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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 14, 2010 17:58:28 GMT -6
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 14, 2010 18:53:08 GMT -6
Intro:
He asks why humans are such a confused mess, and why we have the impulses to do what we do. He hopes to explain our nurturing sides and our aggressive natures. In the past, myth used to explain all these things, but he feels we have outgrown myths (as far as taking them literally). He quotes one particular Buddhist, Nanrei Kobori, late Abbot of the Temple of the Shining Dragon, who said,"God is an invention of Man. So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery. The deep mystery is the nature of man." (p. 4) Aside from myth, humans have known little about their origins for most of history. Only recently have things come to light.
Ch. 1:
The very beginning where he starts is with the gas and dust that came to form our solar system. Just this process took millions of years and the whole process of forming earth took billions.
Personal note: This author was an atheist although not a noxious one. He is a good source of flat fact, and even if one does believe in a form of Supreme Being, they would be reminded of how things came to be and that things took so much time to form, that any Force or being was in no hurry to get to us. Our world was formed after billions of years of banging and crashing, heating and cooling, forming and destroying. Similar goings on were happening elsewhere in the galaxy and universe.
Ch. 2:
There was a time on our earth where the gas and dust was so thick, one could not see the sun; and our planet looked more like Mustafar. The moon was closer to us then. The hot innards of the earth churned (and still do) and gave us our magnetic field. Eventually, the surface cooled and atmosphere and oceans came to be. Organic matter came from both earth and space. UV light from the sun and lightning made organic goop.
Note: I remember on his COSMOS series how he showed this scientist zapping a container of what was our first atmosphere on earth. The zapping made the goop of life. It always made me think of lightning and Palpatine.
Life started as cells or clumps of cells. Clumping up and hiding underwater helped avoid the UV light of the sun as we did not have our ozone layer yet.
Continents were not the ones we know back then. They were arranged differently and have moved about over the years (and still are as the poor unfortunate Haitians just experienced).
Ch. 3:
Chapter three was interesting because it was about what sort of person Charles Darwin was and the influences in his life that caused him to do what he did.
Charles Darwin was no fiery revolutionary determined to overthrow the establishment. He was a mild, plodding, methodical fellow. He had considered being a doctor, but ended up not liking that. Then he considered being an Anglican minister but ended up studying science. He had been invited to go on a long journey by ship with this other man. His purpose was to observe life and creatures on far away islands and compare them to creatures in other places. The man whom he had to share a cabin with was a political reactionary who was pro-slavery, sort of the Rush Limbaugh of his day because he was very outspoken about it. This guy was the boss, so Darwin could not tell him off. One could wonder if being stuck with a right wing funde type motivated him to go the opposite way. Darwin's politics would be considered left wing compared to this guy.
It took him years to formulate and articulate his theory, but when he did it hit like a bomb. Up until that time, most people took the Biblical account literally. He changed all that, and they are scrapping about it even to this day.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 16, 2010 18:02:29 GMT -6
Ch. 4:
In this chapter, Sagan explains basic natural selection. Everybody has probably heard the general idea so I need not repeat it here. Next, he describes the controversy that took place after Darwin published his book in 1859. Some received it well, but many hated it, particularly the religious folks. Many of the arguments they had then about this subject are the same ones people are arguing about now.
"Adam Sedgwick, his old geology professor-rejected Darwin's insight, not because the evidence was against it, but because of where it led: seemingly, to a world in which humans were degraded, souls denied, God and morality scorned, and monkeys, worms, and primeval ooze elevated, 'a system uncaring of man.' Thomas Carlyle called it 'a gospel of dirt.'" (p. 63)
So many overreact, because even Sagan allows room for a deistic approach. God would work through secondary agents, natural laws which would include along with gravity things like natural selection. Evolution would only pose a threat to people who interpret scriptures literally.
Evolution is a mechanism.
Ch. 5:
This whole chapter made me think of the Matrix trilogy. Remember that scene where Cypher was sitting in front of a bunch of computer screens and code was what was on the screens, and he said, "I see blond, brunette, redhead...." All existing things in the Matrix were made of computer code. This isn't far from the truth. Stars, planets, etc. have equations behind them. Living things have DNA code, long strands of certain letters that seem a lot like computer code. This chapter is a brief outline how that works.
In the beginning, it was the very first living things with crude short codes. Little by little, through natural selection, the codes slowly extended and made ever more complex beings. For the most part, code if faithfully copied from one being to the next, but every once in a while, there is a small change (mutation). Often, it is a bad change and may mean the end of that creature; but once in awhile it is a good change, so it is kept and repeated from then on; and so it goes.
In this chapter, differences of point of view may emerge. A strict atheist would say it is a totally blind process ruled by chance and chaos. A loose deist may say there are a few gentle nudges from above to help guide the process.
Being a Force follower myself, I tend to think there is a subtle nudging either from the Force itself or from the Force use of a Force follower.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 16, 2010 18:29:24 GMT -6
However you choose to take it, one thing is clear, the process is a bit messy. Nature makes lots of mistakes (hence birth defects or cancer). Such a process would account for a lot of what is negative in this world. When we think of a perfect creator God, we expect a state of the art creation. The fact that it is a mechanism and mostly a blind process, ones expectations lower. One can see why so much life gets wasted and why there is so many blind alleys. What God would make a deformed baby arrive? But a process that had a glitch...that explains it better, no God to blame (or a devil either).
If I were to represent the concept, let's say on a Tarot card, I make a goddess figure wearing a blindfold to symbolize a blind process.
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Post by Mrs. Darth Vader on Jan 20, 2010 23:23:49 GMT -6
Carl Sagan introduces his book by giving you an over view of what is in the book. Sagan comes through with crystal clarity as to where he is coming from and where he wants to go. Carl Sagan, like Albert Einstein lets you know quickly that he is a scientist with a conscience. Sagan lets you know that our societal views with their rigidity has lead us to the brink of extinction. Then Sagan compares us (all of humanity) to orphans left on a door step. And this condition lead us to invent fantasies and myths to say that we have a purpose for being. These fantasies only lead to arrogance, conceit and a stringent line in which everyone must obey. But science came along and dispelled these myths and people reacted to science with fear and dread.
