On Stephen Hawking's Xenophobia

By now, everybody's probly tired of all this Hawking's xenophobia reverberating across the web and twittercosm. What Hawking said must've been brilliant. Its got the elements of good news and bad news and everything in between. Kinda like good cop, bad cop. He's both right and wrong and fuzzy so it got the buzz. I am glad he's getting in on the topic, except he got everybody thinking and chattering about xenocidal stuff.
Just for fun, let me join the blabbing fray.
I'll start with Hawking's fear that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on. You see, there's so many planets out there. Billions of exoplanets, dammit! And earth's resources are almost sucked up by humans already. So implying that Aliens will kill us all to get the resources of our planet (or solar system) is a major fail.
But then again, the reasons that Aliens will kill us all depends on a lot of reasons. Or perhaps they won't kill us in the "kill" sense of the word. The prospect of merging or being usurped by an alien culture is a long and fuzzy romance.
But a major aspect, I think, is that it all depends on the timing. It has a bearing on how advanced the alien race is, and how advanced--or retarded we are--at the time of contact. For example, thousands of years from now, if by some lucky fluke, we somehow reach Kardashev Type 2 and the aliens are Type 3, they might consider us a threat to them, and vice-versa. War would ensue. But if the technological level is too far apart, as in our state right now (Type 0) versus their Type 3, then they might just leave us alone. If they suddenly arrive right now, I think our civilization would make a curious subject for highly-advanced galactic scholars and scientists. Or depending on their personalities, values and morals, they might just bet for fun and game about whether we'll destroy ourselves on our own.
It also depends on how cute we are. You see, it may also depend upon planetary affinity. If these advanced aliens evolved from an Earth-like world, then they might just find some kind of common ground with us. Perhaps deep within their "telluric" roots (as previous dwellers of a rocky planet), they might find us cute. That is, if the history of their planetary origin is still in their characteristics (or culture) even if they already evolved a space-faring biology. But if they evolved from an entirely different type of planet (for example a slushy dense planet) then they might find us revolting. The kind of response it would elicit from them might be similar to the disparity between one's reactions upon touching a cockroach or a puppy--splat or pat.
The parameters are so many, that we might as well create a Drake-like equation for xenosociological encounters. The aliens might destroy us, or they might not. Anything could happen. Or not happen. We do not know.
Perhaps the final verdict will depend on the quality of our existence and the footprints we leave in the Cosmos. There's plenty of reasons for us to remain quiet, as Hawking suggests. But its already too late. We've already sent signals and blown our cover. For example, our decades-old broadcasts are already speeding outwards to other stars (see the chart below). And our fate may entirely depend upon which of our TV programs they happen to see. Folks from Aldebaran might immediately obliterate us upon seeing our footages of World War II. While Mu Araens might simply enjoy our twilight zone episodes and leave us alone for a little while.

Avatar. I See You.

Avatar has a lot of heart and soul. This movie will make you cycle through the full range of human emotions. It will surprise you, delight you, it will make you laugh and cry and go mad.

The poignant storyline has successfully appealed to our deepest essence as a sentient being, as a tribe and as a civilization. Indeed, it has allowed us to see ourselves within a simple story, with that familiar pattern of discovery, conquest, colonization and exploitation which has occurred countless times on the islands of our planet since humanity began--and that which will probably occur in the outer reaches of space, on fertile new worlds yet to be known.

I am delighted by the rich set of planetary values, environmental virtues, spiritual awareness, and respect for life that is taught within a simple tale set on Pandora--an exomoon orbiting a gas giant in a distant exoplanetary system.

Pandora is home to a variety of life that includes the Na'vi, the dominant species. One can see that painstaking detail was crafted into Pandora and all its local inhabitants. In terms of the Art and Science of that world, the Aesthetics is a pure win. How about the Science? Did the filmmakers consult a planetary scientist or an astrobiologist during their brainstorming sessions? To begin with, i see it proper that the atmosphere on Pandora is toxic to humans--thus the need for the Avatar on a Xenosociological mission to learn more about the Na'vi culture. In reality, an atmosphere that is inhospitable to us would likely be the case even for "earth-like" worlds that we may discover in the future.

Although I admire the breathtaking sceneries on Pandora, what distracted me was the concept of the floating mountains which in my opinion, is quite odd with respect to the geological or chemical properties of Pandora. I don't think it's possible with the known laws of physics in that setting. Correct me if i'm wrong but making rocks levitate has something to do only with powerful magnets and ultracool superconductors.

As for the lifeforms on Pandora, i like them enough to want to see more variety. Only a handful were depicted when there should have been more (even as extras) within the ecosystem as rich as a jungle depicted in the film. I quite didn't notice any insect-like creatures which, based on my bias--should be one of the most numerous type of animals on any inhabited planet. Also, the extra pair of legs on their "horses" don't offer any advantage so i tend to question the evolutionary idea behind it. The animals look like plastic at times but it's all trivial, so that's alright, the design team made up by sporting a lot of Bioluminescence--of which i'm a big fan, in their flora and fauna.

Convergent Evolution may allow cat-like humanoid creatures such as the Na'vi. So I dont mind having thundercat creatures on exomoons. And yes, i know it's a cliche but I am happy about the references to an emergent organism--that of the trees linked to each other to make a global consciousness.

