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UNIVERSE NEWS

How Did the Universe Begin?

The question as it was posed; I have always been fascinated about the beginning of the universe, how and when God created it and I know many people have speculated how it will end. Can you shed any light on this?

To even begin to get into explanations on this subject would require much more preliminary discussion and background than we have had, but I cannot let this opportunity slip by, even though there is probably no chance that anyone will understand since I am also limited in the words that are available in your and my vocabulary to explain that which to some extent will always remain unexplainable. I will however begin our discussion and continue it in future articles since there is much territory to cover and new concepts to present on the appearances of "Time" on your plane if one is to even grasp the intuitive glimpses into the beginning of the universe and frankly, I am not sure I can verbalize this knowledge in words and phrases that will make any sense, but I will make an attempt. My limited attempt to convey the concepts that I would like to convey is not your fault, but mine, since words are not the ideal medium to deliver information on beginnings that never began and endings that cannot possibly happen without a formal beginning.

I would ask that you set your brain aside and forget logic, since the physically materialized brain cannot understand the full scope of non-physical reality and must to a large extent rely on the use of intuitive knowledge. I am not minimizing the wonders of the physical brain, but it's development is in its infancy in its development, with latent potentialities still unused exist, that will be activated in the future that will allow understandings that are now impossible. There will be some of you who will call me crazy, and many who just won't get it at all, but if only few can grasp the implications of this, we have gained some ground and we can revisit this subject again and again.

I must first begin by asking you to do something quite unusual in your world of minutes, days, weeks and fleeting moments. I will ask you to imagine that you had never been born into a "time oriented" system of reality where cause and effect rule and one act leads to another, where beginnings happen and endings seem inevitable. I will ask you to imagine a world more like the dream world, where time is negligible and the past, present and future rub elbows in one basic expanded present. I have talked briefly about the dream universe before and explained that the dream world is actual, has continuity and continues whether you are involved in it in one of your dreams or you are awake, and although you don't realize it at this time, you also dream when you are awake.

You dip in and out of the dream universe as you sleep and wake, but the dream universe does not end, your awareness of its reality ends as you wake up in the morning. This does in no way affect the continuity of the dream universe, that goes on quite well with or without your conscious awareness, thank you. The experience of the expanded present is experienced by your inner self, but obviously not the ego. If the ego could perceive the expanded present, it would be overwhelmed with what it would consider chaotic, rambunctious, vast amounts of seemingly conflicting data that would totally escape its comprehension.

You cannot pinpoint the beginning of a dream any more than you can pinpoint the end of a dream, you simply ease in and out of different intensities of dream awareness, inserting your own contributions to the overall dream drama, affecting it in personal ways that add to its overall depth and intensity, playing out a dream scenario that will in very real ways eventually affect the physical world and its events, just as the physical world affects the contents of the continuing dream drama. You do not, having entered into a dream, wonder about when it began! The reason that you don't wonder about it is simple, it is intuitively understood by the subconscious, that it is and was forever eternal and had no real beginning at any particular time, since time is an illusion and only a reality on your plane.

The subconscious is aware of its connections to the inner universe, and the inner universe also had no beginning as you understand beginnings and endings. The dream universe was created at the same time as the physical universe as a by product of that creation, but you see, even trying to convey this information, I am also mired in the "time" perspective, since I must use words, linear concepts, that are detriments in explanations of this nature. The irony is that the more you concentrate your attention on examining the outer reality, exterior facts, dimensions, distance, mass, etc., the further you get from the truths of the real universe. Physical dimensions, distance and mass are surely usable information while you are living in a physical world, subject somewhat to universal laws, but these attributes are physical characteristics only, and have no relevance to the actual universe. You cannot apply your laws to other planes of existence.

Your senses tell you what you want to know about the physical universe, but your outer senses are not equipped to give meaningful information about a universe that is supported by psychological reality wearing a cloak of physical matter in a somewhat permanent appearance. The permanence of the universe is an appearance only and if you could (See) what the universe really is, you would be totally overwhelmed and confounded to the point of insanity. For practical purposes in this article, we will ignore the actualities of the universe and concentrate on what you perceive and what you know of the universe up to now.

