Absorption into other universes?

A recent New Scientist article titled - Is our universe about to be mangled? - discusses a new analysis that suggests our universe may one day be obliterated or assimilated by a larger universe. The work also suggests the parallel universes proposed by some quantum theorists may not actually be parallel but could interact – and with disastrous consequences:

"The interactions can "smash or mangle the small worlds", says Hanson. He has not worked out exactly what happens, but he believes the small universes would be either destroyed or assimilated by the large universes, like specks of dust colliding with a planet.

"It could act like a big random fluctuation, like suddenly making the temperature of the universe become really high and boiling everything," he told New Scientist. "Or it could be more peaceful, where you're simply converted into somebody who remembers stuff from the large world, so the statistics would be those of the large world."

That suggests that the universe we live in now could be mangled at any moment by a larger universe, he says. "It could be there's a moment of pain before the end," Hanson says. "But you could be comforted by the fact that versions of you will go on, even if you don't."

Lets look at one of those lines again - they state: 'where you're simply converted into somebody who remembers stuff from the large world'

Are they suggesting that people may merge into another 'body' or 'person' who exists within the larger universe? A soul transformation??

There are lots of quantum anomalies appearing in print recently. Twelve days ago an article appeared on the Net called - 'Quantum Anomaly ‘Stalls’ Above South Pole As Violent Catastrophic Planetary Shift Feared By Russian Scientists':

"Russian Scientific reports are detailing today the occurrence of what is being termed as a ‘Quantum Anomaly’, and which upon its approach to our planet this past month has ‘stalled’ above the South Pole in the Southern Polar Regions of Antarctica.

These reports further state that the ‘stalling’ of this ‘Quantum Anomaly’ has been met equally with a marked decrease in both seismic activity and Sun Spots, though the increase in the Earth’s internal Tectonic Plate pressures are building to what some Russian Scientists are terming as ‘Catastrophic Levels’.

Numerous Independent American Researchers have likewise noted the effects of this ‘Quantum Anomaly’, and as we can read as exampled by one of them, Michael Mandeville, in his report titled "The Earth’s Wobble Has Paused""

Alot of strange activity indeed - the signs are strengthening... if only we knew the direction...

BT Reveals Insight into the Future

BT's futurologists - principally Ian Pearson and Peter Cochrane - have been busy lately trying to envision our possible futures:

'BT's futurology department has gazed into the future to predict the technological advances that will impact our lives.

The timeline encompasses all areas of life influenced by technology developments including artificial intelligence, health and medical, business and education, demographics, energy, robotics, space, telecommunications and transport and travel.

It predicts by 2012, children could be entertained by video tiles in the bath before sitting in a playroom with wallpaper which changes to promote energy, happiness or calm. And they could even be interacting with toys that respond to their voices with matching emotions.

As beaches become more crowded and quiet corners become harder to find, BT predicts we could be holidaying somewhere above the earth's surface by 2017.

And by 2040, the timeline predicts we could get a space elevator to take us up to a moon village that will have developed by then.'

For an interactive version of the BT timeline - click here

For a pdf version - click here

The inevitability of...

Recently coming across a quote from 'The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium' by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, I thought it was worth posting:

'Even if nothing were to change in our lifetime, even if signs of a new dark age proliferated, if chaos and apathy were on the ascendant, those who cast their lot with the future would not be disappointed. Evolution is not a millenarian creed event, expecting a Second Coming next year, the next century, or the next millenium. Those who have faith in it have literally all the time in the world. The individual life span with all its woes and dillusions is only an instant in the awesome cosmic adventure. At the same time, our actions have a decisive impact on the kind of life that will evolve on this planet, and perhaps on other planets as well'

Conscious evolution is about acquiring evolutionary consciousness - to think in terms of the macro, of the direction our species is taking. As has been said by many people, it is the first time in evolutionary history that we have the opportunity and and potential to enagage in conscious and intentional evolutionary transformation.

These are indeed significant times...

The Declaration of Evolution

I was reminded recently of the 'Declaration of Evolution' that Timothy Leary once wrote... all those years ago: has anything changed? Yes - the urgency.