People claimed that with out God that the world would be drenched in blood because God keeps behaved and moral. “Others have noted that drenching (with blood) has been in progress since the dawn of civilization. And often inn the name of religion.” Page 6 Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Religion is usually the excuse to say that “you”, the said believer, is more important and in some way more valuable a human being than the non-believer. Religion usually just feeds and serves human arrogance. It provides an excuse and a platform to blatantly persecute and cause harm on another person. God loves “me” therefore he hates “you” so I can freely torment and hurt you ( the other person). I even can enjoy the discomfort “I” put “you” through because God enjoys it. This is the mentality of the Christians and their more radical counter parts, the Muslims. I can not count the times I have heard Christians say that the Muslims have more faith than they because the Muslims are willing to die and kill the infidel. Needless to say with this attitude and disgusting beliefs, atheism is far more humane and better even with the fact that all questions are not answered. The apparent void of atheism is more kind than what I have seen and observed in religions of today. Nothing like first hand knowledge and observable fact.
The Prologue deals with the fact that people do not like the facts about our humble beginnings. It is more comforting from our arrogant egotistical view to be descendents of God or the King of Kings than the cold hard truth that we came from mud and slime of “mindless beings too small to be seen with the naked eye.” Our beginnings are we were once just microbes. Sagan then reminds us that we need to look squarely at who we really are with all our “warts” in order to make a correct analysis of our strengths and our weaknesses. By doing this we will have a better chance at a future. Sagan quotes Mary Midgley who describes her weakness of having a bad temper. She says by acknowledging this weakness she can better control her temper and avoid situations that cause her temper to go off. To pretend it is not there is to lock yourself in a vicious cycle of putting yourself in a situation where the temper will go off. Sagan then states;
“If we do not know what we’re capable of-and not just a few celebrity saints and notorious war criminals-then we do not know what to watch out for, which human propensities to encourage, and which to guard against. Then we haven’t a clue about which proposed courses of human action are realistic, and which are impractical and dangerous sentimentality.” Then Sagan tells us that we are going to look at ourselves squarely as we are and our past using the tools of science. Chapter one starts with the birth of our solar system and the chaotic process of how our solar system formed. Sagan gets into detail of how a star is formed. Here it is interesting. The gas and dust gather and this gathering creates gravity which in tern makes it easier to gather more gas and dust. When the temperatures and pressures get high enough the hydrogen atoms are jammed together so tightly that thermonuclear reactions are started. This is how matter turns to light. It is also very hot.
Other galaxies form their solar systems and many worlds. Many are barren and desolate. Others with the right conditions harbor life. Sagan then describes the collisions of worlds and worldlets that created the planets. You really get a sense of the chaos under which the universe formed. The big planets are formed and all the others. This gives you a real picture of what Sagan means when he says that we are made of star stuff. Because every atom that is down here was once out there.
Chapter two starts with the forming of the earth. The early earth is molten and full of lava. It is steamy in it’s atmosphere. The early earth is much like Mustafar in Star Wars. The moon is formed. The forming of the moon is significant because it slows the earth’s rotation down to what is the familiar 24 hour day we are used to. Tides forms thanks to the new arrival of the moon. During the molten phase of the earth these metals sunk to the interior because they were heavier than other parts. Because the earth was spinning at an incredible rate these molten metals also started to spin. The spinning of the metals created our electromagnetic field.
The hot steam just went into space until a great series of collisions with smaller asteroids landed on the earth. This made dust particles hover in the atmosphere preventing the sun from getting in which cooled the planet in it’s first Ice Age. As the dust slowly cleared the planet slowly warmed, this time with an atmosphere intact.
Sagan then explains how organic molecules were impacted by the Ultra Violet light from the sun, flashes of lightening and other chemical interactions. The early earth had it’s moon much closer than it is today. The moon back then was like the big moon portrayed in Star Wars over Tatooine. About 4 billion years ago life came to be on earth. The collisions lessened so much it was calm enough to start life here. This life was microscopic life. But it left evidence called Stromatolites. In nice balmy warm spots on the earth like Baja California, Western Australia or the Bahamas stromatolites still form. Radioactive clocks are used to tell how old fossils and geological stuff are. This radioactive dating is very accurate. These earliest life forms were cooperative with one another. They were able to do photosynthesis. They converted carbon dioxide, water and sun light into food. The outer microbes had to sacrifice themselves for the common good. The inner ones lived. The outer ones died because the ultra violet rays of the sun. Our early atmosphere did not have the o3 (Ozone) layer that protects us today. Here is where our ability to cooperate genetically comes from. Other microbes were eating each other. Here is our earliest aggressive genes in action. Our selfish side is brought out here. Both self sacrifice and selfish aggression are represented in those early molecules. Here in microbial form both tendencies are expressed. Then Sagan gets into our changing earth. How tectonic plates move and the changing shape of the earth. Sagan ends this chapter by reminding us how short our life spans are compared to the earth or the galaxy. We are born to be so quickly snuffed out, that is why we can not see or sense how the universe works. We need the aid of instruments and the tools of science.
Chapter three is about the life of Charles Darwin and a little bit about his father and grand father. Charles Darwin was a quiet person and a Parson of the church of England. Darwin discovered his theory by using the methods of science. He was methodical. Darwin liked quiet. He was not known for trying to debate people so when his book ended up being the Revolutionaries Revolutionary, it was a surprise. Darwin’s parents were progressives for his day believing in free speech. Charles Darwin was born in 1809. Charles Darwin’s grand father sensed how evolution worked and wrote about it. But the grand father did not do any research so his works were more like science fiction. It was inspirational like science fiction of today which helps further new studies and research and eventually leads to discoveries. The same was true for Charles Darwin’s grand father. Darwin was the one to turn grand father’s dreams into scientific theory. Later scientists, like Carl Sagan, proved Darwin’s theories into hard facts.
This chapter tells you all about Charles Darwin’s life from his youth to old age and his death. Sagan describes Darwin’s trip on the “Beagle”, the name of the ship that Darwin sailed on. It also gets into how Darwin was stuck sailing with a right wing hard liner of the times. Darwin while on the island learned the hard way how critters defend themselves. Darwin put a beetle in his mouth but was not trying to eat it just carry it that way because he already had a beetle in each hand. The beetle not understanding Darwin’s intent promptly defended itself by excreting a very acrid liquid which made Darwin spit it out. The fluid burnt Darwin’s tongue. In this chapter we learned how Darwin gathered all his evidence to support his new theory. You get an interesting story of how “Origin Of Species” was written.
Chapter four deals with the actual theories in “Origin Of Species”. Sagan tells you the difference between Natural Selection and Artificial Selection. This chapter is more Sith because it deals with Survival Of The Fittest. Many organisms are there but very few of the vast numbers survive long enough to pass on their genes.
