The Native Americans had a more sophisticated view of consciousness. According to the mythology of the scattered tribes, everything was conscious, animals, insects, rocks, water, earth, and sky. All creation was a living, breathing conscious being, not inert, dead, or mechanical. The doctrine that material objects possess some type of consciousness is known as panpsychism. Storytellers have explored the idea for millennia and now scientists are weighing in on the question. Could the universe be alive and possess a type of proto-conscious awareness? According to Gregory Matloff, Ph.D., Professor of Physics, the answer is yes. Matloff has worked as a propulsion scientist for NASA, and an emeritus associate and adjunct associate professor of physics at New York City College of Technology. Inspired by the philosopher and science-fiction author Olaf Stapledon whose novel, Star Maker (published in 1937) explored the concept of a consciously aware universe, Matloff wondered whether that concept could be proven. In a paper titled, Can Panpsychism Become an Observational Science? Matloff … [Read more...] about Panpsychism: Do Stars have Consciousness?
Ted Bundy: Wolf Among the Sheep
Last night I finished watching Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a 4-part series, created and directed by Joe Berlinger. Most writers who've ever written a police procedural know this story well, but the series is both enlightening and disturbing due to the extensive amount of archival footage and interviews with surviving victims, friends, and family members. The Bundy case chronicles a period in time before modern technology changed law enforcement. The psychopath's horrific rampage took place across several states and the series documents the pressures brought to bear on police departments ill-equipped to fight such a ruthless killer. The FBI eventually responded to Bundy and his kind, by creating a system of psychological profiling and coining the term serial killer. Thomas Harris, who wrote The Silence of the Lambs, drew many elements in his story from the catalog of shocking behavior and feral cunning that characterized Ted Bundy's modus operandi. Bundy is not an easy topic. He represents the darkest, most repulsive aspect of humanity. He was a murderer, … [Read more...] about Ted Bundy: Wolf Among the Sheep
Don’t Panic! SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches to Cheers!
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy, also known as the BFR which stands for "Big F**ing Rocket, successfully launched into space today, to the excited cheers of engineers and scientists. The BFR is the most powerful operational rocket in the world. Only the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, has ever delivered a comparable payload into orbit. With a total of 27 Merlin engines, Falcon Heavy is capable of 5 million pounds of thrust. Three cores made up the first stage of Falcon Heavy's test launch. The duo side cores, or boosters flanking the center core, returned to earth in perfect unison, landing on target in a dazzling display of technical prowess. SpaceX CEO/Lead Designer Elon Musk made the mission personal, by changing out the usual steel or concrete block payload, for his own midnight-cherry Tesla Roadster, in honor of the red planet. The Falcon Heavy will attempt to place the Roadster, with its space-suited mannikin, into a continual precession, Earth-Mars elliptical orbit around the sun. And in a tribute to David Bowie, the song "Space Oddity," … [Read more...] about Don’t Panic! SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launches to Cheers!
