Long Futures and Type Iv Civilizations
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Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory
UCLA Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory Title SOCIALITY IN E. O. WILSON’S GENESIS: EXPANDING THE PAST, IMAGINING THE FUTURE Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7p343150 Journal Mathematical Anthropology and Cultural Theory, 14(1) ISSN 1544-5879 Author Denham, Woodrow W Publication Date 2019-10-01 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL VOLUME 14 NO. 1 OCTOBER 2019 SOCIALITY IN E. O. WILSON’S GENESIS: EXPANDING THE PAST, IMAGINING THE FUTURE. WOODROW W. DENHAM, Ph. D. RETIRED INDEPENDENT SCHOLAR [email protected] COPYRIGHT 2019 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY AUTHOR SUBMITTED: AUGUST 16, 2019 ACCEPTED: OCTOBER 1, 2019 MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL ISSN 1544-5879 DENHAM: SOCIALITY IN E. O. WILSON’S GENESIS WWW.MATHEMATICALANTHROPOLOGY.ORG MATHEMATICAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND CULTURAL THEORY: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL VOLUME 14, NO. 1 PAGE 1 OF 37 OCTOBER 2019 Sociality in E. O. Wilson’s Genesis: Expanding the Past, Imagining the Future. Woodrow W. Denham, Ph. D. Abstract. In this article, I critique Edward O. Wilson’s (2019) Genesis: The Deep Origin of Societies from a perspective provided by David Christian’s (2016) Big History. Genesis is a slender, narrowly focused recapitulation and summation of Wilson’s lifelong research on altruism, eusociality, the biological bases of kinship, and related aspects of sociality among insects and humans. Wilson considers it to be among the most important of his 35+ published books, one of which created the controversial discipline of sociobiology and two of which won Pulitzer Prizes. -
2007 February
ARTICLE .1 Macro-Perspectives beyond the World System Joseph Voros Swinburne University of Technology Australia Abstract This paper continues a discussion begun in an earlier article on nesting macro-social perspectives to also consider and explore macro-perspectives beyond the level of the current world system and what insights they might reveal for the future of humankind. Key words: Macrohistory, Human expansion into space, Extra-terrestrial civilisations Introduction This paper continues a train of thought begun in an earlier paper (Voros 2006) where an approach to macro-social analysis based on the idea of "nesting" social-analytical perspectives was described and demonstrated (the essence of which, for convenience, is briefly summarised here). In that paper, essential use was made of a typology of social-analytical perspectives proposed by Johan Galtung (1997b), who suggested that human systems could be viewed or studied at three main levels of analysis: the level of the individual person; the level of social systems; and the level of world systems. Distinctions can be made between different foci of study. The focus may be on the stages and causes of change through time (termed diachronic), or it could be at some specific point in time (termed synchronic). As well, the focus may be on a specific single case (termed idiographic), in contrast to seeking regularities, patterns, or generalised "laws" (termed nomo- thetic). In this way, there are four main types of perspectives found at any particular level of analy- sis. This conception is shown here in slightly adapted form in Table 1.1 Journal of Futures Studies, February 2007, 11(3): 1 - 28 Journal of Futures Studies Table 1: Three Levels of Social Analysis Source: Adapted from Galtung (1997b). -
Exotic Beasts
Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Beyond the Milky Way The first Swedish SETI project Erik Zackrisson Department of Astronomy Oskar Klein Centre Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) – A Brief History I • 1959 – Cocconi & Morrison (Nature): ”Try the hydrogen frequency (1.42 GHz)” • 1960 – Project Ozma • 1961 – Schwartz & Townes (Nature): ”Try optical laser” • 1977 – The Wow signal Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) – A Brief History II • 1984 – The SETI Institute • Late 1990s – Optical SETI becomes popular • 1999 – SETI@home • 2007 – Allen Telescope Array • 2012 – SETI Live The Fermi Paradox • No signals from E.T. despite 50 years of SETI • The Milky Way can be colonized in 1% of its current age – why are we not already colonized? • Where is everybody? 