astro video for the day ./ Robert R Wilson - science/art makes a country worth defending

This video is on vimeo, and my blog tools appear limited to youtube; so, I can't embed the video. I'm just going to have to leave a link,

great Saturn video link --> Cassini Approaches Saturn

Amongst non-scientists, even psuedo-philosophers will be heard "why should we fund particle accelerators and astronomical telescopes?  Or, even why should we bother with science at all?  Shoot, you'll hear this sentiment even amongst artists who use technologies to create their art(there is no art without some kind of technology)  Well, Robert R Wilson, who was the driving force behind the FermiLab particle accelerator in the U.S., laid it down very well,

In a conversation with a U.S. Senator John Pastore of Rhode Island, who said, "Is there anything connected  with the hopes of this accelerator that in any way involves the security of the country?"

"No, sir" Wilson said. "I don't believe so."
"Nothing at all?"(the senator again)
"Nothing at all" - (Robert Wilson)
"It has no value in that respect?"
"It has only to do with the respect with which we regard one another, the dignity of men, our love of culture. Is has to do with, are we good painters, good sculptors, great poets? . . . It has nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending."

the dark side of the force and . . . the Forbidden Planet

ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope image

  In my Sophie and Silas post, I point out some historical evidence for this evasive language and fear gaming that is this "dark side of the force", and some curious usage in the movie "The Da Vinci Code."  I've made a few more movie evidences for the irrational mind and the great efforts those who go down that path use to prevent getting out of that frame of mind. In particular, I found some great stuff in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", and "Planet of the Apes"(the original movie). I've gone back and forth about doing one for "The Forbidden Planet." But, now I feel that  should, for reasons that'll become apparent by the end.

I should give a link to the first article I talk about what I like to call "the dark side of the force" - Sophie and Silas post about "The Dark Side of the Force"

There's not much video highlights of the Forbidden Planet on youtube left anymore; so, I'm just going to describe some of the great relevant scenes.

In the beginning of the movie, Morbius . . . whom we haven't met yet . . . calls the spaceship approaching the planet he's living on and warns them to not land.  He doesn't say why.  The ships captain is under orders and presses Morbius to land.  Morbius says "very well, but I wash my hands of anything that goes wrong."

When they land, they meet a Robbie the Robot . . .

  Nanotechnologists like to point out that some of their ideas are suggested as a capability of this robot.  When the Captain and two others visit Morbius at his home for the first time, Morbius describes that if you just feed it any kind of substance, Robbie the Robot can break it down into the individual atoms, and reassemble them in any product you wish. Nanotechnologists like to try and be responsible.  I'll point out the main theme of the movie and technological responsibility at the end of this article.

 Getting back to when they first meet Robbie the Robot, the Ships cook comes out and asks it whether it's male or female.  Robbie says, "In my case, the question is without meaning." I find that people often will make these types of mistakes; asking irrelevant questions.  Often though, they'll catch themselves, and won't ask the question.  But, they will choose whatever answer allows them to hate you.

Getting back to when the Ships Captain, the Doctor, and a Lieutenant Farmer go to meet Morbius for the first time. Right before they're about to leave, Morbius's daughter decides to meet them.  Morbius explains that he did not want them to know of her existence. He's trying to convince them to leave.  As we'll see, part of the reason is he wants to learn on his own and keep it all to himself.

The lieutenant goes to help Altaira, Morbius's daughter. While helping her, he starts trying to make the ships Captain look bad, so the Captain doesn't get to win over Altaira and that he can get to be with her.  He says, the Ship's Captain is notorious for getting lots of sex with all the woman through many star systems. This info war to make the outcome good for someone even though it is false hits home for me. I'm a 42 year old virgin because of these tactics.  Describing all that would make this post much to long. I'll just say that I've heard girls while attending the local college, whom I've never seen, say "he's trying to get girls." Getting back to the Forbidden Planet . . .

When Morbius and Altaira visit the spaceship while the ships crew attempts to troubleshoot and fix the shis, The Lieutenant then takes Altaira in the woods and tells her things like "kissing stimulates the system" and "in fact, you can't be in tip top shape without kissing", in attempts to make out with her.  The Ships Captain catches him and breaks it up. The tactics used by Lieutenant Farmer are more mental tricks to take advantage of the uninitiated. One doesn't know, the other does.  The knower decides to not tell the whole truth of the situation to gain an advantage.