Dreaming, is natural by product of life itself, and the physical self could not live were it not for the dream interactions and reactions when you sleep. You dream, animals dream, trees dream and flowers dream and in this kind of abundance, even atoms dream. If you ask, when did the dream universe begin, then I must tell you that it does not require a beginning, and only in your system of "Time Oriented" reality does time tick by minute by minute, but I understand the question, and in your terms the dream universe was created simultaneously with the physical universe, and although we won't be discussing it at this time, the universe of negative matter was also formed at the same time. The statement "The universe began tomorrow" is probably more relevant than at some time in the ancient past. The Universe is constantly beginning in each and every moment of physical time.

Time is an illusion and is only relevant from your limited perspective and most other historical reality civilizations would not understand your version of time since their history would be in their present or even in their future. I must use time terminology in speaking of these beginnings or nothing would be understood. So, lets move on, and please remember, I admit that I am not going to be very good at explaining this concept and you are probably not going to be very good at understanding it. That is not meant to be an insult to your intellect but there are limitations to what you and I can understand at this point in the evolution of the human brain.

The universe has ALWAYS EXISTED and because it had no beginning in your terms, it simply cannot have an end. It has changed and will change as all things change, as all energy demands change of form. The universe that you know is but one camouflage appearance that energy adopts, but the practical universe being an energy manifestation, cannot end. It can change form since no form is static or eternal. There was a time when the physical universe emerged from a purely psychological state, impressing itself, utilizing atomic structure, changed or assumed form, emerging from the inner non-physical universe, from the mind of All That Is, much as it is now, fully developed in form and function, a subjective creation learning as it struggled to become objective, as conscious entities who would be the first identities to occupy that completed physical universe, developed in a parallel way with the environment they would inhabit in a new world of experience, never before available.

There was a time in which" that which was" was not perceivable with physical senses became perceivable, but at that time there were no physical beings and no physical senses to do the perceiving. In other words, if you mean, when was the "physical universe born?", then I would say, in your time terms, a very, very long time ago, but not to be too cute here, it would also be correct to say the universe begins in this very instant, and drags along the dream universe and the universe of anti-matter as by products, a part of the objective universe, but still in their own dimensions.

I think I might just stumbled on a good analogy here in that time is linked to the concept of the continuity of events, one event leading to another following event, one triggering the next. This is a misleading concept, linking you to the time continuum, and the fallacy behind that link cannot be penetrated from your standpoint. In other words, while you are a human being, the illusion cannot be penetrated.

All events stand alone and one event does not cause or trigger a following event, since in the inner universe of the expansive present all events exist and are occurring simultaneously. Events do expand in a psychological way, like an idea would expand, the physical representation being like a cloud would appear to grow and expand if you were watching the skies in a state of reverie where the clouds move grow and expand, but seemingly without a "series" of events. In that vein, consider that everything THAT IS NOW, is simply the expansion of the first creation of matter within the universe, one really, really big event, beginning then and continuing today.

Matter and events change, must change because of the very nature inherent in matter itself, but no matter or event once created is ever lost, but lives on in a reality of its own sympathetic nature and those fields of varying actualization are unlimited. A thought is a reality and once a thought is thought it does not die, but falls into its own dimension of activity. This is similar in concept to the independent dimension of reality that your dreaming self exists, while it still is a part of and affects your dimension.

The point is this, and it is a difficult one indeed, and I must first ask you the question: Would you naturally believe in time if you were not born into a time system? Basic reality ignores time and everything happens spontaneously and simultaneously and cause and effect does not exist as a valid concept. In most ways a dream ignores time in the same way. For those of you who know my sneaky ways, you have probably guessed that I am again going to say again that the universe had no beginning, and this statement although seemingly scandalous to one embedded within a world of passing years, birth and death, dusk and dawn, it is unbelievable but nevertheless true.

This article in many ways must shock many of my readers since I have not yet talked of the true nature of time, or better still, the absence of time in expansive basic reality, other than to touch on it in our talks about dreaming. In time terms, which again, has no validity outside of your system, the introduction of the first infinitesimal speck of matter took place simultaneously with the introduction of the first entities into the physical system. The Bible says that God always was and always will be, and it should be added that entities always were and always will be and entities were present in the beginning. Entities have their part in the creation of all systems.