50+ possible solutions are known (e.g. Brin 1983, Webb 2002) A Few Possible Explanations • Everybody is staying at home and nobody is transmitting – Virtual worlds more exciting than space exploration? – Berserkers Transmission = Doom • Wrong search strategy – Try artefacts, Bracewell probes, IR laser, internet, DNA, Dyson spheres… • Intelligent life is extremely rare – Try extragalactic SETI Beyond the Milky Way • Carl Sagan: ”More stars in the Universe than grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth” • Stars in Milky Way 1011 • Stars in observable Universe 1023 Only a handful of extragalactic SETI projects carried out so far! Earth-like planets in a cosmological context I Millenium simulation + Semi-analytic galaxy models + Metallicity-dependent -
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TONY CZARNECKI POSTHUMANS - II Democracy For a Human Federation REFORMING DEMOCRACY FOR HUMANITY’S COEXISTENCE WITH SUPERINTELLIGENCE London, July 2020 Democracy for a Human Federation Reforming Democracy for Humanity’s Coexistence with Superintelligence © Tony Czarnecki 2020 The right of Tony Czarnecki to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This edition, July 2020 First published in 2019 by Sustensis ISBN: 9781689622332 London, July 2020 For any questions or comments please visit: http://www.sustensis.co.uk 2 For my grandson Leon 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS POSTHUMANS - II ................................................................................................................................ 1 FOREWORD TO POSTHUMANS SERIES ........................................................................................ 7 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................... 8 PART 1 A PERILOUS ROAD TOWARDS A HUMAN FEDERATION ........................................ 11 CHAPTER 1 HUMANITY AT A TURNING POINT ........................................................................ 12 WHAT MAKES US HUMAN? ................................................................................................................. 12 LIVING IN THE WORLD OF EXPONENTIAL CHANGE ............................................................................. 13 IS THIS THE END OF HISTORY? ........................................................................................................... -
New Idea for Dyson Sphere Proposed 30 March 2015, by Bob Yirka
New idea for Dyson sphere proposed 30 March 2015, by Bob Yirka that the massive amount of material needed to build such a sphere would be untenable, thus, a more likely scenario would be a civilization building a ring of energy capturing satellites which could be continually expanded. But the notion of the sphere persists and so some scientists continue to look for one, believing that if such a sphere were built, the process of capturing the energy from the interior sun would cause an unmistakable infrared signature, allowing us to notice its presence. But thus far, no such signatures have been found. That might be because we are alone in the universe, or, as Semiz and O?ur argue, it might be because we are looking at the wrong types of stars. They suggest that it would seem to make more sense for an advanced civilization to build their sphere around a white A Dyson Sphere with 1 AU radius in Sol system. Credit: dwarf, rather than a star that is in its main arXiv:1503.04376 [physics.pop-ph] sequence, such as our sun—not only would the sphere be smaller (they have even calculated an estimate for a sphere just one meter thick—1023 (Phys.org)—A pair of Turkish space scientists with kilograms of matter) but the gravity at its surface Bogazici University has proposed that researchers would be similar to their home planet (assuming it looking for the existence of Dyson spheres might were similar to ours). be looking at the wrong objects. ?brahim Semiz and Salim O?ur have written a paper and uploaded Unfortunately, if Semiz and O?ur are right, we may it to the preprint server arXiv, in which they suggest not be able to prove it for many years, as the that if an advanced civilization were to build a luminosity of a white dwarf is much less than other Dyson sphere, it would make the most sense to stars, making it extremely difficult to determine if build it around a white dwarf. -