Here Sagan explains the ideas expressed by Charles Darwin. Sagan explains how organisms through incremental change, evolve. Some times it becomes a new species given enough time. When Darwin published “Origin Of Species”, it was greeted with hot passion on both sides of, For and Against. Today we have a field called Molecular Biology where more is known about how genes work and how it is done on a molecular level. Today we can see proof of Darwin’s theories under a microscope.
Darwin was a head of his time because he also included the fact that all beings are still evolving and in the future our descendents would be very different from us. In this section of “Origin Of Species” Darwin was braver than all modern scientists because only Darwin, even to this day, admits that an organism can become a “Degraded” version of itself if the environment favored the degraded version. Hence we can devolve if that is what is required for survival. Darwin knew that survival does not necessarily mean superior or sublime.
The evolutionary process is counter intuitive because it works on the idea of “Order out of chaos” or as Hawking jokingly says “God is a consummate gambler constantly rolling dice.” Here is where Sagan does give leeway for a very distant Deism where the deity can at best affect the probability curve. This is not the accurate shot of hitting the Bulls eye, but more of a ball park estimate. On page 64 Sagan warns about capitalist Darwinists who use Natural Selection as an excuse for their bad policies towards the weak and the poor. On the other hand, Sagan warns about the Christians who believe that we do not have to care for non-human life because they are going to be destroyed at and or after the Tribulation period. Or the other Christian excuse using Genesis because we are supposed to have dominion over them. Darwin defends animal rights.
Adaptation is then described and how it works. After Sagan finished explaining what is in “Origin Of Species”, he then tells how Darwin dies using his death bed words. “I am not the least afraid to die”. Quote from Charles Darwin.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 20, 2010 23:48:56 GMT -6
You summed it up pretty well. There are "Jedi" microbes and "Sith" microbes.
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Post by Mrs. Darth Vader on Jan 24, 2010 22:36:26 GMT -6
Chapter five deals with the genes. It deals with the DNA. The DNA is a double helix ladder. This molecule is long and intertwined. All along the strands are smaller molecular building blocks called nucleotides. These four different nucleotides are represented by A, C, G, T, letters of the alphabet which stands for their chemical names. These letters make up the “rungs” of the inner part of the double helix ladder. When an unzipping enzyme unzips half of the ladder, it is split in the middle parts of the ladder “rungs”. Then another enzyme comes and puts the two halves back together making two ladders where one was before. This is how the DNA replicate themselves. Now instead of one pair of DNA strands you have two pairs of DNA strands. Sagan explains in detail how the DNA strands works and how everything is made by this double helix ladder. Sagan explains how conservative and slow to change the DNA is by giving examples of a moth and a lobster still have DNA things in common even though it has been a very long time ago since they had a common ancestor.
A proof reading enzyme puts the double helix back together. Usually this is copied exactly but occasionally a set of new instructions are put in place of the old. Usually this causes a mutation which is harmful to the organism and it leaves fewer off spring or no off spring. Occasionally the change makes it so the organism is better equipped to survive, hence it has many off spring. Sagan goes into great detail about how the DNA sequences function. He even gets into parts of the DNA between a STOP order and a START order that seem to have no function. Here it is actually best to read the book for your self because here is great detail. My summery about “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” is just to give you an idea of what is in this very rich and informative book. Hopefully this will get your interest up so you read it your self..
Sagan then shows you how all life is connected on a molecular level and how we do in fact have a common ancestor ( though microbial ) but none the less, the daddy of all that lives on earth.
“This is a principle means by which life evolves-exploiting imperfections in copying despite the cost. It is not how we would do it. It does not seem to be how a deity intent on special creation would do it. The mutations have no plan, no direction behind them; their randomness seems chilling; progress, if any, is agonizingly slow. The process sacrifices all those beings who are now less fit to perform their life tasks because of the new mutation-crickets who no longer hop high, birds with malformed wings, dolphins gasping for breath, great elms succumbing to blight. Why not more efficient, more compassionate mutations? Why must resistance to malaria carry a penalty in anemia? We want to urge evolution to get where it’s going and stop the endless cruelties. But life doesn’t know where it’s going. It has no long term plan. There’s no end in mind. There’s no mind to keep an end in mind. The process is opposite of teleology. Life is profligate, blind, at this level unconcerned with notions of justice. It can afford to waste multitudes.” Page 84 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
Sagan also answers why some people live longer than other people. As one would have suspected, living long is in the genes. “Longevity and DNA repair are connected” Also in “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors”. If an organism can repair itself more thoroughly and quickly, it will out live one that can not. Here is proof it is blind dumb evolutionary luck that makes you live long. No God making a decision to spare you over someone else. Sagan then shows how the environment acts as a catalyst for changes and adaptations to take place. During stable times DNA sequences that accurately copy itself and are resistant to mutations are selected For. During times of environmental change, DNA sequences that are more pliable and mutate more frequently are selected For. This selection happens by accident when the organism is preserved by its ability to survive. Those less fit are eaten or die young. Sagan then compares Biology to history because accidents and chance have a far bigger role in Biology than physics. Physics have laws that determine the out come of events but Biology is like the world of Quantum Mechanics. The dice, in Biology is rolled far more times than in physics.
Sagan then introduces you to the RNA molecule. The RNA Molecule is single stranded. It does not unzip to copy itself. It can be in a variety of shapes. The RNA molecule serves as a binder to put together molecules that would other wise stay apart. The RNA molecule can get things started. It can be a catalyst. RNA is more wily nily than DNA. RNA also does multi-tasks. DNA is more specialized. Then Sagan ends the chapter with a discussion on over population and the short sightedness and lack of planning of the evolutionary process.
“When the numbers are small, organisms may only infrequently come into competition; but after exponential replication, enormous populations are produced, stringent competition occurs, and a ruthless selection comes into play. A high population density generates circumstances and elicits responses different from the more friendly and cheerful lifestyles that pertain when the world is sparsely populated.” page 95 Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
“You can see the process tends to be adventitious, opportunistic-not foresighted, not with any future end in view. The evolving molecules do not plan ahead. They simply produce a steady stream of varieties, and sometimes one of the varieties turns out to be slightly improved model. No one-not the organism, not the environment, not the planet, not “nature”-is mulling the matter over. This evolutionary short sightedness can lead to difficulties. It might for example, cast aside an adaptation that is perfectly suited for the next environmental crisis a thousand years from now (about which, of course, no one has a glimmering). But you have to get from here to there. One crisis at a time is life’s motto.” Page 96 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 27, 2010 23:04:08 GMT -6
ch. 6:
This particular chapter was especially interesting. It showed just how far back certain human dynamics go. Even microbes have their 'Sith" and "Jedi." Back in the beginning was the goop of life. It wasn't life yet. Sagan says somehow stuff formed such that it could copy itself, and the descendants would slowly improve. Early critters (one-celled) were crude and inefficient. That first moment where life started may have happened many times. There could have been failed attempts before something worked. You could make two assumptions at this point. It all happened by chance, or there was a Force that sparked it. If it was a Force, it possibly tried lots of times and it was a long haul to get real results. It was a messy business.
