#marcelo gleiser

[entheognosis]

We strive toward knowledge, always more knowledge, but must understand that we are, and will remain, surrounded by mystery… It is the flirting with this mystery, the urge to go beyond the boundaries of the known, that feeds our creative impulse, that makes us want to know more.

Marcelo Gleiser

[contemplatingoutlander]

Opinion | The Story of Our Universe May Be Starting to Unravel

Is cosmology in crisis?

This is an excellent article by astrophysicist Dr. Adam Frank and theoretical physicist Dr. Marcelo Gleiser about how information from the James Webb Space Telescope is changing physicists' perceptions about the standard model of cosmology. 😱

Since how we understand the universe seems rather important, the link above is a gift🎁link to the article, so that even if you do not subscribe to The New York Times, you can read the entire article. Below are a few excerpts:

Not long after the James Webb Space Telescope began beaming back from outer space its stunning images of planets and nebulae last year, astronomers, though dazzled, had to admit that something was amiss. Eight months later, based in part on what the telescope has revealed, it’s beginning to look as if we may need to rethink key features of the origin and development of the universe. [...] But one of the Webb’s first major findings was exciting in an uncomfortable sense: It discovered the existence of fully formed galaxies far earlier than should have been possible according to the so-called standard model of cosmology. According to the standard model, which is the basis for essentially all research in the field, there is a fixed and precise sequence of events that followed the Big Bang: First, the force of gravity pulled together denser regions in the cooling cosmic gas, which grew to become stars and black holes; then, the force of gravity pulled together the stars into galaxies. The Webb data, though, revealed that some very large galaxies formed really fast, in too short a time, at least according to the standard model. This was no minor discrepancy. The finding is akin to parents and their children appearing in a story when the grandparents are still children themselves. [...] Working so close to the boundary between science and philosophy, cosmologists are continually haunted by the ghosts of basic assumptions hiding unseen in the tools we use — such as the assumption that scientific laws don’t change over time. But that’s precisely the sort of assumption we might have to start questioning in order to figure out what’s wrong with the standard model. One possibility, raised by the physicist Lee Smolin and the philosopher Roberto Mangabeira Unger, is that the laws of physics can evolve and change over time. Different laws might even compete for effectiveness. An even more radical possibility, discussed by the physicist John Wheeler, is that every act of observation influences the future and even the past history of the universe. (Dr. Wheeler, working to understand the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, conceived of a “participatory universe” in which every act of observation was in some sense a new act of creation.) [...] The philosopher Robert Crease has written that philosophy is what’s required when doing more science may not answer a scientific question. It’s not clear yet if that’s what’s needed to overcome the crisis in cosmology. But if more tweaks and adjustments don’t do the trick, we may need not just a new story of the universe but also a new way to tell stories about it. [color emphasis added]

Image caption: "These six galaxies may force astronomers to rewrite cosmology books. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, I. LABBE)"

___________ Gif source (before minor edits)

[slowandsweet]

"I use the word “manifesto” in the subtitle on purpose: A manifesto is an urgent message, a call for action, a strategy to bring about change and transformation. We do need a revolution. Not one fought with weapons for a political cause, but one fought with a new mindset, one that protects our collective future under the banner of biocentrism. Biocentrism is the principle that a planet hosting life is sacred and that we, humans, must rise to the moral task of preserving our world and all life on it. The book asks us to rethink who we are — and the “we” here means all humans. In the book, I explain how and why we must embrace a new way of relating to each other and to all living creatures if we are to save our project of civilization and our home planet. This is no naïve dream but a must for our future" (Marcelo Gleise). I highly suggest that you read this book .

[noosphe-re]

The map of what we call reality is an ever-shifting mosaic of ideas.

Marcelo Gleiser, The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning

[father-of-the-void]

Unless you are intellectually numb, you can’t escape the allure of the quantum, the tantalizing possibility that we are immersed in mystery, forever bound within the shores of the Island of Knowledge. Unless you are intellectually numb, you can’t escape the awe-inspiring feeling that the essence of reality is unknowable.

Marcelo Gleiser, The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for Meaning

[luxe-pauvre]

Scientific materialists will argue that the scientific method enables us to get outside of experience and grasp the world as it is in itself. As will be clear by now, we disagree; indeed, we believe that this way of thinking misrepresents the very method and practice of science. In general terms, here’s how the scientific method works. First, we set aside aspects of human experience on which we can’t always agree, such as how things look or taste or feel. Second, using mathematics and logic, we construct abstract, formal models that we treat as stable objects of public consensus. Third, we intervene in the course of events by isolating and controlling things that we can perceive and manipulate. Fourth, we use these abstract models and concrete interventions to calculate future events. Fifth, we check these predicted events against our perceptions. An essential ingredient of this whole process is technology: machines – our equipment – that standardise these procedures, amplify our powers of perception, and allow us to control phenomena to our own ends. The Blind Spot arises when we start to believe that this method gives us access to unvarnished reality. But experience is present at every step. Scientific models must be pulled out from observations, often mediated by our complex scientific equipment. They are idealisations, not actual things in the world. Galileo’s model of a frictionless plane, for example; the Bohr model of the atom with a small, dense nucleus with electrons circling around it in quantised orbits like planets around a sun; evolutionary models of isolated populations – all of these exist in the scientist’s mind, not in nature. They are abstract mental representations, not mind-independent entities. Their power comes from the fact that they’re useful for helping to make testable predictions. But these, too, never take us outside experience, for they require specific kinds of perceptions performed by highly trained observers. For these reasons, scientific ‘objectivity’ can’t stand outside experience; in this context, ‘objective’ simply means something that’s true to the observations agreed upon by a community of investigators using certain tools. Science is essentially a highly refined form of human experience, based on our capacities to observe, act and communicate.

Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, Evan Thompson, The blind spot of science is the neglect of lived experience

[johnsparker]

Welcome to the Age of Digital Transcendence       A smartphone is a digital extension of you. It is, in a very real sense, a part of you.    Through its apps, it allows you to be more you. It amplifies your sense of self, your individual reach out to the world. It extends your presence well beyond your physical body, allowing you to be, virtually, anywhere in the world, participating in conversations with people from different cities, countries, political parties or religious faiths.    With a smartphone, your self dissolves into a code that is transportable across the globe. It is the closest we've ever become to being omnipresent and omniscient. It is the closest we've ever become to being, in a metaphorical sense at least, divine: disembodied and all-knowing.

Marcelo Gleiser,  Welcome To The Age Of Digital Transcendence,

January 23, 2018 at: https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2018/01/23/579666166/welcome-to-the-age-of-digital-transcendence

[father-of-the-void]

There were no witnesses to what was about to happen. 'Happen' didn't yet exist. Reality was timeless. Space also didn't exist. The distance between two points was immeasurable. The points themselves could be anywhere, hovering and bouncing. Infinity tangled into itself. There was no here and now. Only Being.

Marcelo Gleiser, The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang