Sidereal 405 — A Galilean Moment?

Alien Megastructures, the Knowledge Society, and Our Planetary Future

Galileo Galilei — Siderevs nvncivs, 1610. Harvard Library

In 1610, Galileo published his Sidereal Messenger at the Republic of Venice (Venezia). What is a tourist city today, was at the time a near millennium old Republic to become known to history as a modern economic and trading center; and located just (obiter dictum) down the Adriatic is the Republic of Ragusa, an old and now rising center of knowledge today. Over the years before the publication, Galileo had been using a new technology, the spyglass as he called it, to observe the heavens, where the term telescopium would not be used until the next year in 1611. This particular technology would prove to show extraordinary sights and provide empirical verification which would dislodge more than 2,000 years of understanding of the world, the Heavens, and our place as humans. Aside from the astounding observations of mountain ranges on the moon, he would observe the transit of “stars” across the face of Jupiter, also known as a star. The “stars” would seem to remain attached to Jupiter; they would sometimes “disappear” and show themselves again later on the other side. The observations led Galileo to conclude that these stars were attached to Jupiter. At the time, before this discovery, there were seven bodies in all: the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, the moon, Mars, and Jupiter, and then the additional rapid comets.

When Galileo reported his findings, he was challenged immediately on his equipment that there were aberrations in the telescope, but there were none, and then how could problems with the lens cause the observed phenomena of transit? He was also viciously confronted on how he was to presume that there was something out there at all, the charge of egotism as pretext for suppression began to enter. For salvation, we only need know about what is close by, it was thought by the Church. The pretext of egotism “worked” to marginalize, magically putting the deliberately ignorant and even warped minds on the level of the subtle and courageous mind. Galileo continued his work and calling the new “stars” around Jupiter “Medicean Stars.” Soon, he would be censored by the Church. In his reply to Cardinal Bellarmine, Galileo reasons through the results of astronomical findings and provides the major critical comment that if the Earth does in fact move, and if it moves around the Sun, then it would be easier to remove our own problem thinking than to set the heavenly bodies to their proper scriptural movements; and/or essentially admit that we misunderstand scripture. It was around this time (1615) in which he would get into trouble. Later he was condemned at Rome in 1633 and forced to abjure under threat of torture at 70 years old and in ill health, where he “admitted” to “vain ambition, pure ignorance, and inadvertence.” All people should read this assault on knowledge and inquiry about a time when science, philosophy, and culture all converged into developing the scientific worldview. It is important to contemplate the value of free inquiry, critical thinking, and scientific advancement.

On September 11th, 2015, a group out of Penn State published a paper with the Royal Society using another form of telescope or the Kepler Space Telescope that collects data using sophisticated spectroscopy and mathematical analysis (Fourier analysis) as scientists explore the heavens for exoplanets. An earlier technology of this type, some may remember, was the French program, the Corot (2006–2014). Kepler had been sending data to be analyzed since 2009 with a high consistency showing a transit of extraordinary importance at the star KIC 8462852, leading astronomers to say essentially “we’ve ruled out everything, so this seems to be something quite new.” The statement by the scientists is not an offhand remark since exoplanets are plentiful. Astrophysicist Lee Billings writes, “Twenty years ago you could count all the known planets in the universe on your fingers and toes and recite all their names from memory. Today you’d probably need a calculator and a spreadsheet: thousands of exoplanets — worlds orbiting other stars — fill our catalogues. Astronomers are now poised to find tens of thousands more…”. Another extraordinary emergence in this endeavor is the collaboratory or P2P effort for open, citizen science as the astrophysicists worked together with Planet Hunters to search through NASA data for patterns. Planet Hunters is a part of Zooniverse, an open science project, which thought that humans were better at pattern recognition than machines. More than 300,000 volunteers signed up to participate confirming what we already know that people are curious and interested in the world and universe.

Unlike the transit which Galileo observed directly, observations today come in the form of raw abstract data showing a greater than 20% decrease (aperiodic dips in flux) in light during the transit of “something” across the face of this special star over periods ranging from 5 to 80 days. The usual decrease in light is 1% when a planet transits between a star and Kepler, and also planets are round, whereas, the new discovery is irregular. Here, at this point, it should be a matter of discretion to recognize that there are certainly unknowns in nature including both things and forces, and at the same time, from the reported observations of many star systems so far, the data are all uniform, until the current case. Perplexing, indeed. More will be known once astronomers can point radio telescopes or electronic ears in the direction of KIC 8462852, and then if more power is needed, a large “ear” or array will be used similar to what most people would know as Soccorro or Arecibo. At the moment, China is just completing the largest radio telescope at 500m (1,640 ft.), a technology which will be the most sensitive system built to date. As the radio telescopes listen in and deliver their information, the anomaly at KIC 8462852 will be better understood; however, it seems that in the expert systems of science, most accept that what will be verified will be a moment of turning in science — a grand moment in itself. Will it be a Galilean Moment?

