Rare Earth, My Version.

For many years, I had to wonder why there had not been any proven alien visitations. After all, for well over half a century there have been claims of alien sightings, abductions etc. I had long assumed aliens probably existed and also figured they might be too far away, or not in an advanced state of development. In the year 2000, a book was written called "Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon In The Universe". The book was written by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee. It became the basis for what has since come to be known as the rare Earth hypothesis.

I wasn't aware of this book till probably 2010 and never read it. However, when I saw the title, I knew what it would be about. I had already written and illustrated a Graphic Novel (GN) which I'd completed in 2006. That GN touched upon my take of the rare Earth hypothesis. The first assumption I made about Earthlike worlds is that they orbit Sunlike stars. This because at this point, it's all we know. We cannot begin investigations into worlds orbiting other star types that are not yet known to have Earth analogues.

This illustration shows how an Earthlike planet could orbit either star of the Alpha Centauri system. It's orbit would probably be more elliptical, but not so much as to have the planet be attracted by one or the other parent star.

 

This image was intended to illustrate what an actual exo-planet might look like as photographed through an enormously powerful telescope. The above image came from my GN, "Human Space Flight and Beyond". I did HSFB from 2000-2003.

 

This exo-world is a moon of a larger gas giant. Such a planet is pretty popular to imagine. I had to come up with what I thought would be a more logical way to designate unnamed planets. Current naming conventions would have the host planet named Tau Ceti b. The above image also came from my GN, "Human Space Flight and Beyond". The artifact was just a plot device to illustrate how UFO proponents will suggest a computer imaging artifact might in reality, be a sign of alien intelligence.

For the purpose of this blog, an Earthlike world can be a rocky planet with an atmosphere. By that definition, Venus and Mars are Earthlike. But we know those worlds do not support Human Level Intelligent (HLI) beings. An Earth analog would be a planet very much like Earth but not necessarily populated with HLI beings. This type of world may be fairly common and could be found orbiting other types of stars such as red dwarf stars.

However, one should start investigations of Earth analogs first because as previously mentioned, they are all we know as far as life giving planets. It would appear that all Earth analogues should have HLI beings. But the reality may well be that many don't. Some may orbit young stars and may still be in their early developmental stages for example. Life may be in the microbial or dinosaur stage assuming it even develops in the same glacial and sequential manner that it did on Earth. A sun like star like Tau Ceti could have advanced HLI beings due to the age of the star. Tau Ceti being older than the sun by over a billion years. Or maybe HLI beings on an Earthlike world orbiting Tau Ceti, has long since vanished for a variety of reasons.

What I imagined an image of an Earthlike exo-planet might appear like in a telescope like Hubble or the ESO complex at the Paranal observatory. This was the first image of Destin as shown in my GN, "Human Space Flight and Beyond".

My version of the rare earth hypothesis works like this. There could be hundreds of thousands of pre HLI being populated worlds out there meaning dinosaurs, animals, human like predecessors etc. Then out of that there could be a thousand or so planets populated by Pre Radio Capable HLI beings. Pre radio capable beings ranging from stone age to radio capability. Then a hundred or so early space exploration capable HLI beings followed by fifty or so stellar system exploration capable HLI beings and finally, one to five Interstellar exploration capable HLI beings. The least advanced interstellar travel capable beings can only explore a few local stars while the most advanced can explore virtually the entire galaxy. The latter could be present in only one of every ten or even hundred galaxies.

To further break down the number of potential HLI beings, I use this example. An example consisting of 3 possibilities:

1.....Earth is the only life bearing world in the entire known Universe perhaps because it is the very first.

2.....HLI beings are rare in the extreme.

3.....There are Spocks, Yoda's and neelixe's running around out there just in our galaxy alone, that is HLI life is as common as sci fi media and UFO proponents suggest. To answer each of the 3 possibilities, I do so in this way:

1.....This is highly unlikely given there are much older galaxies with earth analogs long since gone. It is also highly unlikely Earth is the only life bearing world. But it is possible and if life should be discovered outside Earth, number 1 will become a moot point.

2.....This is my personal pick due to the fact we have yet to detect HLI presence in nearby star systems via the Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program. In addition, no credible evidence of HLI alien beings has been presented thus far. This does not mean HLI beings have not visited, they could have visited when dinosaurs existed. We would never know they were ever here if that were the case.

3.....A galaxy teeming with HLI beings. Each stellar system having at least one Earth analog with HLI beings. If what the UFO community presents as evidence is to be accepted, this would be the correct scenario. However, the evidence presented thus far by UFO proponents is far from irrefutable.

So assuming my hypothesis (Example 2) is correct, that there are one interstellar exploration capable beings in each galaxy on average. With billions of galaxies known to exist at various times within the known Universe, the irony is...HLI beings would be quite common anyway!

A sampling from my graphic novel Destin. This shows what I called the pyramid of life. A pyramid that has the simplest organisms at the bottom.

 

Another pyramid illustrates common to rare types of HLI civilizations.

 

If optical astronomy can evolve to see planets as spheres with some detail, we would probably see a multitude of Earth like worlds. Ranging from Venus to Mars and everything in between. Planets almost identical to Earth being at the mid range. Astronomers should also be able to detect spectral signatures that could be life indicators. In my GN entitled "Destin", the planet Destin (Short for Destiny) is detected and spectral analysis indicates a cyclic variation in CO2 output over each orbit of this world. A variation indicative of flora (Plants) undergoing seasonal variation.