Pyramid Volume 3 in These Issues (A Compilation of Tables of Contents and in This Issue Sections) Contents Name # Month Tools Of
Pyramid Volume 3 In These Issues (A compilation of tables of contents and In This Issue sections) Contents Name # Month Name # Month Tools of the Trade: Wizards 1 2008-11 Noir 42 2012-04 Looks Like a Job for… Superheroes 2 2008-12 Thaumatology III 43 2012-05 Venturing into the Badlands: Post- Alternate GURPS II 44 2012-06 3 2009-01 Apocalypse Monsters 45 2012-07 Magic on the Battlefield 4 2009-02 Weird Science 46 2012-08 Horror & Spies 5 2009-03 The Rogue's Life 47 2012-09 Space Colony Alpha 6 2009-04 Secret Magic 48 2012-10 Urban Fantasy [I] 7 2009-05 World-Hopping 49 2012-11 Cliffhangers 8 2009-06 Dungeon Fantasy II 50 2012-12 Space Opera 9 2009-07 Tech and Toys III 51 2013-01 Crime and Grime 10 2009-08 Low-Tech II 52 2013-02 Cinematic Locations 11 2009-09 Action [I] 53 2013-03 Tech and Toys [I] 12 2009-10 Social Engineering 54 2013-04 Thaumatology [I] 13 2009-11 Military Sci-Fi 55 2013-05 Martial Arts 14 2009-12 Prehistory 56 2013-06 Transhuman Space [I] 15 2010-01 Gunplay 57 2013-07 Historical Exploration 16 2010-02 Urban Fantasy II 58 2013-08 Modern Exploration 17 2010-03 Conspiracies 59 2013-09 Space Exploration 18 2010-04 Dungeon Fantasy III 60 2013-10 Tools of the Trade: Clerics 19 2010-05 Way of the Warrior 61 2013-11 Infinite Worlds [I] 20 2010-06 Transhuman Space II 62 2013-12 Cyberpunk 21 2010-07 Infinite Worlds II 63 2014-01 Banestorm 22 2010-08 Pirates and Swashbucklers 64 2014-02 Action Adventures 23 2010-09 Alternate GURPS III 65 2014-03 Bio-Tech 24 2010-10 The Laws of Magic 66 2014-04 Epic Magic 25 2010-11 Tools of the -
Astronomy 330 Classes Final Papers Final
Astronomy 330 Classes •! CHP allows $100 for informal get togethers. •! We are meeting Thursday to watch a movie and order some pizza. •! Still want Armageddon? Music: Space Race is Over – Billy Bragg Final Papers Final •! Final papers due on May 3rd. •! Take-home final –! At the beginning of class... •! Will email it out on the last class. •! You must turn final paper in with the graded •! Will consist of: rough draft. –! 2 large essays •! If you are happy with your rough draft grade as –! 2 short essays you final paper grade, then don’t worry about it. –! 5-8 short answers •! Due May 11th, hardcopy, by 5pm in my mailbox or office. Online ICES Outline •! What is the future for interstellar travel? •! ICES forms are available online. •! Fermi’s Paradox– Where are they? •! I appreciate you filling them out! –! In addition to campus honors thingy •! Please make sure to leave written comments. I find these comments the most useful, and typically that’s where I make the most changes to the course. Drake Equation Warp Drives Frank That’s 22,181 advanced civs!!! Drake •! Again, science fiction is influencing science. •! Due to great distance between the stars and the speed limit of c, sci-fi had to resort to “Warp Drive” that allows faster-than-light speeds. N = R* ! fp ! ne ! fl ! fi ! fc ! L •! Currently, this is impossible. # of # of •! It is speculation that requires a Star Fraction Fraction advanced Earthlike Fraction Fraction Lifetime of formation of stars that revolution in physics civilizations planets on which that evolve advanced rate with commun- we can per life arises intelligence civilizations –! It is science fiction! planets icate contact in system •! But, we have been surprised our Galaxy 6 before… today 15 0.65 1.3 x 0.1 0.125 0.175 .8 1x10 •! Unfortunately new physics usually = 0.13 intel./ comm./ yrs/ http://www.filmjerk.com/images/warp.gif stars/ systems/ life/ adds constraints not removes them. -
Location: NT-13 “Lamprey” Dyson Sphere Station (Incomplete), Edge of Terran Protectorate Shift Timestamp: 01:58 February, 30
