December 15, 2017: Today's links to headline stories from around the world on the threats, opportunities, and dangers facing our fragile planet --along with an occasional dash of humor, popular culture, and an intriguing conspiracy theory or two. Coverage includes the Alien Life We Discover Will be Machines, Hunter Gathers of the American West, China Will Save the World from Catastrophic Climate Change , Other Pale Blue Dots, The Digital Republic of Estonia, Three Theories on the Origin of Our Interstellar Visitor, NASA to Survey Unexplored Stretch of Antarctica, Funniest Animal Photos of 2017.
If life off Earth exists it has probably transitioned to machine intelligence. This September, a team of astronomers noticed that the light from a distant star is flickering in a highly irregular pattern.1 They considered the possibility that comets, debris, and impacts could account for their observations, but each of these explanations was unlikely to varying degrees.2 What their paper didn’t explore, but they and others are beginning to speculate, is that the flickering might be caused by enormous structures built by an advanced civilization—whether the light might be evidence of ET.
In thinking about this possibility, or other similarly suggestive evidence of extraterrestrial life, an image of an alien creature might come to mind—something green, perhaps, or with tentacles or eye stalks. But in this we are probably mistaken. I would argue that any positive identification of ET will very likely not originate from organic or biological life (as Paul Davies has also argued), but from machines.
Few doubt that machines will gradually surpass more and more of our distinctively human capabilities—or enhance them via cyborg technology. Disagreements are basically about the timescale: the rate of travel, not the direction of travel. The cautious amongst us envisage timescales of centuries rather than decades for these transformations. Be that as it may, the timescales for technological advance are but an instant compared to the timescales of the Darwinian selection that led to humanity’s emergence—and (more relevantly) they are less than a millionth of the vast expanses of time lying ahead. So the outcomes of future technological evolution will surpass humans by as much as we (intellectually) surpass a bug.
Non-biological “brains” may develop insights as far beyond our imaginings as string theory is for a mouse.
There aren't enough rules governing military behavior in the upper atmosphere.
One hundred miles above the Earth’s surface, orbiting the planet at thousands of miles per hour, the six people aboard the International Space Station enjoy a perfect isolation from the chaos of earthly conflict. Outer space has never been a military battleground. But that may not last forever. The debate in Congress over whether to create a Space Corps comes at a time when governments around the world are engaged in a bigger international struggle over how militaries should operate in space. Fundamental changes are already underway. No longer confined to the fiction shelf, space warfare is likely on the horizon.
While agreements for how to operate in other international domains, like the open sea, airspace, and even cyberspace, have already been established, the major space powers—the United States, Russia, and China—have not agreed upon a rulebook outlining what constitutes bad behavior in space. It’s presumed that International Humanitarian Law would apply in outer space—protecting the civilian astronauts aboard the International Space Station—but it’s unclear whether damaging civilian satellites or the space environment itself is covered under the agreement. With only a limited history of dangerous behavior to study, and few, outdated guidelines in place, a war in space would be a war with potentially more consequences, but far fewer rules, than one on Earth.
From smog-choked cities to sludge-filled rivers, stories about China’s environment in recent years have painted a bleak picture. But China is not the first country to put economic development above protecting the environment. All of today’s wealthy countries, including the UK during the industrial revolution and the US after World War II, got rich doing the same.
What’s different about China is the pace of development, the scale of its impact, and the timing. Never in human history have so many people been pulled out of poverty so quickly. China’s unprecedented development, which has relied on fossil fuels to the point that the country is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, comes at a crucial time for the world. If we don’t reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to zero by 2060, we’ll be staring down the gun at climate menaces humans have not faced in our time on the planet.
The good news is that, unlike the US, the world’s second-biggest emitter, China appears truly committed to climate action. The country has pledged to hit peak emissions by 2030, and to ensure emissions fall rapidly after that.
Our own oasis of life in the cosmos is blue, but will others be?
At a distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun, on an otherwise ordinary February day in 1990, the Voyager 1 probe turned to point its camera platform away from its headlong rush into the cosmic void. A narrow-angle optic switched on and snapped a sequence of brief shots.
One of the sensor’s tiny pixels, spanning about the length of a dozen bacteria lined up end to end, registered an increased charge. There, among the sun’s lens flare, diffracted light, and electronic noise, sat an extra point of light. It was the smallest of small blips, an inconsequential mote in the emptiness of space, and it had a pale blue hue.
This mote was us, our world, Earth—a shockingly abrupt summation of 4 billion years of complex and chaotic history. The image taken that day was the ultimate selfless selfie. It provided an existential perspective that is unique among the species on our planet: Only we humans have seen ourselves from billions of miles away. Carl Sagan would later immortalize the image with the title, the “Pale Blue Dot.”
The Pale Blue Dot was the latest in a long history of association of the color blue with our home in the universe, and with life itself. Two decades before Voyager, as Apollo 8 circled the moon, astronauts recorded the now-famous “Earthrise”—a stunning color photograph of a bright blue-white hemisphere suspended above a gray lunar landscape. Four years later, the Apollo 17 mission captured a beguiling whole-Earth image that became “The Blue Marble.”
Its government is virtual, borderless, blockchained, and secure. Has this tiny post-Soviet nation found the way of the future? The Estonian government is so eager to take on big problems that many ambitious techies leave the private sector to join it.
The future of human sex may not be with humans at all. Sex robot technology is advancing at such a rate that experts believe human companions may become obsolete by 2050.
Innovations in the robotics industry are pushing us closer and closer to robotic sex that can compare to or even surpass sex with humans. Tech companies such as Arlan Robotics and Abyss Creations have already invented technology that attempts to bridge the gap between human and robot sex. A combination of realistic rubber flesh (known as Frubber) and advancements in artificial intelligence are making this sci-fi concept a reality. It doesn’t stop there, though. Other technology includes fellatio-specialized droids, synchronized orgasms, self-warming genitals, auto-lubricating vaginas… what CAN’T they do?
Currently, sex robots won’t fit in most of our budgets. Roxxxy, a fully-functioning sex robot on the market, is currently listed at $9,995. However, futurist Ian Pearson believes that by 2050, half of the world’s population will have reasonable access to a robot companion. Until then, we always have dreams of West World.
Earlier this year, astronomers at the Pan-STARRS observatory in Hawaii detected a planetary object that had come from outside the solar system for the first time. The October 19 discovery came after the object had already made its closest approach to Earth five days before. Astronomers around the world turned our most advanced telescopes toward the object, only approximately 400 meters long and perhaps 40 meters wide, and confirmed that it is without a doubt on a trajectory that will take it back out into interstellar space.
Originally thought to be a comet, the object revealed characteristics that are more similar to an asteroid—more rock and less ice. It was given a new designation, 1I, for the first interstellar object ever discovered then was named `Oumuamua, a Hawaiian word that translates to "messenger" or "scout."
Astronomers have managed to learn a lot about Oumuamua, an elongated tumbling asteroid of rock and perhaps metal that was likely involved in a significant collision at some point that sent it spinning. But where it came from is still a mystery. A new paper titled, "The origin of interstellar asteroidal objects like 1I/2017 U1," which is still under review, takes a look at three possible origins forOumuamua. In the video below, the wonderful PBS YouTube series Space Time takes a look at the three theories.