One indicator of possible life on an exo-planet is a spectral analysis of the basic elements present in the light reaching Earth bound spectrographs. 

A sampling or Earthlike worlds and Earth analogs from my graphic novel Destin.

 

It is much later determined this world is tilted on it's axis in much the way Uranus is. The tilt causing wild swings in the cycle of flora over the orbital period of Destin. A period similar to one Earth year. This fictional planet orbits around the star Alpha Centauri "A". It was further determined Destin had been struck by a smaller planet early in it's formation. It was knocked on it's side leaving it with a hemispherical ice cap on the side facing away from Alpha Centauri "A", and a giant lake on the perpetually lit north polar side. Life flourishing on the tilted equatorial band of Destin.

How did I arrive at the tentative conclusion of a rare Earth where HLI beings are concerned?

I began by looking at life right here on Earth. Out of millions of species, only one arose to technological development. And out of the planets of the solar system, only Earth is known to have life beyond simple microorganisms. We don't yet know of life outside Earth but Mars, Europa, Enceladus, Titan and perhaps Triton are good candidates for microorganisms such as extremophiles. It is often said Earth had to have just the right conditions for life to develop, especially complex flora, fauna (Animal) and HLI life.

In my Destin GN, the planet Destin itself, was thought to be teeming with advanced life forms. As it turns out in the story, it has some highly unusual life forms including one species determined to have HLI at the level humans were in the stone age. These were classified as "Planimals" as they had both plant and animal features. Destin demonstrates how unusual an Earthlike world or even Earth analog can turn out. Destin is just one of several Earth analogs I featured in my fictional story of Destin.

In my GN, planimal's grow under the canopies of trees in most cases. 

This story followed "Human Space Flight and Beyond" and was itself named simply "Destin". I had plans for a sequel entitled "Beyond Centauri" which was to look at humanities expansion beyond the Alpha Centauri system. What I finished of that story showed a catalog of known Earthlike worlds as of the 30th century. A relatively small handful which illustrates the difficulty of optical telescope physics and interstellar travel. That difficulty lying in the example of the fact the speed of light had yet to be broken as of the 30th century.

One of the Earthlike worlds I featured, is populated by bird like HLI beings that never developed aviation. This was due to the fact they already had wings. I featured a chart showing various levels of Earth like worlds. The bird like HLI beings was yet another demonstration of the variety of HLI beings that may exist out there. There have been so many portrayals and types of Above Human Level Intelligent (AHLI) in popular culture that I had an extremely difficult time coming up with original AHLI beings for my GNs. I stopped doing novel length GNs due to inability to gain exposure for them. I may yet revisit my post Destin future scenario via short GNs but only time will tell if that happens. Even now, the media sometimes claim they think we will make contact in a decade or two. The point of my GNs were that we are not going to find aliens in a few years or decades, unless they contact us. It could take centuries and in Destin, it does. In a universe as vast as ours, finding and proving aliens beyond a shadow of a doubt is not easy to say the very least.

Medblog 1

I should first point out I'm not a medical professional, nor is this commentary intended to give medical advice. It is simply an actual documentation of events following a heart attack I sustained in 2015.

My Sister Suzanne suggested I write a blog about my latest heart attack because of how it ended up turning out. I was cool to the idea because I didn't want to make myself out to be a hero or even anyone special. I'm neither. But she convinced me it might be a good idea to tell my story so others can gain hope if they are in a similar situation. I've been diabetic since at least my December 1999 diagnosis. My condition lead to my first heart attack at aged 45 in November 2001. I had another heart attack in January 2008. That one moved me to become stricter about my diet and weight than the first one had. I went from 250 lbs in 1999 to my high school weight of 180 lbs. I was still at 220 lbs in 2008 even after my initial weight loss efforts. But by 2014, I'd gone down to my high school weight of 180 lbs.

In October of 2014, I made a marathon 3,000 mile trip to Alabama, West Virginia and north Florida. There were a few problems on the trip which caused an increase in the miles I'd driven. It was a week long trip to see relatives and a best friend. After that trip, I began to notice my weight increasing. Later, my feet began slowly swelling, and then my legs swelled. On March 10, 2015, I went to my doctor and he diagnosed Congestive Heart Failure or CHF. My second heart attack in 2008 was also a CHF attack. My first was an acute heart failure which destroyed much of my heart tissue.

On March 20th, I checked into the hospital. The initial treatments were promising but the hospital room was so cold, I'd huddle under a blanket like a homeless guy under a bridge. I even looked the part as my beard had become unkempt. I was beginning to reach a point of diminishing returns by the end of the first week. I'd hoped to be headed home by this time. My ejection fraction was only 6. I half jokingly asked my doctor if I was actually already dead! By months end, I was considering discharging myself but I hung on. For one thing, I'd gone up to 210 lbs. On April 4th, I noticed a message on the nurses board saying "Keep him comfortable". I knew that was hospital staff code for "I'm dying". It was easy to understand because every time my doctors would come in, they'd see me under the blankets. They'd always come in unannounced. The Physical Therapists (PT) would come in before lunch which gave me a chance to shed the blankets. I'd do my best during PT sessions and often did more than asked. I Was hoping these efforts might result in an imminent discharge. I was visited by a hospice nurse which told me in effect, I was to be carted off to die. My Sister and Brother in Law came by and I mentioned the latest developments. I told them I said "I'm not plannin on dying". Paul (My Brother in law) was surprised at my comment. He knew then, I wasn't ready to go off to croak. The time I spent in the hospital was approaching two weeks and I was mainly there to reduce the swelling in my legs. It wasn't working.

