#martin rees

[father-of-the-void]

The bedrock nature of space and time and the unification of cosmos and quantum are surely among science’s great 'open frontiers.' These are parts of the intellectual map where we’re still groping for the truth — where, in the fashion of ancient cartographers, we must still inscribe 'here be dragons.'

— Martin Rees

[luxe-pauvre]

Societies are increasingly dependent on advanced technology; science pervades our lives more than ever. But the glad optimism about science has faded. In many quarters, observers view the impact of new breakthroughs with more ambivalence than excitement. Since [C P] Snow’s time, our ‘marvellous’ new technologies have created fresh hazards and raised new ethical quandaries. Many commentators are anxious that science is getting out of hand, such that neither politicians nor the public can assimilate or cope with it. The stakes are higher now too: science offers huge opportunities, but future generations will be vulnerable to risks – nuclear, genetic, algorithmic – powerful enough to jeopardise the very survival of our civilisation. In a later publication based on his original lecture, Snow suggested that there was a ‘third culture’, one embracing the social sciences. Today it might be truer to say that the very idea of ‘culture’ has many interweaving strands. Nonetheless, intellectual narrowness and ignorance remain endemic, and science is a closed book to a worrying number of people in politics and the media. But just as many people are ignorant of the history and literature of their own nation. Scientists don’t have a special reason to moan; in fact, it’s really quite remarkable how many people are interested in subjects as blazingly irrelevant to practical life as dinosaurs, the Higgs boson and cosmology. There is a surprising and gratifying interest in fundamental big questions – such as the origins of consciousness, of life, and of the cosmos itself. Today, it’s a real intellectual deprivation to be blind to the marvellous vision offered by Darwinism and by modern cosmology – the chain of emergent complexity leading from a ‘big bang’ to stars, planets, biospheres, and human brains able to ponder the wonder and the mystery of it all. Concepts such as these should be part of the public conversation. So too should some conception of the natural environment and the principles that govern the biosphere and climate. Science is the one culture that all humans can share: protons, proteins and Pythagoras’ theorem are the same the world over. [...] A theme of Snow’s lecture was that scholars in the humanities failed to appreciate the creativity and imagination that the practice of science involves. But it can’t be denied that there are differences in what those things mean for the artist, as opposed to the scientist. An artist’s work might be individual and distinctive, but it generally doesn’t last. On the other hand, even a journeyman scientist should be able to add a few durable bricks to the corpus of ‘public knowledge’, even if our contributions as scientists will probably lose their identity. If A didn’t discover something, in general B soon would; indeed, there are many cases of near-simultaneous discovery. Einstein made a more distinctive imprint on 20th-century science than any other individual – but, had he never existed, all his insights would have been revealed by now, though probably by several people rather than by one great mind. Any scientist is ‘replaceable’, in a way that an individual artist is not.

Martin Rees, The good scientist

[startswithabang]

Advances Vs. Consequences: What Does The 21st Century Have In Store For Humanity?

“We now live in a time where the actions of a small group of people ⁠— whether through malicious or benign intentions ⁠— are capable of leading to global catastrophe. It's not just climate change or the threat of nuclear war that hangs over us; it's a slew of facts.

It matters that a mass extinction is occurring right now: we're destroying this planet's proverbial "book of life" before we've even read it.

It matters that computers are permeating ever-increasing facets of our life, as humanity's recently rising electricity use (after a plateau earlier this decade) is almost entirely due to new computational uses, like cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

It matters that the population is greater than ever before, as managing and distributing the edible food and drinkable water we produce is a greater challenge than ever before.”

Do you like big, sweeping conversations that tackle the biggest existential questions facing our species today? Looking to the larger picture, of humanity’s future on Earth, scientist Martin Rees has written a book detailing the challenges facing our civilization in the 21st century, and is about to deliver a public lecture on the topic of navigating the course that could lead us into a true golden age... or to ruin.

I’ll be live-blogging the lecture with many thoughts to add, and I hope you’ll join me in enjoying it!

[nelc]

Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram of Famous Astronomers

[harrypotterhousequotes]

HUFFLEPUFF: "We need to broaden our sympathies both in space and time - and perceive ourselves as part of a long heritage, and stewards for an immense future." –Martin Rees

[arutai]

Martin Rees by David Levenson

[oldschoolsciencefiction]

[noosphe-re]

An astonishing concept has entered the mainstream of cosmological thought: physical reality could be hugely more extensive than the patch of space and time traditionally called 'the universe'. A further Copernican demotion may loom ahead. We've learnt that we live in just one planetary system among billions, in one galaxy among billions. But now that's not all. The entire panorama that astronomers can observe could be a tiny part of the aftermath of 'our' big bang, which is itself just one bang among a perhaps-infinite ensemble.

Martin Rees, Edge Annual Question 2012: What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation?