Starry Starry Night

From Anton Petrov's amazing What Da Math Youtube channel, we're acquainted with the fruits of this awesome period of astronomical discovery. We've learnt that the Terran system extending past the moon's orbit, is a sea of hydrogen, the real source of the water gas that comets generate as they pass through to us, not themselves as the classic ice balls at all. We've photographed a supposed black hole and seen amazing multi-star systems. 

We have created a fifth state of matter and tracked space hurricanes. Everyday, new worlds fill our catalogues and entice our wanderlust. One thing, our Jupiter and Earth are cosmic midgets among the super Jupiters and super Earths that make up the majority of the planetary population. 

And yet, not so much as the signature of microbial life to ease the uniqueness of our creation. As yet, Perseverance has yet to tip over that rock with microbes at the bottom. As yet, a few questionable radio signals indicate who and what awaits us in the great beyond. 

Amidst the dimming of Barnard's Star, are there brothers from other seas, other mediums, observing us even as we speak? Do they have three hands, gills for lungs, strange epics for their reptilian race? As great as our instruments and men have reached, as far as our imaginations have crossed paper and celluloid, still we await the great transformation of our truths that meeting Them would grant us. 

At which point, the new alien civilization we would be watching and studying, wouldn't be theirs. It would be ours, the great city state of the species irredeemably changed in outlook. What then our beliefs and attitudes, what then our very view of ourselves in this infinite cosmos?

 Georgics

I'm afraid both the passing of the ages and the distortions of the popular imagination have lost to us the actual nature of the Romans of the Empire. So what were they, inbred tyrants, untrammeled militarists, a species as domineering as they were craven in their appetites? At least, that seems to be the impression you get at times, even from 'highbrow' entertainment and literature.

In truth, go back to the era of Rome in its full bloom, anywhere from the beginning of the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD and what do we find? From the palatial estates to the beggars at the Colosseum, we find farmers. As my old teacher once said, "scratch any Roman and you'll find a farmer!"

A man whose whole worth, whose honor, whose dignity and whose legacy was tied to the land he owned, the seasons, what crops came to bear. The heritage of cultivating the richness of the earth, of truly investing wealth in that and what labor came with it, is the heritage the Romans bequeathed to all their cultural heirs, including ourselves. The legacy of cultivating the land, exploiting it as opposed to merely conquering and claiming it, meant that the barbarians who took over after them not merely had a basis in organizing their cities and countries to come, but the habits needed to feed them as well. 

There is no higher regard I can think of for this constant labor of growing from the willing and furtive earth. What greater pleasure than feeding your family from your own plot, of providing for them from one's own efforts? Perhaps I should take up a garden myself, sometime.

 La Tempesta

Art nowadays may be too good to subject the artists' perspective to something as crass and filthy as lucre. In the Middle Ages however and especially those centuries ennobled in the academic perspective by the term, 'Renaissance,' painting was as much a business as, say, breeding hogs, or paying off lovers. In terms of its specific reference, this painting was commissioned by a Venetian noble named Gabriele Vendramin, somewhere between 1506 and 1508, the High Renaissance.  When it was completed and paid for, it entered into his estate and stayed there for long after his passing.

To my mind, much of the piece's famed ambiguity could be explained by the context in which it hung in the Vendramin household. As it was not a personal representation, or a historical depiction, or any other straightforward description of its subject, it was indeed allegorical. By the way, such ambiguous storytelling through art was much more common than we may think today. Consider for instance, that it may have hung in a summer home, awaiting lengthy, lethargic days and happy, playful nights.

Then the painting can clearly be seen as representing the intended spirit of the place. A place that was sheltered from the traumas of nature and man, nurturing and calm. The soldier is set against both the lightning and thunder beyond and the adjacent city, both contemplating and guarding both the poor gypsy woman and her suckling child. 

Yet as well, those same forces and powers beyond can potentially be harnessed in this place, this indolent little paradise where dreams can flourish unimpeded and all manners and forms of the imagination can take root. Especially for children, those themselves still nursing, up to those ready for an early marriage. Such lightning bolts of creativity and genius we long for as children, such force and readiness in the soldier to meet the challenges of the day, do we hope to attain even as still children.

So much of the detailing as well, calls to mind the works of Arthur Rackham, Maurice Sendak and other fantastical children's artists of the past. The meandering subtle blues and stark brightness of the burning reds and yellows in the sky. The dreamy cityscape just above the drifting waters of the river. The lush but ordered state of the trees and foliage. Finally, the soldier, smart in his uniform, lance jauntily by his side, as the descending darkness will allow him to be, positioned before the ruins of an ancient estate, probably guarded in its glory by men much like him, far in the past.

He is juxtaposed beside the lovely bather suckling an infant. The implied relationship between the two of them is probably the biggest real question mark of the whole piece: lovers? guard? chance encounter? We will never know and even those of us who dismiss potential drama, have to admit to the sheer possibility.

As for the woman herself, she is usually described as a gypsy, but at first glance, this description would seen unlikely. By her pale skin, her self-assured manner and her coiffure, she would have more likely been a straight depiction of a woman in the Vendramin household. At any rate, she is no low born woman, who would have been an unlikely subject in those days, at any rate. Not that any of that does or should matter to the modern eye, or real eyes for that matter.

Whatever the full truth of what is probably this tragically short-lived artist's best known work, it succeeds as a dreamscape. Which is probably why it has attracted the devotion of artists, especially literary ones,  throughout the ages. It may not be entirely an accidental work, but it is certainly a wonderful example of the painter's magic.

 Bitcoin?

Name: R MK

Initials: R M

Next letters down: S N

Name Order: 1)R 2)MK 3)Satoshi 4)Nakamura

Number of syllables: 1 2 3 4

First four numbers added together equal 10

1,0 a binary set

Satoshi Nakamura- Intelligent History, Central (or Market) Village

Just felt like a little devil tonight, so I'm throwing it out there. I'm sure if there was something to it, better minds than mine would have figured it out a long time ago.

 Valentine's Day

This was once St. Valentine's Day, but alas the feast day for this particular St. Valentine has long been relegated by the Church calendar to only local celebrations. Be that as it may, this Roman custom was especially beguiling to Englishmen on the Grand Tour. So much so, that like so much, this was replicated into their own culture.

And so what has regretfully has become largely a commercial exercise has passed another anniversary. And so, whatever true sentiments have been felt this day pass into memory. Cards, bracelets, letters of often genuine passion, packed into drawers or boxes, one day hopefully to be rediscovered. In far-off Japan, innumerable chocolate molds gather in wash basins, their owners relieved from having to make treats for all the men in their lives, whether they actually like them or not.

In warehouses and storefronts throughout the world, cheap chocolates and withering arrangements gather, to know the indignity of a bargain sticker later. Even the China flu doesn't seem to have overly affected the expression of love and may nothing ever. Simple love, having someone in your life, why really does anything else matter?

 Future Shocking

If the byword of past warfare was destruction, usually total, the byword of future warfare might be disruption. That is to say, less the total elimination of an undesirable opponent and its transformation by shaping action into either a non-factor or a desirable partner. Much has been made of the organized force end of society, military, security and elsewhere, to do so by smart weapons, large computer arrays and so forth.

Less has been made of how private citizens have the means to astonishing ends through smart phones, networked computers and other resources. Powerful means exist to disrupt organizational functions, both governmental and private, organize mass movements and track and digest vast amounts of information. Such capabilities will enable smaller and smaller groups to effect astonishing and frightening effects on their societies in the future, as the capability to wage warfare moves from large institutions, to smaller, less centralized, more informal bodies that will be more autonomous and self-directed.

 Anti Lasers?

Recently, the concept of an anti laser was foisted. A laser as we know it, emits a coherent beam of directed light energy. An anti laser on the other hand, gathers photons on its path in a causal but still coherent stream. An off the cuff analogy I can bring bear, is that of a bullet, that instead of expending its energy once it's shot out, instead hits the primer of another bullet, which sends it out to hit another primer and so on. 

In theory, there should be hardly any energy loss from the time the anti laser is 'fired' to the time it strikes an object. In this case, it isn't intended to destroy the object, but more usefully, recharge it. In theory there should be almost 100% energy transfer regardless of distance. In fact, researches claim a transmittal of over 99% of transmitted energy. The technical name for this process, is Coherent Perfect Absorption, or CPA.