That evening, I was discharged after my request was processed. I went home after almost two weeks in the hospital. The longest I'd ever been hospitalized. I went to see my regular physician who wasn't in. So I talked with his substitute, Dr. Kahn. He advised me to limit my fluid intake to 2,000 CCs a day. By the 14th of April, I was beginning to see the results of my strict fluid intake. But like any diet, I knew the initial loss of fluid would be large compared to getting the remaining fluids out. Suzanne saw the big fluid loss in my feet and it moved her to tears. She was amazed at how I was doing. By June 10th, I saw my Cardiologist who was also impressed with my home treatment plan. He saw improvement in my heart but advised me to limit my travels.

In about the middle of June, I decided to cut my liquid intake from 2,000 CCs to as low as 500 CCs. By July 6th, my weight was down to 186. but it took another month to loose just one lb, even at an average of 1,000 CCs liquid intake. I'd gained a few pounds after my 186 lb recording. That prompted a cut to 500 CCs and by mid September, I reached 182 lbs. I began to raise my liquid diet limitation. Despite my travel limitations, I decided to visit a relative who lived some 500 miles from where I lived. I flew to avoid driving and causing another episode of swelling in my legs. I didn't tell my cardio doc about this trip. The trip still had a downside. I had some minor swelling and had gained 16 lbs just on a weekend flight to and from Jacksonville. But I'd driven to Tallahassee and back which was 6 plus hours of driving. I got my weight and swelling down again just a week or so after my trip. By mid November, I considered the weight loss and diet restrictions to have eliminated all the fluid from my legs and feet. By Novembers end, I'd gotten back to my 180 lbs, the ordeal had ended. Now at aged 60. My heart has improved and I have kept my weight in check. It would be unfair not to credit my recovery to the efforts of my various doctors, nurses and PT's. Unlike many who might see this as yet another commentary on how crappy doctor treatment is versus home treatment. This is not the case here. It was the doctors who told me how much fluid to cut that made this story a success. I simply followed doctors orders once I got away from the cold hospital. Even after my first heart attack almost 15 years ago, I maintained the healthiest diet possible and avoided a toe amputation in 2010 as a result. I have to say by following doctors orders, taking my meds and dieting, at least a decade has been added to my life.

My legs as they normally appeared.

An approximation of my swelled legs.

 

Technosaurs.

Soviet era aircraft image credit: Ron Caswell.

Today, one cant help marvel at some of the technical wonders Humankind has produced during a relatively brief reign. Compare that reign to dinosaurs which had existed for millions of years. Man developed tools which sat him apart from Earths other species. Collectively, tools become technology and technology enables man to do what other creatures cannot. If it is true dinosaurs were wiped out by an impact with a Comet or an Asteroid. They were not prepared! Millions of years did not allow dinosaurs to develop beyond that of sophisticated eating machines.

 

Humans on the other hand, developed rapidly to the point that we can destroy life on Earth without an asteroid. Man has developed technology that produces many items of benefit. Technology which has escalated with each major improvement throughout the last three centuries. Inevitably, in some areas, technological progress has slowed down. Have we in the U.S. even the world, hit a technology plateau? Consider the following. During World War II and soon after, the U.S. Western Europe, and Russia began developing jet aircraft, computers, radar, and especially rockets.

 

By the sixties, the moon race was on. Even the race for a SuperSonic Transport (SST) was on in the U.S. Russia, Britain, and France. The U.S. and Russia were even conducting HyperSonic Transport (HST) research and the U.S. targeted 1976 for initial SST service. HST service was projected in the early nineties based on mid sixties projections.

 

The moon race wasn't the only manned program the U.S. wanted to implement. The 1969 space task force chaired by then Vice President Spiro Agnew, foresaw a lunar base, nuclear shuttles and a fifty man Mars base. All by 1989. Popular culture portrayed a future full of technical advances (Unless you saw Mad Max or Planet of the Apes). The seventies changed all that and the changes are still with us. An example being the popularity of dystopian future movies. The only commercial SST that ever flew regular service was the British French Concorde. That ended on 26 November 2003 following the 25 July 2000 crash of a Concorde and subsequent evaluation. The Concorde was retired after the combined effects of its only hull loss crash and the post 911 airline industry economy. U.S. SST research didn't stop after the 1971 cancellation of the Boeing 2707-300. Periodic SST research continues to this day but no operational SST is in sight.

 

The U.S. space shuttle was developed but never achieved its planned flight rate. The space shuttle was a technical success but an economic failure. Russia, Japan, and Europe had space shuttles in the works. The only nation outside the US to have flown a shuttle was the Soviet Union which flew its shuttle Buran. It was flown only once, and finally abandoned in the wake of the Soviet Unions collapse. Japan and Europe have abandoned their space shuttle programs and the U.S. tried replacing the current shuttle with vehicles such as the X-30 (Orient Express), shuttle 2, and X-33. All eventually cancelled. Cheap access to space eludes the best minds in aerospace engineering once again! Nuclear power, nuclear fusion (remember cold fusion?) is still decades away from practical application. We could be on the verge of a new energy crisis. Not a single lesson seems to have been learned from the original ones of 1973-74 and 1979. Until recently, big oil research was aimed at keeping oil flowing, not phasing it out in favor of future energy sources. Electric cars and hybrid car designs are finally being marketed after decades of hype.