As a matter of speculation, here I want to change theme from historical-scientific to fantasy to explore the subject of the forthcoming second paper of the group of astronomers, and then a few possibilities. The subject is that of an existential matter or technological artifacts from an advanced civilization of sentient beings — aliens. My speculative inquiry carries three options which might be possible, though one of them is an open statement. The first two are natural speculations and the third, existential. The speculation on natural process is that there is a massive cluster of comets (things) causing the >20% reduction since the phenomenon is quite large, however, astrophysicists who thought of this multi-comet explanation already rule it out as unlikely. Eventually, this phenomenon can be easily checked and substantiated or ruled out by the radio telescopes. The second speculation on natural process is that there is some new discovery (forces) which we do not know of in the natural world, which the precision and accuracy of the radio telescopes might also clear up. The third is the fantasy of a technological artifact or megastructure. The later term has been taken on in the media, indicating a solar systemic kind of advanced civilization. Either of the first two speculations would be considered extraordinary discoveries, ones already thought to lead to the need to rewrite textbooks. Thus, either of the two should be interesting enough to the general populace that at least a momentous event has occurred in knowledge, and a renovation will occur within astronomical knowledge systems.

The first speculations, vast and exciting enough, would pale in comparison to the last matter of inquiry, and if confirmed would be a Galilean Moment; one of existential inquiry. It would not only change textbooks across the spectrum of human knowledge, but fundamentally alter our view of ourselves and touch all areas of human understanding and endeavor, just as Galileo’s findings were a complete shift in human understanding of both nature and of ourselves, a moment which has occurred rarely. In the 17th century, due to the fact “the scriptures say the Earth does not move [geostatic] and the sun rises and sets around it,” or that the “sun stood still in the sky” it could not possibly occur that any other arrangement could be. Here I am paraphrasing Cardinal Bellarmine who relied on “Genesis, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and Joshua” as literal interpretation, and quotes Solomon directly as an immutable representative of god. However, if Galileo’s observations were correct, then the Bible would be fallible in its astronomical absolutism due to the reliance on the text as divine, so went the conclusion of Bellarmine to Foscarini. It was not only that the Sun went over the Earth, but that the Earth did not move, the inner planets were all that existed, and so on. The Bible would no longer dictate, but the individual would have to choose what is accurate and appropriate from within the Bible. The seed of the Reformation would begin, I think.

Later, Darwin’s discoveries that species actually change form would be a further existential moment in human views of herself or himself, nature, and god. These two existential moments followed with exactly what would be expected, reverberations through all of human life from knowledge to society to politics to inner mental life. No longer was the Earth fixed and immovable but also not the center, and the same would apply to species and to humans. Animals, humans, organisms are not fixed, they change too; some seem to have even come from the water, returned to it, and come back again to terrestrial life, a few times over. What should concern us today is not this question but the matter of how many species are being eliminated due to human actions on the planet.

By the 17th century, we know that already the heliocentric model was postulated due to calculations and empirical findings, and therefore the scientific revolution would come to be dated back to Copernicus, who held his postulations in book form on his deathbed. Copernicus had stood on the shoulders of scholars of the far more civilized Middle Ages in the Islamic world. Those scholars, particularly Ibn al-Haytham from Basra, in the 10th century, had previously deconstructed Ptolemy and made significant advances towards the empirical reality of what Aristarchus of Samos had also thought; though it should be noted Ptolemy had not described a unified universe in the Almagest. Unlike Copernicus, Galileo would live longer to undergo cruel treatment, and at the same time Bruno was murdered by the Church due to his statements such as that there very well “could be other creatures out in space” which led to the strange multi-pope “debate”. Perhaps he wondered about certain alien megastructures as well?

Moving up to the time of Darwin, he waited a couple decades before publishing his findings due to obvious threat from society and power structures, where after the publication on the Origin of the Species, no longer were organisms, animals, humans going to be seen as put on Earth, unchanging in physical structure, but naturally molded according to environmental pressures. Today, we know this as natural selection and it is not of the fittest but simple change due to internal and external pressures. Genetics have been added to our understanding to elucidate the important changes which occur internally, and of the branching known as speciation. Therefore, the debate on religion and evolution was over more than 150 years ago and is known widely today as empirically validated by the simple knowledge of pedigree dogs, and other consciously “molded” animals we live with, which we call artificial selection. The actual debate today is purely scientific of how the now billions of known fossils all fit together, and the further genetic analysis and speculative artificial evolutionary projections which involve technology.

