If you want to get a new image of the universe different from the one we grew up with, go to YouTube and search for “James Webb telescope recent pictures” – you will have to sit down and have a glass of moonshine 😁
I was also watching some evolution program on TV, and apparently, beetles were the first to come up on land – with their exoskeletons.
When I was growing up, it was the coelacanth, which they even found a living specimen of.
Well – scientists were guessing based on the information they had at that time, but how fun is it to confidently teach children about evolution before the program and then have the TV say something completely different 😶
“Dad, that wasn’t the coelacanth, you were completely wrong.”
When I was growing up, space was black and white, and all planets were gray – space was dead, completely dead. It wasn’t until adulthood that I understood it was black and white TV and that even the planets in our solar system are like a whole palette of colors.
The idea of life on other planets was out of the question, and those who said so were laughed at.
We were simply alone in the universe, and UFO conspiracy theorists had a hard time – it’s always tough to be a bit ahead of your time, ask JK Rowling.
I remember that SETI and someone I have now forgotten, maybe Carl Sagan, in the 90s created a mathematical formula that concluded there are 4000 planets in the universe with the potential for life. I felt there was probability involved, but it was quite outside the accepted then, and if you tried to discuss it, you would get reactions like “sorry for your loss” from the group you were socializing with at the time.
I follow a couple of accounts on Twitter that post about Mars, and the planet’s North Pole looks like ours.
And here is an interesting photo from Mars 🧐
Recently, they found water on some moon in the solar system, there is an atmosphere on planets, and I believe there is water on Mars – and this is just within our system and the closest planets.
A photo of how it looks in space – far from dark, black, and a few stars. The oblong ones are galaxies with billions of stars each 😶
Recently, a solar system very similar to ours was discovered a few light-years away.
And now, what we’ve been waiting for – a planet completely covered in water with the type of gases in the atmosphere that biological life in the water emits, +120 light-years away.
The moon landings were not fake because China and India have photographed a couple of Apollo landers on the moon’s surface – I didn’t believe it, but some still claim it, and now we have evidence.
Jeff Bezos did everything right – women and half minorities for his “space trip” stunt but was immediately hated by almost everyone.
And now Elon is the most hated person on the planet, and environmental movements smash Teslas as soon as they lay eyes on them.
But these are private space initiatives, even if they don’t understand why diversity, girl power, and environmental friendliness no longer make them celebrated but only hated, things are moving too fast even for these elite entrepreneurs.
(Tip – it’s important to belong to the right group, ask all those who have been branded as “Uncle Toms” in Sweden about the good hate).
And India + China are making their way straight into space.
And here’s the real kicker – try to grasp that in just our galaxy, the Milky Way, there are HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PLANETS WITH CONDITIONS FOR LIFE.
How many galaxies are there?
And how many billions of planets are there with conditions for life?
As I mentioned, I delved into the evolution of our planet, and when I was growing up, there were a few fossils that shaped how everything happened, but now we know that there was a vast diversity of species pushing forward. Then there were probably five mass extinctions where either CO2 levels rose or fell, causing warming or cooling that killed over 90% of Earth’s species.
The first mass extinction was unclear to me why it occurred, but two more were caused by volcanic eruptions, one of which was the dinosaur extinction.
The biggest threat to us is probably if CO2 levels skyrocket and the world’s oceans become a rotting soup, making the air toxic perhaps.
But then it’s important to remember that movements happen over tens of millions of years, and the planet has already gone through the wildest phases, I guess?
For example, NASA has concluded that Earth will be uninhabitable in 1 billion years, plenty of time to move.
I really like Google AI because it quickly summarizes all the information available and then lists everything, allowing you to start applying some probability to it. There is a lot for those who are willing to Google around about which astronauts reported what during their flights.
My hope is, of course, that the world turns OUTWARD to space instead of engaging in interstate wars and that we seriously start the colonization of space.