They know now that all living things come from one source. The first beings were one celled, and it was 3.5 billion years ago. These critters had a sense of identity. They knew what they were as opposed to the other critter that they found to eat. There was a dynamic of us-vs-them. But an interesting thing happened. Sometimes collaboration is a better strategy when you find a partner that can do what you can't. Cells discovered little green friends that were very helpful. They joined with them. This was the beginnings of plants. Even to this day we need our little green friends, the plants.
Even without a brain, these one-celled critters were elaborate programs of information that could fill books. They would reproduce by dividing. They never grew old and died. They just kept splitting.
These early creatures had their own special politics. Sagan says on p. 104:
"It's as if, for every million dyed-in-the-wool conservative organisms, there's one radical who's out to change things (although usually very small things); and for every one of the radicals, only one in a million actually know what it's talking about-providing a significantly better survival plan than the one currently fashionable. And yet the evolution of life is determined by these revolutionaries."
One celled creatures can evolve quickly. That is why germs keep outsmarting the antibiotics we take and make drug resistant strains.
One celled beasties learned who their friends were vs who you just eat. They could be cooperative or ruthless. Predators evolved better ways to hunt, and prey evolved better ways to evade, all through natural selection. This was true also of bigger critters. On p. 108 he says:
"Over many generations of life-and-death interaction between predator and prey, a kind of permanent arms race is established. For every offensive advance there is a defensive counter, and vice versa. Measure and countermeasure. Rarely does anyone become safer."
They evolved better tools to be winners: eyes, noses, brains, and so on....Life was like Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR. There were times that the environment changed more rapidly, so creatures were induced to evolve more quickly. Being smarter was the way to go, so brains came into being. Depending on the needs of the times, brains would evolve faster or slower.
Feeling evolved before thinking. Feelings of fear would prep the body for fight or flight. Many emotions were bio-chemical buttons used to lead to the appropriate action. Many of our responses are automatic, no thought, to rapidly deal with threats. So, if someone "pushes your buttons," there is some evolutionary programming going on here. Our brains, which come up with new and novel answers, evolved later. People tend to go with their heart and not their head because brains are newer on the evolutionary scale.
We all run on elaborate genetic software refined by ages of evolution, like the "sentient programs" referred to in the Matrix.
Note: I thought of people who practise the martial arts when I read this. Most martial artists do things on an instinctual level and bypass the brain, a "feel don't think" approach. It seems such practices are tapping into some old evolutionary patterns that have gotten a bit rusty in modern people.
Also, this chapter has implications for the Sith who tap into their emotions for their power.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 27, 2010 23:28:31 GMT -6
The end of chapter six has a change of theme somewhat. What about altruism vs. selfishness? Does evolution promote selfishness strictly? The answer is no. It promotes both, actually, a balance of the two.
The act of a mother sacrificing her life for her child or a person sacrificing his/herself for their kinfolk has a certain evolutionary logic. Genes of the related persons are similar, so if you save them, in a way, you save yourself. So this apparent altruism has a selfish component.
Pure altruism or pure selfishness do not bode well as far as the survival of a species. It is the middle way that works best. Certain groups stick up for each other and this serves the purpose of survival of that group. Typically it is kinfolk or tribes. It can extend to nations and even larger. In a way, all creatures are related and there are good reasons to protect all.
Sagan tells of a creepy experiment done with these particular kind of monkeys. To get food, a monkey had to allow the other monkey to be shocked. Many monkeys refused to do this and chose to not eat for days. It proved that they had a regard for one another, embarrassingly to say, more so than humans do to each other.
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Post by Mrs. Darth Vader on Jan 28, 2010 0:06:13 GMT -6
Sagan, in chapter six, starts with a mystery. Did the origin of life start with a single start or several false starts that lead to many dead ends to finally get the correct one? Sagan here lets you know that science does not know everything. Science has answered much but there is always room for new discoveries. Science unlike religion excepts the unknown and is patient to wait for the answer. A scientist need not answer something not yet discovered. In religion it seems you pretend to know it all and have God in your hip pocket. Only belligerence and stubbornness is needed for religion, especially fundamentalist style religions. Sagan shows his quiet confidence in his atheism because he has the courage to admit where a puzzle piece is missing. I never heard the religious do that. Sagan then reminds us how every organism is a relative of any other organism on earth. We are all distant cousins of one another. Here we are all interconnected by our chemistry and our biology. Sagan describes cells with protective membranes that form spheres. These cells have a way to let water in to absorb nutrients while other parts of the same membrane are repelled by water and keep it out. This kind of cell is the bases of cell membranes today. Sagan then describes how cells digest their food in a step by step fashion. Each step has a given enzyme for the task. Here genes must work together in perfect harmony in order to continue. So nature does have both competition for survival and cooperation for survival. In the digestion example everyone must work for the good of the tribe. These early enzymes had to know the difference between other members of itself and the grouping it belonged and the “alien” cell to be eaten. So the “us” verses “them” started very early in the history of life. Sagan gives you the relationship between predator and prey on the cellular level. Sagan describes molecular symbiosis. In this instance how plant microbes evolved to get very important “guests” bacteria. It started out that the cell used to eat this bacteria but it (the bacteria) evolved in a way as to make itself indigestible but quite by accident it became a benefit to the cell that used to eat it. Former rivals became friends so to speak. This symbiosis has been going on for about 2 or 3 billion years to this day. Even today this very important “guest” called Chloroplasts are in every green plant. These very tiny bacteria is very essential. As a matter of fact with out them almost all life on earth would die. They are unobtrusive and bother no one. Here is a real example of “Judge me by my size do you?” in action. Humans are arrogant about our importance on earth but it is obvious these tiny little chloroplasts are far more important than us. These bacteria are interesting because they reproduce by asexual reproduction. The parent splits itself in half creating another. The one becomes two smaller bacteria. These two grow quickly to adult size and split making more and so on. Here there was no death or old age of the parent. If left to themselves, they would live forever. Death only comes when an amoeba eats them or poisons are introduced or some other molecular catastrophe. Sagan discusses about how as far back as 3.5 billion years ago a microbe could now detect the difference between “us” and “them”. Life by then evolved a form of outer chemical that allows other members of the same group, family or species to detect one