The last one of my observations is about the concept of the Avatar itself. The Na'vi avatar is a fully functioning biological creature with a brain capable of cognitive abilities. It would be possible for it to attain its own set of consciousness. What if it starts to dream in it's sleep? Many existential or ethical questions then arises if the avatar wakes up unlinked to Jake. Perhaps the sequel would answer that!

These blue avatars are way advanced compared to the robotic probes that we currently use to explore other planets. Yes, Spirit, Opportunity and even New Horizons are our Avatars, believe it or not. And the longstanding problem is the lagtime of the signal throttling back and forth the controller and the probe. Perhaps taming Quantum Entanglement is only possible with a scifi movie such as this. One can only hope. A real-time quantum link would indeed open up tremendous possibilities for space exploration.

Avatar's impact is strong. To me, the personal inspiration it gives is simple yet direct: With one chance at Life, what do you do with your body--your one and only Avatar?

On a global scale, I see this film as a major achievement because it opens up the idea of distant worlds to the general population at a perfect moment when science is on a hot trail of planetary discoveries, and at the fringes of discovering the first truly earth-like world. The recent discoveries of super-earths punctuated by a waterworld called GJ 1214 b somehow collaborated to launch this immersive film. The timing is all so perfect.

James Cameron's film has lived up to my expectations when I wrote about it nine months ago. And yes, the film-makers did actually consider habitable exomoons! Avatar is truly an epic Exoplanetology film. Do not leave Earth without watching this movie.

District 9: Prawns from a Planet with Seven Moons

The young little prawn is endearing. The scene where he was curiously studying about his home planet is my favorite. Learning that they come from an exoplanet with se7en moons make me a happy camper, too. I would love to hang out with that cute little prawn and learn more about their planet which I speculate is earth-like in many respects. The temperature, atmosphere, terrain and gravity of their home world must be quite similar to Earth's, otherwise the prawns would not survive here if their planetary characteristics were any different.
District 9 is like a comic book, more enjoyable when viewed as such. Many loopholes in the plot are over-ruled by great cinematography. I'm only nagged by a single question of why the humans treated the aliens unintelligently. One would have naturally dealt with these prawns in a civilized way, as one would treat any visitor. Nevertheless, the movie gives homage to the directing prowess of Neill Blomkamp.
The movie will prove to be a great discussion for Xenosociology, the study of Alien Cultures and their social behaviours. It gets steamy when they interact with Humans in a complex setting (apartheid) where the dark elements of the human psyche is displayed. The aliens themselves are reduced to high-tech scavenger bugs.
It makes one think whether an Advanced Technological Civilization would make a race "civilized" at all. However, the drama that ensues manages to reveal the virtues common to both species.
District 9 is a neat little package that gives the freedom to draw one's own metaphors from. It is a great Sci-Fi movie that will reverberate in our culture for quite a while.

Rhythm of Life

If anyone ever noticed the dynamic nature of our universe, one would not miss the property of rhythm embedded within the cosmic infrastructure.
The most obvious is the day and night cycle. Everyone knows it is a result of earth's rotation. Everything seems to be spinning, revolving, rotating -- galaxies, stars, planets and moons.
Now how does this relate to life?
Beginning with yourself, o mortal being, your whole life and consciousness rests upon rhythm and cycle. Your mind and body would not even survive without sleep for more than a week, er maybe a month for some.
The effect of "spin" naturally ripples all the way to the metabolism and physiology of any lifeform that manages to evolve within a "spinning" system.
Lets take a look at how rhythm affects all life on earth: The sleep cycle of every animal on earth is a natural outcome of the day and night caused by a spinning earth. Hibernation is caused by the seasons, a result of earth's tilted axis of rotation. Still other biological processes such as metamorphosis, bird migrations, and mating seasons (everybody's favorite) can be attributed to planetary characteristics of orbit and rotation.
There is no doubt, rhythm is embedded in the cosmos, and ultimately within life itself. Rhythm is one of the properties of life that is seldom mentioned, and yet is one of the primal screams of life itself.
Wherever life exists, on earth, in other planets of other suns, we can be sure that it is definitely ruled by rhythm as well.
Hinging on the fact that most exoplanets discovered so far have elliptical orbits, and speculating upon those whose orbits at least intersect the relative habitable zone, we can expect organisms that develop on that planet to adapt to the cycle of extreme weather patterns and seasons. It will "learn" to "hibernate" during a freezing season when its planet is farthest from its star, and "wake up" when its planet comes closer to its sun.
That was just an example, perhaps a little extreme to illustrate a point--but we can be sure of countless ways on how rhythm may be implemented in an almost infinite number of planets in the universe, each with it's own unique combinations of orbit, rotation, axis tilt, and so on.
And along with those planetary properties, comes the dizzying variety of how the resulting rhythm and cycle affects the development of life on those planets. We can expect those alien lifeforms to have a fair share of the similar rhythmic cycles we know of, such as sleep, hibernation, menstruation, migrations, metamorphoses and other forms of cyclical rhythms that are common to all forms of life.
The diversity of cosmic life, based solely on planet-induced rhythms could be quite unlike anything we've ever imagined, yet on the other hand -- they might behave quite similarly in some way or another, due to the universal rhythm of life.