Location: NT-13 “Lamprey” Dyson Sphere Station (Incomplete), Edge of Terran Protectorate Shift Timestamp: 01:58 February, 30, 2560 ‘The amazing part is,’ a voice in my head spoke up as I slipped through yet another set of maintenance shafts and corridors that looked exactly the same as the last ones I’d just ducked out of, ‘the whole power grid is still working.’ I nodded at that, and got back to work slapping wall mounted Security flashers onto the walls, outright using some Clown’s SUPER Glue to get the job done in as short a time as I could. It didn’t stop the robots from using the damn places, but at least it kept the more biological threats from trying their hands at rooting me out personally. Waking up in this life had been not good. … Azure ‘starlight’ seeps like syrup though cracks in the glass ceiling, through which a massive sapphire blue ‘star’ could easily be observed from the viens the station that were the maintenance halls. The floor shudders in time with the churning of machinery somewhere far beneath my feet. The air, if I were to pull off my hermetically sealed helmet off for a moment, has the strange tang of unknown chemicals and over-processed air that speaks of any space station, but the undertones of copper and something wholly unpleasant, something like rot and excrement and worse, are unique to this place. I stopped as a door opened in the distance and without even thinking I unholstered the gun from my chest sling. -
Galactic-Scale Macro-Engineering: Looking for Signs of Other Intelligent Species, As an Exercise in Hope for Our Own
Galactic-scale macro-engineering: Looking for signs of other intelligent species, as an exercise in hope for our own * Joseph Voros Senior Lecturer in Strategic Foresight Faculty of Business & Law, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia Abstract If we consider Big History as simply ‘our’ example of the process of cosmic evolution playing out, then we can seek to broaden our view of our possible fate as a species by asking questions about what paths or trajectories other species’ own versions of Big History might take or have taken. This paper explores the broad outlines of possible scenarios for the evolution of long-lived intelligent engineering species—scenarios which might have been part of another species’ own Big History story, or which may yet lie ahead in our own distant future. A sufficiently long-lived engineering-oriented species may decide to undertake a program of macro-engineering projects that might eventually lead to a re-engineered galaxy so altered that its artificiality may be detectable from Earth. We consider activities that lead ultimately to a galactic structure consisting of a central inner core surrounded by a more distant ring of stars separated by a relatively sparser ‘gap’, where star systems and stellar materials may have been removed, ‘lifted’ or turned into Dyson Spheres. When one looks to the sky, one finds that such galaxies do indeed exist—including the beautiful ringed galaxy known as ‘Hoag’s Object’ (PGC 54559) in the constellation Serpens. This leads us to pose the question: Is Hoag’s Object an example of galaxy-scale macro-engineering? And this suggests a program of possible observational activities and theoretical explorations, several of which are presented here, that could be carried out in order to begin to investigate this beguiling question. -
Dyson Spheres Around White Dwarfs Arxiv:1503.04376V1 [Physics.Pop-Ph] 15 Mar 2015
Dyson Spheres around White Dwarfs Ibrahim_ Semiz∗ and Salim O˘gury Bo˘gazi¸ciUniversity, Department of Physics Bebek, Istanbul,_ TURKEY Abstract A Dyson Sphere is a hypothetical structure that an advanced civ- ilization might build around a star to intercept all of the star's light for its energy needs. One usually thinks of it as a spherical shell about one astronomical unit (AU) in radius, and surrounding a more or less Sun-like star; and might be detectable as an infrared point source. We point out that Dyson Spheres could also be built around white dwarfs. This type would avoid the need for artificial gravity technol- ogy, in contrast to the AU-scale Dyson Spheres. In fact, we show that parameters can be found to build Dyson Spheres suitable {temperature- and gravity-wise{ for human habitation. This type would be much harder to detect. 1 Introduction The "Dyson Sphere" [1] concept is well-known in discussions of possible in- telligent life in the universe, and has even infiltrated popular culture to some extent, including being prominently featured in a Star Trek episode [2]. In its simplest version, it is a spherical shell that totally surrounds a star to intercept all of the star's light. If a Dyson Sphere (from here on, sometimes \Sphere", sometimes DS) was built around the Sun, e.g. with same radius (1 AU) as Earth's orbit (Fig. 1), it would receive all the power of the Sun, 3:8 × 1026 W, in contrast to the power intercepted by Earth, 1:7 × 1017 W. -
