Letters : . . .
by e-mail
Tipler believes that the development of intelligent life in the Universe is
vastly improbable; perhaps the less anthropocentric view is that it is vastly
different [from us].
Letters : Mind or chemistry?
Bergalia, Australia
The feature “Racing to euphoria” (23 November, p 28) is confusing because its
author appears to accept that there is a distinction between mind and brain
function. He says on the one hand that exercise-induced euphoria may be due to
biochemical processes in the brain, or on the other hand, that it could be due
to psychological factors. This is illustrated by the following quotations.
“If a rush of endorphins doesn’t explain the mood-enhancing effect of
exercise, could the feel-good factor be all in the mind?” asks Rob Yeung, who
goes on to say that “in reality even the most ardent supporters of the
psychological explanations for the feel-good factor admit that it is likely to
be due to some combination of both psychological and biochemical factors.”
What is the reader to make of these statements? I submit that the author
believes that feelings can occur either in the brain because of biochemical
changes or in the mind.
If this is his position, he has to explain what he means by the mind, where
it is situated and how it functions. He also has to account for the last
sentence of the article: After all, says Stewart,”ultimately everything you do
can be explained on a biochemical basis”.
Letters : Andean accident
La Paz, Bolivia
The use of the expression “toxic sludge” in the title of your article on the
El Porco zinc mine is misleading (This Week, 23 November, p 4). International
environmental consultants advising COMSUR, the company running the mine, have
confirmed that, while suspended solids and the levels of dissolved zinc within
the first 50 kilometres of river were elevated immediately after the incident,
pH, arsenic, cadmium, cyanide, lead and mercury were all within
permitted regulatory levels for receiving waters.
Although visually unsightly, no one was injured by the incident and to date
there is no evidence that a single campesino has left their home. It
is, however, worth noting that many campesinos work several
smallholdings, moving seasonally between them, which may give the impression
that many have been abandoned.
COMSUR is one of the few Bolivian mining companies to store tailings on
specifically designed and engineered containment facilities. The unintentional
and partial discharge some three months ago from El Porco was into one river
which eventually feeds into the Pilcomayo basin. Mining and subsequent process
discharge has been carried out at many different locations in the Pilcomayo
basin for over 300 years. The El Porco incident is estimated to have contributed
less than 0.5 per cent to the total discharge. So far as COMSUR has been able to
establish, there has been no evidence of aquatic life having been killed as a
result of the spillage.
Naturally, COMSUR deeply regrets the incident. It is working diligently not
only to clean up as much of the spilled material as physically possible
(currently some 135 000 tonnes, or approaching 70 per cent of the total material
spilled, has been recovered and returned to the repaired storage facility), but
has consulted widely with and responded to local people about their concerns,
providing drinking and irrigation water and necessary tools such as pipes, pumps
and shovels.
Since the incident, COMSUR has not only communicated openly with the local
communities but also with local, national and international authorities to
ensure that all necessary remedial actions are taken. This included the European
Union, which has initiated a long-term assessment programme looking at the whole
of the Pilcomayo basin, which COMSUR welcomes and to which the company will
provide whatever assistance it can.
Letters : . . .
Sandy Bay, Tasmania
Surely such probes, of “at least human-level intelligence”, would, being
subject to the slings and arrows of everyday life in the Universe,
eventually start making something other than identical copies of
themselves鈥攊n short, start evolving, and, in good Darwinian fashion, the
Galaxy (or Universe) would eventually become populated by diverse hordes of
them.
I cannot imagine, for a moment, all of these by now totally feral creatures
contentedly grazing on Oort clouds and asteroids. Inevitably, at least some
branches of this ever-increasing family would discover the attractions of nice,
juicy planets, and the delights of the carbon-hydrogen-oxygen-nitrogen
lifestyle.
If the original probe had been well enough programmed, some vestige of their
original purpose might survive, perhaps in the form of some deep yearning to
travel, explore, and know from whence they came.
I suggest that, far from being absent, diverse and ravenous hordes of
descendants of some primordial von Neumann probe are currently devouring the
third planet of this Solar System: Earth.
Letters : . . .
Stroud, Gloucestershire
While we might reasonably assume that there are (have been, or will be) many
species similar to our own that have developed a comparable technological
capability, it may be worth reminding ourselves that our technological culture
dates back barely two centuries. In terms of planetary ecology, this can be
classified as a plague.
