Nothing New Under the Sun: Implications for the Dissemination of Galactic Knowledge
Nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
"All You Need is Love" —Lennon/McCartney
Nothing New Under the Sun: Implications for the Dissemination of Galactic Knowledge
Thomas Beck, Ph.D. and Janet Colli, Ph.D.
Diffusion theory argues that given the vast amount of time the universe has existed, extraterrestrials have had plenty of time to cross the Milky Way galaxy and establish a community of civilizations. One implication of this hypothetical, intra-galactic dispersion of civilizations deserves mention. Namely, that every known—and as yet unknown—innovation of human genesis has probably already occurred countless times within these advanced civilizations. The sheer number alone of civilizations that have hypothetically existed for eons supports this. The idea that there is nothing new under the sun may be true, after all.
Or more accurately, there is nothing new under the suns. Just how many suns exist has recently undergone radical revision. In 1961, Astronomer Frank Drake devised an equation to estimate the number of planets with intelligent species in our Milky Way galaxy. The percentages plugged into Drake's 7 variables were mostly educated guesswork, based on a 1961 understanding of the size and nature of the universe. But Drake's equation did provide a starting point to think about the possibility that we are not alone in the universe.
Drake's equation yields an estimate of 1,000 intelligent civilizations in our own Milky Way galaxy—that alone contains several hundred billion stars. Multiply 1,000 by the 100 billion or so galaxies in the universe to get 100 trillion civilizations. Change one or two arbitrary variables and the case can easily be made for a quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000) intelligent species in the universe. And given that the universe may actually be unlimited in size, the number of intelligent species could be far larger than we dare guess.
Scientific estimates of the visible universe's size are under renewed scrutiny due to recent discoveries of the Hubble telescope. The 2004 Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF) survey provided a look at the edge of the visible universe and in so doing, cast doubt on earlier estimates of its age.
Thirteen billion light years from Earth, in a region of space a mere 500 million years after the Big Bang, a giant spiral galaxy has been discovered. This unexpected enigma, named HUDF-JD2, is located in the constellation Fornax, below Orion. HUDF-JD2 is conservatively estimated to contain 1.6 trillion stars. But this mature spiral system—8 times larger than our own Milky Way galaxy—shouldn't be there at all. The light from those galaxies took 13 billion years to arrive at the Hubble telescope. 13 billion years ago, so soon after the Big Bang creation-of-the-universe, mature galaxies should have been nonexistent. The upshot is that the universe may be vastly bigger and older than astronomers thought. In fact, it may be infinite—and teeming with intelligent life.
We could just as easily estimate a quintillion (1018 or a billion billion) civilizations in our visible universe alone, based on 1% of 1% of an estimated 100 sextillion (1023 or ten-thousand, billion billion) stars. Most of these hypothesized billions of civilizations are assuredly far older than humanity. Indeed, the pinnacle of human technology included ox carts barely a century ago, a form of transport that still prevails today in some regions. That we haven't yet achieved interstellar travel may place us near the bottom of the cosmic evolutionary ladder.
As the Vogon Starship Captain in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy said, "What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri. Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light-years away. I'm sorry but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that's your own lookout. . . . Apathetic bloody planet."
Just as the bipedal phenotype is likely a highly efficient body form, ubiquitous throughout the universe, there may be pervasive trends of consciousness, too. Patterns. Great minds tend to think alike, even with earthlings such as Darwin and Wallace, or Edison and Tesla. Given a quintillion civilizations, it's a safe bet that a good handful have already evolved along a path similar to ours. It is comforting to think that distant peoples have surmounted internal combustion engines, healed spinal cord injuries, and eradicated illnesses such as AIDS and cancer. Countless worlds must have made the synaptic connection that overpopulation, nuclear annihilation and global warming—are threats to survival of their species. And they did something about those threats, something that with any luck we'll soon re-discover.
Remarkable ideas that await human exploration may have long since come and gone on a billion planets. Maybe it is time for a quantum leap in consciousness, a leapfrog to a higher level of problem solving. The sorry condition of our planet suggests it is already past due.
Consider the dilemma of detecting signals from distant civilizations. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) may not be the most efficient method on any planet. Any advanced civilization that travels between stars would surely communicate between stars. Our Milky Way galaxy may be some 50,000 light years in diameter, so it would take 50,000 years for radio signals to cross that distance. Given our billions-of-years old galaxy, why has SETI failed to intercept a single signal of intelligent origin? Oh, for heaven's sake, humankind. Get a clue. Vogons don't rely on radio waves to keep in touch.