I realize that it may seem like I am playing word games here, but that is not the case. I explain what I can explain, but there is much I do not know and there are some things that I know, that I can't explain, but I do my best. The creation of the universe is not beyond being understood. The origin of the ONE SOURCE or ALL THAT IS, is beyond intellectual understanding by the physical brain and must always be grasped from the inside out through the mind and intuition. The ultimate purpose of these articles is to introduce you to new, yet ancient concepts and truths and make you wonder and search for your own understanding.

My name is W. Allan, single male 62, a resident of Naples Florida. I graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and have in the past, written a column called SECRET REALITY which was carried by spiritual and metaphysical magazines. Shorter, 700-1000 word column length reprint versions of these articles are available on request. You can contact me any at my e-mail address: w.allan@hotmail.com. You may also read other articles at my blog at: http://www.answersbygod.com

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What is the Universe?

In what you call the Universe is a kind of vibration. Out of this vibration comes, and becomes, what you call intelligence, and this intelligence is what you call God. At a time God becomes more than an intelligence but becomes a fabric. The fabric takes the form of energy which it turn takes the form of matter. What you did not know is that this energy which first forms from intelligence is not alone. There are different forms of this intelligence so that there is a kind of overlapping of intelligence in the universe.This we call a dimension shift for there are many kinds of intelligence giving birth to many kinds of, or rather the universes express in many different forms at the same time each universe with its own progenitor.

So you see that what you understood has more complexity than you imagined. Then what happens to the laws of nature in these different expressions of universe? There are different kinds of beings who inhabit these universes, but as we see the lives that they live are different. Unfortunately for them their lives are intertwined by being within the same framework or what you might call space. Thus you have an intermingling of different universes or expressions thereof. Thought or intelligence vibrates and forms energy which forms into matter and then life forms as you know it. The materialization of life in one form or another depends upon the intelligence which emits it. Moreover these lives are connected through inhabiting similar spaces and even times. (time is not a factor really as it cannot exist until something happens)

Now you see what we are getting at because it touches your lives and our lives and even the lives that do not share the same space. Then you end up thinking that you are one with the all-that-is yet in another way there are several "ones". Yet all of these ones coexist.

You asked for something different and now I told you something different.

So how does this affect you personally, you may ask? It means that there is more to the universe than you thought. It also means that there is more than one God; that there are many layers of intelligence which are not united but are at odds with one another so that even the basics like the laws of physics vary from one place to another. They are in balance or the whole thing would blow apart, but there are forces opposed to one another, facing each other in different forms and from many sources. You wonder about conflict but conflict is what happens when opposing forces do not match and one collapses upon another causing debris to fall on a third party. Then it must rebuild itself. b>How can a world exist if it is always falling victim to the collapse of forces from outside. Well this is what happens. And this is why your world is in turmoil. The turmoil spreads to your own self because your self is composed of forces in opposition to each other.

Things are made of opposition. That is what gives them their solid nature. Things press against each other and create solidity, or in some way what appears to have solidity, for this solidity can vanish in an instant.

Let us tell you what can be gained from knowing about this. First you are not so simple as being Gods' creations. You are the result of creation on many plains of reality. What you call reality is a confluence of several realities.

Fortunately for each one of you there is only one reality at any given moment. What it really means for you is that your awareness is a part of an awareness which shares existence with many awareness's. What you call Father is one of many Fathers of all-that-is and you are part of this multitude.

Which brings me to my point which is this. In all that you see and hear and are told of future events or of plains of reality being this way or that or stories of one kind or another the best that you can tell of your future is that your future does not exist yet and can be erased or changed. The forces that make things happen are in constant struggle.

Any story that tells you that any one thing must happen is not telling the truth because your universe can shift position without warning.

What you can hope for is to return to your essence which is what you are on a larger scale. You do this by return. By return we mean letting go.

Finally we want to let you know that by not fighting you win the war, for only fighting in any way, on any level, of any kind sustains any world. Remember opposing forces. When you see yourself worry or being afraid then you are opposing and creating the kind of world that your force creates. Then let me lead you to a new thought and that is to let it all go. Stop your worrying. Let go of passion. Release your inhibitions even your reasoning. Let go of all and let go of resistance to your lives. Let the flow take you.