Despite the fact that the average locust undoubtedly feels extremely
optimistic about the long-term prospects for its species, experience tells us
that such explosive growth is short-lived. Plagues occur in ecological systems
in which there is a temporary surplus of some vital resource and growth is often
at the expense of other species.
Recognising, as we do now, that life on this planet depends on the complex
interaction of many species, the view that our present species dominance is both
natural and sustainable is without any rational justification. Indeed, one might
argue that the exponential growth which characterises many aspects of our
present civilisation is a strong indicator of its inevitable collapse.
So do these ideas suggest that the quest for communication with other
intelligent beings is doomed to failure? Quite the contrary. By recognising that
the search in space might be much larger than is commonly assumed鈥攍arger
indeed by a whole dimension鈥攊t is possible to understand why we have been
unsuccessful so far. The beings who, perhaps, contacted us only
yesterday鈥攚hile we were still living in the trees鈥攎ay themselves now
be back in the Bronze Age.
Letters : . . .
Bradford, West Yorkshire
What would any sentient life form gain from spending a large proportion of
its gross solar system product on building a machine whose whole function was to
eat other solar systems and reproduce itself?
How would the machine increase the life form’s wealth or even its chances of
survival? Because if it doesn’t, there’s no reason to build it.
Letters : . . .
Glasgow
If these probes are making exact copies of themselves to proliferate
throughout the Galaxy, then this can be regarded as asexual reproduction. As was
stated in a previous article (“Sisters are doing it for themselves”, 17 August p
32), the vast majority of asexual beings on Earth existed for no more than tens
of thousands of years and for one of the very few exceptions, a proposed time
span of 70 million years was given for Darwinulid ostracods.
Assuming an upper limit of 70 million years for asexual reproduction, then
von Neumann probes could only hope to exist for this maximum time limit before
duplication contains so many errors that the probes would cease to be able to
carry out some or all of their functions, such as travelling between systems and
making copies of themselves.
This upper time limit, however, refers to conditions on Earth where cosmic
background radiation, gamma and X-rays, and solar wind particles are very
reduced or largely eliminated. In the hostile environment of space, mutations
and damage to the nanoscale structure and/or data banks used to make copies of
the probes would be very much more intense. This doesn’t even take into account
the even more hostile environment when in orbit around a planet, surely a
prerequisite for an exploration probe.
I suggest that the probes are doomed to death by damage and mutation by the
hostile environment of deep and solar system space long before the stated time
limit of 3 million years, which is the time given to reach all parts of the
Galaxy, including our own corner.
Letters : Aliens `R' us
Milton Keynes
Maybe Fred Hoyle’s idea of comets depositing viruses (at least viral type
particles) on Earth isn’t so far-fetched after all (“Is there anybody out
there?”, 23 November, p 32). What better way of designing a hardy, flexible,
nano-sized, von Neumann type probe with potential for human-level intelligence
than by using tiny self-reproducing RNA/DNA type molecules?
Of course it might take a while, depending on circumstances (even a billion
years or three), for probes capable of being dispersed around the Universe
without too much damage to evolve themselves back into intelligent life on a
suitable host. But with plenty of time available the process is possible.
Maybe the SETI exercise is working at the wrong scale at the moment, looking
for electromagnetic signals. What about setting the cryptanalysts to work on
those sequences of DNA that don’t seem to do anything? Have some of those
sequences survived, through the long process of evolution, from those much
simpler and much hardier life forms that first started to populate Earth?
Did those first seeds of life on Earth originate from a deliberate dispersive
act by intelligent life elsewhere? Did they perhaps leave some information about
themselves coded in with the bits of code needed for self-replication? Could we
even be that information? Just a thought, but maybe we aren’t seeing the wood
for the trees.
Letters : Alive and kicking
Purley, Surrey
I learn from a trite and impudent essay by Fred Pearce (Forum, 30 November, p
50) that “Lawther is dead”. I join Mark Twain in the “literature”.
My widow, bereaved family (and I) await with interest condolences from
friends and colleagues (among whom might be some of my “long retired” committee
members).
I suggest that as penance for writing what I consider to be a scurrilous
article, your contributor be sentenced to search the dustbins in Whitehall until
he finds a copy of our working party report (Lead and Health, 1980.