One wonders if other forms of radiant energy can achieve such coherence. If we think of wireless transmittal of microwave energy for instance, we can imagine a microwave stream that doesn't dissipate over time. Instead, a kind of domino structure is initiated that incorporates microwaves already transmitted naturally from other artificial or natural systems into what is theoretically, an infinite stream of power. A line of causal relationships is set up that keeps transferring a given amount of energy, until the stream is interrupted, probably by some sort of receiver.

Therefore, future power transmission might be less dependent on unleashing singular streams of force. Rather, they would rely on sending out streams tailored to interact by timing, wavelength and frequency to a given topology of potential energy interactions. In such a case, one stream would bounce against an equally powerful stream, then another, then another. 

Could this be is at least partially what Tesla meant by resonant streams, near perfect transfer of power from one point to the other? Power streams that less depend on how much finite force they inject into a system as how much that force interacts with and directs other forces already present. A feature less about how far and with how much strength the beam has, as to is it just enough to send other forces down the line the way it wants them to go.

Perhaps the age of wireless transmission is closer than we think.

 Solar Cycle 25

Depending on the expert, Solar Cycle 25, a dipping then a slight rise to the solar mass we receive from the sun, is either still years away, or newly upon us this winter. As the sun's energetic patterns, ie the amount of solar particles coming our way from coronal mass ejections, starts to diminish, the amount of cosmic rays that strike our atmosphere will quickly increase. The result will be a diminution of the amount of the sun's radiation emanating down to the earth below.

Now let us stop defining this as either global warming or cooling, but merely as climate change, a normal cycle of nature that occurs periodically. We're just lucky enough to once again experience the wonderful conditions of the first half of the 17th Century. Then, among other things, the Ming Empire collapsed and Central Europe lost from 1/3 to 1/2 of its population. 

Climate is not a uniform system at all. See last year, where the beak of South America became an extension of the Antarctic, while Australia took on the appearance of the Sahara. The current systems of the ocean ensure that chaotic turbulence.

What we will see in the coming months and years, will be shifts in the specific climates of the planet. All over, there will be an unprecedented number of weather anomalies, from steady rainfall in the Maghreb, to the drying out of much of Southern Europe. The greatest impact will be on the one activity most vital to sustaining human life, agriculture. 

Already, the situation looks disastrous for large belts of the agriculture of this planet, in particular China. According to the solar scientist Valentina Zharkova, expect major food shortages starting from winter of 2023. While an emphasis on vertical agriculture might put a dent in the food emergencies to come, a personal emphasis on bucket agriculture, greenhouses and other personal agricultural systems might not be a bad investment for one's own personal survival.

 On Lichens and Liberty

Once, billions of years ago, near the start of life on Earth, a blue-green algae of the kind we now call a cyanobacteria and a fungi grew close together. Perhaps enough of these grew one on top of the other, who knows how these odd intimacies form in nature. Eventually however, these creations formed a symbiosis, thus beginning one of the most formidable partnerships in living history.

Eventually, lichens formed one of the largest family of organisms, with one of the largest families of life on Earth. Lichens can be found in their tens of thousands of species, in forms of astonishing complexity and beauty. They can be found in virtually every terrestrial environment.

They can be found on tree bark, clinging to rocks in the High Arctic and the desert. As much as 6-8% of the Earth's surface is covered in their creeping majesty. By their dissolving action, these humble mats may have contributed far more to the real shaping of the planet's surface than us proud and often destructive bipedals. One day, when we may have destroyed ourselves or allowed ourselves to be destroyed, they and cockroaches might be the real heirs to all this real estate.

As if all this weren't enough, lichens are some of the longest lived of species. So much so, that a science exists to determine the age of things through the lichen growing on them. One would hope our species would be anywhere near as successful in dominating our potential domains as the lichen have been at theirs.

The success of the lichens is the simple harmony between the two species. One, the fungi, emits acids that both protect the body politic as well as provide necessary minerals. Meanwhile, the tough cellulose of the fungi cells cover and protect the algae, allowing it to grow and thrive in conditions that the normally aquatic creation would dehydrate and die in.