When you do this you will have peace. Now you see how it all works. Release, let go, stop trying so hard to create worlds.

Be happy with what you have for it was created for you but don't force, for force calls opposition. Want not and you will prosper. Ask not and you will be given. Visualizing creates bad feelings. Let go and you will have.

Your peace depends upon your letting go.

Imagine a world without wanting. Having would be natural for having is natural.

You have heard it before Imagine the lilies of the field they neither toil nor do thy struggle.

You are co-creators of your lives so let go in deference to the larger intelligence of which you are a part and let go.

Now we leave you for this is enough for the time being. (by time we do not mean time is passing for there is no time without thought.)

As time passes you will observe what we have told you and you will see that letting go is the better way.

Now have peace.

Hethball

This article is channeled by my guide Hethball.

Joseph Schwartzman

[http://www.channeling-spirit-guides.com]

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Life In The Universe: Are We The Proverbial "It"?

Are we alone in the Universe? That's a question that's been asked by millions over the eons, without, to date resolution. Of course the word 'alone' implies alone in the sense of whether or not there exists elsewhere our rough equals, more likely as not betters. We want to get to know our neighbours across the street, not their pets, or their plants. The standard gut-feeling answer to the question usually revolves around how vast the Universe is, and surely, given the billions of stars in our galaxy and the existence of billions of galaxies each with billions of stars, etc. and the vastness of time, surely we can't be the proverbial "It". There's unfortunately one slight flaw in that statistical approach. There's a rather long chain of events that have to happen, hurdles to be jumped, in order to get from the elements of star-stuff to biological cosmic neighbours. Depending on whom you talk to, that chain can be extremely long indeed. The point is, if any one factor in that chain of causality has a very low probability of coming to pass, it matters not one jot whether or not all the other factors are extremely probable, the overall result is going to be low. If any one factor is as close to zero as makes no odds, then the overall answer will also be a close to zero as makes no odds. Certainty multiplied by certainty multiplied by certainty multiplied by certainty multiplied by zero multiplied by certainty multiplied by certainty multiplied by certainty ultimately equals zero!

Rather than give an exhaustive list of all those factors required to give us cosmic neighbours, I'll focus on six essentials.

Firstly, one has to have the right kinds of matter and energy that can produce beings like us, and a solid surface to stand on. That's no problem. The Universe has lots of kinds of energy on tap; stars can manufacture and disperse the required kinds of matter, like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, etc. There's lots of solid bodies (planets) out there. That's one vote for certainty.

Secondly, one has to have a solid planetary body turn into a habitable world; a suitable environment for physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology to do their evolutionary thing. Fortunately, that shouldn't be a problem. There's a lot of real estate out there and it comes in all sizes and flavours. While there's only ever going to be one Planet Earth (I'll avoid discussions of the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum physics, the notion of parallel worlds, and the Multiverse here which could argue the contrary), there has been, is, and will be, lots and lots of earth-like abodes, just letter perfect for life-as-we-know-it to survive, even thrive. If one wants to throw in life-not-as-we-know-it, there will be lots of worlds suitable for those possibilities as well. So, that's another vote for certainty.

Thirdly, physics has to become chemistry, and chemistry has to become biology. We need biology to have had origins, or an origin, an origin(s) of life that's an inevitable outcome of the everyday ordinary interactions between physics and chemistry. Well, many will argue that the origin of life is as nearly predictable as death and taxes, given a suitable habitat. Many will also argue that the origin of life is a fluke! In my point of view, the origin of life need only happen once, and that clearly has been a certainty - we exist and we are life. Once there's one origin of life, the rest is just distribution. Panspermia provides the ways and means of distributing (microbial) life throughout the cosmos. So, I'll have to cast another vote for certainty again!

Fourthly - well, now we hit the proverbial brick wall. You and your neighbours aren't microbes - you're a colony of microbes. In short, you're a multicellular life form. We seek, in the cosmos, other multicellular life forms, on the grounds that the odds that a microbe or unicellular life form isn't going to prove to be much of a companion or drinking buddy is a near given. So, we need to get from unicellular to multicellular, and therein lays the rub. And it's here that we have to rely for guidance on a sample of one - Earth. Note: It's dangerous to extrapolate from a sample of one, but what choice do we have?