HMSO, ISBN 0 11320728 X) and, albeit belatedly, read it. He could, if he were
able and willing, thereby learn how a group of eminent scientists considered,
with great labour and humility, a complex problem; he might even note our 22
recommendations.
Letters : . . .
Hertford
I, like Pearce, was around when Lawther and his committee were aggressively
dismissing the theory that the British population was ingesting lead from air.
What he may not recall, however, was the dirty tricks used by government
spokesmen to discredit the lone voices asking that this should be
considered.
I was told on several occasions, as a newspaper science writer, that one of
the main protagonists of the lead in air theory was mentally unsound and that
others were communists wanting to undermine the oil industry.
I think Pearce may have unwittingly identified a major reason why the public
does not trust scientists. Perhaps they are not just unaware or ill-informed.
It is, after all, government-sponsored scientists who get most
exposure to public scrutiny. I think official scientific spokespersons have been
willing to sweep unpleasant or expensive, although perfectly valid, theories
under the carpet for years and the public has lost faith in scientists as a
result.
Certainly the scientists who frequently assured us that there was absolutely
no risk of BSE transmitting to humans should be called to task.
Letters : . . .
Wezembeek-Oppem, Belgium
One of the reasons for seeking to reduce lead levels was, if I remember
rightly, that high levels were believed to have a deleterious effect on
intelligence.
The low levels now reported should therefore mean that children, particularly
in urban areas, are more intelligent than those of 10 years ago. Are they?
Letters : Eye on safety
Loughborough
I am writing to express my dismay at the article on lasers (Forum, 9
November, p 46). Expressions such as “eyeball poppers” and “dangerous
instruments” do nothing to promote laser technology and the advantages it has to
offer. To suggest that protection against lasers is achieved by wearing goggles
illustrates an acute ignorance of practical laser safety measures. The article
also gives the impression the author is unaware of the duties and
responsibilities of employers and laser users regarding health and safety.
Safety in any laser environment is achieved by a hierarchy of control
measures, the last of which is personal protective equipment. Engineering
controls and administrative controls can remove the need for wearing goggles in
all but a few situations.
The article refers to a person having to wear a plastic bag over their head
to protect against UV radiation. If a laser process needs to be viewed or
monitored there are alternatives to human eyes, such as cameras or screens able
to absorb or filter laser radiation. These methods offer protection to all the
workforce, not just the poor unfortunate having to wear the plastic bag. This
article does little to suggest that any safety measures were in place.
Loughborough University has been developing laser technology and providing
laser safety research and training for many years. The members of our Laser
Safety Forum are trained laser safety officers who actively promote laser safety
in their establishments. They would be dismayed at the attitude conveyed by this
article.
Letters : Short on silliness
Vashon, Washington
It is ironic that nominative determinism should rear its silly head once
again, in the same issue (Feedback, 16 November, p 88) that Bernard Dixon
“traces 40 years of the magazine’s evolution”, while totally omitting the
lighter side of New 杏吧原创 (Forum, p 57).
What of Ariadne, whose insane inventions were clearly impossible, but yet
were equally (almost) impossible to debunk? Then there was Bill Tidy’s
“Grimbledon Down”, the zany strip taking place in a research facility. There was
even a spate of “nominative determinism” about 20 years ago, only it wasn’t
called that then鈥攕uch names were called “aptonyms” or “aponyms”.
For a Christmas present next year, how about a double-issue retrospective of
humour from New 杏吧原创?
Letters : A bridge too new
Cambridge
The photo accompanying Bill Addis’s review of Building the Nineteenth
Century is indeed the present Britannia Bridge (Review, 23 November, p 44).
However, surely it would be inappropriate for the book in question since
Stephenson’s masterpiece was destroyed by fire in 1970 and it is that old bridge
which is relevant to the theme of the book. The new bridge uses the original
piers and a section of the old tubes salvaged from the wreckage stands near one
of its abutments.
This is correct. We chose a picture of the modern bridge to illustrate our
谤别惫颈别飞鈥抬诲
Letters : Paws for thought
Bristol
Of course, a craft that was powered by the buttered cat array (Feedback, 19
October, 16 November and 7 December) would require more power to overcome the
increased mu (coefficient of friction).
Letters : . . .
Denistone, NSW, Australia
Was this a case of a purrpetual motion machine?