My second hope is that renewable energy is seriously addressed – you may not know that there are about 10-15 countries that already have 100% of their energy from renewable sources, but it’s often some small country that got lucky with a big river and managed to convince the West to pay for a hydroelectric power plant and a few other things.
The way solar panels are built today is just a hailstorm away from leaking all the highly toxic chemicals into the earth, and apparently, the market is completely dead according to SVT.
https://www.sverigesradio.se/artikel/krasch-for-solceller-hundratals-bolag-i-konkurs-helt-dott
Wind power is a mess after 15 years, and the government is considering whether it should be the responsibility of landowners who rented out the land when the company goes bankrupt.
Electric cars like the ones Tesla is now building are not good at all for the child laborers in Congo, and alternatives like fossil-free steel or carbon capture are just advanced scams – Stegra will definitely go bankrupt soon.
But it’s undeniable that the major oil companies actively seek out new environmentally friendly technologies that could have a big impact and pay researchers a tidy sum for the technology, then stash it away in a safe that collects dust in the basement.
They have also paid researchers to write positively about them, just as cigarette companies did in their time – it’s just business.
Ironically, it seems that China has taken the lead in green thinking, even though they are also the world leaders in emissions, so both sweet and salty.
But they can produce everything in such large quantities that they can afford to do real research.
Our research has been in decline for quite some time, and when the most important questions of the last fifteen years, you know which ones, hit like a tsunami, research funding has been allocated to things that polarize society instead of the next important technological leap.
China is the country that has replanted the most forests in deserts in the world, as half the country is desert.
They have also started working on sodium-ion batteries, which don’t work for electric cars but for storing energy in homes, for example.
Then, of course, hydropower and nuclear power are the two natural complements to the above, but the Chinese have been experimenting with something that seems to be coming now – using cheap energy to move a large mass that is then released during expensive-electricity-time, or nighttime, to generate electricity.
Dams high up, a tower with a weight in it, mining shafts, and surely something more.
Since we have day-night, it’s not a bad idea, right?
And then what the Chinese are doing – sodium-ion batteries that don’t require Congolese child labor to bridge day-night.
What Sweden needs to do is solve December – February, and if we achieve that, we win.
Reducing electricity consumption is not possible because it is increasing significantly due to electric cars, so we must significantly increase electricity production instead. Yes – we must also improve efficiency, but consumption is increasing whether we want it or not if we are to electrify.
The smaller nuclear power plants are the nuclear power lobby’s number one target of hatred because it could potentially make municipalities completely debt-free and not hundreds of billions in debt and energy monopolies.
More hydropower is a given, but last time around, the Green Party wanted to shut down our hydropower to ensure the fish’s spawning grounds.
And instead of spending tax money on environmental scams, we should, of course, fully resource basic research before China buys up all the researchers worth their salt.
If we solve the energy issue, we also solve the water shortage because water can be desalinated.
Tree planting is an important step in reclaiming our desert areas, and as soon as the land becomes usable, people in the area will start farming – voila, they have food.
We don’t need stronger unions – we need nation-states in loosely composed unions because then it becomes harder to start wars.
And instead of a unifying war – imagine if we could have another space race between the EU, USA, China, and India that drives the colonization of space?
The world would forget about wars, and then different dominant countries would take responsibility for their neighboring areas, where the EU offers Africa fair trade agreements – voila No.2.
Criticizing environmental scams attracts a lot of criticism, what one should do is allocate a large sum of money to basic research and give researchers complete freedom – that’s how you become a winner, not an environmental scam loser where our pension funds are wasted on things that sound nice.
Researchers have been quite vulnerable in the last 20 years, and we have reached a point where telling the truth can lead to employment problems, as many have experienced.
JK Rowling was financially independent and didn’t need to worry, but working researchers depend on grants, so you simply have to avoid certain topics.
Like in the 80s when claiming that there was life on planets other than Earth was controversial 😶
Or those who criticized Northvolt when all the money started pouring into their company account – Christian Sandström, for example.
