WATER ON MARS

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars

COTI and the Epona Project

What would happen if a bunch of big names in planetary science, anthropology, and science fiction all got together for a big worldbuilding confab? Once a year?

The explosion of awesome known as COTI - Cultures Of The Imagination.

Pictured: COTI logo, featuring a human skull and an alien skull.

It's pretty epic to read about the results of each yearly conference, though I get the impression it's been happening every year since 1983; so why are only the first 4 years' worth of findings viewable on their site?

Oh well. It's still pretty awesome. Each conference summary details an effort to construct an alien world with a sentient species, followed by an effort to roleplay first contact between these aliens and human explorers.  We get to see the Alchemists, an aquatic species from an icy ocean world, the Squiches, guys with really long legs, and the Mossbacks of the planet Ophelia, living below a perpetual cloud layer. Also, flying dolphins.

Left to right: Alchemist, Squich, Mossback (Artwork by Joel Hagen)

There's also an article labeled "The Centaurians" from COTI IV, but despite the image of a rather terrifying alien, the article seems to focus exclusively on the human colonists for some reason.

Seems like the COTI participants realized though that a weekend conference isn't enough time to build an inhabited planet; God took six days, so what makes you think you can do it in two?

The upshot of all this was the Epona Project.

Seen here.

The focus here is a lot less on the intelligent life forms, and more on the planet itself, Epona. The dedicated site offers almost no information on its sentient inhabitants, the Uther, either on the Epona Project site or on this page on the COTI site. The dedicated Epona site is pretty heavy, so I recommend that page for those looking for a more basic overview.

I like how they took the time to assemble a full solar system. The star (82 Eridani) is called Taranis, and all the planets are named for Celtic or Gallic mythological figures.

From left to right: Belenos, Grannos, Epona, Sucellus, Rosmerta, Borvo, Bormo, Bormanus, and Sirona

Notice how the structure of the Taranis system mirrors our own: four terrestrials, four gas giants, one cryogenic planet (this from way back in the '80s and '90s before the whole Pluto kerfuffle). From what I can gather, before exoplanetology took off in the late '90s, it was understood that planetary systems followed a sort of "cigar" pattern: innermost and outermost planets being the smallest, with giant planets in the middle. This was before the "Hot Jupiter" concept was discovered; many speculated that gas giants could not form or exist in close proximity to a star. I'm not a fan of following the 4-4-1 pattern of our solar system that closely, but I think the model still has some merit where habitable planets are concerned; one hypothesis has it that a Hot Jupiter does not form near its sun, but forms farther away then migrates inward over the eons. If so, this would have the unfortunate side effect of knocking away or smashing into any inferior planets on its way there.

Epona is different from other constructed worlds I've seen in that a big factor in its construction is its geological/ecological history. The planet spends most of its history in an ice age, coming out for about 10 million years at a time every 100 million years or so due to periods of increased vulcanism, resulting in ecosystems living on borrowed time. Before the vulcanism recedes, CO2 levels drop, plants die off, and the ice comes back.

So every 110 million years the planet basically gets to relive nobody's favorite Roland Emmerich movie.

The present day corresponds to near the end of one of these volcanic intervals. Is 10 million years a long enough timespan for intelligent life to evolve? (Well within the simulation, yes, because, the Uther. But in real life?)

The project seems to operate on the idea of an evolutionary "explosion" of new species when the glaciers recede, presumably to fill all the new niches opened up on the newly exposed barren continents. Some of the lifeforms designed for the project include:
-Reefs of "tube worms"
-Segmented dragonflies
-"Pagoda trees" (hey wait a second, that sounds familiar...)
-Three-legged and five-limbed animals
-Terrifying insectoids
-Four-winged fliers, including the sentient Uther.

I invite you to explore the site and take in the fruits of these people's efforts. It's really quite impressive. But fair warning: it gets really technical and thus kind of dry. Even I struggle to read all the articles start to finish.

But I like looking at the pictures.