The Types of Natural Resources on Terrestrial Planets And
OPEN ACCESS Freely available online Jounal of Astrobiology &Outreach Review Article The Types of Natural Resources on Terrestrial Planets and Extraterrestrial Civilizations * Hadi Veysi Department of Agroecology, University of Shahid Beheshti, Tehran, Iran ABSTRACT In addition to energy resources, natural resources such as metals, metalloids, non-metals, hydrocarbons, etc. are among the elements needed for the creation of a civilization. One of the important debates about intelligent life is to know how extraterrestrial civilizations provide the energy and natural resources needed for their development. Previous studies have not discussed much about the ways which intelligent civilizations can access their energy and natural resources. This study discussed the types of natural resources on terrestrial planets and the types of extraterrestrial civilizations that could use them. The results showed that the type of natural resources in terrestrial planets depends on the amount of liquid water, crust lithology, tectonics style, and the presence of microorganisms on the surface of these planets. Among all types of terrestrial planets, plate tectonics style silicate planets have the most complete natural resources. So these planets can be good targets for the natural resources supply of hominid and superhuman extraterrestrial civilizations. Other terrestrial planets such as carbon planets, coreless planets, iron planets, moons and icy dwarf planets, and even gaseous giant planets, although not be civilizable, but have large natural resources that can be used by superhuman civilizations. Keywords: Kardashev scale; Terrestrial planets; Natural resources ABBREVIATION elements, hydrocarbons, etc. to the manufacturing of tools and machines. These resources are found abundantly in terrestrial Li: Lithium, Be: Beryllium, Na: Sodium, Mg: Magnesium, planets, and natural resources very easier extracted from terrestrial Al: Aluminium, K: Potassium, Ca: Calcium, Sc: Scandium, planets than the other cosmic bodies, such as the stars. -
A Brief Discussion from the Epistemological, Religious and Societal Dimension
International Journal of Astrobioethics: a brief discussion from Astrobiology the epistemological, religious and cambridge.org/ija societal dimension Octavio A. Chon-Torres1 Research Article Programa de Estudios Generales, Universidad de Lima, Lima, Peru Cite this article: Chon-Torres OA (2019). Astrobioethics: a brief discussion from Abstract the epistemological, religious and As astrobiology progresses in its quest to discover life on other planets or to put ourselves in societal dimension. International Journal of another one, so does its moral problematic. Astrobiology is not only part of natural sciences, Astrobiology 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S147355041900017X but also deals with direct aspects of humanities. For this reason, this paper aims to briefly examine astrobioethics from the epistemological, religious and societal dimension. It also Received: 31 January 2019 deals with different researches in this regard, in order to better understand the state of the Revised: 24 June 2019 art on this topic and that astrobioethics can help us not only on how we should relate with Accepted: 25 June 2019 extraterrestrial lifeforms, but even with terrestrials. Key words: Astrobiocentrism; astrobioethics; astrobiology; transdisciplinarity Astrobioethics is the discipline inside astrobiology that studies not only the morality of all activities related to the presence of life on other worlds, but also studies our attitude towards Author for correspondence: the expansion of terrestrial life in the Universe. The discipline that focuses on moral problems Octavio A. Chon-Torres, E-mail: ochon@ulima. edu.pe is ethics; however, as ethics is not an exact science but rather a branch of philosophy, its prob- lematic nature makes its content always updated according to the social context in which it operates.