There are always (often publicly funded) individuals whose task is to drive an issue/agenda, and torpedoing a qualified researcher to achieve that is small potatoes – mafia methods to steal our tax money.
Sweden has long had an emigration of competent researchers and a lack of status in society, canceling and control are some of the reasons.
In fact, today a majority of researchers lean towards the belief that there is intelligent life in the universe if they can answer anonymously in opinion surveys 😀
If I were a dictator, I would launch a violent space program in Sweden and the EU as a priority, but maybe we first have to combat Russia. The goal of the program is to start colonizing space.
What would unite the world more than a joint space program that takes us into space seriously?
A moon base is probably step one, and some kind of elevator up to the moon, and then we can start expanding.
Finally, you now have the opportunity to show appreciation to MXT and his work on the website and the daily (well…) yellow posts – IT has installed a donation button on johanno1.se, if you look around a bit, you will see a QR code.
There is also a donation page for Ukraine on johanno1.se with links to Swedish Rescuers, drones 2 Ukraine, and other organizations we have learned over time are legitimate and dare to donate to.
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Interesting post about space!
Regarding what you write about researchers not previously believing in extraterrestrial life, I would like to add some nuance.
The Church has often opposed science.
Just claiming that the sun was at the center was enough for Galileo to be put under house arrest, and Copernicus, who was on the same line, was censored.
Giordano Bruno believed, among other things, in an infinite universe and was burned at the stake.
Charles Darwin was ridiculed and mocked because of his theory of evolution, as God created the Earth just over 5000 years ago!
Andreas Vesalius (the father of modern anatomy) was accused of heresy because his discoveries did not align with the Christian worldview.
The Church assumes that humans are chosen to rule the Earth, and therefore opposes anything that points in other directions. It would diminish our unique place if we humans are not alone in the Universe.
Even worse, what if other beings were more advanced than us? It would be difficult to claim that we humans are the pinnacle of creation and chosen by God. The Church leaders, the Pope, etc., who claim to be the link between God and humanity, would of course lose their power.
Perhaps this is why we have not been contacted, as religion holds power even over other civilizations and opposes SETI research for precisely that reason? 🙂
Of course, researchers must be cautious, especially in the USA and other countries where religion still has a strong influence.
Today, the Church has realized that they cannot stop science and instead try to find ways to modify their own beliefs to keep them relevant. Galileo and Copernicus, for example, have been vindicated afterwards (but they conveniently ignore the burning of Giordano Bruno).
Furthermore, researchers who are believers themselves struggle to find a worldview that accommodates both science and their faith.
What researchers believe and what they communicate must therefore align.
Also, when you were growing up, it was not uncommon to believe in life on other planets.
As early as the 17th century, there were researchers (e.g. Kepler) speculating about that.
In the 20th century, with the prevalence of better telescopes, endless hours were spent studying Mars and Venus in the search for life.
In the 19th century, there was a researcher whose name I can’t remember now, who thought he saw canals on Mars, creating a great sensation. He drew maps of Mars and its network of canals. Similar observations were made later as well.
Unfortunately, it was poor optics that created these illusions (or could it be that the Martians realized they were discovered and quickly hid?) 🙂
The first SETI experiment, Project Ozma, started in 1960 when they listened for radio signals. NASA initiated several projects in the 1970s on how to search for extraterrestrial life.
The most well-known and still active is the SETI Institute, which began operations in 1984 and is still active.
You are mixing the belief in life in the universe with those who believe that we have already been visited by UFOs.
The latter is not believed by many researchers today.
Possibly in the form of spores, DNA, etc. that could have reached Earth from space and thus been the origin of life on Earth.
I carry my cross like the researchers above
When it comes to our possibilities of reaching out into space, one must realize that even though it may not sound like much with a few light-years here or there, it is approximately 100,000 light-years from one side to the other of our Milky Way galaxy.