There's no ecological niche on Earth occupied by multicellular critters that's not also occupied by unicellular critters (microbes). The reverse isn't true. You may think the world is totally dominated by multicellular critters - you, your partner, your family, your pets, your garden, your food, all the life you see around you is multicellular. There's millions of species of insects - all multicellular. What's more common than bugs? Yet, if you did a biological census, even in your home and your garden, you'd find that apparently common multicellular life forms are out-common-ed, vastly outnumbered, by unicellular life forms by a ratio of trillions to one. What you don't see does matter!

So, are multicellular critters an evolutionary certainty? Is there anything a 'colony' of 2 or 20 or 200 or 2000 cells can accomplish or fill a previously unfilled ecological niche that one cell can't? And by the way, that 2 or 20 or 200 or 2000 stage has got to be selected for before one can get to the two million and two billion colony stage. Well, clearly the transition happened here, albeit it took some three billion years to seriously kick-start the process, so it's hardly some inevitable 'law of nature'. I mean taking some three billion years to get to a colony of cells from a single cell doesn't inspire confidence that the process is easy, necessary or inevitable. Anyway, it did happen here, so it's obviously possible. I just don't see it as a super-evolutionary development that confers immediate survival-of-the-fittest advantage. Of course a colony of two cells might be harder to eat than one cell, but at that level, 'food' tends to be absorbed at the molecular level. In any event, microbes can easily attack and 'eat' multicellular critters, causing sickness, death and decay. We're ultimately food for the microbes and the proof of that pudding is how we spend small fortunes keeping them at bay. But, eventually, though you might win the battles against the microbes, you'll lose the last one, and thus the war.

Another factor that argues against multicellular organisms being a universally common feature of the Universe is that it is also a lot harder to transport around the Universe by natural means - that concept of panspermia - multicellular critters. I mean getting a microbe from Earth to Mars is one thing. Getting a cockroach there is a whole different scenario.

Multicellular development; its probability, can't be zero since we're multicellular, but, on balance, I can't assign a high probability to the transition between unicellular and multicellular life on every habitable planet, every time. This one is nearing zero!

Fifthly, as noted earlier, you don't want to interact with your neighbour's multicellular pets or multicellular garden plants, but your neighbours. What do you have in common with your neighbours that you don't have in common with your neighbour's pet or garden plants? Intelligence (even if you probably think your neighbours are a few cents short of a dollar!).

The issue now is whether, having evolved to a multicellular stage, will one develop some higher brain function? Is there any further evolutionary advantage towards increasing one's intelligence? By going back to our sample of one, if Earth is any guide, the answer is roughly 'not likely'. There are millions of multicellular species that have existed, and do exist, on Planet Earth. There are apparently only a very few species that have evolved something beyond the minimum level of brain power required for their day-to-day survival. That doesn't inspire confidence that intelligence has inevitable value as a means of survival.

By far and away, most multicellular critters just operate on pure instinct and don't (can't) stop to figure things out (far less stop to smell and appreciate the roses) - but, there are an admittedly few exceptions. Many wild birds would put our everyday companion animals to shame in the IQ department. I mean I love my cats, but little Einstein's they're not. Whales and dolphins have also been credited with being in the higher IQ bracket; ditto our close primate cousins. In the invertebrate kingdom, the octopus is pretty smart - by invertebrate standards (and then some if one is honest). However, on balance, most multicellular critters put their evolutionary strategies into something other than higher brain function. Take my cats. Is it to their survival advantage to 'figure things out' or to be just a bit faster afoot, hear just a bit better, see ever more clearly? Nearly all organisms put their survival abilities into something other than pure brain-power. Clearly brain-power has survival-of-the-fittest attributes. But, it's not the only game in town, and therefore doesn't have what I'd call evolutionary 'certainty'. However, it would be illogical to say that developing intelligence, the ability to figure things out, isn't valuable and doesn't have survival value, it's just that if you were to list all the multicellular animal species on Planet Earth, very few would have an IQ of even one (the human average is 100). So, let's say intelligence is somewhere between certainty and highly improbable.

