The mostly friendly Australian bird of the family Artamidae (not to be confused with the Corvidae of the European magpie) who uses this branch of cyberspace to express various comments and opinions from deep inside the Pacific Rim, bids you welcome...
Monday, September 6, 2010
The only home we've ever known
I think we all need to listen to this from time to time, and think about what 'my' opinions, 'your' opinions, 'his', 'her', 'their' opinions, all, ultimately, add up to...
A quote for all the human ages that have ever been, and perhaps ever will be:
I love Carl Sagan. My wife and I never missed an episode of Cosmos. We took an astronomy course together taught via television, what a course that was. He had a voice and a sense of wonder about him that would literally instill reverence in the listener. I think he was probably the coolest scientist to live.
If I remember correctly, it was his idea to place the golden disks with voice recordings on Pioneer 10 and 11. I’ve always wondered what happened to those disks.
Not his idea, but his design. His wife at the time did the artwork.
Pioneer 10 has left the solar system (in the sense of planetary limits), the first Earth spacecraft to do so. If it survives the void it should reach whatever system is around Aldebaran, an orange giant star, in about 2 million years. No successful contact has been had with Pioneer 10 since 2003.
Last contact with Pioneer 11 was in 1995. It hasn't yet left the solar system yet and has a lower velocity than 10, the two Voyagers or New Horizons. It should pass Lambda Aquilae, a dwarf star, in about 4 million years.
What's distantly possible, give the time we are talking about, is that by the time they get to where they are going, some vastly remote descendants of ours might have got there already. But even if that happens, the probes are so tiny and space so big they may never be seen again.
I doubt very much that such descendants would look anything like 21st century humans either, so... Perhaps, if the probes were picked up, the plaques will answer a far future riddle of what humans looked like in our time, that being their civilisation's distant - and possibly forgotten - pre-history.
Great clip, magpie. And even though we live on a small piece of dust in a sunbeam, congrats on what seems a pretty suitable outcome to your election on your corner of it.
Wanted to thank you for the recommend on Loretta Napoleoni. Almost finished with Terror Incorporated. The US couldn't have done Bin Laden or the ISI in Pakistan any bigger favors from Carter up through Bush the Younger. Between the rock and the hard place now.
Oh you're welcome. I'm glad one of my posts made a difference.
Our election: the conservatives have only been out for a single term and there is no disconnect from what inflicted on us in the years before (signing us up for Iraq among other crap). I don't want them back in power.
I read up about Sagan's life after I posted this and found what a politically active and profoundly interesting life he had. Growing up in New Jersey with parents who had known great poverty. Getting arrested for protest action against Reagan's missile defence system nonsense. His views on religion. Fascinating man.
I love Carl Sagan. My wife and I never missed an episode of Cosmos. We took an astronomy course together taught via television, what a course that was. He had a voice and a sense of wonder about him that would literally instill reverence in the listener. I think he was probably the coolest scientist to live.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember correctly, it was his idea to place the golden disks with voice recordings on Pioneer 10 and 11. I’ve always wondered what happened to those disks.
Just checked now...
ReplyDeleteNot his idea, but his design. His wife at the time did the artwork.
Pioneer 10 has left the solar system (in the sense of planetary limits), the first Earth spacecraft to do so. If it survives the void it should reach whatever system is around Aldebaran, an orange giant star, in about 2 million years. No successful contact has been had with Pioneer 10 since 2003.
Last contact with Pioneer 11 was in 1995. It hasn't yet left the solar system yet and has a lower velocity than 10, the two Voyagers or New Horizons.
It should pass Lambda Aquilae, a dwarf star, in about 4 million years.
What's distantly possible, give the time we are talking about, is that by the time they get to where they are going, some vastly remote descendants of ours might have got there already. But even if that happens, the probes are so tiny and space so big they may never be seen again.
I doubt very much that such descendants would look anything like 21st century humans either, so...
Perhaps, if the probes were picked up, the plaques will answer a far future riddle of what humans looked like in our time, that being their civilisation's distant - and possibly forgotten - pre-history.
Great clip, magpie. And even though we live on a small piece of dust in a sunbeam, congrats on what seems a pretty suitable outcome to your election on your corner of it.
ReplyDeleteWanted to thank you for the recommend on Loretta Napoleoni. Almost finished with Terror Incorporated. The US couldn't have done Bin Laden or the ISI in Pakistan any bigger favors from Carter up through Bush the Younger. Between the rock and the hard place now.
Oh you're welcome. I'm glad one of my posts made a difference.
ReplyDeleteOur election: the conservatives have only been out for a single term and there is no disconnect from what inflicted on us in the years before (signing us up for Iraq among other crap). I don't want them back in power.
I read up about Sagan's life after I posted this and found what a politically active and profoundly interesting life he had. Growing up in New Jersey with parents who had known great poverty. Getting arrested for protest action against Reagan's missile defence system nonsense. His views on religion. Fascinating man.