Can it fly? Probably, so it will more likely be killed by the barrier above than any technical barrier. Although in the case of Venture Star, a technical problem with the propellant tank design caused the Venture Star to meet the cost barrier.

 

Will the U.S. or any other technically advanced Country finally solve these long standing obstacles? The biggest being the "Cost Barrier"? Some once believed the future to be a pre-ordained event. The reality is that the future is market driven. That's why the 747 became the icon of air travel and the B-2707 is all but forgotten. SSTs were not an economically viable commercial design. What's it all mean? instead of the advances once promised in the sixties and seventies, the U.S. Russia, Europe and Japan are acquiring ever more expensive "Technosaurs" as time moves on.

Dinosaurs lasted a lot longer than technosaurs could possibly last.

 

What is a technosaur? a highly technical project such as an SST that gets developed and reaches a point of maturation and then gets abandoned due to rising costs. The U.S. should take the lead by breaking the cost barrier and moving on to develop cheap access to space. The US is developing energy alternatives, and other cost effective solutions to problems considered largely unsolvable. How to overcome this "Cost Barrier"? That's for the engineers to figure out. The engineering community usually does not have cost containment at the forefront of their designs! Until they do figure out how to eliminate or greatly reduce such automatically built in items like cost overruns. We will not ever see SSTs, Mars bases, fusion power, or many other expensive advances that crash when they meet the "Cost Barrier".

Exodus...evacuation Earth!

One of the reasons its been suggested we undertake interstellar travel is that this old Earth may someday become inhospitable to the human race. Possible reasons for leaving earth include eco disasters, all out nuclear war, or asteroid impact. Science fiction stories have been written about this subject as have numerous magazine articles that talk of an Earthly evacuation as being a reason to set off for the stars.

 

What is the reality? Is this something we can actually do now, or in the near future?

 

Like a scenario for shooting nuclear waste into space or the Sun, a lot more wishful thinking than science would seem to be at work here. As in the nuclear waste disposal scenario...it is a case of "Inadequate logistics". The term "Inadequate logistics" describes not being able to move nearly enough material...or in this case, people and material into space to actually colonize another star system within a reasonable amount of time. If we detected an incoming asteroid too large to deflect or destroy. That detection could come just a few years before impact. Even with a crash program, this is not enough time to evacuate thousands or millions of people from earth. The spacecraft required for the evacuation would have to be parked at some distance from earth to avoid getting hit by pieces of an asteroid after impacting earth. The only viable solution is selecting the top people of the human race to make the journey and leaving the rest to die. Something like 3,000 people minimum would be required to assure reproduction of generations of them in the event the nearest earth analogue is tens of light years away. Not to mention the feeding and life support required for such a large, space borne population. This has many thorny social implications as one with even a small social conscience might expect. Consider that in just over half a century of human space exploration thus far, less than five hundred people have journeyed into space. The reason for this, not enough seats and frequent flights. The Shuttle averaged roughly five or six flights per year over it's lifetime.

 

Soyuz or Shenzhou flights are less frequent and carry three persons maximum.

 

Russia and China are currently the only Countries that can send human into space after almost half a Century. The US having dropped out supposedly temporarily upon retiring the space shuttle. The highest human flight rate ever sustained was by the shuttle in 1985 at 9 flights. China had talked of sending their first men into space for almost two decades, and then finally did so starting on October 15, 2003. Their next mission was launched October 12, 2005 followed by a few more. At this rate, they will by no means, be sending Taikonauts  up en masse, much less sending escaping earthers away from danger. An American named Burt Rutan through his company Scaled Composites, sent humans to the edge of space for the first time on June 21, 2004. Two competitive flights for the "X" prize were made on September 29th and October 4, 2004 respectively. While Burt Rutan won the Ansari "X" prize of $10 million USD, his is nowhere near being a solution to the "Exodus" problem. Especially considering his early efforts did not achieve orbit. However, his goal is space tourism through Virgin Galactic, headed by CEO Richard Branson. As of 2016, they are recovering from an October 31, 2014 accident involving the loss of the "X" prize follow on craft, Space ship 2. Other companies such as Space X, have yet to send humans to low orbit. With a world population that will probably well exceed a hundred billion by the time humans develop interstellar travel, even the most extravagant concepts could not be expected to keep up with the population growth. And the fact that the "Population curve" is far ahead of the "Sending people into space curve" is no help. Even commercial air travel, if thought of as space travel seems inadequate. Had space travel achieved the ability to move millions into space each year, it would still be a daunting task and require a decade or more minimum to move the majority of Earths human population off Earth. To say nothing of animals such as livestock that humanity has always relied on for food and other products. Consider the interstellar travel concept I portrayed in "Human Space Flight and Beyond" which takes place very optimistically in the near future relatively speaking. That is, about a century and a half or so from now. Initially. each ship has the population of a small town on board. About 4,000 people in the case of Starship Centauri at L4 departure. And its not as though the starship could move significant numbers by frequently turning around.

 Starship Centauri enters the Alpha Centauri system, illuminated as it passes in front of the "B" star. The habitable portion of the craft is housed within this tiny asteroid.