If we assume that the nearest habitable planet is 120 light-years away as you mention, we can do some calculations on that.
The fastest spacecraft we have managed to create today is the Parker Solar Probe from NASA. It travels at a staggering 690,000 km/h! Still, it would take it around ~188,000 years to travel those 120 light-years.
It would never have a chance to reach there as it uses chemical rockets; the amount of fuel needed would make it completely impossible to even attempt.
The first traces of Homo sapiens on Earth are approximately 300,000 years old to put it into perspective. The first human-like beings are much older (the remains of Lucy are dated to around 4 million years).
Our technology to reach habitable planets is not sufficient even if we tried to reach a planet one light-year away.
To succeed in getting anywhere, we need to develop significantly more efficient types of nuclear power and probably in combination with ion or perhaps plasma rockets (or whatever we will come up with in the future).
Moreover, it might be impossible to carry all the fuel from the beginning; “layovers” may be required, meaning that one must accelerate and decelerate multiple times. If there are people on board, it sets limitations on how fast it can be done, affecting how long the journey will take.
There are, of course, imaginative calculations where we manage to accelerate up to 10% of the speed of light and then decelerate halfway. With that technology, it would take around 20 years to travel one light-year, which starts to sound achievable. The problem is that we are far from reaching that point.
I am absolutely in favor of conducting much more research on space, but when talking about reaching Mars and inhabiting that planet, it would, of course, provide very valuable experiences. However, in the grand scheme of things, it does not help us much when it comes to reaching habitable planets. The rockets we use today to reach Mars would be completely useless for venturing far out into space, and if we are looking for a planet similar to Earth, it will not be at all like trying to live on Mars.
We need to allocate significantly more resources to basic research, including on nuclear power but also on things like how we will survive a journey that could take hundreds of years. So far, we have not succeeded in freezing and reviving a human, despite all the movies and books that might make one believe we are already there.
It will, therefore, take a very long time before we have the capabilities to venture far out into space, and until then, we must ensure that the Earth we actually inhabit continues to be inhabitable.
Interesting yellow wall today.
Traveling between star systems probably requires something other than fuel to get around. By swinging around planets or stars, it’s probably possible to reach significant speeds, but it still involves generations before arriving.
In theory, “warp drive” would be possible, bending spacetime in a bubble around the spacecraft so that the distance it needs to cover is significantly shorter than outside the bubble. It’s still only found in science fiction, but maybe one day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive
There is also a study from NASA on warp drive here https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20110015936/downloads/20110015936.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiVttTYuviMAxWHHxAIHeI0EcAQFnoECE4QAQ&usg=AOvVaw3uMIIM3XkpP4D7_qgtefYv
I thought the speed was constant in space?
Fun with life in space.
However, a bit further away, if you want to send a question about whether they have any funny dog videos for Friday night drinks, it will take about 130 years before they receive the message, another few years before they manage to decipher it, and another approximately 130 years before they respond that there are no dogs and they want to know if they can send some funny bacteria instead with a space rocket. It takes about 350,000 years before the rocket with the funny bacteria arrives and mutates us into a new type of human.
Homo Sapiens has existed for about 350,000 years and has approximately another 350,000 left to live because someone asked for a dog video.
One should be careful about what they ask for.
Drake was the one with the equation about the probability of other civilizations out there. We have started to find values for some of the points as we find planets within the Goldilocks zone. What scientists and sensible people do not believe in and may ridicule if they lean that way is that we are visited by UFOs. That there is life on planets with water in liquid form at a suitable distance from a sun and perhaps protected by a large planet (think Jupiter) and a large moon (think the Moon), and in a relatively sparsely populated part of a galaxy so that gamma bursts do not wipe out life is something that many believe in, including me. But probably, just guessing, it is single-celled beings that dominate completely. I think becoming multicellular with a cell nucleus is an extremely rare step. On our planet, it took several billion years with single-celled life before multicellular beings appeared and after a few hundred million years evolved into a being that could cultivate plants and build cities.
