If evolution is true, why are there still humans?

 

An evolutionary impossibility?

Some lighter bedtime reading (my time) on the theme "we are not the crown of creation". Note the bizarre information about octopi! Note also the interview with Dougal Dixon, whose book "After Man" was one of my favorite bedtime readings when I was much younger...

Does evolution ever go backward? 

Why haven´t all primates evolved into humans?

When humans are gone

All planets and moons are ours...except Europa

 

A short article and a somewhat longer YouTube video, speculating that the octopus is an alien being, perhaps from Europa or Enceladus. In another video, Sheridan claims that Stanley Kubrick knew the truth about the Europa situation. Note also the obvious similarity with H P Lovecraft´s mythos. Sheridan actually wants to worship the octopi as sacred creatures. One reason is to scare the shit out of the Normies! Another is to get the attention of the octopuses and see how they react... 

Fact check: probably not true, since last I looked octopus DNA was of the same type as the DNA of all other organisms on planet Earth. So it´s a native. But yes, its intelligence is a fascinating example of "convergent evolution".  

Europa: Home planet of the octopus...and their cryogenic space ships?

The man-eating octopi

 

This week in weird - are there gigantic fresh-water octopi in man-made lakes in Oklahoma?! Probably not, LOL, but the folklore (or fakelore?) is interesting. 

Many suspect that this cryptid is completely fake, made up for a recent TV "documentary". However, the above YouTube channel managed to trace the story to a 1987 letter to the Fortean magazine INFO Journal. It was written by an American Indian, Russell Bates, and purports to retell a Native tradition about monstrous creatures in Oklahoma´s lakes, creatures never named but similar to...you guessed it, octopi. The YouTuber is too nice to say it, but of course the letter could have been a hoax. Bates was a script-writer associated with "Star Trek"! 

I also find it curious that one of the man-made lakes in which the dangerous octopus supposedly lives is named after another cryptid: Lake Thunderbird.

The video ends with some (perhaps real) cases of regular octopuses found in freshwater, including a seemingly sensational photo. But alas, it´s probably a known species. In other words: some idiot deliberately released an octopus into a river. And here we are, decades later, still talking about it...   

Speculation, speculation...

 

A lot of speculation in this one. Or rather in the list the content-creator is commenting, a list of the ten most likely cryptids to be discovered during the 21st century. 

The list sounds like wish-fulfillment. 

From the top of my head (which is considerable - both the top and the head), the thylacine, the giant eel and the giant octopus seem to be the three most likely candidates. Since the other cryptids might not exist at all, their discovery - this century or the next - is *highly* unlikely...

Here´s a more certain prediction: there will still be enthusiasts in 2100 hunting the Gugu, the Megalenia or whatever cryptids will be on the top ten!

I solved Fermi´s paradox, guys

Previously posted on July 20, 2019.

There are two obvious solutions to Fermi´s paradox, and the reason why the matter hasn´t been put to rest is simply that both answers are intolerable to Modern Man and his belief in Eternal Progress, or rather a very specific view of Eternal Progress.

The first obvious answer is the Rare Earth hypothesis. We really are alone, and we are alone *not* because all civilizations go through a human-like history and eventually destroy themselves in a human-like nuclear war (a typical 1970´s anthropocentric conceit), but because multi-cellular life, or perhaps life as such, only emerged once in the entire universe – here on the third rock from the Sun. I´m not sure why this scenario is so intolerable to so many. Asimov has it, and in his novels, humans eventually conquer the entire galaxy because of it. I mean, there is no one to stop us! It´s almost as if the believers in eternal progress want there to be advanced alien civilizations as a kind of guarantee that we will once reach that stage, too. And a secret wish to fall down and worship the aliens…?

The second obvious answer is that the universe is *teeming* with life, including advanced life, yes, including advanced intelligent life…but most of it is unable to or even uninterested in developing our kind of advanced technology, let alone fly around in space. (If you believe in the supernatural, you could even argue that most life is clever enough to avoid this shitty universe, much preferring the astral delights of some spirit-dimension.) Humans aren´t the only intelligent species on Earth. What about chimpanzees, whales, ravens, or even octopi? Let´s assume whales or octopi evolve for another 100 million years or so. What makes us think they can´t become smarter? And why must this necessarily entail leaving the sea, becoming bipedal and have opposable thumbs? “Because that is the only way we can create a civilization”. No, it isn´t. What makes us think the only way to create a civilization is the human way? What makes us think a species with whale-derived intelligence would want to make the things humans are making? Come to think of it, even creatures driven by pure instinct can create something eerily resembling a civilization. Yes, I´m thinking of ants, which did it millions of years before humans even existed.

And that´s just one planet…

Imagine what weird and wonderful creatures could evolve at other planets. Once again: what makes us think they would be interested in communicating with other star systems (or conquering them), rather than studying the notochord, the immortality of the common cockchafer, or what have you. If they evolved differently from us, they might not even *need* to create a high technology civilization that emits radio waves. That´s something we have to do because we (or many of us, at any rate) wouldn´t survive without one. Other species might not need this kind of jerry-rigged contraption.