Faith and SETI

The following is a paper I wrote for a college summer seminar on the theory of evolution and its relationship with Catholic theology. The basic thesis takes the themes of the course and extrapolates them to how theology relates to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. It's a few years old, but I *did* get an A in the course, so I think it's suitable for publication.

Faith and SETI

Having devoted the bulk of his book Deeper than Darwin to the theory of evolution and the implications for its compatibility with theology, John Haught shifts the focus in his last chapter: “Darwin, God, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”. At first the topic seems like mere science fiction, but it is entirely relevant to a theological analysis of evolution. The discovery of intelligent alien life in the future would be a landmark discovery much like Darwin’s discovery of evolution. It would cause debate. It might cause some to believe that the existence of God has been disproven. But for many, it will be possible to see the existence of alien intelligence as further proof of cosmic purpose. Like evolution, first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence will lead us to greater insight about God’s creation and about humanity’s place in it, and not only is the existence of alien life compatible with faith, the faithful should expect it.

C.S. Lewis's "Space Trilogy" is one of the first works of science fiction to explore the interaction of the concepts of faith and alien life. (Image source)

Haught describes the discovery of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe as “one more in a series of occasions that modern cosmology has provided for theology to […] deepen its sense of nature and God” (p. 179). This “series” includes the discovery that the Earth is not the center of the universe and the discovery of Darwinian evolution. Both of these revealed scientific views of the natural world that ran counter to the literal interpretation of the Bible, yet Christianity did not die out in the Renaissance, nor did it die out in 1859. Religion has never been disproved by scientific discovery, and since science is the study of God’s creation, it can never do so. Instead, challenging scientific discoveries offer theology an opportunity to expand into greater depths; the discovery that the earth is billions (instead of thousands) of years old and that new creatures are created through the gradual change of older species reveals new truths about the grand scope of God’s creation. In the same way, the revelation that God has created other peoples in the universe will change the perspective of theology dramatically.

There exist several reasons some believe that the discovery of alien intelligence would disprove the existence of God. One of these arguments is that a generally held tenet of religion is that humans are special in the scheme of creation, and the discovery that other intelligent species exist in the universe would mean humans are not unique. Haught lists two points defending human uniqueness even if intelligent life were found to exist elsewhere in the cosmos. The first of these is that physically, humans would still be unique, as “it is biologically inconceivable that there would be other humans anywhere else in the universe” (p. 180). Despite depictions of humans or aliens who are nearly identical to humans in a wide variety of science fiction works such as Star Trek, in reality the odds of finding other humans in the universe are nearly zero when we consider how just on our planet, species have evolved on widely diverse paths. Since conditions on any other world would not be identical to conditions on Earth, the idea of life following an evolutionary path identical to ours seems absurd, even when considering convergent evolution. It is possible that any alien race we find won’t even share basic body arrangements with us, such as a bipedal, upright form or two eyes and a mouth on a head. Thus in that sense we as a race will retain our uniqueness, our sense of identity, no matter how many other races we may find out there.

Everything we know about life on Earth suggests that any intelligent life we find elsewhere will look nothing like us, defying the expectations of popular culture. (Image source)

The other argument Haught gives for human uniqueness and value is that given by many different religions: “we express our own unique human dignity and value not by looking for signs of our mental or ethical superiority over other forms of life but by following a path of service and even self-sacrifice with respect to the whole of life, wherever it may be present” (p. 180). The aliens may have the ability to traverse the galaxy instantaneously or a lifespan ten times that of a human, or they may have nothing more than stones, clubs, and fire. Regardless of their technological or sociological accomplishments, however, we will retain our dignity and value, for nothing can change our ability to show compassion or love to others. While humans will no longer be unique in the sense of being the only species in the universe capable of showing love, we will remain part of that unique class of beings that can love. If anything, first contact will represent an enormous opportunity for us to learn how to show love, compassion, and respect for an entirely new species.