Meanwhile, the algae takes the minerals and combines them with sunlight. In the photosynthesis process that takes place within their luminescent bodies, the result is oxygen, water and the vital carbohydrates that power both species. So well does the algae do this, that in certain lichen species, the fungi have lost the ability to produce food for themselves.

The success of lichen can be compared to a balanced politico-economic system. This is one that provides the legislative, judicial, regulatory and self-defense components necessary to ensure the safety  of a given area and populace, as well as a certain continuity of existence. The same system also ensures the safe and continuous formation of a private sector that provides for the wants and needs of the populace and enables the continuous evolution and formation of the larger society, while not merely detracting from, but adding to the national treasury. 

As long as the public sector does not trample on the liberties of the private sector, that entity will enable it to function with constant infusions of tax revenue. On the other hand, as long as the private sector does not allow its self-interested dictates dominate the national interest and subvert that same, the society and its citizens will enjoy at least a modicum of security both at home and abroad.

The vital importance of respecting both sectors is vital to the continuation of any regime. Any tilting of the advantage to one or the other, needless to say, endangers the continuity of either and the potential long-term stability of society as a whole. Liberty, expressed either in terms of individual or societal freedom of action and interaction, suffers in either case. 

The lesson of the lichen is, therefore, that a balanced socioeconomic structure is key to a particular society's longevity. One would hope that a strong foundation of individual rights and responsibilities is expressed from the beginning, but in this world, any balance of the private and public sectors is preferable to any system dependent on dominance by one side or the other. 

However it's expressed, a strong, stable, self-generating society is the basis of any form of liberty, societal or individual. Liberty after all, cannot flourish either in tyranny, nor in anarchy. Hopefully, we can learn the lesson from that humble growth that ornaments our otherwise bare trees and fences.

 The New Decade

As Arthur C. Clarke rightly critiqued at the start of '2001: A Space Odyssey,' the third millennium didn't start in 2000 AD, but in 2001 AD. After all, who counts only up to the nine of something? 

Likewise, this new decade, the third decade of the new millennium, started on the 1st of 2021, not 2020. After all, it's called a 'decade' or a counting to a ten, for a reason.So now, we are in a new decade. What will it bring, what can we expect different from past decades? 

Well for a start, like it or not, we are now thrust into the age of remote communities, of peoples scattered by distance, but who nonetheless are able to function together through the power of internet communications. Likewise, an increasing number of our activities will be performed beneath the gaze of potential inquirers, meaning the Dark Web. Both these spheres of activity will unfortunately promote already growing physical isolation, but may ultimately free up great landscapes for mental activity, for the mind of man to grow and flourish and interact with others outside normal physical and societal  restrictions.

On the other hand, the increasingly centralized and authoritarian nature of the Information Age will drive many potential users and their expressions off the platforms and result in a greater homogenization of expression akin to what has already been the case with mass media. The two trends will probably drive the formation of autonomous mini-communities who will communicate and develop in ways akin to clans and secret societies of the past. Entry will be by trust and sponsorship and the heady days of the early Digital Frontier will soon be forgotten.

As far as larger physical trends continue, few bode well either for the individual nor for mass society in general. Climate change and other crises will continue to develop out of control, with an increasingly aggressive power structure continuing to twist the raw data to suit its own requirements. The astonishing pace of technological development we were accustomed to in the previous century will continue to be artificially suppressed, at least partially in the name of an 'orderly' society.

We'll see how this goes if, in the name of 'peace,' the powers that be in fact initiate the ultimate driver of technological development, a new cycle or cycles of conflict, of war.  For now, we project from what we have now, what the future has in store. Hopefully, the material sciences continue to advance and develop a new round of, most importantly, new medical breakthroughs. 

Hopefully, though even in the realm of mercy, one must acknowledge the presence of overriding factors of economy and advantage, that ultimately stand like vultures over every facet of human existence. Then again, maybe it really is for the best, lest the Faustian lust for knowledge and the power it brings, so aptly described by Spengler, brings on the Correction of Overreaching (the erroneously named 'Lathe of Heaven') described by Ch'uang Tzu. Life and fortune to any reading these words in whatever course the path of this new decade takes.