Light of the Stars
Page 21
18.Adam Frank, “Could You Power Your Home With A Bike?,” NPR, December 8, 2016, http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/12/08/504790589/could-you-power-your-home-with-a-bike.
19.Rudy M. Baum Sr., “Future Calculations: The First Climate Change Believer,” Distillations, Summer 2016, https://www.chemheritage.org/distillations/magazine/future-calculations.
20.L. Miller, F. Gans, and A. Kleidon, “Estimating Maximum Global Land Surface Wind Power Extractability and Associate Climatic Consequences,” Earth System Dynamics 2 (2011): 112.
21.It’s worth mentioning that it is possible that the distribution of exo-civilizations might be more complicated than providing a well-defined average. There might, for example, be two peaks in the lifetimes of a large sample of exo-civilizations (one short and long). This kind of result would be interesting in its own right.
CHAPTER 6: THE AWAKENED WORLDS
1.Marina Alberti, Cities That Think Like Planets (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2016).
2.Drake and Sobel, Is Anyone Out There?.
3.Drake and Sobel, Is Anyone Out There?. Also, “First Soviet-American Conference on Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence,” Icarus 16, no. 2 (April 1972): 412.
4.Kenneth I. Kellermann, “Nicolay Kardashev,” National Radio Astronomy Observatory, http://rahist.nrao.edu/kardashev_reber-medal.shtml.
5.Nikolai Kardashev, “Transmission of Information by Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” Soviet Astronomy 8, no. 2 (September/October 1964): 217, and Milan M. Cirkovic, “Kardashev’s Classification at 50+: A Fine Vehicle with Room for Improvement,” Serbian Astronomical Journal 191 (2015): 1–15.
6.“Energy of a Nuclear Explosion,” The Physics Factbook, https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/MuhammadKaleem.shtml.
7.Freeman J. Dyson, “Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation,” Science 131, no. 3414 (June 3, 1960): 1667–68.
8.J. T. Wright et al.,“The Ĝ Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies, II. Framework, Strategy, and First Result,” Astrophysical Journal 792, no. 1 (2014): 27.
9.Cirkovic, “Kardashev’s Classification.”
10.Carl Sagan, Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, ed. Jerome Agel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
11.Michio Kaku, “The Physics of Extraterrestrial Civilizations,” http://mkaku.org/home/articles/the-physics-of-extraterrestrial-civilizations/.
12.Isaac Asimov, Foundation (New York: Gnome Press, 1951).
13.Second Law of Thermodynamics, http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/thermo/seclaw.html.
14.Matt Williams, “What is the Weather Like on Mercury?,” Universe Today, July 24, 2017, https://www.universetoday.com/85348/weather-on-mercury/.
15.Volatility is a concept from physics and chemistry and is the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Volatiles in planetary science are substances that will vaporize (or boil) at “normal” temperatures and pressures. Iron, for example, is not considered a volatile, while water, CO2, and methane are volatiles.
16.L. Kaltenegger and D. Sasselov, “Detecting Planetary Geochemical Cycles on Exoplanets: Atmospheric Signatures and the Case of SO2,” Astrophysical Journal 708, no. 2 (2010): 1162–67, and J. F. Kasting and D. E. Canfield, “The Global Oxygen Cycle,” in Fundamentals of Geobiology, eds. A. H. Knoll, D. E. Canfield, and K. O. Konhauser (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 93–104.
17.Adam Frank, Axel Kleidon, and Marina Alberti, “Earth as a Hybrid Planet: The Anthropocene in an Evolutionary Astrobiological Context,” Anthropocene (forthcoming).
18.Donald Canfield, “The Early History of Atmospheric Oxygen,” Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 33 (2005): 1–36.
19.Eleni Stavrinidou et al., “Electronic Plants,” Science Advances 1, no. 10 (November 2015).
20.David Grinspoon, The Earth in Human Hands (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2016).