Believers in the very specific kind of progress which entails going to the stars can come up with some pretty bizarre scenarios “solving” Fermi´s paradox. Thus, one prominent atheist (who is otherwise a very smart guy) claims that the aliens must be hiding in the empty space in between star systems (that´s why we can´t see them) constantly hooked up to a virtual reality more interesting than our galaxy (that´s why they don´t bother with humans). Analyzing the Bayesian probability for this might be interesting, even apart from the fact that it sounds almost religious…

Next week, your favorite blogger will solve Euthyphro´s dilemma and the theodicy problem. End of transmission.

The return of the Old Ones

Chandra Wickramasinghe, Fred Hoyle´s old associate, is one of the scientists who two years ago signed a paper arguing that "panspermia" rather than "abiogenesis" is how life originated and evolved on Earth. The idea is that all life really comes from space and "seeds" our planet on a semi-regular basis, for instance during the Cambrian Explosion. 

Wickramasinghe also connects panspermia to the steady state cosmology usually associated with his late collegue Hoyle. Since the universe is eternal, life is really eternal, too, so no need for any complicated hypothesis about abiogenesis! Needless to say, few scientists believe in Wickramasinghe´s scenario - it´s probably too daring even for admirers of Lynn Margulis - but it´s fascinating anyhow. 

The media particularly liked the idea that the octopus was an "alien from outer space". I´m reliably informed that certain occultists and chaos magicians do the same. You know, Cthulhu and all that stuff...  

The return of panspermia

I solved Fermi´s paradox, guys

There are two obvious solutions to Fermi´s paradox, and the reason why the matter hasn´t been put to rest is simply that both answers are intolerable to Modern Man and his belief in Eternal Progress, or rather a very specific view of Eternal Progress.

The first obvious answer is the Rare Earth hypothesis. We really are alone, and we are alone *not* because all civilizations go through a human-like history and eventually destroy themselves in a human-like nuclear war (a typical 1970´s anthropocentric conceit), but because multi-cellular life, or perhaps life as such, only emerged once in the entire universe – here on the third rock from the Sun. I´m not sure why this scenario is so intolerable to so many. Asimov has it, and in his novels, humans eventually conquer the entire galaxy because of it. I mean, there is no one to stop us! It´s almost as if the believers in eternal progress want there to be advanced alien civilizations as a kind of guarantee that we will once reach that stage, too. And a secret wish to fall down and worship the aliens…?

The second obvious answer is that the universe is *teeming* with life, including advanced life, yes, including advanced intelligent life…but most of it is unable to or even uninterested in developing our kind of advanced technology, let alone fly around in space. (If you believe in the supernatural, you could even argue that most life is clever enough to avoid this shitty universe, much preferring the astral delights of some spirit-dimension.) Humans aren´t the only intelligent species on Earth. What about chimpanzees, whales, ravens, or even octopi? Let´s assume whales or octopi evolve for another 100 million years or so. What makes us think they can´t become smarter? And why must this necessarily entail leaving the sea, becoming bipedal and have opposable thumbs? “Because that is the only way we can create a civilization”. No, it isn´t. What makes us think the only way to create a civilization is the human way? What makes us think a species with whale-derived intelligence would want to make the things humans are making? Come to think of it, even creatures driven by pure instinct can create something eerily resembling a civilization. Yes, I´m thinking of ants, which did it millions of years before humans even existed.

And that´s just one planet…

Imagine what weird and wonderful creatures could evolve at other planets. Once again: what makes us think they would be interested in communicating with other star systems (or conquering them), rather than studying the notochord, the immortality of the common cockchafer, or what have you. If they evolved differently from us, they might not even *need* to create a high technology civilization that emits radio waves. That´s something we have to do because we (or many of us, at any rate) wouldn´t survive without one. Other species might not need this kind of jerry-rigged contraption.

Believers in the very specific kind of progress which entails going to the stars can come up with some pretty bizarre scenarios “solving” Fermi´s paradox. Thus, one prominent atheist (who is otherwise a very smart guy) claims that the aliens must be hiding in the empty space in between star systems (that´s why we can´t see them) constantly hooked up to a virtual reality more interesting than our galaxy (that´s why they don´t bother with humans). Analyzing the Bayesian probability for this might be interesting, even apart from the fact that it sounds almost religious…

Next week, your favorite blogger will solve Euthyphro´s dilemma and the theodicy problem. End of transmission.

PS. Now, read this:

Seven solutions to Fermi´s paradox

The god of octopi

First, a quote within a quote:

>>>The very biology of the octopus precludes any idealistic or dualistic conception of consciousness: “In an octopus, the nervous system as a whole is a more relevant object than the brain: it’s not clear where the brain itself begins and ends, and the nervous system runs all through the body. The octopus is suffused with nervousness; the body is not a separate thing that is controlled by the brain or nervous system.” This leads him to the conclusion that “The octopus lives outside the usual brain/body divide.”>>>

So if octopi would create a religion, it would be a pantheistic form of Haeckelian monism? 

Hmmm.... 

Smart phone horror

"Boneless Horror" is a documentary about giant octopi supposedly lurking in "our" oceans. There are many reports from the Bahamas, Cuba, etc. But rather than taking us on a Caribbean holiday, MonsterQuest goes on another wild goose chase, trying to fish for a monster octopus in Puget Sound, Washington State! The giant octopus is said to be large enough to attack a Washington State Ferry. Scary, scary. I tried to watch this stuff on my smart phone but the clip went off-line after about 20 minutes... But know what? I don't think they found the monster, this time either. What a pity. They could have called it Octopussy.