👍
The Fermi paradox is indeed interesting in that context.
The universe is incredibly vast, and there should be an enormous number of planets where life can develop. The universe is also so old that civilizations should have arisen long before ours and thus have advanced further than us.
Yet, we hear (or see) nothing when we study space.
There may of course be several reasons why it is quiet, but it is probably not so simple for advanced life to arise and then survive long enough.
Go from single-cell to multicellular?
Hasn’t that happened like 20-30 times or something?
Interesting though if one finds things that are stumbling blocks and prevent development, I think it’s a good post.
Please explain how JK Rowling is related to what you are writing about because that connection completely escapes me.
I can’t explain that, unfortunately 😳
Contact, 1997
A real classic! 👍
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Regarding energy, of course, we do not know what technological advances we will make in the future, but when it comes to space, only nuclear power among the energy sources available today can be used for longer journeys.
There are, of course, other ideas such as solar sails that could very well work, but then we are talking about journeys within our solar system. Once we get too far from a sun, it becomes inefficient. Of course, it can still work for sending probes, but not much more as the speed becomes low.
Investing in nuclear power for our electricity production is therefore a prerequisite even for our future space travels. If research and progress were solely funded by space research, it would essentially be shut down when there are no commercial opportunities.
Nuclear power is thus one of the prerequisites both to save the climate and to ensure the survival of humanity in the long term.
However, this does not mean that we should only focus on nuclear power; there are many factors to consider, which means that other alternatives also have their place.
The decrease in solar panel installations is due, among other things, to significant overcapacity, as is usually the case when new technology becomes popular, but it also depends on the fact that electricity prices are still quite low.
It is somewhat interesting that high electricity prices are used as an argument for expanding nuclear power, while low electricity prices make wind and solar power difficult to make profitable, and then that is used as an argument against those alternatives.
(Unfortunately, it seems that everyone ends up in the quagmire of polarization where confirmation bias thrives instead of realizing that issues are more complex than simple answers).
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Another reason 😀
We have another interesting angle, namely other dimensions.
Researchers do acknowledge that there are several dimensions, whose conditions we know nothing about.
Perhaps we are looking in the wrong place? We search in space, but maybe we should also search in the other dimensions.
We know so little and believe so much.
Life – regardless of form – could exist not only on other planets, but also in other dimensions.
Furthermore, why would other civilizations want to make contact with us?
The way we behave, I understand if intelligent life keeps its distance…
Yes, it’s interesting with multiple dimensions, the funny thing is that it’s possible to imagine fewer than three, but it becomes completely impossible when trying to comprehend how the world would actually look like with four or more.
Very possible that there are more advanced civilizations that have found us but consider us either so underdeveloped that we are just uninteresting curiosities, but that they have the kindness to let us be, or that they see us as so crazy that they have cordoned off our part of the universe with warning signs: “Do not enter, dangerous species!”
The thing about multiple dimensions is still a hypothesis that cannot be proven or disproven. Some argue that the hypothesis does not belong in science because of this.
The Chinese SF author Cixin Liu has written an interesting trilogy about when humans discover and are discovered by other civilizations. It turns out that civilizations always want to crush other civilizations in order not to be crushed themselves. The best thing is to remain undiscovered by other more advanced civilizations. One of the best SF books I have read, on par with Asimov’s Foundation and Empire series.
The three-body problem was really good, the only thing I’ve read by Liu so far. Are any of the others on the same level?
Also available on Netflix. “Three body problem”
Currently don’t have Netflix but will probably subscribe at some point.
Yes book two is really really good but book three had a boring ending.
Yes, it is of course just a mathematical construction that indeed works and suggests that there hypothetically could be more dimensions but there is no evidence.
But equally hypothetically, evidence for it could well emerge, even if we haven’t found any (and perhaps never will).
