{"id":82728,"date":"2020-02-08T14:55:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-08T21:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=82728"},"modified":"2020-02-08T15:20:08","modified_gmt":"2020-02-08T22:20:08","slug":"current-american-politics-explained-and-other-scientific-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/02\/current-american-politics-explained-and-other-scientific-news.html","title":{"rendered":"Current American politics explained, and other scientific news"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"M32,<\/a>
Messier 32, a prototypical compact elliptical galaxy in the neighborhood of Andromeda
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a remarkable little essay by the Dutch computer scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup<\/a> that merits some serious pondering:<\/p>\n

\u201cConsciousness Cannot Have Evolved:\u00a0The sooner we acknowledge it, the sooner we\u2019ll solve the hard problem of consciousness\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And here\u2019s another provocative essay by Manuel Berdoy<\/a>, of the Division of Medical Sciences at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom:<\/p>\n

\u201cHave Humans Evolved Beyond Nature?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This brief article provides a very interesting opportunity for introspection:<\/p>\n

\u201cNeurodiversity and Inner Voice\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think all to yourself (not engaging with others) do you hear an inner voice, do you conjure images, or do you just have abstract feelings?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m afraid that I have disappointing news for some of my harsher critics: \u00a0Despite the initial excitement that they may understandably have felt, there is still<\/em> no evidence that the inhabitants of their home planet are trying to contact them:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first fast radio burst known to have a steady beat:\u00a0A blast of radio waves from deep space appears to be on a 16-day cycle\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happily, though, there may now be a scientific explanation for some recent political news. \u00a0Perhaps this will prove the first step toward an effective vaccine:<\/p>\n

\u201cRoving band of herpes-ridden monkeys now roaming northeast Florida\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Andromeda<\/a>
The Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest galactic neighbor \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I close with a passage that I\u2019ve extracted for my notes and for future use from Richard Panek, The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality<\/em> (Boston and New York: Mariner Books, 2011):<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWithin a galaxy, everything moves,\u201d [the prominent American astronomer Vera] Rubin [1928-2016] would write. \u00a0\u201cIn the universe, all galaxies are in motion.\u201d \u00a0Every two minutes \u201cthe earth has moved 2500 miles as it orbits the sun; the sun has moved 20,000 miles as it orbits the distant center of our galaxy. \u00a0In a 70-year lifespan, the sun moves 300,000,000,000 miles. \u00a0Yet, this vast path is only a tiny arc of a single orbit: it takes 200,000,000 years for the sun to orbit once about the galaxy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet such is the scale of the universe that astronomers don\u2019t see galaxies actually rotating. \u00a0If observers in Andromeda were studying our galaxy \u2014 a scenario that Rubin enjoyed imagining \u2014 they would see an apparently motionless spiral. \u00a0So do we when we look at Andromeda. \u00a0(36)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes, I think, it\u2019s just spiritually salutary \u2014 certainly humbling \u2014 to contemplate the sheer immensity of it all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a remarkable little essay by the Dutch computer scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup that merits some serious pondering: \u201cConsciousness Cannot Have Evolved:\u00a0The sooner we acknowledge it, the sooner we\u2019ll solve the hard problem of consciousness\u201d \u00a0 And here\u2019s another provocative essay by Manuel Berdoy, of the Division of Medical Sciences at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8322,344,216,71,8307,8313,1760,8310,2791,8316,8319,228,8304],"class_list":["post-82728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-andromeda","tag-astronomy","tag-consciousness","tag-cosmology","tag-cosmos","tag-galactic","tag-galaxy","tag-immensity","tag-problem-of-consciousness","tag-rotation","tag-speed","tag-subjectivity","tag-vera-rubin"],"yoast_head":"\nCurrent American politics explained, and other scientific news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Here's a remarkable little essay by the Dutch computer scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup that merits some serious pondering:\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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