scientists currently believe life would be impossible around a pulsar. A pulsar would bathe the surface of a planet in massive amounts of radiation constantly, like clockwork. Like a heart beat. Watch the video below.

I don’t think we should assume all life in the universe is made of the same “fragile” components as we are. And it’s possible that life does not have to be self contained. A pulsar could serve the function of a “heart” to silicon based life forms on the surface. It could distribute nutrients (energy) deep into an organism. Especially if that organism was semi transparent to the radiation. Pulsars are constant and regular for millions of years. The energy they produce could easily be relied upon by organisms over the course of an evolutionary period.

If this concept sounds strange to you, think about how much we rely on our sun. If the sun were to stop shining, plants would die, the food chain would be in shambles and we would most likely perish from starvation. If we did not freeze to death first. We too have an unbreakable umbilical cord to our star. At least for the time being.