Though important, there is another current issue, an unfortunate case or “debate”, which is the blaring incoherency of misinformation by some intent on power, and thus, feeding from many victims whom they have crippled emotionally with religion and blunted intellectually by theocratic allusions in economics and erroneous attribution of competitivism as the core of human nature. This is not natural selection but the amplification of human frailty in greed and hate. These aberrations have even allowed for such power to make its way into the actual chairs of scientific oversight and funding organizations as political projects rather than evidence and knowledge-based systems. The consequences of such a recent history are being felt widely as the waters menacingly rise, perhaps to finally entomb Venice.

Until this point, and I would say this point was mid-October as media outlets reported the alien megastructure concept, scientists have enjoyed speculating but have been far more modest in their hopes than finding megastructures from advanced technological or solar system-wide civilizations. They have modestly been hopeful to find water on Mars, which has been recently confirmed, and then to find perhaps methylated compounds. To the scientists, finding amino acids, DNA, and/or microorganisms would initiate an existential crisis. Now we can see why, though impossible to miss, if the current anomaly ends up being an actual technological artifact, the megastructure of now media legend, it would indeed be a Galilean Moment, an existential crisis for humanity. What changes and upheavals might come just from such knowledge are yet to be seen. I tend to think that life is the norm, rather than the rare exception, but technological civilization…and close by…of this I am unsure.

Further guesses arise from my initial inquiry. What I am here interested in now, assuming the find is technological, is of whether any life is present there and how the structure was built and what for. Allowing for habitation, or if beings are living there, then we might posit that we here on Earth are not interesting enough to such a solar systemic civilization, similar to the well known “humans and the ant hill.” We pass by anthills all the time; they are not really interesting. However, for this inquiry, we are the ants. If habitation is true, then the radiotelescopes should be able to pick up any irregular variations in noise from the megastructure. A tremendous excitement and fear arise, along with probably millions of questions. If it is not occupied, then perhaps the civilization may not have made it past a certain stage and either died off or went elsewhere, leaving the megastructure behind. However, any radiation they would have put out in the last 1,400 years, we should be able to detect if the laws of physics follow their known uniformity. More questions arise.

The next question is how would such a massive structure be built since the material would have to come from somewhere. Two possibilities come to mind. Today, we are able to grow carbon nanotubes and with better understanding such “artificially guided natural growth” could go on without our input of time and energy thus producing massive structures such as large scale building materials here on Earth and for use in space. Such a process of autoconstruction, much like proteins in the body, is becoming a possibility for our planetary society in the near future, and therefore we would think this to be not a problem for a solar systemic civilization. The elements or atoms to be used as material could be from the mining of planets, asteroids, or from the byproducts of their star. Thus, nothing in our experience, mathematics, or science would prevent speculation on a megastructure which could be grown — especially, or specifically, if our understanding of math and physics and of how atoms and molecules fit together within nature is uniform. All of the later seems to check out fine with the physicists. We have empirical evidence that the aforementioned aspects all apply uniformly and accurately to the Kepler telescope, the data, and how we receive it here on Earth, along with the conservation of arithmetic or mathematics. These follow the uniformity in nature and allow our speculation across space and time; aside from correcting for problems such as found in Kant’s triangle since space is not linear.

The final question of my, by now, fully fantastical speculation is, What is the megastructure for? Since as in the last paragraph, we expect and confirm that thermodynamics are of the uniformity of nature, we can reasonably assume that the particular civilization needed energy as a fundamental component of development of greater complexity. It would have to be a solar systemic technological civilization which is or has harnessed the energy of their sun for productive purposes. The sun in this system is 1.5 times the size of our sun and the superstructure would be built large enough in order to harness the energy and make it useful for directed purposes of what intelligent life might try to do. Here I mean by intelligent life is that which from our understanding has creative and cognitive capacity enabling the building of ever more complex technological artifacts and art; and therefore operational for gathering energy since energy is a fundamental necessity. It is also reasonable to assume that they would have language and moral capacity, both as means of communication, or that is my assumption, as it goes, since with speculation we get to make things up as we go along and anthropomorphism is easy to do. Whether language and moral cognition are universal forces in life, like the forces of physics, we will have to see.

In essence, the necessity and even the enjoyment of speculation is important so long as we do not overindulge to the point of believing in any fantasy as a realistic mode to our reality, for example, drifting off into a technoutopianism or fall prey to the strange appeals of political campaigners, though these are not new. What is new is that large consequences can arise from erroneous power due how powerful technology is today as we move towards a planetary society. Here is why I argue for a planetary society established on knowledge and evidence-based systems.