another. This was the first way to ensure survival of your species, by not eating each other up. You could be a ruthless predator to the “them” but you had better be kind to your fellows to ensure survival. We finally get out of the world of microbes to the animal kingdom. Here Sagan tells how kittens learn to hunt from their parents. It is not all instincts. Here Sagan sights lab experimental results of kittens to rats. He tells under which circumstances where cats will kill selective rats, all rats and no rats. Then Sagan talks about the relationship between predator and prey and how the genes select which will survive and which will not. Sagan then compares the relationship between predator and prey by comparing it to the arms race. For every measure there is a counter measure keeping things in balance. Neither side over takes the other. This ensures that there is not an over population problem in nature. Later in this chapter Sagan discusses the fight or flight mechanism in animals as a way of ensuring survival. Organisms become more complex as millions of years pass in evolution. Now it gets interesting because Sagan talks about selfish genes. Using information from R.A. Fisher, geneticist, who showed how people tend to help only their relatives. Fisher believed in “Kin Selection” stating that humans only help people that are relatives or at least of the same race. Sagan sights a chilling example of this according to financial records of where aid goes. He sights how thousands of children die of preventable hunger, neglect and disease. We could inoculate these children but the money is not given because other budgetary concerns take precedence. We sleep well while we know these people are dieing. Sagan uses examples like these to show selfishness and kin selection. This is to illustrate that we have a selfish gene. But on the other hand, Sagan shows that we have a gene for altruism as well. He then sights how people will cross species and rescue animals and care for them. Dogs are known to risk their lives to save humans. Sagan gives both ends of the spectrum. He describes a total selfish person/ situation. Then he describes a total altruistic person/ situation. This leads up to the climax of this section of the chapter or why we need to balance between selfishness and altruism. Here Sagan makes an “open shut case” for the balance of the two. Too much altruism leads to extinction and Sagan clearly shows why. Too much selfishness also leads to extinction and again Sagan shows you why. This part of the book is one of the most important parts because today people are choosing all selfish and aggression with no altruism at all. Here the lesson needs to be learned or we will all be extinct. There will in fact be “Population Zero, Life after people”. Sagan describes how primates, in which humans are part, need the group in order to survive. We are not solitaries, like the bobcat. Yet today, at least in America we are enforcing a solitary lifestyle on the entire American population. Sagan ends the chapter by showing lab results that proved beyond all doubt these Macaques (Rhesus Monkeys) were more kind and caring than humans. In what Sagan clearly thought was a cruel experiment, showed these monkeys when they saw the suffering of a strange Macaques monkey they were willing to sacrifice themselves rather than cause suffering of the other. “In a laboratory setting, macaques were fed if they were willing to pull a chain and electrically shock an unrelated macaque whose agony was in plain view through a one way mirror. Otherwise, they starved. After learning the ropes, the monkeys frequently refused to pull the chain; in one experiment only 13% would do so-87% preferred to go hungry. One macaque went without food for nearly two weeks rather than hurt its fellow. Macaques who had themselves been shocked in previous experiments were even less willing to pull the chain. The relative social status or gender of the macaques had little bearing on their reluctance to hurt others. If asked to choose between the human experimenters offering the macaques this faustian bargain and the macaques themselves- suffering from real hunger rather than causing pain to the others-our own moral sympathies do not lie with the scientists. But their experiments permit us to glimpse in non-humans a saintly willingness to make sacrifices in order to save others-even those who are not close kin. By conventional human standards, these macaques- who have never gone to Sunday school, never heard of the Ten Commandments, never squirmed through a single junior high school civics lesson-seem exemplary in their moral grounding and their courageous resistance to evil. Among the macaques, at least in this case, heroism is the norm. If the circumstances were reversed, and captive humans were offered the same deal by macaque scientists, would we do as well? In human history there are a precious few whose memory we revere because they knowingly sacrificed themselves for others. For each of them, there are multitudes who did nothing.” Page 117 and 118 “Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors” by Carl Sagan. This rhesus macaque is at large in the Tampa Bay area. He is free and has eluded authorities since 2008. I hope that he NEVER gets caught!! ;D Go monkey Go!!
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 30, 2010 17:50:20 GMT -6
Ch. 7:
We have a great bargain with the plants. They give us oxygen, and we give them carbon dioxide. The early earth did not have an atmosphere like we have today. There was no oxygen until the plants little by little gave it to us. The first life on earth did not breathe oxygen. In fact, to them it was a poison and many died. A few managed to hide away from it. A few managed to turn this poison into something useful (adapted). We come from this line. The atmosphere we have come to know and love started about 2 billion years ago. To handle the new atmosphere, we got a new kind of cell. These cells have an inner sanctum with a protective membrane where the strands of DNA are kept, that is, a nucleus. Inside there is a thousand books worth of info on all of our functions.
The cell is like a government. Generations of DNA are faithfully copied. A lot of it is gibberish, and only a "stop" and a "start" command gives a clue as to what part of it is actually followed. And what is the gibberish part for? Over time a tiny piece here and a tiny piece there will make some sort of useful sense, so it is tried out; and if it works for the organism, it is kept.
Note: This reminds me of the final scene in the movie "War Games." The computer, the Wopper, was trying to launch the missiles itself. In order to do so, it was running random numbers and letters through it in order to figure out the code words to do the launching. When it got a number, it kept it. It got the numbers one by one.
There is no foresight in all this. Cells do not plan for years ahead. They try some new minor thing and wing it, seeing how it goes. If it works in the immediate sense, they keep it. With every generation is a new upgrade and if it works, is favored over the old software.
Reproduction by sex did not happen until 1.1 billion years ago. We did not have larger animals until about 550 million years ago. For animals of some size to happen, cells began to specialize in certain functions to later form organs. We lived in the seas until 500 million years ago. This was wise because we did not get our ozone layer yet. That happened when we had enough oxygen in the air finally to get one. Oxygen meant another thing could happen on our planet, fire. There was stuff to burn now, plants.
In the last 100 million years, a lot of variety and action happened. Many different kinds of life developed, came and went. There were a few almost total wipe-outs (extinctions) of most of life on earth. Apocalypse happened before. It took about 10 million years after each for varied life to return to its fullest.
Many creatures have come and gone, all sorts of varieties being tried. Many more possible ones could be tried that haven't been tried yet. There are many possibilities even some that may be better than we are.