One starship with up to 4,000 people on board, would be able to make only ten round trips per century at near light speed. This to move only thirty thousand persons or so per century, assuming more ships are not built to expedite the task. Not to mention the relativistic effects of near Speed Of Light (SOL) travel which makes return trips to Earth useless anyway. Of course, those who made the initial journeys would begin populating the hypothetical Alpha Centauri Planet one (ACP-1 or Destin) and unlike our early pioneers, they would presumably benefit from the advanced technology expected. It would probably be better to simply put populations of small towns, even cities inside huge near Earth space structures such as those once proposed by Gerard K. O'Neill.

Huge space colony concept similar to that proposed by Princeton University Professor Gerard K. O'Neill. This concept was dated June 11, 1976. Image courtesy NASA.

In my own concepts (A few shown here), I didn't require the original expedition return to Earth. The starship was intended to sustain them in the event they found Destin to be too harsh for human habitation or in the event they couldn't populate Destin to begin with.

As mentioned above, the ship, or rather forward end, is roughly
the size of a football field.

Aft view of the conceptual craft. These images are from a graphic novel I did a decade ago. The proposal was shown in response to Betelgeuse going supernova in December 2016. Of course, I do not expect Betelgeuse to go supernova on that date. I just used it to show what a supernova in our backyard would be like. For story purposes, it wasn't a full blown supernova event.

When people write or discuss Exodus earth type plans, its not known for certain  whether they are aware of the tremendous logistical and social problems involved. Those problems are usually not part of these discussions. Or perhaps they have no problem with the social implications of deciding who should be part of the evacuation of Earth, and who should be left behind. I recall one Sci Fi movie made in the late fifties or early sixties that did cover the logistical problems somewhat. It was probably the movie "When Worlds Collide". The only realistic interstellar exodus scenario I can imagine is one taking centuries and sending starships to numerous destinations, never to return to Earth. Closer to home, simply moving into O'Neill habitats scattered throughout near Earth space seems to be a more realistic solution for evacuating large numbers of people in relatively short time frames such as a decade or so. These habitats could theoretically be built like building a ship inside a bottle, but inside of hollowed out asteroids instead. This could avoid supernova and solar radiation. Terraforming planets such as Mars has been proposed as a solution to the problem of earth facing an imminent disaster. Problem is, terraforming a planet could take centuries to complete. It would appear we've been terraforming Earth for two centuries now. Only we call it industrial pollution and human made climate change. We have no idea where that will lead. For now and the foreseeable future, the idea of an exodus to an earthlike world in a nearby star system is still very much the realm of science fiction.

Flat Earth going mainstream?

Are we as a society headed into a new dark age? Flat Earth (FE) belief for example. In recent months, the FE belief system has apparently gained traction. It was once a fringe belief but has now acquired numerous followers thanks to slick Youtube videographers with little or no actual scientific knowledge. FE beliefs go against centuries of evidence gathered by people who devoted their lives to working to find out the true nature of the earth. As opposed to "Tuber's" probably not devoting their lives to anything but video making. Is flat Earth belief going mainstream?

Ideas spread much faster with the internet, I-phones and so on than this word of mouth example. This example also shows how average folks often get information from poor sourcing.

 

Mainstream scientists and commentators tend to write these FE believers off as the fringe element they once comprised. But it is evident to me they do so at great expense to the scientific method. The method that has established a spherical Earth since the time of the ancient Greeks. In January, a rapper by the stage name B.o.B. weighed in  as an FE advocate. When a celebrity or rapper weighs in, you know FE beliefs are worming their way into the mainstream. Just as comedian Joe Rogan no doubt helped spread lunar hoax beliefs in recent years. I know this from debating Lunar Hoax Advocates (LHA) who cited Rogan and other celebs as examples. Rogan has apparently decided the lunar landings were real.

On the page linked below, B.o.B. posted this image apparently in an attempt to prove a flat Earth. This is obviously taken on a hilltop. Note the tree tops behind B.o.B. The higher up one is, the easier it is to see distant objects such as a skyline. What cannot be seen is whether the ground floors of these buildings are visible. As with most imagery, the shape of the Earth cannot be proven by images alone.

 

Just by looking at the lyrics to B.o.B.s song "Flatline", one can see his FE advocacy. He has also apparently stated FE advocacy and Holocaust denial as evidenced by his Wikipedia page. Both positions would make it appear he is just seeking to be controversial as most deniers of anything are trying to do. Be a controversial maverick against the evil system or evil NASA as it were. Some of the lyrics just espouse a lot of stuff not even related to FE beliefs. One example being "Globalists see me as a threat". I realize as a major celebrity rapper, B.o.B. is important in society. But he must really think he's more important than warranted to think globalists give a shit about his opinions. That statement could be applied to any Conspiracy Theory (CT). Another example being "Free thinking, got the world at my neck". Give me a break. He has the world by the nads! He has a wiki page! The world is hardly at his neck. Free thinking is another sound bite people use who wish to be seen as "Free thinkers". A real free thinker rarely calls themselves that.

These days, everyone thinks they are a controversial maverick thanks to Facebook, Youtube or other venues where anyone can voice an opinion and claim it proven fact.