21.Based on Vernadsky’s writings, the Jesuit priest and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin worked on his own, decidedly more mystical version of the noosphere. P. Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man, trans. Bernard Wall (New York: Harper, 1959), 238.
22.The “Big History Project” is an attempt to teach history in a way that puts humanity in its place along with the rest of the cosmos. See https://www.bighistoryproject.com/home.
INDEX
Italic page numbers refer to illustrations.
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
abiogenesis, 48
Ackerman, Thomas P., 93–94
Adriatic Sea, predator and prey studies in, 174–76, 179
agency-dominated biospheres, 219–22
aggression, of exo-civilizations, 50
agricultural revolution, 4
Alberti, Marina, 193, 198, 217
aliens, 13–14, 171; See also exo-civilizations
Alvin submersible, 113–15
Ames Research Center, SETI meeting at, 141–42
Anasazi civilization, 182
Anders, William, 107–8, 108
Andersen, Ross, 157
anoxygenic phototrophs, 116, 117
Anthropocene era; See also astrobiological perspective on Anthropocene era
Earth vs. human civilization in, 121, 222–25
energy consumption, CO2 concentration, and population in, 199
energy transformation limits in, 213–14, 220
frequency of conditions leading to, 171
as Great Filter, 26–27
and Great Oxidation Event, 117–18
narratives about, 55
waste products in, 188
anthropogenic climate change (human-driven climate change), 26–27, 70, 100–107
Apollo 8 mission, 107–8, 108
Archean eon, 110–11, 116–17, 218
Aristotle, 29, 158
Arrhenius, Svante, 69, 190
Asimov, Issac, 212
astrobiological perspective on Anthropocene era
and climate change, 224–25
and Noachian period on Mars, 91
questions of, 12–15
relationship of civilization and planet in, 209
role of humans in, 15–17
sociological questions about exo-civilizations in, 174
astrobiology, 10–12, 53, 90
astrometric sky mapping, 134–36, 142
Astronomical Journal, 135, 136
astronomy
history of, 30–31
radio, 36–37, 39–42, 65
technology for, 36–37
Atchley, Dana, 43
Atlas-Agena rocket, 71
atmosphere
as detector of life, 123–24
and energy transformations on planets, 215–16
of Mars, 90–91
over Earth’s history, 99–100, 110
and surface temperature of planets, 68–70
of Venus, 65
atmospheric pressure, on Mars, 89–90
atomic weapons, 34–35
atomism, 28–29
average lifetime of technological civilization (L)
in Drake equation, 49–50
and exo-civilization modeling, 186, 192, 201–2
and exoplanet data on existence of exo-civilizations, 154
Green Bank conference estimates of, 53–54
importance of determining, 169–71
averages, in exo-civilization modeling, 186
Babylonians, 189
bacteria, in Earth’s history, 114–16
Basener, Bill, 183–84
Batalha, Natalie, 146–49, 224
Baum, L. Frank, 38
bedrock, on Mars, 78
Berkner, Lloyd, 40
Big Bang, 9
Big History Project, 250n.22
binary stars, 134, 135, 138, 144
biogeochemistry, 120
bi
osphere(s)
agency-dominated, 219–22
in Earth system science, 127–30
and energy consumption, 213, 214
and energy transformations on planets, 217–22
evolution of, 221
in Gaia theory, 123–27
influence on Earth’s history of, 118–22
modeling exoplanet, 185
thick, 218, 219
thin, 217–19
bio-technical probability (fbt)
and constraints on exo-civilization modeling, 171
of exo-civilizations at any point in time, 153–55
pessimistic estimations of, 157–64
birth rate of stars (N*), 46, 150
Black Cloud, The (Hoyle), 46
Black Death, 196
“blueberries,” on Mars, 90
Borman, Frank, 107
Borucki, Bill, 143, 145–46, 224