The most talked about extinction was the dinosaurs. It was about 65 million years ago. It was most likely the earth was hit by an asteroid big enough to do a lot of damage and kill almost everything. The dinosaurs, who had been here 200 million years, were now gone. Mammals were the underdogs during the dinosaur era, just hoping not to be eaten. Now the tables were turned, and the mammals could rise. Sagan says here that if that asteroid had missed, we may never have happened. History turns on a dime.
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Post by Mrs. Darth Vader on Jan 30, 2010 22:04:22 GMT -6
Chapter seven starts explaining how we breath in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. The plants breath in carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. Our waste is their need. Our need is their waste. Here plants and animals have a symbiotic relationship. Plant life started before animal life. To start life a hydrogen rich atmosphere is needed. Asteroid collisions happening more often was also important. In these asteroids are the stuff of life. The collisions with the early earth happened so often that globs of the stuff of life was every where on earth. But they came from space. Collisions from space happen so seldom that if all life on earth were to be extinguished today than the earth would become a desolate place never again to have life because we have an oxygen rich atmosphere not a hydrogen rich atmosphere and with no source of the stuff of life coming to earth things would remain desolate.
Sagan then goes back to the world of cells. He describes a type of cell called “eukaryote”. the eukaryote has a nuclei in it. It also has an inner court which is the nuclei and an outer court. This cell structure is used in many plants like flowers and trees. All algae, fungi and protozoa are eukaryotes. All animal life use this cell format. This also includes humans. Bacteria and viruses are not eukaryotes. Eukaryotes have two sets of walls protecting the nuclei from the outside world. Sagan compares the eukaryote to a mid-evil castle with two sets of walls to protect it. Sagan compares the nuclei DNA to the monarch. The chloroplasts and mitochondria are like independent Dukes and their holdings. Every other molecule is like the serfs, having to obey the orders of the realm. These molecules dutifully perform their functions. Then suddenly this kingdom sounds more like America of the orders of the President that is nonsense. Sagan compares how even the worker molecules know the difference between orders that Have to be obeyed and orders that can be ignored. Sagan here gives a funny example of how our DNA function in this capacity. In the example given of the mad (meaning crazy) President with garbled orders, Sagan says our DNA says “DRIVEL AHEAD, PLEASE IGNOR.”. Then the drivel sequence is given and at the end the DNA says “END OF DRIVEL”.
Now it gets interesting because Sagan explains how over very long periods of time this gibberish can fall in the right place and then make sense. These become individual words, a phrase and at best a sentence but this little bit is enough to ensure survival. In a changing environment this is important. The smallest change may up the chances for survival. Just a punctuation mark can make the difference between life and death. The trick is to remember the sequences.
Sagan here reminds us that the evolutionary process is short sighted and only thinks of the now. It acts one crisis at a time. There is no long plan. No orders from the top. In many ways it runs like our economy, what ever profit’s the moment, with no thought of tomorrow. This is not a planned economy. After explaining how cells normally function, Sagan describes how another organism can “hack” their way into the nuclei and change the orders coming out. Now the cell is infiltrated and it is used to make copies of the imposter. This is similar to some computer viruses that order your computer to do something other than what it used to do.
Sagan then tells how cells became beings that are highly complex. These beings are made up of many cells. The cells had specialized functions like removing poisons or conduits of electrical impulses, locomotion, breathing and much later thoughts. Our “grey” matter (cerebellum) evolved last. Here Sagan tells of how cells were part of such large organisms as to need things like kidney, liver, heart, brains and sex organs.
Sagan explains how the plants in creating an over production of oxygen allowed for life to live on land. This abundant oxygen supply is how we got ourO3 (ozone layer). The ozone layer protects us from the ultra violet rays of the sun. This then lead to why life started in seawater (Salt Water) because at certain dept seawater is opaque blocking the ultra violet light making the sea safe.
Sagan then tells us that ancient organisms are not always simpler than the modern organism. Sagan then says; “Viruses and parasites, in general, show signs of having evolved by loss of function from some more self-sufficient forebear.” Here Sagan gives proof of what Charles Darwin said about an organism can become a degraded version of itself if the environment lead it in that direction. Hence an organism can devolve. Sagan gives the lab proof to Charles Darwin and evolution but also devolution or becoming degraded. To go from being a self-sufficient organism to leaching off another is going backwards in evolution. Next I will give the Charles Darwin quote about how an organism can become degraded so you can see the part that Sagan proved. To admit and prove this statement takes real courage in which both Charles Darwin and Carl Sagan had. They bucked prevailing culture to tell the truth, the Whole truth.
"We have also seen that as the specialization of parts is an advantage to each being, so natural selection will tend to render the organism of each being more specialized and perfect, and in this sense higher; not but it may leave many creatures with simple and unimproved structures fitted for simple conditions of life, and in some cases will even degrade or simplify the organization, yet leaving such degraded beings better fitted for their new walks of life.". Page 337 “Origin Of Species” by Charles Darwin. I gave the whole quote so you see both the upward evolution process described and the degrading process described. Note: that Natural Selection is only interested in surviving. It does not care if a once high organism has to degrade into a lower version or more base version of itself. Here is the Devolution or Degraded part of the statement. I repeated it by itself to make it stick out. This is the part of evolution that even public school does not teach. You will only see this in both “Origin Of Species and “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors” to the best of my knowledge.
“and in some cases will even degrade or simplify the organization, yet leaving such degraded beings better fitted for their new walks of life.".
Life became very diverse around the time that humans were just getting going. Life has been diverse ever since. Now it is loosing it’s diversity because humans are destroying beings and habitats at a rapid rate. There are natural times of mass extinctions like at ice ages but it seems humans are destroying things just as fast. After mass extinctions it takes the earth about ten million years to recover and have many varieties of life again. From here Sagan tells us how the dinosaurs lived on the earth until a massive cometary or asteroidal collision happened on earth. This caused an ice age which killed off all the dinosaurs. As a result of the dinosaurs being made extinct, little nocturnal mammals were given the chance to flourish. The dinosaurs were a threat to these little guys so with dinosaurs removed the little nocturnal mammals had a chance at survival. This branch lead to the mammals we see today. Sagan tells how we find fossil remains of dinosaurs and evidence of the creatures of this period. There is evidence of a colossal impact with the earth. This caused world wide fires because in this layer is found soot and we know there were no factories then. So the earth and everything on it once did go in flames. Sagan describes in detail, step by step of how this mass extinction took place. More dangerous than the fires themselves was all the smoke Thrown into the atmosphere blocking out the sun light from getting in. This killed all the chloroplasts which killed all one celled animals because they ate the chloroplasts. Shrimp like creatures ate the one celled animals so they died. Small fish ate the shrimp like creatures died because there were no shrimp like creatures to eat. Big fish which ate the small fish died. This death tole happened all the way up the food chain. This is like dominos you knock one and the rest fallow. All life unraveled. Life is all interconnected. If you wipe out some here or there you do not know how far the damage will go.
