What exactly is this Big Bang thing all about? What is in store for our planet and its population during the next century? Is there life on other planets, and if so, what can we learn about them? All of these were among questions and topics covered during B. Gentry Lee’s lecture in the DCC last Thursday evening, which was sponsored by the Rensselaer Union Speakers Forum.
Lee, a former director of science for NASA, is currently Chief Engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Lab. If you were to ask him what he did, though, he would reply, “I add to human knowledge.” Aside from his work, he has dabbled in writing novels with Arthur C. Clarke, produced television shows with Carl Sagan, and even designed computer games, among other interests. Perhaps one of his greatest accomplishments, however, is raising seven sons with his wife Stacey.
To open up his lecture, Lee gave the audience “a sense of perspective” concerning who he is and how he would be presenting himself—which stemmed from advice given by his eldest son, to not “take yourself so seriously.” This introduction led to a general overview of the time since the Big Bang, which he condensed into a “cosmic calendar” of one year. The audience laughed when he noted December 1 on this calendar as the date when sex was invented, but in seriousness, the time frame was meant to give people a better understanding of how long intelligent beings have existed in relation to the formation of our planet. For example, the Milky Way showed up sometime in May, yet the planets in our solar system were not around until September. It was not until the Christmas holidays when dinosaurs were in control, and human forms did not appear until late in the day on December 31.
He then moved on to the first of two main topics, which he planned to connect at the end. The first topic, “the biological revolution,” was his description of the future of the 21st century. Lee explained that scientists are now close to being able to rid fetuses of birth defects and ultimately, parents would be able to design their offspring. This, however, would all come in stages, the first of which was being able to fertilize many eggs and then choose which one has the characteristics the parents would like the child to have. This potential process would come from the better understanding of the human genome. Ultimately, people might be able to fill out a form of what qualities they want a child to possess. He said it is something that would be “possible,” while distinguishing between what can occur versus what should occur.
This comparison stemmed out from the offspring aspect, and Lee mentioned that scientists are on track for people to someday be able to choose to die or live on, and if they chose death, they would be able to set the date and time. However, these possibilities would not come without downfalls or sacrifices. Mainly, if people could live forever, the chance to change a society of any kind would be very difficult. Aside from the human spectrum of this “biological revolution,” Lee discussed that even groceries would be unrecognizable, as the food itself and packaging would adapt to address environmental concerns and to incorporate any new scientific capabilities.
When he jumped into that discussion, Lee went on a tangent about fellow author Steven J. Gould and Gould’s expertise in Pre-Cambrian times. Apparently, that was an age when five times the amount of creatures existed—but perhaps scientists now could take DNA from an adult form and recreate the creature through “chemicals risen to consciousness.” He came back on topic to give an overview of geopolitics, and stated that China will most likely become the dominant country again, as the United States is now. The rest of the world is currently paying China over $1 billion collectively for trading, training, and education—before the “Long March of 1934,” China was on course to be the most dominant country, which Lee noted would have made the Internet all in Chinese. He noted that there will soon be vast changes in business and manufacturing, and that eventually items would have a “total cost” that factored in environmental impact.
Lee then switched gears completely to his second main topic involving aliens, to which he asked, “if there really are so many intelligent species out there, then why is there no clear and unequivocal proof [of their existence]?” Though none have been discovered, he mentioned the possibility that they do exist, but that they are merely watching or do not want to interact with us because they believe we aren’t intelligent enough. He cited studies that showed that 85 percent of the country and 92 percent of politicians are scientifically and technologically illiterate, and other statistics supported theories that our society has a destructive nature—perhaps why no “aliens” have communicated with us. If we cannot interact with each other in a civilized manner and sustain our environment, then how will we work together with outside beings?
Though Lee could not prove the existence of intelligence elsewhere, he did pique the audience’s attention while discussing some discoveries that have been made. Cassini, a Saturn explorer, has found a new moon with geysers, and the main moon Titan has bodies of methane, much like how water is distributed on Earth. Kepler, a photometric telescope, can thoroughly examine one sector of the sky, and it would be able to pick up on distant earthlike planets, and evaluate how they move about their “sun.”
Ultimately, he said, in the not-so-distant future, Earth and its inhabitants are due for some changes. Future technologies will be so advanced and precise that their actions will be “indistinguishable from magic” and science will allow people to actively make important choices, such as the characteristics of a child. With regard to aliens, it is important to understand that the circumstances to which humans came to be intelligent would be difficult to reproduce. Also, as our own life form is fundamentally unstable, it would be rare for two intelligent groups to exist simultaneously, let alone in a similar location. However, “something will happen that you cannot predict,” and perhaps if someday people figure out how to live with each other and respect the planet, we will be visited by other intelligent beings.