Like when the earth was round back in the day 🤣🤣
Read a book maybe 10 years ago, called “Our Mathematical Universe”. I’m not mathematically inclined enough to understand the theories presented, but the conclusion was, if I remember correctly, that there should be around 10 dimensions, and a large number of parallel universes.
Here we have “Mad Max” or Max Tegmark as he is called (who unfortunately is friends with Musk and also expressed pro-Russian views at the beginning of the Ukraine war, but has been silent about it since then).
An interesting and worthwhile book even if you don’t follow the more mathematical arguments (I’m not a mathematician myself but I try to follow the logic as best I can).
I don’t agree with him though. Mathematics is indeed a beautiful and well-functioning construction, but it is still just a simplification (albeit a very good one) when it comes to explaining the world.
Claiming that the world fundamentally consists of IS mathematics is like saying that communication is the Swedish language.
Well, so he is acquainted with Mussolini, I didn’t know that.
Mathematics is indeed special, it was probably initially used for economics, taxes, and such.
It was probably later that thinkers started using mathematics to explain the world around them. Gradually, mathematicians began to understand that the physical world can actually be described mathematically.
And if the physical world that we see can be described mathematically, then maybe there are things that we do not see, but that should exist, or function, because they can be described mathematically.
In this way, we transitioned from an agricultural society to an industrial society. We could mathematically describe how machines should function, and then test and develop new theories as we went along.
But there are probably still areas where mathematics falls short, for example in quantum computers, where one works with probabilities, not knowing if the quantum bit is 1 or 0, as it can be both at the same time. Black holes are also a place that is so extreme that the laws of physics no longer apply. We can only observe how they affect the surroundings, but can only speculate on what happens inside.
Although I want to, even basic mathematics is just a simplified construction.
Take something as simple as a circle, and its circumference. Mathematically, we can only calculate it to approximate values. We use as many decimals as we deem necessary, but to calculate it exactly, we need Pi with an infinite number of decimals. Which is an impossibility.
Furthermore, that perfect circle, if we ignore the circumference and choose to set the radius to 10, that fine circle exists somewhere in reality only in mathematics.
In reality, it is completely impossible to determine what lies inside or outside the circle’s boundary.
Mathematics works well, but only as a simplification as soon as it becomes more complicated.
So even outside quantum physics, it’s a lot about probabilities.
You can calculate the perfect trajectory of a ball. In reality, if you really want to predict exactly where the ball will land, you need to take into account the slightest breeze, air temperatures, etc. There is a risk that a bird might fly in the way or that a meteor might suddenly fall.
Mathematics is good enough for the needs we have but cannot predict with 100% certainty what will happen.
To do that, we would need to simulate the entire universe, where every particle and force field is described with an infinite number of decimals.
It would require an exact parallel universe to run the simulation, but it wouldn’t fit in our universe, and we probably wouldn’t be able to run the simulation faster than our own universe, and that extra universe risks affecting the universe we are trying to simulate.
Exciting and above all difficult to grasp 😶
Yeah, true that one might not want to be discovered by us right away 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Saw something a long time ago (might have been the series with Morgan Freeman) where flashes in the form of light spots in outer space were seen. Like camera flashes. Some argued that it could be when another dimension leaks energy into our dimension. A kind of energy tunnel between dimensions.
Another theory is that the radiation emitted from certain black holes is the connection from another dimension. It’s like a black hole is a floor drain that sucks in energy and then shoots out what it has taken in into another universe.
Hawking radiation
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation
So there are also theories that the universe is curved in an invisible dimension, and that we can travel through time via black holes connecting different times in the universe.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole
There is much we do not yet know, luckily that is the case
Exciting with black holes – well, somewhere it must go, right?
Regarding mass extinctions:
About 252 million years ago (at the end of the Permian period), the probably largest mass extinction known to man occurred. According to many, it is linked to extreme volcanism. However, not the classic explosive volcanic eruptions but a massive eruption of relatively fluid lava over extremely large areas in what is now Siberia.