Sagan then tell us the value of insects and other arthropods. Both of these clean up dead plants and animal excrement. The scarab beetle brings the animal excrement down in the dirt to the plant roots. Here the plants can use it. Then discussion of how insects like the bee act as agents for sexual reproduction of plants. Insects go from flower to flower and in this process helps pollinate the plants to make new plants. Plants get animals to plant their seeds. Sagan then reminds us of the struggle to survive between plants and animals and how animals will eat too much if the plants did not evolve things to make it hard for the animals to eat them. Sagan then ends this chapter by reminding us how connected and interdependent life on earth is. The ecosystem does not have boarders like countries do so what we do here can effect what happens in china for example.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Jan 31, 2010 23:29:24 GMT -6
Just in time for Valentine's Day, ch. 8, all about the role of sex in our evolution: There was life before sex. In the past creatures reproduced by dividing. Instead of one, there would be two identical beings after the split, like clones. Compared to this, sex is elaborate, cumbersome, time and energy consuming, and risky. Why switch from something as efficient as asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction? There was a flaw with the asexual way. The good side is that no one died, they just divided. The bad news is that changes came so slowly that there was too much sameness. Not only was it boring, but there was a tendency for the copying to degrade over a long time. It was therefore hard to adapt to a changing environment. Sex, on the other hand, reshuffles the genetic cards so to speak. It produces variety and lets adaptation happen faster. it was, therefore, good for the future of the species. The only downside is that death came about as the parents eventually grew old and died. Death is that point where the ever faithful copying DNA slacks off and gets sloppy. For some creatures, in particular salmon, it happens right after they spawn. For mammals like us, we stick around because the next generation needs the parents. Sagan takes some guesses as to how sex came about. They are not sure exactly. Perhaps there were gene exchanges between organisms in some weird sort of sci-fi way like in the movie "The Fly." Eventually, however, creatures became male ad female and sought each other out. Sagan has an idea why females are choosy about their mates and males sow their wild oats all over the place. Females have only a limited number of eggs at limited time which make them cautious. They also know for a fact who their child is and so focus on raising it. Males, on the other hand, have lots of sperm and so feel they have plenty to spread around. They are not always sure which kid is theirs so they are less attached to any particular offspring. It is not to say this is the pattern of all creatures, but it is common with many. Even with the more or less monogamous, males will cheat. So girls, you gotta keep a leash on him! Sex was probably a crude exchange at first by the one-celled who lacked gender. Natural selection later developed the elaborate process it is today. Sex ties a species together because more beings are actually related. Love and loyalty is a product of this. Why does one seek the beautiful and the handsome when searching for a mate? Sagan thinks it is because beauty is usually characteristic of health. With all this in mind, don't forget your sweetie this Valentine's Day if you have one. Evolution is counting on you. ;D
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Post by Mrs. Darth Vader on Feb 1, 2010 0:06:28 GMT -6
Chapter 8 starts with a description of how fireflies attract each other for mating purposes. A moth sends out a scent that draws the opposite sex from a distance away. This chapter deals with the question of why sex is so important. Sagan then gives you a list of the plants and animals that could reproduce with out sex. Dandelions, salamanders, some lizards and some fish reproduce with out sex. This brings Sagan to ask; Why have sex since more than half of the history of life on earth asexual reproduction was how it was done? Sagan then describes how asexual reproduction is done. The cell divides in half and each half is duplicated making a whole. Instead of one, you have two. This kind of reproduction creates a spitting image of the first being. It is a carbon copy. Sort of like the many agent Smiths in the movie “The Matrix”. In asexual reproduction the monotony is hardly ever broken by mutation. This works as long as the environment is stagnant and repetitive. Evolution is slow under this form of reproduction according to the fossil evidence. From 3.5 billion years ago until 1 billion years ago evolution was slow because reproduction was done with out sex. One billion years ago sex was invented.
The introduction of sex meant instead of very slow evolution with a letter or a word here or there, you could suddenly have whole volumes. Each partner would come to the table with tried, tested and true DNA. Now the reshuffling choices were enormous. This allows for more rapid evolutionary change and adaptability. Now like a big casino many choices are available. Sexual reproduction upped the chances of survival. Now there would be more variety. In a changing environment or world, sexual reproduction is more advantageous. Sex according to Sagan goes hand in glove with Natural Selection. Sex provides the varieties. Natural Selection screens out the varieties that are best suited to survive. We even have a form of “ambidextrous” organisms that use both forms of reproduction. These organisms can do asexual and sexual reproduction. Some bacteria to aphids to aspens do both kinds of reproduction.
Sagan gives another reason that sex was invented and that is viruses and bacteria that invade a host organism could easily defeat an organism that does asexual reproduction. But with sex, the creations of antibodies can keep pace with the virus. This example could be easily compared to the cold war arms race. America invents some kind of missile defense system or a way to attack Russia (Soviet Union). The Soviet Union (Russia) finds a counter measure and a defense system to stop the would be attack by America. Hence the attack is stopped. The same is true of viruses. The virus tries to attack the host organism by mutating itself. The host defends it self by it’s antibodies who also mutate to out wit the virus. In this example sex is a preservative element. If we did asexual reproduction and each generation was the same as the last adinfinitum then eventually a virus would hit the right sequence and our number would be up. We would be wiped out. Sex randomly reshuffles the deck in the next generation which is enough to confuse the viruses. This is natures way of making sure we are not wiped out as a species.
