Now this is just weird: the Zodiac, an apparent ring of distinct extra bright stars centered on us, is not an illusion – it really exists out there. Called Gould’s belt, it is ~1000pc (parsec) in diameter, we are within about
Your blog post reminds me of why I'm a big fan of intellectuals attaining 2+ disparate Ph.D.'s (or at least masters). I think you have a (unfortunately too) unique vantage to discuss topics like these with a masters in physics and a Ph.D. in the social sciences.
Humans see patterns. If it were a different pattern, we would have seen it and then maybe marveled at the coincidence of that, instead. We are going to create some pattern out of what we no matter what. What are the odds that I'd get my exact DNA from my parents Dr. Manhattan?
Its possible celestial events can influence evolution. For instance, wiping out a lot of species or just a lot of individual animals can probably break up ecologies and cause a punctuation of equilibrium.
However, I'm guessing we dont know of a mass extinction from this point in time. And theres probably only a rather narrow range of amounts of high-energy radiation that would kill lots of vertebrate individuals without causing a mass extinction.
The putative binary partner of Sol, Nemesis, was once a hypothesis for causing mass extinctions that appear to be rather periodic. However, I think most workers do not believe that Nemesis exists, and never have.
The ~50M years ago when brain expansion accelerated was prior to the most likely time of the dark matter passing (30-50M). Therefore, the monolith likely swung by after we had already begun using animal bones as bludgeons. Likely, it was interested in seeing whether our intelligence was anything the universe should have to fret about.
My thoughts exactly. It's a pretty astrophysical coincidence, but dark matter causing brain growth? The polite term for this is "wild-ass speculation". I shall refrain from mentioning the impolite term.
We should also be happy we are not too close to those open clusters. Young hot stars often go bang.
I wonder if one could make an anthropic argument? Given that nearby supernovae might preclude the emergence of intelligent life with a few million years, we should expect to find ourselves far away from them - like in the centre of Goulds belt.
Might of course be other factors influencing location in addition, like galactic habitable zones and stellar density (we are very close to the plane of the disk).
Can you translate this into some Powerball numbers?
It seems to be testable. Have SETI spend extra time looking at similar bits of the sky...
This post needs 'Also Sprach Zarathustra' as background music to do it justice.
I agree.
Your blog post reminds me of why I'm a big fan of intellectuals attaining 2+ disparate Ph.D.'s (or at least masters). I think you have a (unfortunately too) unique vantage to discuss topics like these with a masters in physics and a Ph.D. in the social sciences.
Humans see patterns. If it were a different pattern, we would have seen it and then maybe marveled at the coincidence of that, instead. We are going to create some pattern out of what we no matter what. What are the odds that I'd get my exact DNA from my parents Dr. Manhattan?
The causation is backwards. Brain growth caused the collisions!!
jk.
Its possible celestial events can influence evolution. For instance, wiping out a lot of species or just a lot of individual animals can probably break up ecologies and cause a punctuation of equilibrium.
However, I'm guessing we dont know of a mass extinction from this point in time. And theres probably only a rather narrow range of amounts of high-energy radiation that would kill lots of vertebrate individuals without causing a mass extinction.
The putative binary partner of Sol, Nemesis, was once a hypothesis for causing mass extinctions that appear to be rather periodic. However, I think most workers do not believe that Nemesis exists, and never have.
Huh? your source also says a diameter of 1000 pc and we are 100pc from the center. Just what I said.
Not so fast.
Note that we're nowhere near the "center" of it, and the constellations in the Gould Belt aren't the ones in the zodiac anyway.
This is the sort of thing I'd expect, loaded with "seemingly" and "possibly" and the like, from the intro to some really bad History Channel filler.
The ~50M years ago when brain expansion accelerated was prior to the most likely time of the dark matter passing (30-50M). Therefore, the monolith likely swung by after we had already begun using animal bones as bludgeons. Likely, it was interested in seeing whether our intelligence was anything the universe should have to fret about.
My thoughts exactly. It's a pretty astrophysical coincidence, but dark matter causing brain growth? The polite term for this is "wild-ass speculation". I shall refrain from mentioning the impolite term.
Is this parody?
We should also be happy we are not too close to those open clusters. Young hot stars often go bang.
I wonder if one could make an anthropic argument? Given that nearby supernovae might preclude the emergence of intelligent life with a few million years, we should expect to find ourselves far away from them - like in the centre of Goulds belt.
Might of course be other factors influencing location in addition, like galactic habitable zones and stellar density (we are very close to the plane of the disk).
Surely it just adds to the weirdness that the belt lines up pretty well with the ecliptic, which is of course how the ancients used it.