Next, let's assume your intelligent neighbours are fairly far away and the usual means of keeping in touch is by phone (or email). That introduces one additional complication; it's not enough to just be intelligent. You need to have technology. Then, and only then, will the 'are we alone?' question be answered to our absolute satisfaction. We need technology if we are to find extraterrestrial intelligence(s); and/or extraterrestrial intelligence(s) will need technology to find us. One or both of us has to have invented engineering to a somewhat sophisticated level - maybe rocket ships, maybe radio telescopes, but something technological is required. There's also a hidden assumption here - you actually want to seek out new civilizations. It matters not if you have all the required technology but care not to use it for the purpose of answering that question - 'are you alone in the Universe?' I'll assume here that if you have intelligence, and it's been able to construct technology, then part of your intelligence is devoted to be a curious critter who wants to know and find out things - so that's a certainty of one. But what's the level of certainty of developing technology in the first place? Rather poor judging from those terrestrial species that have some reasonable smarts to their credit. There's the human species of course, and though while we're not quite a sample of one, it's pretty close. There are documentary observations of some animals (primates mainly) not so much making, but making use of existing 'tools' to assist in their survival. Alas, most intelligent species lack the anatomy and/or the right environment to manipulate objects. In the case of dolphins and whales, their ocean environment stymies any way and means of constructing things and making use of fire, for example. So, developing technology has to be rated, judging from our terrestrial sampling, as rather low.

Technology is also a double-edged sword. The use of technology has had obvious survival value for the human species. You wouldn't be hard-pressed to come up with dozens of technological inventions that have enabled us to survive longer and thrive better. But, out technological genie is out of the bottle, and unless you're a hermit, you will have noted by now that technology can also reduce our quality of life, and no doubt you wouldn't be equally hard-pressed to cite dozens of examples. Which leads nicely into the last consideration.

Lastly, there's the issue of longevity. If your neighbours move in, but then move out again in less than 24 hours, that doesn't allow much time to meet them and chat over afternoon tea - blink, and they're gone. But if you're both on the block for twenty years, that allows lots of time for afternoon teas, philosophical chats and bridge games, etc. So, how long do technological civilizations last?

Well, the pessimist will look around and cite global warming, probably antibiotic resistant germs giving rise to pandemics, chemical, biological and radiological warfare and/or terrorism, the extinction of species, rampant pollution, and in general an overall quality of life heading rapidly down the gurgler, right down to the point that the human race will to extinct - by our own hand. But if you're an optimist, then the sky's the limit.

Longevity - It's hard to imaging what human civilization, what humans themselves, will be like 1000 years from now, but if you could come back 1000 years hence, would you indeed find a human civilization, indeed find recognizable 'humans' at all? Once you have evolved to the stage of being a multicellular critter with intelligence and technology, then physics and chemistry and plain everyday evolutionary biology are no longer in control of your evolution. You are now in control! You are in control not only over the future evolution of other species (artificial selection instead of natural selection) but of your own evolution. The age of the designer baby is already upon us, albeit still in its infancy (pun intended). What will another several more decades bring to this now embryonic field but obviously an ever ongoing and continuing maturity!

Humans will probably go kaput within 1000 years, not because of a global nuclear war, or pandemic, or asteroid strike, but because they have by their own hand evolved into something else, and the process has already started. In fact, it's possible that in 1000 years there could be two humanoid species on Earth. One will be an amalgamation of flesh and blood plus 'iron and silicon'; the other pure 'iron and silicon' (robots).

The first is not too difficult a swallow. Just replace or augment flesh and blood bits with 'iron and silicon' bits (or wood bits, or ceramic bits, or plastic bits, etc.). Look at most pirate films and you'll see those beloved peg-legs and hook-hands. Do you wear glasses or contact lenses? What about a hearing aid? Perhaps you have an artificial joint(s) or a heart pacemaker. You surely have a dental filling (or two), maybe even dentures. Then there's artificial skin and all manner of other internal or external types of technology that have replaced your failed flesh and blood - like kidney dialysis. There's now serious talk about the development of a bionic eye within a few years (to go with the bionic ear). What further artificial bio-bits will be available in another 20 years, another 50 years, or another 200 years? The era of the "RoboCop" or an actual "Six-Million Dollar Man" (and "Woman") is nearly upon us.