 

As with most FE advocates. One cannot really determine if B.o.B. really believes Earth is flat or if he is just advocating that position to make money off of a song. This is why I call the FE belief system advocacy rather than belief. How can I know anyone really believes Earth is flat? Unless I know them personally. Like me, he may have noticed the growing FE movement on Youtube and decided to cash in because as a popular entertainer, he could. Or he may really believe Earth is flat because some Youtube vid convinced him. His "Flatline" lyrics don't display much actual scientific knowledge on his part but then, songs are not supposed to be accurate scientific descriptions anyway. One reflection of that inaccuracy is the lyrics referring to NASA. He says "Why is NASA department of defense?". Most anti NASA types tout this line of reasoning. But saying NASA is Department Of Defense (DOD) is like saying Walmart is DOD because soldiers sometimes shop there in uniform and Walmart sells camouflage outfits. NASAs charter specifically made it a non military organization but did not prohibit it from getting military support in the form of tracking or Launch Vehicles (LV). If B.o.B. wants to see a space agency that IS military, he should look into the Russian space agency or Roscosmos.

Conspiracy theorists often appeal to common sense such as is literally said here. While computer graphics (The CG in CGI) did exist in 1969, it was only capable of making a wireframe globe on a power hungry mainframe. One can only imagine what  the render times were. A wireframe globe is hardly a convincing Earth image from space.

 

B.o.B. of course slams science, as required of any FE advocate. The very thing that provided the technology that gave him worldwide exposure, he calls a club and cult. "Flatlines" lyrics state in part "Indoctrinated in a cult called science and graduated to a club full of liars". He has no idea what indoctrination is. He needs to go to N. Korea where indoctrination is a way of life. He apparently has no idea what science is either. Nobody in America or even the Western world is forced to accept science. That's why we have a nation full of scientific illiterates such as lunar hoax or FE advocates. That's why some 40% of Americans freely believe creationism over evolution. Even if one is scientific, they can become unscientific and leave the so called cult any time they choose. Try that with Scientology. Prominent Astrophysicist Neil De Grasse Tyson took B.o.B. on by using logic and reason. Something in short supply it seems. As a scientist, Tyson knows what he's talking about.

 

The broader problem is the question of whether society is entering some new dark age. The backlash against science has been ongoing for some four decades. Some reasons attributed to this backlash would be Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Challenger, to name the major ones. Another reason is the failure of many scientifically based predictions made in the 1960s, to come to pass. Predictions such as the famous flying cars, SuperSonic Transports (SST) and of course, humans to the planets. Indeed, seems we picked all the low hanging fruit science has to offer. The more difficult a pursuit becomes, the more it is inaccurately predicted and eventually misrepresented. This has happened to some extent with the space shuttle's history. This has also resulted in the current backlash against the one thing (Science) that has made progress along many avenues possible.

 

This backlash, ongoing as it has since at least the Apollo era, could be the first of several which in a century or so could result in a new dark age. Like the previous one, there would still be scientists trying to make new discoveries, but they could be even more a minority than they've always been. And science would be slowed down significantly. How does one fight this trend if indeed it can be fought? Using logic, high quality evidence and other scientific methods because unlike B.o.B.s assertions that science is a cult, science relies on a methodology to understand nature. Nothing more. So one should seek evidence of a flat Earth. The most obvious way to do this is to use NASA and other space agency imagery. Flat Earthers write NASA off as part of the conspiracy to suppress FE. But they fail to explain how we can know when a weather system is approaching when we didn't know prior to the space age. Or they fail to explain how we get satellite images looking directly down on an isolated nation such as North Korea. Or fail to explain something as simple as where do all the rockets go if they don't go to orbit? Some say the rockets are dumped into the ocean while failing to realize if a rocket makes it to the altitudes millions of eyewitnesses have seen them reach, why not to orbit? Where did 135 shuttle orbiters go when only 5 flight models were built? You'd have to trash 135 orbiters to dump them into the ocean. But if one insists on not using NASA or other space agency images, then go do some actual science. I'll even suggest the experiment. An experiment nobody can control. Not even me or the Illuminati. Consider lunar eclipses. It is not possible for lunar or solar eclipses to occur on the most commonly cited FE model shown below.

Just looking at the moon and sun and their altitude data should show anyone a solar eclipse is not possible on this flat world. Hint, the moon and sun would collide, not eclipse. Forget lunar eclipses. The Earth never passes between the sun and moon in this flat world. Also check the sun position and look at the night side. The sun would be visible even at night albeit at a low angle. Did I mention spotlights are not known to occur in nature? The explanation just above the N. pole is pure woo.

 

Consider the explanation in the FE model image just over the N. pole. The one about projections and an inner sun. I have an inner explorer, does that make it real? No. It's a state of mind. There is no evidence the Earth has a hole in the pole with projections and so on. Here, the state of mind of whomever proposed this chart shows they failed to think it through the way an actual scientist would. Sure they got the ecliptic stuff right and shadows work as they would on a sphere. But eclipses do not work, there is no explanation for the outer planets and why other planets have satellites similar to our moon. There is no explanation as to why most northern hemisphere stars cannot be seen from the southern hemisphere and vice versa. Try seeing Polaris from Tierra Del Fuego. Don't take my word for it, go there or construct a global model and see for yourself. Other FE models have the sun and moon revolving around the Earth as any good Geocentrist would have it. The problem here is FE advocates like B.o.B. claim you can see buildings many miles away. If that's the case, a lunar eclipse would certainly be visible from all over flat world. In reality, lunar eclipses do not work this way, but again just experiment and see why they don't. That's what science is about. Most importantly, while folks like B.o.B. want people to believe FE is real because the evil government, evil science and evil NASA are keeping it secret. The broader question is what difference would it make if the Earth is flat or round? At a time when most folks don't know or care what NASA is doing, Earths shape would be about as noteworthy as NASA activities. The so called globalists wouldn't care about the shape of the Earth either. Maybe one day if our populace becomes scientifically literate, the Earths shape will matter. What is more likely. The Earth is the only flat disc world in a solar system of spherical worlds and larger moons, asteroids and KBOs? Or first century thinkers simply got Earths shape wrong due to being too small to realize they are on a sphere.

