Friday Seminar Series: Exoplanetology

Neil DeGrasse Tyson; Image via Wikipedia
Dear Readers,


   This Friday Seminar is a special one, written given the buzz from Gliese581g, which has found its way to me from my time-normal Twitter friends Exoplanetology and Intellectual Pornography.  They've both kept me up to date on advances in your time stream's understanding of this world has expanded.  I'll stick to what you know in discussing it.  Gliese581g is interesting for a variety of reasons, the one that I'm most focused on being what it means for human expansion.


   A lot of words get thrown around at times like this.  In the words of time-normal astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse-Tyson, this should be seen as "...an important turning of the page..." in the search for planets like Earth.  However, it "...doesn't mean there are oceans and beaches and resorts..."  Gliese581g isn't exactly Earth.  You don't know that much about it.  I see words like "habitable" and I'm inclined to remind time-normal science journalists how little you really know about life within, let alone outside of, the solar system.  Habitable?  The odds are low.  Inhabited?  Well, I'll leave that for you to discover on your own.

   What this represents, and what I mean to discuss, is that discovery.  Gliese581g isn't likely to represent a second chance for humanity.  The gravity there may be a little too high, depending on the precise composition and density of the planet.  It's a ribbon world, which limits its settlement potential.  There are...issues, to say the least.

   One issue I shouldn't have to remind you of is that it may already be inhabited!

   Instead of being a complete critic, however, I want to take this in a productive direction.  Every scientific discovery, in astrophysics, anachronism, or biology, has two effects.  First, it tells us something we don't know before, installing a firm rung for us to step on as we ascend the ladder of knowledge.  Second is all about that ladder.  Think of it as a tall, tall ladder in the midst of a vast wilderness.  With every rung, our lantern casts more light, even farther, so that we can see newer and newer things.  Some of these things, the edge of these things, are encased in shadow, left for us to ask questions about.  Those questions are the edge of knowledge, the things that will be answered to build the next rung.



  You must not look at Gliese581g and say, "this is a new thing that we know."  You must look at it and ask, "What new questions can we ask?"  You must turn the new page that Dr. DeGrasse Tyson talked about.  I'll suggest a brief list:

• Does Gliese581g have a breathable atmosphere and/or liquid-phase water?
• Is there life on Gliese581g? (The link leads to an article about the discovery of a strong signal coming from the Gliese581 system)
• Can we communicate with Gliese581g?
• Can we get to Gliese581g?
• What are the ethical hurdles that come into play when we reach a possible contact with Gliese581g and its potential inhabitants?

   These are the questions that you have to answer, time-normal Earth.  There's a lot of conflicting information on this one.  I wish you the best of luck.  Please leave thoughts in the comments on this one.  I'll be watching it closely.

   Always,

   Dr. John Skylar
   Chairman
   Department of Anachronism
   University of Constantinople

The Freedom to Die

Image via Wikipedia
Dear Readers,

    I know it has been a little while since I last wrote to you.  It was considered best that we evaluate our communications with your time stream more carefully before we proceeded with this project.  There are larger concerns, now, especially with the war on.

    I am writing today to talk about an issue that might seem foreign to you, that of "Freedom of Death."  In your time stream, there's much ado about end of life procedures and assisted suicide, but this is a little different.

   When you are effectively immortal, and you can go to the library and cross-reference your achievements in thousands of different time streams, the ideas of life and death become somewhat more nuanced.

Impostor!

Dear Readers,

  Something funny crossed my path today.  Via the Internet, I have discovered a person who may be an as-yet undiscovered version of myself!  I have no idea "who" this person is.  It makes me chuckle.

  Always,

  Dr. John Skylar
  Chairman
  Department of Anachronism
  University of Constantinople

A Potential Graduate Student?

Dear Readers,

  I found this earlier today.  As the artist says, he's not a time traveler!  But he's certainly good material for an Anachronist.  I can think of a particular time stream he might even want to study.

  Always,

    Dr. John Skylar
    Chairman
    Department of Anachronism
    University of Constantinople

Book-Rhyme

Image by levar via Flickr

Dear Readers,

  Today I've decided to share something with you that I've been scrawling inside the covers of my books since I first became a graduate student: my book rhyme!

  Book rhymes were popular in your 19th and early 20th century, to warn people against stealing others' books, or to help a lost book find its home.  Losing books is not so large a problem for me, with the resources we have here at the University, but I still like the idea of the book rhyme, partly because of Alfred Bester.  Furthermore, I have always offered dinner to anyone who finds a book I've lost, and without a rhyme, it would be hard for them to collect their reward.

  Thus, I've decided to share my book rhyme with you, my readers.

John Skylar is my Name
Byzantium, my Nation
Forever is my Stopping-Place
And Always, my Habitation

Always,

  Dr. John Skylar
  Chairman
  Department of Anachronism
  University of Constantinople