This then led to the age of the dinosaurs (Triassic, Jurassic & Cretaceous).
About 66 million years ago, the mass extinction that ended the dominance of the dinosaurs occurred. In this case, it was a 13 km wide meteorite that crashed down on the Yucatan Peninsula.
This led to the age of mammals.
If you are interested in geology in general and volcanoes in particular, the blog Volcanocafe is a must-read.
Here is an article about mass extinctions:
https://www.volcanocafe.org/lifes-end-mass-extinctions/
Thank you Magpies, I think we should loan Iceland with this result
The mass extinction 52 million years ago was caused by large amounts of magma intruding into the Earth’s crust in Siberia (the remnants called Siberian Traps). It melted the solid bedrock and released large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, leading to a significant increase in temperature and acidification of the world’s oceans, resulting in the worst mass extinction known to us and, as mentioned, marking the beginning of the age of dinosaurs.
And it is roughly the equivalent scenario that we ourselves are about to create with our emissions.
So you can’t see the Great Wall of China from the moon but the Chinese can see the Apollo landers on the moon.
Astronomer Brian Cox’s theory about why we don’t find intelligent life on other planets is that civilizations don’t live long enough to be visible or travel light-years.
Yes, the church has had to retreat – in our part of the world. The attempts of religions to cling on are to point to things that science cannot yet explain and exclaim “look, that’s God’s work, what did we say.” Christopher Hitchens aptly called it God in the gap. Attempts to squeeze in a sense of spiritual power into the cracks of science.
Using the word “gap” is a bit misleading, as if there were only a few small cracks left in an otherwise explained world. I often think it’s unimaginative science fanatics who behave like 16th-century Catholics rather than today’s religious people. The church in Sweden is actually growing today.
Yes, what we do not know is probably much more than what we know!
Personally, I still see science as a more credible source of knowledge about how the physical world is constituted than religion. Now, I am indeed an atheist, but still do not think that science and religion really need to be opposites. Which is probably supported by the fact that there are plenty of religious scientists.
I completely agree that science is the best source of knowledge. But it’s silly how little we know about certain things. For example, quantum field theory, which is one of the major breakthroughs in physics, can only be used to model very simple things, like an electron colliding with a photon. When it comes to questions about what life and self-awareness are, we don’t know anything. This is where it’s important to be open-minded, and I think that even the religious (Swedish Christians) are more open-minded than science fundamentalists.
When it comes to purifying toxins that we release, we seem to be able to realize our mistakes and counteract it, but it’s worse with carbon dioxide emissions. Everything we consume and do contributes, and the process is so slow that many still believe there is no problem, and even those who realize there is a problem still don’t take it seriously because the effects are so slow that they don’t affect daily life much, and also it’s a bit difficult to grasp. Just because it’s progressing slowly, people get used to it.
It will probably take another 20-50 years before the problems start becoming acute on a global level.
(Already now, of course, there are those who are already severely affected by drought, floods, etc.)
That was interesting to me, how long civilizations survive, I will look up Brian Cox
Right now, it doesn’t feel like our current civilization has any great future and is evolving into a super-civilization. We will probably manage to kill each other and poison our environment in the relatively near future.
Johan, this thing about hoisting heavy objects to store energy is completely stupid. Try to calculate it, or ask an engineer to do it. Check how high you need to hoist an elephant to store the energy in an AA battery.
There are of course quite a few losses, but the advantage is that you can extract the energy, for example at night or when prices are higher. The problem is really the high initial costs.
Then there are other interesting variations, for example where they try to store energy by using flywheels (in a vacuum).
An African elephant needs to be lifted 60 meters to store 1 kWh excluding losses. So it takes many mine shafts to provide energy to a city at night.
Yes, we’ll have to send the poor elephant to the moon.
So far, the most effective solution is probably pump storage power plants, there are a couple in Sweden, Blue Vattenfall is going to convert Juktan back to a pump storage power plant.