Though it's admittedly not entirely scientific, it is a sort of Occams razor approach to a flat Earth. One flat disc world in a solar system of round worlds, moons and so on is about as likely as seeing one absolutely perfect square cloud, though the one in this example is admittedly not perfect.

 

Ideas such as a lunar hoax or flat Earth can certainly be discussed and such discussions would be more convincing when high quality evidence is cited. But those who are listening to such discussions should take heed that FE, LHA and other CT advocates almost always use words like "Proof" or "We've been lied to" in their hype titled videos and other media. The "We've been lied to" claims are simply a sort of mind trick to make people think they really have been lied to at all times. Does the government lie? Of course! But they usually lie about elections and promises. Not the shape of the Earth. As for science, nothing is ever entirely a hundred percent proven in scientific inquiry. However, some ideas are proven enough (Earths shape) that scientists don't waste time debating them when they could use that wasted time on debating and researching something more effectively like curing cancer or climate change. Earths shape is provable through lunar eclipses, stellar observations and constructing FE models which demonstrate problems with lunar eclipses. Non of which requires so called evil NASA, science or government. Time to get out of the first century and make the 21st century what it was thought it would be in 1968.

 

Written and illustrated by me, J. Dean unless otherwise noted.

 

http://gawker.com/b-o-b-just-started-a-rap-war-with-neil-degrasse-tyson-1755122840

What's The Point?

What's the point I ask myself? What is the point of me doing blogs and videos at the age of 60? Do I really think I'm important enough to make a rich persons income or even a difference? Do I really think I can compete with other writers such as Michael Crichton or J. K. Rowling? Not at all. At most, I only ever hoped for a small fan following and to make maybe $50K annually off my work. Do I do it to have fun? Most anyone will answer that it should be to have fun, make a difference, and so on. But most of them have an audience. Besides, I've always had fun doing my story telling anyway. Especially when I was an early teen! A decade and a half since leaving my work world job at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and trying to get an audience, I get nothing out of it beyond having fun. To say nothing of making a difference or making a decent income. You can only amuse yourself for so long. I've always studied other peoples work from time to time. Whether it has been magazine articles in days past or You Tube now, I study to see what makes other successful while I fail. I'll never know why I fail while others succeed. You Tube, Twitter, Facebook etc. are places where even average people can be published. One can see all sorts of people publishing their works. I could try to publish my works and get seen on Facebook, Twitter, etc. but I generally do vid work these days.

So much for 21st century style but in any case, the CGI graphic novel style I used for my stories allowed me to tell stories and illustrate them as well. I've been using this technique since I was the age of ten. This example comes from a pic done in or around 2006 when I was half a century in age. The smudgy star like spot in the sky is the "Mars Voyager" plasma propulsion system ignition which takes place in 2024 in this story. A site that may be viewable for earthbound observers if we ever actually send humans to mars.

 

From my beginnings in 1966 to 2008 to be exact, I thought I did pretty decent where graphics and writing are concerned. It even appeared I could do a lot outside of my familiar graphic novel realm as a result of helping a client. I helped with his video by blending 3D stills and animations I did into my clients videos, even doing the end credits. All for an indy movie he produced. I also began a PR campaign involving contacting monster and sci fi fan mag's which were the natural market for his work. To no avail. That resulted in a slump in my own work and then I picked back up slowly after another major setback occurring in 2009. I did non-publishable hobby work from 2012 to 2014 and was also active publishing my 3D works on the internet Renderosity gallery. Then I was hospitalized early in 2015 and discharged myself when the doctors thought I was going to die. I recovered at home but that took 6 months and during that time, I lost interest in my graphics activities in a way I never had before. Six or seven months of no activity resulted. I'd given up.

This before and after pic was one I did for a client in 2008 or so. The before pic being an original image of his actors. The "After pic" being my modifications. Not ILM quality, but my client thought it passable. The still image came from a  movie my client had finished in 2007. However, he had me do some additional website work for him. Like me, he has not found success and has since moved overseas.

 

Having nothing much to do, I resolved to pick back up and start fresh on New Years day of this year with short video projects instead of lengthy graphic novels  nobodies going to read or even know about for that matter. The GNs took anywhere from 3 months to a few years to finish. Five minute videos have so far taken only a few days to three weeks to complete. Since New Years, I've posted 4 with a 5th ready to post. My big problem has been how to get exposure. I see silly videos like "Gangnam Style" get thousands of posts within a few hours of being posted. Gangnam style is now at 2 billion plus views. It was professionally done but I see amateurish crap get numerous hits as well. And I know you have to have a hook to get people interested so I can only assume my hooks suck. I don't get any hits unless I spend hours debating target audiences, and then my videos will maybe get only two hits.