Brander, James A., 182–84
brightness, 137, 139; See also transit method
Brin, David, 25
Bruno, Giordano, 30, 135, 234n.16
Butler, Paul, 144
Byurakan Observatory meeting, 206–8, 207
Calvin, Melvin, 43, 44, 54
Cambrian Explosion, 112
Camp Century, 100–107, 102, 224
Canfield, Donald, 113–15, 218, 224
carbon cycle, 73, 74
carbon dioxide
in Earth’s atmosphere, 99
and energy consumption/population in Anthropocene era, 199
and greenhouse effect, 69–70
in Martian atmosphere, 86, 124
in Venusian atmosphere, 65
Carboniferous era, 112
Carroll-Nellenback, Jonathan, 194, 198
carrying capacity, 178, 182, 183
Carson, Rachel, 55–56
Carter, Brandon, 162–63, 247n.37
Catholic Church, 29, 30
Central Park nuclear freeze demonstration (1982), 92–93
Chariots of the Gods? (von Däniken), 181
chemical equilibrium, 123, 124
Cirkovic, Milan M., 210
cities, sustainable, 205–6
civilizations
average lifetime of, See average lifetime of technological civilization (L)
coevolution of planets and, 14–15
human, See human civilization
Kardashev scale of progress for, 208–14
on other planets, See exo-civilizations
studying environment’s interactions with, 193–98
sustainable, See sustainable civilizations
Class 1 planets, 217
Class 2 planets, 217, 219
Class 3 planets, 217–19
Class 4 planets, 218–19
Class 5 planets, 218–22
climate, 11, 84
on Earth vs. Mars, 86–89
on Mars, 79, 83–84, 86–89
as military concern, 103–4
negative feedback cycle on, 74
in nuclear winter modeling, 94
positive feedback loop on, 73–74
on Venus, 63–67
climate change, 12
and Anthropocene era as Great Filter, 26–27
anthropogenic (human-driven), 26–27, 70, 100–107
and astrobiological perspective on Anthropocene era, 224–25
in Earth’s history, 223
exo-civilizations in study of, 54–58, 164–66
and habitability of Mars, 89–91
ice core data on, 106–7
and influence of human civilization on Earth, 6, 7
Mars model, 84–86
science vs. storytelling on, 8–10
waste products of civilization building as cause of, 188
climate science, 94–95, 102–4
Cocconi, Giuseppe, 41–44
coevolution, 14–15, 130
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 105
cold trap, 74, 238n.32
Cold War, 21, 35, 39, 56, 58, 93, 101, 103, 122
Collapse (Diamond), 182
collapse, in exo-civilization modeling, 196, 197
collision theory, 33, 38
combustion, 189, 190–91
communications, with exo-civilizations, 43–50
compact multi solar systems, 148
conservation, 55–56
continent making, 110–11, 113
convective circulation, 215
Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds (de Fontenelle), 30–31, 31
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 29–30
Coriolis force, 88
Cornell University, 38
Coruscant, 212
craters, on Mars, 80–81
cratons, 110
Crick, Francis, 207
Curiosity rover, 78, 89, 90
cyanobacteria, 116
Daisyworld model, 129
D’Ancona, Umberto, 175–77, 176, 179
Dansgaard, Willi, 105, 224
Darwin, Charles, 9, 31, 32, 118, 172
Darwinian evolution, 172–73
“dead” worlds, 216, 217
de Fontenelle, Bernard, 30–31, 31, 34
delayed collapse, 196, 197–98
desert greening, 219–20
Diamond, Jared, 182
“die-off” trajectory, 195–96, 196, 233n.11
Drake, Frank, 40, 57, 104, 166, 223
at Byurakan Observatory meeting, 206
and Drake equation, 47, 51–52
and exoplanet discovery, 140, 150
and Green Bank conference, 43–45, 51–52
Milky Way as focus of, 236n.50
and Project Ozma, 37–42
radio astronomy techniques of, 65
Drake equation; See also average lifetime of technological civilization (L)
components of, 45–50
constraints on exo-civilization modeling from, 171–74