The pumping function was removed in 1996, as it was no longer needed, but now times have changed.
https://powerplants.vattenfall.com/juktan/
The problem is not really how many elephants need to be lifted, but the energy losses and the high investment costs that need to be justified.
We simply have too cheap electricity! 😂
Not to mention the Elephantistic breakdown now and then.
Have you taken into account that on the day you hoist up the elephant, there is a negative price on electricity so you get paid, and when you lower the elephant, the electricity price is 2 SEK?
After all, that’s exactly what is done with pumping water, for example, it’s not that dramatic, was it?
You’re using high leverage, I suppose?
There is a lot of hassle with lubrication, space, etc. Then it’s better with a battery (and it doesn’t work on a societal scale either).
Solar panels and batteries obviously need to become more efficient for it to work, but there is a constant development in both areas.
There are numerous summer cottages, caravans, motorhomes, boats, etc. where solar panels and batteries are used. Not directly cheap per kWh but people still think it’s worth it.
Currently, there are neither solar panels nor batteries in the quantity today that would be enough for an entire country’s needs, but as I always emphasize. One cannot focus blindly on a single solution.
Firstly, it hinders all other developments that may have the potential to become something good, and secondly, we become extremely dependent on a single technology, for example, if we were to only invest in nuclear power, or only in wind power/solar power, etc.
To get started with space before Russia strikes, I suggest that we also engage in some hybrid warfare and simply take out all Glonass satellites. It will probably help Ukraine a lot and become a fun unifying project for the most eager, preferably new, NATO countries in Northern Europe.
How about the European counterpart? It’s called Galileo, right? Does it work as well as GPS?
Forget it, I see in my app that there are currently 16 Galileo satellites above. It probably works then.
Great idea!!!
Smart plan 👍
Johan shines like a star with his absence here in Space Thread. I hope he hasn’t been captured by a black hole! 😱
It would be a shame if he got spaghettified, but if he managed to survive, then it should be fine, where time stands still, from our perspective at least. But from his point of view, our time is instead moving very quickly. So, if he makes it through, he hasn’t aged, but our world has ceased to exist.
How boring that sounds. Hopefully, he’s just sitting there drinking rum on some beach.
😄👍
Still have a life, however miserable it may be
You have managed to break free from the grip of the event horizon! 👍
“Russia: ‘A Boeing 737-800 of Pobeda Airlines, flying from Moscow to Nalchik, returned to Sheremetyevo Airport.’ Due to a malfunction of the pressurization system. 🚨 DO NOT FLY ON A RUSSIAN AIRLINE”
Lifting things is best done by a hydraulic power plant. You get back approximately 75% of the energy you use to pump water to a higher level.
Speaking of space, Kosmos 482 is quite interesting.
Kosmos 482 is an old Soviet rocket with a space capsule that has been orbiting the Earth since March 31, 1972. It is a sign of Soviet failure as it was intended to travel to Venus and let the capsule land to explore the planet. Unfortunately, control was lost, and it could not overcome the Earth’s gravitational pull, becoming stuck in orbit.
Kosmos broke into four parts when attempting to leave orbit, and two of the parts fell to New Zealand. Space laws state that whoever owns the space debris that falls is responsible for retrieving it.
The Soviet Union, of course, denied any involvement and ownership. The farmer on whose land the pieces landed then gained ownership, and they were analyzed, confirming their Soviet origin.
Since then, Kosmos 482 (or actually the two remaining parts) has been orbiting the Earth on its own, without being controllable and without serving any purpose.
Someone has now calculated that Kosmos 482 is on course to crash, apparently around May 10. However, they have not managed to determine WHERE it will crash.
Perhaps they have miscalculated, and it will crash on the ninth, preferably on Red Square, aiming for Putin’s head. I think that would be a fitting end for both of them.
Of course, I’m joking. There are many children in the audience; they don’t deserve to have Kosmos 482 land on their heads.