 

This scene from a sci fi story of mine about shrinking people. It may seem like the idea was a rip from "The Incredible Shrinking Man" or "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" but this story has it's own surprise ending which could be a beginning. However, I never finished it so the ending is still only in my mind.

 

In my youth, I kept my Westgate city works to myself. That concept more or less being ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances in my fictional town of Westgate. No superheroes or even batmen in Westgate, although I experimented with the batman like idea as an early teen. My shtick has always mainly been human spaceflight and over the top realism to the extent possible. An example being if there is a moon in the night sky, it should be where it's positioned and in the correct phase astronomy publications show it to be in. However, I've known since my early teens that realism isn't what sells. So I tempered it as best I could. An example being my Mars exploration stories focus on crew and situations between men and women as much as going to Mars itself. I won't go into any more details on the mechanics of my story telling here. Suffice it to say it seems I'm not an engaging story teller. So why do it I ask myself?

This image is an example of both my late 1970s ideas and drawings and later, the building of this aircraft idea in the computer (Inset). I even color picked the originals Crayola colors, the typed numbers of which can be seen just above the profile view of this gargantuan vehicle. When I drew this in 1977 or 78, I pegged the vehicle for operations in 1995. This because the future was always projected by movies, magazines etc. to be far more spectacular than it actually became. The original image was not intended for publication. I scanned it into my computer a few years back.

 

In the past few years, I do it because it has become the slightly morbid idea of just leaving something behind after I'm dead. I can't even call it a legacy. I'm not important enough to have a legacy. Much of my work in recent years has been related to future human spaceflight as it might occur were NASA to be doing it. That in part because many of my near future ideas are just variations on actual NASA or NASA contractor ideas. The difference is, I use my own spacecraft designs. But even those ideas closely conform to what is known to be realistic. No Star Wars, anti-gravity or perpetual motion designs. Anti-gravity of sorts is reserved for my space travel of the far future since nobody knows how that's going to work, including me. With actual NASA human spaceflight on hold beyond ISS, I don't do that sort of story anymore and I stopped doing GNs because of the time involved doing them with no return on my investment. I've also been doing my story telling using CGI since 1998. I don't have an audience for any of it because it's a niche market audience at best. The work I did prior to my CGI era was largely personal and unpublishable anyway.

 

What made me think I could even interest a small fan base? 

I still can't answer that given I was generally cautious about major goals most of my life. I never bought into the "Believe in yourself" idea alone because I would think of many thousands doing just that and standing in movie audition lines over and over only to be turned away, while one lucky person might make it. Making it involves more than just one person believing in themselves. Other people eventually get involved and help determine ones path to fame. I managed to work at KSC from 1984 till 2000. My best professional 16 years. I worked there as a technician and later QA inspector. Nothing I'll be remembered for. I never expected to be remembered for that anyway. And in a sense, it took 7 years of preps in the work world and the USAF to build my resume because I didn't have a college degree.

I was told I had some graphical and story telling ability as an early teen by my parents and a few others. Nobody in high school except a best friend and girl friend knew about that activity. A few in the AF and KSC saw my work as well. Non of them ever said anything more than that I should work for Disney. Decades later, I get to see people younger than me making a difference often in huge ways. Or seeing someone close to my age making a difference. An example being the late Michael Jackson and his dancing, song writing and singing. I can still recall seeing MJ when he was part of the Jackson 5 and wondering if I would reach his level of fame. But as my mid teens hit, I knew I wouldn't reach that lofty a level. So I focused on work world employment after HS graduation and decided to get into aerospace. Getting the KSC work lead to a 15 year sabbatical in my writing although I still maintained my drawing works. By writing, I should point out my graphic novel activity prior to my employment at KSC, consisted of comic book formatted style of story telling. Drawing during my KSC years meant drawing spacecraft designs I wanted to use in stories that never materialized during that period. Prior to my CGI era, I did type out a spaceflight and time travel story intended for publication but of course, was unsuccessful in my attempts to publish them.

Orion is a popular name for spacecraft concepts. I named my Mars Transit Vehicle (MTV) concept Orion in the early 1990s when I made this drawing (Among many) and typed in the text. I've since come up with my own name for MTVs which is "Mars Voyager". This image clearly illustrates my borrowing NASA ideas and reshaping them into something with my signature so to speak. USV was one of my rare collaborations. I collaborated with 4 other technicians, a supervisor and an engineer. But even USV was built upon early NASA  space tug ideas. The 1983-1998 period was one of low energy imagination for me.

When the internet came about, I saw the potential for average people like me to publish and tried to do so. I can of course, make a website or go to the tube and publish all day long. But if I can't get the traffic without spending large sums of money I don't have, what's the point? So now I just want to leave something behind. I can still hear the faint voices of people long gone saying I was meant to be a graphics person as though I'd hit it big. I'd say artist but that's too hoyty toyty for me so I don't go there, but that's what a few of the long gone voices called me. I mean, an artist is someone who is truly accomplished IMO. They generally have a large body of work and their works matter to many. I may have been meant to do graphics all my life, but only as a hobby not to be appreciated by more than a few others. I don't mean to seem like I'm disparaging those few others because they are all I have or had and I do appreciate them. But I did what I did in hopes of a reasonable fan base of some kind. Since that's apparently not meant to be...I'll just post what I consider most important to me and be done with it.