When lab experiments carry theological implications
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/when-...plications
EXCERPTS: The creation of the universe and of life within it are the two fundamental pillars of the story of divine genesis in the opening chapter of the Bible. But suppose we were able to create a baby universe in the laboratory or produce synthetic life out of raw chemicals. Would that make us contenders for the title of God? And even if we dismiss these prospects as unrealistic with our current technologies, another civilization that happened to be billions of years more technologically advanced than we are might have accomplished these feats and created our universe or life in a laboratory. Should we regard such a civilization as our God?
I ask these questions not out of philosophical curiosity but because related experiments are being discussed in the scientific literature. [...] Just as better understanding of the laws of physics enabled modern technologies that serve our daily needs, creating synthetic life in the laboratory could yield tremendous side benefits to medicine and biomedical research.
But another type of laboratory experiment could shed new light on our understanding of the birth of the entire cosmos. According to the prevailing cosmological model, our universe started from a period of cosmic inflation [...] The vacuum density stems from the existence of a quantum field called the “inflaton.” Physicists can study ways of artificially producing a region of space where the inflaton field is concentrated to a level that would stimulate the creation of a baby universe. Such a baby universe will not expand into the laboratory but rather branch off from the spacetime of its creators and evolve in its own bubble.
This raises the question of whether the big bang could have been the result of a laboratory experiment, and if so, will we ever know? [...] Even if this were the case, we are left to wonder: what created the experimentalists who inflated our universe? (MORE - details)
What would Earth look like to alien astronomers?
https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/what-...stronomers
EXCERPTS: . . . From many light-years away, Earth wouldn’t look all that impressive (barring some sort of futuristic telescope technology, of course). Anyone watching Earth as a transiting exoplanet wouldn’t see our world as a verdant oasis suffused with blue, green, and tan, as we do in up-close satellite images. They’d simply see a lump of rock getting in the way of the Sun.
But astronomers still glean plenty of information by watching exactly how a planet dims its star. [...] As a planet passes in front of its star, astronomers also have a rare opportunity to peer into its atmosphere (if it has one). ... Earth, for example, would look pretty interesting to an alien astronomer parsing the detailed contents of our atmosphere. Relatively high levels of oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases could serve as a strong hint that our planet teems with life. “As far as we know, [an] atmosphere like the Earth [has], there’s really no way to mimic that without life,” Pepper says.
An even stronger sign of extraterrestrial life could come from electromagnetic signals, like the radio waves that emanate from our telecommunications equipment. [...] though nothing approaching convincing evidence. For example, earlier this month, press reports surfaced of an intriguing signal discovered by the Breakthrough Listen project, appearing to originate from the star Proxima Centauri. However, the researchers have carefully noted that although they can’t explain the source of the signal yet, the most likely source is humanmade interference.
However, if extraterrestrials were to train an equivalent to the Green Bank Observatory on Earth, they’d see a planet abuzz with electromagnetic activity. It would be a fairly slam-dunk sign that our planet holds far more than mere rocks and water... (MORE - details)
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/when-...plications
EXCERPTS: The creation of the universe and of life within it are the two fundamental pillars of the story of divine genesis in the opening chapter of the Bible. But suppose we were able to create a baby universe in the laboratory or produce synthetic life out of raw chemicals. Would that make us contenders for the title of God? And even if we dismiss these prospects as unrealistic with our current technologies, another civilization that happened to be billions of years more technologically advanced than we are might have accomplished these feats and created our universe or life in a laboratory. Should we regard such a civilization as our God?
I ask these questions not out of philosophical curiosity but because related experiments are being discussed in the scientific literature. [...] Just as better understanding of the laws of physics enabled modern technologies that serve our daily needs, creating synthetic life in the laboratory could yield tremendous side benefits to medicine and biomedical research.
But another type of laboratory experiment could shed new light on our understanding of the birth of the entire cosmos. According to the prevailing cosmological model, our universe started from a period of cosmic inflation [...] The vacuum density stems from the existence of a quantum field called the “inflaton.” Physicists can study ways of artificially producing a region of space where the inflaton field is concentrated to a level that would stimulate the creation of a baby universe. Such a baby universe will not expand into the laboratory but rather branch off from the spacetime of its creators and evolve in its own bubble.
This raises the question of whether the big bang could have been the result of a laboratory experiment, and if so, will we ever know? [...] Even if this were the case, we are left to wonder: what created the experimentalists who inflated our universe? (MORE - details)
What would Earth look like to alien astronomers?
https://astronomy.com/news/2020/12/what-...stronomers
EXCERPTS: . . . From many light-years away, Earth wouldn’t look all that impressive (barring some sort of futuristic telescope technology, of course). Anyone watching Earth as a transiting exoplanet wouldn’t see our world as a verdant oasis suffused with blue, green, and tan, as we do in up-close satellite images. They’d simply see a lump of rock getting in the way of the Sun.
But astronomers still glean plenty of information by watching exactly how a planet dims its star. [...] As a planet passes in front of its star, astronomers also have a rare opportunity to peer into its atmosphere (if it has one). ... Earth, for example, would look pretty interesting to an alien astronomer parsing the detailed contents of our atmosphere. Relatively high levels of oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, and other gases could serve as a strong hint that our planet teems with life. “As far as we know, [an] atmosphere like the Earth [has], there’s really no way to mimic that without life,” Pepper says.
An even stronger sign of extraterrestrial life could come from electromagnetic signals, like the radio waves that emanate from our telecommunications equipment. [...] though nothing approaching convincing evidence. For example, earlier this month, press reports surfaced of an intriguing signal discovered by the Breakthrough Listen project, appearing to originate from the star Proxima Centauri. However, the researchers have carefully noted that although they can’t explain the source of the signal yet, the most likely source is humanmade interference.
However, if extraterrestrials were to train an equivalent to the Green Bank Observatory on Earth, they’d see a planet abuzz with electromagnetic activity. It would be a fairly slam-dunk sign that our planet holds far more than mere rocks and water... (MORE - details)