Sagan then gives a biological explanation of the war between females and males as reguard to monogamy verses many partners. In many species of reptiles, birds and mammals the female produces a small number of eggs per year. So from an evolutionary point of view it makes sense that the female is slow and picky as to choice of mates. She is devoted to nurturing both the fertilized egg and the young. The male on the other hand can have as much as hundreds of millions of sperm cells per ejaculation. A healthy male primate is able to ejaculate many times in a single day. So from an evolutionary point of view, the male strategy is to have many partners further spreading his seed. The male leans towards indiscriminate sex. The male does everything possible to get the female to comply from gentle persuasion to down right intimidation. In primates this shows up markedly. Human laws and culture tries to soften these blunt edges. Some societies are more successful than others. This does not imply this is lock step because in many species the female is the one that has many partners and it is the male who cares for the young. Birds score the highest marks for monogamy. 90% of birds are monogamous. Only 12% of monkeys and apes are monogamous. Our closest relatives did not score so high in monogamy. Wolves, jackals, coyotes, foxes, elephants, shrews, beavers, and miniature antelope are all monogamous. This monogamy means that they have a steady female that plays the role of wife. But these animals much like people have a mistress or two. They do sneak and mate on the side as well. Unlike humans this side mating does not end the “married” couple’s relationship. They both still stay together even though both the male and the female “cheat”. Sex here is portrayed as mechanistic. The whole goal is to get out the next generation and many offspring from the same parents if possible. Here the pleasure of sex is not portrayed as sinful but an evolutionary machine to tempt an organism into getting many young so when natural selection comes to bear some of your genes will survive.
Then Sagan does something interesting because sex is connotated with death. By having sex we loose immortality. Sagan tells the story of how salmon travel far against the currents in a heroic effort to get to spawning spot and in only a few hours later they die. Here Sagan says; “Nature is unsentimental. Death is built in.” And “ This is very unlike the far less dramatic asexual reproduction of beings like paramecia, where, pretty closely, remote descendants are genetically identical to their distant ancestors. The ancient organisms can with some justice be described as still alive. With all it’s manifold advantages, sex brought something else: the end of immortality.” Here Sagan sounds like many tales of Shiva who brings life, sex, love but also is the destroyer who brings death. Of course Sagan would remind us that in many myths truths are buried in murky metaphors and arrived at it quite by accident. Sagan has used mythical symbolism to make the hard science easier to understand. In the “Cosmos” series, he did the same when explaining our spherical universe being locked into a succession of births, deaths and rebirths. Sagan stood on Hindu temple grounds explaining about the “Big Bang” and the possible “Big Crunch”. Here Sagan reminds us that asexual beings in direct copying the parent and since the parent is still there when the splits occurs down the generations. They are considered immortal because death to these organism only comes from a lethal accident, getting eaten or when they run out of something like a food supply for example.
In sexual reproduction, death is built right in. The parent eventually dies leaving the world to their offspring but the offspring becomes parents leaving the world to their offspring and so on. Built in the DNA of sexual organisms is the “death gene” to say it in cliché. Sagan states how the genes are preprogrammed for your time to die. “By relaxing the extreme fidelity of it’s own replication, DNA can arrange, at the appropriate moment, for it’s own death”.
Sagan then ends the chapter by describing two things that happen in nature. One is chilling and disturbing. The other more warm and what would seem normal. The first thing Sagan describes is a form of cannibalism that is normal in nature. He describes where mothers eat their young because they are very nutritious morsels. Surprisingly this does not just occur during famines or overcrowding but at normal times. Birds and mammals for the most part do not do this but frogs and fish eat their young. Then Sagan talks about Beetles and Crocodiles who dote over their young and make sure they are put at a safe location to better their chances at survival. So here extreme cruelty in nature is shown. Next to gentle compassion.
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Post by Empress Palpatine on Feb 11, 2010 21:39:52 GMT -6
My computer went to the "doctor" recently so I was gone for a time and now have about three chapters written down in scrawl to type in.
Ch. 9:
This chapter addresses the question: Are we robots or do we have free will?
Why do we cling to life even if it goes lousy? Why is sex such a preoccupation?
We have two voices: evolutionary drive (animal) and our own thoughts (spiritual). Without brains, we'd only be the first, an animal that lives to survive, have sex and procreate, hardwired evolutionary drives.
He tells the story of a tick. They can't see, can't hear, and can't think. They run programs like little robots. They can smell the whiff of a mammal coming by, and they leap on to them. They cannot actually taste, but they assume a warm spot is blood to drink. The female tick needs the blood to lay her eggs. She can be fooled by a mammal-smelling balloon full of warm water and will actually try to drink it.
Consider the the poor dumb moth. It slams into a window because it follows light. It never figures it out and keeps on slamming into windows. Its kind lived millions of years before windows and are not used to dealing with them. They have no brain to figure it out. (Funny, there are humans that do the same dumb thing over and over that gets them into trouble.)
Caterpillars aren't so smart either. They mechanically follow scent trails of their fellows. If a scientist marks out a circle of such a scent, the caterpillars will march around the circle forever. They are just running programs like robots.
The honey bee has a special funeral rite. When one of its fellows dies, it emits a death scent so the others automatically cart off its body out of the hive. It is so automatic that if an experimenter put some of this scent on a live bee, they'd cart the live bee out kicking and screaming. There is no thought, no analysis, just autopilot. Insects are like robots.
"Dumb" or automatic traits even fit higher animals like birds, etc. Some will mistake a golf ball for an egg and try to shove it in the nest.
Note: This reminds me of a funny thing my cat Tiwas used to do. Often we'd share pieces of steak from our table. Before eating it she would shake it. I would joke at her,"It's dead, Tiwas. It was dead when I bought it wrapped in a package at the store. It was dead in our freezer for three weeks. It was dead when we grilled it over the fire. It was dead when we cut it up into pieces and gave you some." She never changed. She shook it every time. That must have been one of those robotic things.
Just about now you are thinking, "But I am not a bird or a bug." We have our programming too. Sagan says on p. 165:
"Male tropical fish show fighting readiness when they see the red markings of other males of their species. They also get agitated when they glimpse a red truck out the window. Humans find themselves sexually aroused by looking at certain arrangements of very small dots on paper or celluloid or magnetic tape. They pay money to look at these patterns." (or pixels!)
We, as well as other critters, have part of us that is automatic and part that thinks. So when did thinking get started? It became necessary when auto was not good enough and failed in natural selection. That is how we got smart about some things while remaining dumb about others. In evolution, dumb is O.K. as long as it works and new generations can be born and live. When it is not good enough, we need a new feature-brains.
There are robots that are as smart as many critters, even robots that can learn from their mistakes like certain chess-playing robots (and even more since this book was written!). Are we robots too, even if sophisticated robots? What about free will? When an action feels "right," is it because our programming says so? Is that what it is when we get carried away with our feelings (our programming running the show)?
Many creatures have senses keener than ours. Many can hear, smell, and see better than us. Some even have senses we don't have at all like sonar, electricity, and inner compass (except perhaps Force users). The world may look really different to them. Many creatures have the same emotions we do as well.
As to whether we are robots or have free will, Sagan does not say but leaves it to the reader to decide.
Note: When I read about Nikola Tesla, they said he believed we were automatons, "meat machines," he called us.
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