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Scientific Thought As a Planetary Phenomenon

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Scientific Thought As a Planetary Phenomenon 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY SPRING-SUMMER 2012 www.21stcenturysciencetech.com $10.00 Scientific Thought as A Planetary Phenomenon Vernadsky ‘The Transition from the Biosphere to the Noösphere’ ‘The Evolution of Species and Living Matter’ 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Vol. 25, Nos. 1, 2 Spring-Summer 2012 Features News GREAT PROJECTS 76 NAWAPA XXI Update INTERVIEW: BRYAN KARNEY 10 The Transition From the Biosphere to the Noösphere 77 NAWAPA: A Bold, Fascinating Vladimir I. Vernadsky Program that Deserves With introduction by translator Bill Jones Consideration! 32 Evolution of Species and Living Matter 82 Three Gorges Dam Proves Its Worth Vladimir I. Vernadsky Translated by Meghan Rouillard SPACE IN MEMORIAM 45 Are Nuclear Processes in Biology Unique? 87 Neil Armstrong: 1930-2012 Ernest Schapiro, MD The Mission and the Man 88 Curiosity Will Open a New 56 ON MIND Chapter in Understanding Mars Shawna Halevy Marsha Freeman 92 Shuttle Opened the Next Space 56 Thinking Without Words Frontier 60 Thinking the Unseen Marsha Freeman BIOLOGY SATIRE 98 The God Particle Cambrian Cannibals 67 (The Secret in the Rabbit Hole) Agnostid Trilobites and the Earliest Known Case of Frederick Harris Arthropod Cannibalism Mark McMenamin, Ph.D. Departments 72 Evolution and Organismic Communication EDITORIAL Jason Ross 2 Scales of Space and Time Jason Ross 5 NEWS BRIEFS VIEWPOINT 7 On Wonder Shawna Halevy BOOKS 94 War Against the Weak, America’s Campaign To Create A Master Race by Edwin Black 97 The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit And Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch On the Cover: Curiosity studying the Martian regolith. Image: NASA. Cover design by Alan Yue EDITORIAL 21st CENTURY SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITORIAL STAFF The Soul of Science Editor-in-Chief Jason Ross by Jason Ross Managing Editor oday, science stands at a cross- creasing independence from the sur- Marsha Freeman Troads. Technological improve- rounding environment, including the Associate Editors ments continue, to a certain degree, move to land and more extreme cli- Elijah C. Boyd but something is missing at the core. matic conditions, life has been on a David Cherry Just as we see a complete lack of po- march upwards. Towards what end do Christine Craig Liona Fan-Chiang litical direction, of a future towards these different stages strive? Colin M. Lowry which we are moving, in the United If we compare these evolutionary Peter Martinson States, so too is there a certain some- stages with the platforms of Man’s men- Gregory B. Murphy thing missing in science. The question tal and spiritual development, a similar, Richard Sanders confronting us isn’t one typically con- inescapable observation emerges: our Charles B. Stevens sidered to be scientific, in the sense of relationship to the rest of nature has Art Directors regarding the empirical world outside not remained fixed, but shows a series Aaron Halevy us. There simply is no distinction to be of developments which, in a purely bi- Alan Yue made between the mind and the world ological context, would be understood Advertising Manager beyond that it understands and acts as developments of new forms of life. Marsha Freeman on. That is, it were an error to believe We grew from using the power of our SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD that the world outside obeys determin- muscles, to that of animals drafted into Francesco Celani, Ph.D. istic natural laws which themselves our service, to the use of wind and Hugh W. Ellsaesser, Ph.D. have no requirements for existing be- flowing water to power machinery. Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Wolfgang Lillge, M.D. sides internal consistency, excluding Fire, a basic phenomenon of nature, Ramtanu Maitra the requirement of purposefulness (or became a tool for our species alone, Thomas E. Phipps, Jr., Ph.D. intention) that we apply to human and continues to be re-invented in ideas. Mind itself is excluded from sci- higher forms: The fire of wood was out- 21st Century Science & Technology ence! Such an approach to the physi- matched by that of charcoal, then that (ISSN 0895-6820) is published 4 times a year by 21st Century Science Associates, cal world leads to the twin problems of of coal and coke, as well as petroleum, 60 Sycolin Road, Suite 203, Leesburg, Va. a belief in the existence of an empty and the “fire” of the sub-atomic—the 20175. Tel. (703) 777-6943. (or topologically flat) space, and of the power of fission, fusion, and even mat- Address all correspondence to 21st self-evidence of particles with self-de- ter-antimatter reactions. The biosphere Century, P.O. Box 16285, Washington, D.C. 20041. termined principles of interaction, itself is increasingly controlled, with 21st Century is dedicated to the promotion upon which larger phenomena are un- plants developed to greater