So I re-visited it.. here's the beginning of The Declaration of Evolution - the rest is up to you to read:

"When in the course of organic evolution it becomes obvious that a mutational process is inevitably dissolving the physical and neurological bonds which connect the members of one generation to the past and inevitably directing them to assume among the species of Earth the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature's God entitle them, a decent concern for the harmony of species requires that the causes of the mutation should be declared.

We hold these truths to be self evident:

* That all species are created different but equal;
* That they are endowed, each one, with certain inalienable rights;
* That among them are Freedom to Live, Freedom to Grow, and Freedom to pursue Happiness in their own style;
* That to protect these God-given rights, social structures naturally emerge, basing their authority on the principles of love of God and respect for all forms of life;
* That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of life, liberty, and harmony, it is the organic duty of the young members of that species to mutate, to drop out, to initiate a new social structure, laying its foundations on such principles and organizing its power in such form as seems likely to produce the safety, happiness, and harmony of all sentient beings. "

Can trance-dancing save the planet?

I have read various different interpretations of how our energies may benefit the world; from football fanatacism to war... in this article - called 'Trance Dancing - The Rave' - the author examines rave dancing as a means to supply vital energies. The author here takes a Gurdjieffian approach - i.e. ideas supplied by the Greek-Armenian mystic philosopher George I. Gurdjieff.

I quote an extract that focuses on a notion I particularly like, that of reciprocal maintenance:

"Reciprocal Maintenance

Gurdjieff's answer fits into what he called "the doctrine of reciprocal maintenance", the idea that every thing exists only insofar as it supports or "feeds" something else. Everything is part of a vast, interconnected and mutually reinforcing web of life. Or, "everything is something else's lunch," as ecologists like to say. This idea anticipated the science of ecology by at least half a century.

Examples: Bees don't just exist for themselves, they live to pollinate flowers. Algae exists to turn sunlight into more complex molecules, and feed other small creatures, such as plankton and krill. Krill feeds other slightly larger creatures, and even whales. Plants exist to turn sunlight and raw matter into organic compounds, and to feed animals. Worms exist to loosen soil for plants. Bacteria recycle waste into useable raw matter. Predators help to increase the strength and fitness of the herds they prey on by eliminating the weak and sick. Etc. etc.

In the scheme of things, humanity's essential role is that of a transformer of energy.

Human beings, according to this view, exist to serve the cosmic evolutionary process--and not the opposite, as the Bible would have it: that all of creation is merely a resource for us to use and abuse as we see fit.

Our possibilities as human beings are dependent on the degree to which we fulfil this function, a kind of "obligation" which nature imposes on us.

By Gurdjieff's view, this special energy could be produced two different ways: either involuntarily, at the moment of death, when a small "packet" is released into the atmosphere, or voluntarily, in greater or lesser amounts, through spiritual work.

Since Mother Nature, or Gaia, needs a definite quota of this energy from us, she will do whatever is necessary to make sure she gets it. If we don't provide the required intensities while alive, the total number of deaths will have to be increased in such a proportion as to yield the needed amount."

The article is worth a read... after all, I'd rather choose the conscious 'alive' way of supplying energy, not the involuntary 'packet of energy' supplied on death...

More on Collective Intelligence

This issue is ever present: from Teilhard de Chardin, to Peter Russell, to Aurobindo..etc, all the way to the present Web-tech writers on collective intelligence. With the increased acceleration of technically mediation communications, it seems that the notion of a collective intelligence - a global brain - is becoming more of a feasible possibility.

Recently Nova Spivack on the 'Minding the Planet' blog wrote an interesting piece on this subject titled Collective Intelligence 2.0 which I recommend as a good read and intro to the subject.

Thanks Nova!

Hijacking of the brain?

In a recent report from Tech Review called 'Could Terrorists Hijack Your Brain?' the distinct possibility of bioterrorism over the individual is discussed. Here are extracts:


"Most bioweapons research has focused on traditional biological agents, such as anthrax and smallpox. But that focus is dangerously narrow, the report says; emerging technologies in biotechnology and the life sciences could be hijacked to take control of genes, immune systems, and even brains.

Terrorists could also co-opt relatively new technologies, such as synthetic biology, which aims to build organisms that can detect or produce chemicals or perform other functions; and RNA interference, a technique that allows scientists to easily control gene expression."

Again, it comes to the question that those very technologies which seek to liberate us are the same ones that may come to dominate over us. Progress? The Sword of Damocles?