The Bible speaks only of the human race and not of any alien races on other worlds (although angels are a different race, just not a physical one). Thus the discovery of aliens might lead some to believe the Bible is inaccurate. This would be a fallacy though, as whether or not other races exist in the universe is a topic largely unrelated to the revelations with which the Bible is mainly concerned, for the same reason that the Big Bang, evolution, and the earth revolving around the sun are not discussed. On the contrary, we should note that the Bible leaves room for the existence of aliens; it never states explicitly that humans are the only physical beings with souls in the entire universe.

Haught comments on religion’s ability to accept new scientific teachings: “Religion can put up with all kinds of particular scientific ideas so long as these ideas do not contradict the sense that the whole scheme of life is meaningful” (p. 185). Haught presents a compelling reason why the discovery of intelligent life would be an affirmation of the existence of God: the knowledge of not one but two intelligent species in the cosmos would effectively double the number of reasons to believe that the universe naturally gives rise to intelligence, indicating that life does indeed have a “point,” or a goal towards which it strives. Haught argues that the discovery would “place the burden of proof upon those who see no intrinsic connection between mind and […] nature” (p. 188). When multiple instances of intelligence are shown in the universe, Occam’s razor would dictate that there is a cause, a reason, for this trend, which is a simpler solution than the idea that these “random” events occur over and over again. And the more of these “flukes” we find in space, the greater that burden will become.

With so many galaxies in the universe, it seems unlikely that there could only be one species of thinking, feeling beings. (Image source)

If anything, rather than being “too much” for religious belief to accommodate, the discovery of alien life may not be enough; it may actually be too narrow an idea in comparison to what really exists in the cosmos. Haught remarks that intelligent life “is only one instance of cosmic beauty” and that “What we call intelligent life might turn out to be too trivial a notion to capture what is already ‘out there’” (p. 189). Haught cites philosopher Alfred North Whitehead’s argument that since beauty has intrinsic value, anything that produces beauty “could be called purposeful or ‘teleological’” (p. 189). Thus the concept of the universe being purposeful could lead to creation giving rise to all kinds of things (things we could not begin to imagine), not just intelligence.  Throughout the course of human history, predictions about future discoveries have often failed to grasp the wonder found in the actual discoveries; God frequently surprises us with just how amazing His creation can be, even if we begin with the acknowledgment that He is omnipotent. Even if we imagine a universe containing countless civilizations, we may not be thinking too big; we may be thinking too small. The idea of civilizations dotting the stars may not do justice to what is truly out there.

Though we have yet to discover any life in space, natural beauty nevertheless abounds in the universe.

 (Image source)

When the idea of a universe over which an omnipotent, benevolent God presides is accepted, then it follows that the universe has a purpose. When that purpose appears to be to bring forth sentient life, theists should not be surprised at the possibility of the existence of aliens. In fact, they should expect it. Contact with alien intelligence, should it ever occur, will be far less of a game-changer than some might expect. It will certainly allow theology to probe deeper into the depths and reveal new insight into our place in Creation. It will not signal the death of religion; it will solidify the case for religion. The knowledge that the changing cosmos has led to intelligence in more than one instance would represent greater evidence that the entire universe strives towards an end goal. With every alien race we would encounter, that evidence would grow stronger, pointing to a universe created by God to bring forth free-willed beings, made, like us, in His image. We may find, however, that those races are nothing more than the tip of the iceberg, and that the universe is filled with wonders humanity never imagined, a testament to the beauty and wonder of God’s creation.

Gallifrey Is Beautiful

Source

"Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet! The second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver. When they caught the light, every morning it looked like a forest on fire. When the Autumn came, a brilliant glow though the branches..."
-The Tenth Doctor

Breaking: Enceladus Ocean Confirmed

No, I'm not going the mainstream news outlet route and overpromising. NASA themselves are reporting that the Cassini probe has found a global ocean under the icy surface of Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon.

Source: NASA

Ever since Cassini's arrival at Saturn in 2004, it's seemed like Enceladus has been determined to upstage its larger, atmosphere-endowed neighbor, Titan.

ALL HAIL.