usefulness of unending scientific progress, all directed derstood. We explore: and caloric-density, irrigation channels to serve the proper common aims of Examine biological evolution: at built to irrigate land further from rivers, mankind. each major stage in the development and, more recently, massive dams that Opinions expressed in articles are not necessarily those of 21st Century Science of life, the current biosphere acted shift and control great volumes of wa- Associates or the scientific advisory board. very much as a system in itself, open ter, as well as microbes which are in- We are not responsible for unsolicited to the incoming radiation from the creasingly used as specific tools. manuscripts. sun, but a complete system of activity These developments have dramati- www.21stcenturysciencetech.com in itself. Yet, when approached not cally re-shaped the life of the human Electronic subscriptions are $35 for 4 issues, $60 for 8 issues, and $80 for 12 issues. from the timeframe of individual or- species. But, more importantly, the Back issues (1988-2005) are $10 each ($20 ganisms, but rather from evolutionary unique ability that makes these unique- foreign). Electronic issues from 2006 on are time, we see not a system approaching ly human endeavors possible—insight $10 each. Payments must be in U.S. currency. a point of equilibrium, but one which into the mind—has itself seen a great © 2012 continually reaches to higher states of development, as an increasingly pow- 21st Century Science Associates equilibrium. By such measures as en- erful force of nature in its own right. ergy-density, the rate of biogenic flow Unlike the evolution of the biosphere, of atoms, cephalization, and the in- however, human beings, endowed 2 Spring-Summer 2012 21st CENTURY with free will, are able to decide not to that later thinkers would come to con- the then-general approach of science, advance. In this brief historical over- sider physics as surpassing mathemat- of fitting hypotheses to data inductive- view, we will watch the activity both of ics. From the simple point of Cusa’s ly, was doomed to fail. This he showed those who advanced human thought, that no motion could be so perfectly in the motion of Mars, whose orbit de- and those who held it back. circular as not to be susceptible of be- fied explanation by the methods of his The search for a grand unified theo- ing yet more circular, he adduces the predecessors: looked at from one ry stretches back millennia, but it is a conclusion that the motion of the stars standpoint, one set of model parame- quest which can never be completed. and planets cannot be circular, with ters matched the orbit, but, from an- Contrast the sense of completeness of the startling conclusion that circularity other viewpoint, a different set of pa- Plato and Aristotle, as evident not itself cannot be a cause of motion. If rameters best fit. Kepler brought these only in their explicitly scientific geometry itself cannot measure (or opposing viewpoints into coinci- works, but by their means of commu- cause) physical motions, what can? dence, by stepping on the head of nication as well. Plato’s God does Thus begins modern science. mathematics to climb to the realm of have a single composition of creation, With the new thoughts and discov- physics, of true causes. His develop- but it need not be one that is com- eries of the Renaissance, as exempli- ment of the elliptical orbits based on a pletely comprehensible by Man. In fied by such as Leonardo da Vinci, it universal physical cause, and his dis- his dialogues, Plato’s Socrates comes became impossible to maintain Aris- covery, in his Harmonice Mundi of the to many more questions than conclu- totle as an authority, since his conclu- unified intention behind the various sions, and frequently makes the over- sions about the natural world were eccentrities and orbital radii of the turning of false conclusions itself the seen to be so very wrong. The imperial planets, put the human mind in the intention of his discussions – as seen enemies of human thought, seeking to center of science; to qualify as a phys- in, notably, his Gorgias and Alcibia- continue to maintain a general control ical cause, a concept needed an inner des. In contrast, the didactic style of over people, and, naturally, needing a necessity. In Kepler’s words, a concept Aristotle created a system in which he means of controlling their method of would have to answer the question: was seen as an authority not of think- thinking, introduced a new concept, “Why is it so, rather than otherwise?” ing, but rather of conclusions. Such a that of Sarpian empiricism. Under this And such a concept would have to be kind of authority means the end of sci- outlook, the specific conclusions of a successful discovery—a resolution ence as a developing system, and in- Aristotle could be rejected, but a new of an impossibility—a new thought! deed, the pace of discoveries under sort of prison of the mind would be in- We will not enter here into the do- the hegemony of Aristotelianism was troduced.
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