{"id":428,"date":"2010-10-26T10:14:16","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T14:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.summerofjim.com\/?p=428"},"modified":"2010-10-26T10:29:29","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T14:29:29","slug":"life-as-we-know-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/?p=428","title":{"rendered":"Life As We Know It"},"content":{"rendered":"

From an address to the Royal Academy of Sciences by Stephen Hawking, distinguished Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist, Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a Fellow Waiting to Cross the Road.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, yes… thank you, thank you\u00a0very much. It is an honor to be here addressing you\u00a0on a topic that has perplexed scientists and\u00a0ethical humanitarians for hundreds hundreds and hundreds\u00a0of years. This includes my barber, who just the other day asked me, “Doctor Hawking, do you think that there is life on other planets… I mean Doctor, life as we know it<\/em>?”\u00a0 To which I replied, “don’t take too much off the sides.”\u00a0 But, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Royal Academy, Felix… that is the name of my barber, I believe his Father was a barber before him, as well… raises a point of key subtlety… not just is there life<\/em>, which we might take to mean a rock-like looking object that could\u00a0inexplicably\u00a0jiggle like bowl of cherry\u00a0jell-o… cherry being my favorite flavour; but rather, is\u00a0there life as we know it<\/em>, which we might take to mean is there something on Neptune, as an example, that could put on spikes and play\u00a0goalie for Manchester United.\u00a0 Now granted, this may at first glance sound far fetched, although I put to you that it is\u00a0more probable that a life form\u00a0looking like Admiral Ackbar is far\u00a0better equipped to play for Manchester United, rather than\u00a0some variation of a\u00a0slime mold.\u00a0 Now I do not mean to suggest to this distinguished audience, that we should completely discount the possibility that a mold possessing considerable gifts could and would indeed be a welcome addition to Manchester United, or\u00a0to Arsenal, for that matter.\u00a0\u00a0 But I digress. The point is we should be on guard about assuming too much of what we think<\/em> is the norm for life as we know it.\u00a0 <\/em>First, who is the “we”?\u00a0 I mean, was Felix including me in the we… <\/em>or maybe he was including just his family and other barbers, to include his Father.\u00a0 Truly, what can their assumption of life be?\u00a0 Maybe it’s just primates, or other mammals… and\u00a0perhaps some\u00a0broad leaf ferns. Or maybe it’s just barbers, beauticians and sales clerks.\u00a0\u00a0Do you understand my point? And what did Felix mean by “know”?\u00a0Is\u00a0it possible that his frame of reference was the Bible.\u00a0 And we all know <\/em>what “know” means in the Bible. *ahem* I hope I haven’t offended anyone.\u00a0 But there\u00a0are “racey” parts in the Good Book.\u00a0\u00a0So there you are… even the very question “is there life as we know it?”, creates questions. Rather, we should be open, not<\/span> to the possibility<\/em>; but to the likelihood<\/em> that life does<\/span> exist on other planets… probably<\/em> all<\/strong> the planets!\u00a0 Consider Neptune with an atmosphere of 80% Hydrogen and 19% Helium with trace amounts of methane. So?\u00a0 Just because it’s not particularly good for human habitation, does that exclude the possibility\u00a0that there\u00a0is\u00a0life that might prefer <\/em>that atmosphere “recipe”… that it would be the “perfect cup of tea” for them<\/em>.\u00a0 And the air temperature of -218\u00a0c., which we would find exceedingly cold, although we wouldn’t have to worry about food spoiling, or using sun screen; but the inhabitants there<\/em>\u00a0would be\u00a0perfectly equipped and adapted to that environment.\u00a0 If we could develop velcro and the three-way light bulb here<\/em>, what is to preclude the inhabitants on Neptune from manufacturing layers of protection to withstand the frigid temperatures?\u00a0 And not the bulky and silly looking space suits that we have developed; but a micro layer that fits like a pair of pantyhose.\u00a0 And the inhabitants could move about Neptune as freely as we take a stroll in Kensington Gardens, only without the swans and warning signs to stay off the grass.\u00a0The inhabitants\u00a0would be perfectly tuned into their life, absorbing\u00a0“healthy” methane into their systems, processing it without difficulty and converting it into a fuel appropriate\u00a0for launching vehicles into space… just like we do.\u00a0 Although the gas that we create on a personal level can have a foul smell,\u00a0it isn’t really strong enough to launch craft into space, at least in most<\/em> cases. Remember, there are always exceptions… and this reminds me of an amusing joke that Carl Sagan told me, he had read it in the National Lampoon<\/em>… Question: What is the difference between a Martian fart and a sandstorm? Answer: A sandstorm doesn’t glow in the dark!\u00a0Hah, hah,\u00a0hah<\/em>.\u00a0I love that joke! Ah, Carl… qui ferunt sed nung ad astra<\/em>! But let us return to Neptune.\u00a0\u00a0We will not only\u00a0learn that there is life as we know it; <\/em>but we will find that we have more in common\u00a0with those life forms,\u00a0than that which differentiates us.\u00a0 In fact we may have more in common with inhabitants of Neptune than we do with Americans… hah, hah, hah<\/em>. Just kidding.\u00a0Which brings me back to an earlier point… the reason why I love cherry jell-o so much\u00a0is because when you squish it thru your teeth and then smile it makes you look real scary and like maybe you come from Neptune, although I really come from Oxford.\u00a0 In conclusion, Ladies and Gentlemen, when you step outside and cast your eyes to the heavens you may ask “is there life there as we know it?” at the same time across a gazillion miles of space there is a Neptunian<\/em> looking at the same heavens\u00a0and asking, “si herte elfi herte sa ew wonk ti<\/em>?”\u00a0 Thank you, thank you very much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From an address to the Royal Academy of Sciences by Stephen Hawking, distinguished Theoretical Physicist and Cosmologist, Member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ministry-of-jokes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/summerofjim.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}