As discussed, what does seem clear is that a new discovery will emerge and a new knowledge structure will form within science. If the open speculation happens to be true, as in Galileo’s empirical validation 405 years ago, where not only human knowledge was shaken irreversibly but the human found itself with an existential problem, then no words can say. It took until 1991 for Galileo to be reinstated, something we can be grateful that the astronomers at Penn State do not have to endure, even as theocratic movements are making the news in various places globally, including in the United States, and are now running candidates.

If not now, then I do think another existential moment may come as our planetary society emerges and as the sensitivity of technology grows, as probes go deeper into the Milky Way; but unfortunately all of this potential development in what may indeed be the final phase of civilization, as we know it, or even the end of the species. We might reflect back on that convent of the Minerva in 1633 and Galileo’s abjuration, and on Jupiter and owls. Whether the current discovery will be a Galilean Moment, we will have to wait to see. As for the possibility of a future on Earth, one of human flourishing respective to the natural system for a planetary society, it is, I think, not a technological problem, but largely a matter of the collective momentium of those operating with their humanity intact to produce a pluralistic, knowledge-based planetary society relying on a system of renewable energy, a collaborative economy, a ubiquitous commons, and a distributed technosphere.

Bibliography and notes for further study:

1. CBS News, “​Are Experts Really Searching for Alien Megastructures in Space?” (CBS, October 15, 2015), http://www.cbsnews.com/news/are-experts-really-searching-for-alien-megastructures-in-space/.
2. Euan McKirdy, “China Building World’s Largest Radio Telescope,” CNN, October 12, 2015, http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/11/tech/china-fast-telescope/index.html.
3. “China Starts Building World’s Biggest Radio Telescope,” New Scientist, 2011, https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028165.300-china-starts-building-worlds-biggest-radio-telescope/.
4. Erik Gregersen, “Comet Swarm or Alien Megastructures?,” Encyclopedia Britannica, accessed October 19, 2015, http://www.britannica.com/story/comet-swarm-or-alien-megastructures.
5. “CoRot,” CoRot, n.d., https://corot.cnes.fr/en/COROT/index.htm.
6. Peter Machamer, “Galileo Galilei,” ed. Edward N. Zalta, March 4, 2005, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/galileo/.
7. Ian O’Neill, “Has NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovered an Alien Megastructure?,” Medium, October 14, 2015, https://medium.discoverynews.com/has-nasa-s-kepler-mission-discovered-an-alien-megastructure-a38e917ec41c.
8. Lee Billings, “Hubble Successor Will Struggle to Hunt Alien Life,” Nature News, accessed October 19, 2015, doi:10.1038/nature.2015.16886.
9. Ron Cowen, “Kepler’s Surprise: The Sounds of the Stars,” Nature News 481, no. 7379 (January 5, 2012): 18, doi:10.1038/481018a.
10. Gina Anderson, “NASA Confirms Evidence That Liquid Water Flows on Today’s Mars,” Text, NASA, (September 28, 2015), http://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-confirms-evidence-that-liquid-water-flows-on-today-s-mars.
11. Sheila Rabin, “Nicolaus Copernicus,” ed. Edward N. Zalta, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, November 30, 2004, http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/copernicus/.
12. “Planet Hunters,” n.d., http://www.planethunters.org/#/about.
13. T.S. Boyajian, and K.J. Jek, “Planet Hunters X. KIC 8462852 — Where’s the Flux?,” September 11, 2015, http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.03622.
14. Galileo Galilei, Siderevs nvncivs (Venetiis or Republic of Venice: Apud Thomam Baglionum, 1610), http://hollis.harvard.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do?vid=HVD&search_scope=default_scope&docId=HVD_ALEPH002461218&fn=permalink.
15. “Telescopes — NRAO: Revealing the Hidden Universe,” Telescopes — NRAO, n.d., https://public.nrao.edu/telescopes.
16. Maurice Finocchiaro, The Essential Galileo (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 2008), http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Galileo-Hackett-Classics/dp/0872209377/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8.
17. Richard Dawkins, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (Simon and Schuster, 2009).
18. Ross Andersen, “The Most Mysterious Star in Our Galaxy — The Atlantic,” accessed October 25, 2015, http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/10/the-most-interesting-star-in-our-galaxy/410023/.
19. “The Story behind ‘Alien Megastructures’ Scientists May Have Found (but Probably Didn’t),” CNET, accessed October 30, 2015, http://www.cnet.com/news/the-full-story-behind-the-alien-megastructures-scientists-may-have-found-but-probably-didnt/.
20. “Zooniverse,” n.d., https://www.zooniverse.org/about/.