It shot out cryovolcanic plumes to get our attention years ago, and now it's showed us at Titan isn't the only moon that's capable of hiding something interesting. It's telling that besides Titan, the only other moon to get a virtual tour on the Cassini website is Enceladus.

"Lookatmelookatmelookatmelookatme"

Sci-fi loves to theorize about Europa and its potential subsurface ocean, so I find it amusing that Enceladus upstaged it, being farther away and less visually varied. Despite the distance though, people are getting excited about the possibility of finding life here.

Um, not much else to say here. Finding an ocean of water on another planet is a milestone discovery. Let's be sure to keep a close eye on this world.

Tardigrades and Panspermia

No, Whovians, this has nothing to do with time or relative dimensions in space. This is about water bears.
            

Though we can see how the two could be confused. (Source: Wikipedia)

Tardigrades, at half a millimeter long, are the cockroaches of the microscopic world. Named for their resemblance to bears, they are not bacteria; they are actually a phylum of the animal kingdom, part of a classification of animals called, appropriately, micro-animals. They have been reported to survive (for limited amounts of time):
- Temperatures ranging from 151 Celsius (304 Fahrenheit) down to -272 C (-458 F, or 1 C above absolute zero)
- Pressures ranging from the vacuum of space to over 6000 atmospheres
- Ten years without water
- Over 500 times the amount of radiation that could kill a human

That's a lot. These things are actually kind of scary if you think about it, but not without their fans. My friend even wrote a song about them.

They have also been verified to survive in the vacuum of space. Although they are not the only life forms tested against outer space, I find them fascinating. Not only do they lend credence to the ability of the life forms in Waking Mars to survive, dormant, in the harsh Martian environment for millenia, they also give weight to the idea of life spreading across the galaxy.

For years I've known about the panspermia theory, which posits that life can be spread through space from one planet to another, usually through meteor impacts. I've never really taken it seriously until I heard about these things.
Actually, I still don't take it all that seriously. The existence on earth of tardigrades certainly suggests that somewhere out there, life could exist that could survive outer space indefinitely, and migrate to another planet within a solar system, and perhaps over millions or billions of years, to another solar system. But that doesn't make it likely. Not that science fiction has to be about likelihood.

I think the best application of the panspermia theory is in the moon system of a gas giant within a star's habitable zone. I can definitely see life getting spread from moon to moon, leading to a system of multiple habitable moons with evolutionarily similar ecosystems.

Plus, you could scale up the water bear to macro-scale and have an excellent alien beast.

Run tiny human!

Ruminations on Fish

So I made an excursion to the science museum this week. In the room with the dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, I saw a display that commented on the similarity of fish from 200 million years ago to fish from the present day. The display posited that the form of the fish in the Paleozoic era must have worked really well, so there was little need to evolve. Natural selection preserved their form through the eons.

Pictured: Undina gulo. Not pictured: room for improvement.

They say "don't reinvent the wheel," but isn't the wheel one of the most reinvented things in human history? Metal wheels, plastic wheels, tires, tank treads, track-balls, those little swively wheels on shopping carts...
But the fact is the basic form remains constant in all those variations: a circle. Usually a disc, occasionally a sphere.
Maybe I've been going about this all wrong. I've often criticized the similarity of alien planets to Earth. Maybe there's more to it than I thought though. Trees, fish, bugs...perhaps those are so effective that those forms recur throughout the universe. The laws of physics are constant throughout creation, after all.

Perhaps I've just fallen victim to the pitfall of the Information Age: that constant need for novelty. Everything has to be unique to hold our interest. Everything has to leave an impact.

But never-ending novelty destroys novelty. Endless uniqueness, weirdness, it all blends together. Internet memes come and go so quickly the majority of people only learn about them after they've gone out of fashion.

So let's celebrate the mundane a little more from now on, and perhaps even the cliche. The desert planet, the ice planet, the alien fish, trees, etc.

Note: the blog will continue. This is not a farewell post. I simply have come to realize I may have been a little misguided when I set out. Now thanks to fish, I'm a little wiser.

So thank you, fish.

"You're welcome."