Within 200 years or so, I can envision that one will be able to download the contents of a human mind into an 'iron and silicon' equivalent. Why? Well, does the word 'immortality' (or as close to immortality as makes no odds) suggest a possible reason? You don't think anything of endlessly replacing worn automobile parts for new parts to extend the useful lifetime of your car. Why not endlessly replace your worn parts. Your mind (brain) won't last forever. Replace it - transfer it to a more durable technology Do it again, and again and again as is necessary. In fact, one might create a mega-mind or super-mind by merging into an 'iron and silicon' body a lot of minds. By merging the minds of say a cosmologist, general relativist, quantum physicist and mathematician, one might speed up the development of the Holy Grail of physics, the Theory of Everything (TOE) - which is a theory of quantum gravity.

Once your mind is contained in an 'iron and silicon' 'head', just attach that to an all 'iron and silicon' 'body'. Immortality indeed!

All of which leads to a future Earth inhabited by a humanoid robot species, artificially evolved from today's human species. That process too has already started. Robotic appliances, even artificial 'iron and silicon' 'pets' are on the market. Research into artificial intelligence is ever ongoing. Watch that final minute of the final episode of the TV revision of "Battlestar Galactica'! How about those sci-fi "Transformers" or "Terminators", or Data (from "Star Trek: The Next Generation")? Then there's "Doctor Who's" Cybermen or Daleks (though they're part machine; part organism). Think of those robots from "Westworld" or "Futureworld" where nothing can go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong, go wrong... Then there's "The Stepford Wives", "Cherry 2000", the original "Battlestar Galactica" Cylons, and many more. It might be just science fiction today - could it be science fact tomorrow? There doesn't seem to be any violation of physics involved. Everything not forbidden is compulsory! However, some of those sci-fi scenarios suggest that perhaps ultimately there might be a conflict between the (part) machines we become, and the (artificially) intelligent machines that we create!

Of course we're in control, so a robotic future isn't of necessity compulsory. But I suspect it will happen. Why? There are rational reasons for humans deliberately abandoning their flesh and blood existence and evolving themselves, if not 100% into 'iron and silicon' then at least into something part flesh and blood coupled with part 'iron and silicon' - sort of like we have today (recall those dentures and peg-legs).

Quite apart from immortality arguments, it's nice having more indestructible bodies and bodies that can be more easily repaired. Death won't go totally away of course - accidents still happen. Presumably, your mind will be able to absorb 10, 100, 1000 times the amount of experiences and memories and knowledge, etc. than is currently the case. You might be able to explore environments now closed to you, like taking a stroll across the sea bottom - kilometres down - in your robotic 'birthday' suit. All of which then opens up the entire 'boldly going' experience. What's the hardest part of going to Mars? - it's the flesh and blood frailty of the human body - the need for gravity and oxygen and organic food and water, and space suits, and how you can't carry spare flesh and blood parts along too, etc. Extrapolate to our exploration of the entire solar system, then our stellar neighbourhood, eventually the galaxy. Even if you don't want to go yourself, well, there's artificial intelligence housed in perhaps nanotechnology bodies, spreading throughout the cosmos like so much cancer.

The ultimate point of all of this is that if eventually us (humans), why not them (extraterrestrials) now? Translated, after a relative short period of biological development, a civilization can obtain longevity that evolutionary development into 'iron and silicon' provides, coupled with far easier expansion into the realm of outer space.

This level of technology can also partly undo the bottleneck created by the relative improbability of multicellular evolution. There maybe relatively few multicellular infested planets, but once technology of the 'iron and silicon' kind happens on them, then boldly going, being fruitful and mechanically multiplying and colonizing the cosmos rapidly fill that gap.

All of which doesn't mean that we are, in the here and now, the proverbial "It'. However, there are enough 'probability one' or certainty factors that suggest this is rather unlikely. The proof of the pudding will be to find them; or for them to find us.

Science librarian; retired.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Prytz

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5411826

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