Video: Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Ongoing work to make the JWST a reality. (NASA)

If you are looking for some inspiration about the US space program, you might want to watch this NASA video, “Cosmic Dawn: The Untold Story of the James Webb Space Telescope.”

As the NASA site explains:

Go behind the scenes with the dedicated NASA team and its partners to uncover the untold story of the James Webb Space Telescope. “Cosmic Dawn” unveils the immense challenges, groundbreaking innovations, and extraordinary efforts behind humanity’s most powerful eye on our universe, from its complex development to its nail-biting deployment a million miles away.

This is what it takes to explore our universe, and I only hope we can continue to maintain the stamina, skills, and public support to maintain the JWST and initiate similar programs.

It may be time to write to Congress and let them know that America needs more of this grit and determination, not less.

Video: The Dark Forest

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Yol Gezer from Pixabay.

And now for something really different. If you are tired of national politics, maybe its time to talk about the extinction of all life in our solar system. Just for a change of topic, of course.

The Cool Worlds Lab has an interesting video titled “Why I Don’t Buy The Dark Forest Hypothesis” that picks apart this idea that technologically advanced species throughout the galaxy are hiding from one another out of the fear that once detected they may be destroyed. You may remember the term Dark Forest from a book of the same title by Chinese writer Liu Cixin.

Its a good discussion of the hypothesis, with plenty of diagrams mapping out a civilization’s decision to either reply to, ignore, or attack a newly discovered civilization trying to communicate.

I don’t want to spoil everything, but the bottom line is that it is probably too late for us to worry about this anyway. First, we have already sent out plenty of electronic messages as well as messages intended for alien civilizations. But more importantly, the James Webb Space Telescope is showing us that a silent civilization on a distant exoplanet can still be detected as we investigate that exoplanet’s atmosphere. So if a dangerous distant civilizations was seeking out other planets with life that it could destroy, the Earth has been telegraphing life for more than 3.5 billion years.

Check it out and learn more about the hypothesis and the arguments for and against it.

Video: Andor Versus Star Trek

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Reason Magazine.

If you are watching the Star Wars series Andor on Disney+, you are well aware of the dark workings of the imperial bureaucracy as it crushes the spirit of its citizens.

Reason magazine, always a proponent of less government, has created a fun video that highlights the realistic nature of the bureaucracy in Andor versus the overly-optimistic Star Trek universe where competence and teamwork save the day every time.

I am not saying the Star Trek universe lacks bureaucracy. In fact, more often than not the Enterprise crew is breaking those rules to accomplish their mission. Yet the sheer incompetence of both the rebels and imperial overmasters in Andor is noteworthy, and it that way all the more human.

Take a look at the Reason video yourself and make up your own mind.

Enjoy.

Videos: Behind the Scenes Look at the Evil Empire

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Scene from season one of For the Empire. (AFK)

If the political news these days is a bit too much, I recommend you sit back and have some fun with a few Star Wars videos. The For the Empire series provides humorous behind-the-scene antics in the Empire. One of my favorite short films is The Battlefield where a storm trooper encounters a Jedi on the battlefield for the first time. Or try A Certain Point of View for commentary on the Empire’s foreign policy.

It reminds me of the Star Wars skits from Robot Chicken, which are worth a second viewing as well.

While none of this is Andor, it is a welcome respite from today’s news. We all need a laugh or two.

The For The Empire series on YouTube uses Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to produce these high quality videos. It it quite a few steps beyond the claymation of Robot Chicken. If this is the future of animation, then Hollywood had better watch its back.

Videos: The Odds of Life Elsewhere in the Universe

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): One of the graphics from the video discussing the progress of life leading to civilization here on the Earth. (Cool Worlds)

Earlier today, a new Cool Worlds video was posted to Youtube titled “The Odds of Life – THIS CHANGED MY MIND.” Its an interesting piece narrated by Professor David Kipping regarding whether life is common in the universe. You will see that Professor Kipping is excited to share his results as he walks you through various papers before concluding that simple life may be more common than he believed earlier, making the chance of an advanced civilization a little more likely.

As always, it’s a fun story to follow as it answers one questions and stirs up other questions. For example, as part of his talk he notes an earlier paper that hypothesized the existence of an earlier technological civilization here on Earth about 350 million years ago. The paper is titled The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it be Possible to Detect an Industrial Civilization in the Geological Record.

Here is the abstract of this paper:

If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to our own era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? We summarize the likely geological fingerprint of the Anthropocene, and demonstrate that while clear, it will not differ greatly in many respects from other known events in the geological record. We then propose tests that could plausibly distinguish an industrial cause from an otherwise naturally occurring climate event.

Professor Kipping said he hoped to create another video to discuss this idea about earlier civilizations. In the meantime, you may want to take a look at the paper.