Transmitting messages using some form of non-local means may be de rigueur for star-faring species. Non-local or instantaneous signals that do not diminish over long distances need not rely on giant dish antennas such as those used by SETI. NASA's large dish antennas capture signals from its interplanetary probes (such as Mars Landers) that are extremely weak by the time they reach Earth. The signal strength from our space probes is roughly equal to a fly landing on a giant dish antenna, coming from only light-minutes away. Transmitted radio messages from stars many light-years distant would be far too weak to detect.
Indeed, we may already possess a rudimentary form of the non-local, bio-communications technology practiced by Douglas Adams' Vogons—the prototype for countless civilizations. Sentient consciousness may be a principle aspect of non-local technology in much the same way that scientific remote viewing (SRV) utilizes human consciousness to "view" distant objects. Or extrasensory perception (ESP), for that matter. It's reassuring to think we may be on the right track in using our consciousness to "tune in."
Think of the human body as a functional "antenna," picking up higher-order signals from the very fabric of space-time. That musical, artistic and mathematical prodigies may simply "tap into," download, and transcribe information from a field of consciousness is hardly a new idea. Edgar Cayce, the "sleeping prophet" (or medical savant) told of accessing the "akashic hall of records," that repository of all knowledge, likened to the universe's supercomputer system. But where does that leave humanity if epiphanies, visionary and creative genius, not to mention scientific insights that lead to novel technological innovations—are ultimately cosmic plagiarisms? Unless we've compiled eons of fines for breach of celestial copyright, it could serve as a much needed confidence booster that we, like distant peoples, can get past the systems failures that constitute an impasse on this planet. Besides, we've already garnered considerable skill in accessing this pool of knowledge ourselves, on our very own planet.
Take the Tibetan Buddhist "treasure finders" (tertons), who exemplify non-local communicators. These are tantric masters who discover terma: sacred objects, texts, or teachings hidden by the masters of one age to await discovery in the future. Many practices Tibetans have been doing for centuries have been "discovered" this way. The terma found in dreams, visionary experience, and in deep, waking states of consciousness constitute "mind treasures" (gong-ter). Such stability of dream consciousness is required that entire volumes of teachings may be transmitted in sequence over successive nights, with each night's dream starting where the previous night's had ended.
Mind treasures exist in a field of consciousness; teachings are found irrespective of culture or historical period. Any culture can potentially access our inherent wisdom body. Not strictly Buddhist teachings, they are knowledge for all humanity. And given diffusion theory, we theoretically have access to the wisdom, scientific insights and technological innovations—of other sentient beings as well. Such "spiritual technologies" as Buddhist treasure-finding have the potential to propel us beyond the systems failures that threaten our survival as a species. As for the underlying physical mechanisms of non-local communication—consciousness research, physics, and cosmology offer some interesting theories.
The zero-point field is the underlying source of all matter and energy in the universe, including dark matter. Cosmic dark matter, a vast cloud of low-mass particles near absolute zero, is considered by some physicists to be a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC). Laboratory BECs are formed when a handful of atoms merge and their wave patterns become indistinguishable, to form one giant "atom." Dark matter could provide the physical medium necessary for cosmic-scale, instantaneous communication, for BECs are non-local, behaving like one huge atom. In that case, a physical coupling mechanism would need to exist between the brain and a cosmic BEC. This would be crucial for non-local "telepathic" communication.
Furthermore, the condensate "disintegrates" upon warming as its unique structure is quickly overwhelmed by heat, and its coherence is lost. The slightest thermal provocation will completely disrupt a BEC that forms at a few billionths of a degree above absolute zero (–459 Fahrenheit; -273° Celsius; 0° Kelvin). Similarly, as any meditator knows, the flood of physical sensations and inner imagery continually disrupts and prevents coherence of mind. With practice, the mind can become extremely quiet; ultimately the mind-body becomes coherent and "awakened." Human physiology would thereby be rendered capable of tapping into the vast cosmological-scale "mind."
Such information as Tibetan gong-ter is accessed non-locally—whether spontaneously or with intent—when a certain level of development is reached. Individual development is required to access the wisdom inherent in consciousness itself. Now, that's something we can all engage in, especially given the planetary challenges we face. Meditation. Prayer. Whatever gets you to where you can access the "mind field," where every innovation of human genesis has likely occurred countless times—where there really is nothing new under the suns.
The more I go inside,
The more there is to see.
"It's All Too Much" —Lennon/McCartney
Statement of affiliation: Thomas Beck, Ph.D. and Janet Colli, Ph.D. are transpersonal psychotherapists, and researchers of consciousness and emerging technologies in Seattle, Washington.