effects of exoplanet discovery on, 149–51, 153–55
focus of pessimism line vs., 165
at Green Bank conference, 50–54
optimistic estimations for components of, 158–59
pessimistic estimations for components of, 159–64
Dunn, Alan, 22
dust storms, Martian, 81–82, 94
Dutch, on Easter Island, 180–81, 184
Dyson, Freeman, 209–11
Dyson spheres, 210, 211
Earth
in Anthropocene era, 121
atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, 65
brightness of Sun vs., 137
climate change on, in context of exo-civilizations, 54–58
coevolution of life and, 10–11
effects of Anthropocene era for human civilization vs., 222–25
energy from Sun on, 209
energy transformations on, 218, 220
environmental impact of combustion on, 190–91
equilibrium temperature of, 68–69
formation of, 109
greenhouse effect on, 69–70
influence of human civilization on, 4–8
on Kardashev scale, 211
mechanics of climate on Mars vs., 86–89
proximity to Venus, 148
system-based understanding of, 56
trade winds on, 87–88
uses of exo-civilization modeling on, 198–202
water loss on, 74
Earthrise photograph, 107–8, 108, 121
Earth’s history, 6–7, 99–130
anthropogenic climate change in, 100–107
atmospheric changes in, 99–100
and Earthrise image, 107–8
Earth system science perspective on, 127–30
eons of, 109–13
Gaia theory of, 122–27
Great Oxidation Event in, 113–18
influence of biosphere on, 118–22
Earth-sized exoplanets, 144–45
Earth system science, 127–30, 222
Easter Island, 180–84, 181
&nbs
p; ecology, 176
Egyptian Church of the Eternal Source, 127
Einstein, Albert, 52, 118, 137
electromagnetic spectrum, 36
endosymbiosis, 125
energy consumption
and CO2 concentration/population in Anthropocene era, 199
environmental impact of, 190–91
impact of technology on, 187
in Kardashev scale, 209–13
energy sources
effects of switching, 196, 197–98
in exo-civilization modeling, 186–90
planetary numbers of, 188–90
energy transformations
constraints on, 213–14
planetary classification based on, 214–22
in thermodynamics, 214–15
environment
civilizations’ interactions with, 181–84, 193–98
on Easter Island, 181–84
impact of energy source use on, 190–91
environmental collapse, 182–84
environmental movement, 128
eons, 109–13
Epicurus, 28, 158
Epsilon Eridani, 41
equilibrium, chemical, 123, 124
equilibrium temperature, 68, 126
evolutionary biology, 171–73
evolution theory, 31, 32, 172–73
exo-civilization modeling, 169–202
average lifetime of civilizations from, 169–71, 201–2
averages in, 186
constraints on, 171–74
energy sources in, 186–90
environmental impact of energy consumption in, 190–91
histories of exo-civilizations in, 185–86
and history of Easter Island, 180–84
for studying civilization and environmental interactions, 193–98
theoretical archaeology of exo-civilizations, 184–202
theoretical biology as basis for, 174–80
uses of, on Earth, 198–202
exo-civilizations, 21–58
in astrobiology of Anthropocene, 13–14
Byurakan meeting on, 206–8
climate change on Earth in context of, 54–58
distribution of, 248–49n.21
Drake’s equation for, 50–54
Frank Drake’s search for, 37–42
Fermi’s Paradox on, 21–28
formation of, 171, 173–74
Green Bank conference on, 43–50
historical views on, 28–34
histories of, 185–86
probability of existence of, 151–64
in study of climate change, 164–66
and technological advances during atomic age, 34–37
theoretical archaeology of, 184–202
exoplanet discovery, 133–66
effects of, on Drake’s equation, 150–51
and exo-civilizations in study of climate change, 164–66