In one scene, the Ships cook has a deal with Robbie the Robot to make a lot of alcoholic beverages.  The Cook can't get outside the perimeter established around the ship(an electric fence). So, he tells Lieutenant Farmer to shut it down for a moment "to get some radishes" for some spiced up special food.  Farmer recognizes that the Cook is lying, he says "look, I don't know what you're lying about, but you better get back before the Captain." If you think it's amazing that Farmer can use these dark side of the force at one time without thinking anything is wrong, and then turns around and notes that the Cook is pulling his leg, well, you've yet to stop yourself to think about things.  Because most people are this mixture of justifications at one time, take action at another. 

- Well, at the end of the movie, The Ships Captain and Doctor get Morbius to admit to what he's hiding  - tons of scientific knowledge, and that he's had his brain abilities heightened, in order to learn the science and technological findings of a Extraterrestrial Civilization that messed up somehow. Robbie the Robot turns out to be a products of his learning.  He made Robbie Robot after learning all this science from the Alien's science archives. But, what Morbius can't see is that when he got a brain boost, he became linked to a machine . . . a machine that can make anything that comes to his mind.

When Altaira told Morbius about Famer's advances, Morbius, in his dreams sent out a ghostly energy field monster and killed a few crew members.  At the end of the movie, they all realize what happened to the advanced Civilization - they created a powerful technology that can make anything they thought of.  They hooked themselves up to this machine. But, they didn't question that if they do so, then anything in their dreams could be made as well . . . and their nightmares.  All their hopes and fears get made while dreaming. Any little transgression from each other gets magnified in their dreams and they killed each other off. 

I've argued that people are conditioned in my Gospel of Truth.  They they refuse to question their own beliefs for social reasons. They want social acceptance more than anything else. A lot of people, like the North Korean leader has so much blood on his/their hands, that they refuse to see their situation for what it is. I've argued that we need to at least put cultural things in their place.  We shouldn't care about food, language, art.  These things have their place in history and provide some color.  But, shouldn't take them so seriously that we start wars over them.  Putin has been justifying his supporting Pro Russians in the Ukraine because "we must preserve our language."  The language certainly should never go away; but, to go to war because you're currency and language isn't the international standard?

If we are to use science and technology, we should not be biased based on ingrained ideas of the past. 

Nanotechnologists and other futuristic technologists will raise the ethics flag, but will then just say we need to supply food, water, medial to everyone.  And, if you try to point out irrationality of mankind, you are ignored or blasted down, as in the 2 Thessalonians quotres I have in my Gospel of Truth, "do not talk to those who walk disorderly, do not listen to those with contrary evidences to our faith." - 2Thessalonians 3:6 and 3:14.

I once tried to explain to Eric Drexler, who came up with the idea of nanomanufacturing, independently, or Richard Feynman, and was the major force behind trying to get it developed in the 1980s on how understanding mathematics gives you an understanding of irrationality - how people refuse to question their assumptions; how they make over/under generalisations.  He reacted violently, and of course, when I tried to point this out to Ray Kurzweil amongst others, they never replied. 

See, Elon Musk, and other's into the Artificial Intelligence revolution will have it that we must make sure the A.I. doesn't get more intelligent than us. Eric Drexler, in his "Engines of Creation", actually says the danger isn't some industrial accident(althought there is some danger there of course), but the real danger is abuse. I point out how abuse works, and he flips! It never enters Elon's and other A.I. concerned futurists that the problem is humanity abusing it. It's easier to go after the machines than people. Almost like back in slave days, when something went wrong, blame it on the black slaves. Elon Musk, and apparently, now Eric Drexler, and every other nanotechnologists nowadays are like Morbius who can't take into acount their assumptions . . . their assumptions that humans developed from the animals and the cultures they grew up in. Cultures can't be questioned because that's means people might be the problem!  Shoot, it might mean they are problem. 

Because of these last points, I decided to make another post about the dark side of the force in yet another movie. Not that I needed any more evidence for what I explain in my Sophie and Silas post and other posts.