February 06, 2014
Science Month!
It's Science Month here on My Life Before Mars. The topic: Polar Madness. Understanding this topic is crucial to processing the future mission to Mars--it is not all jumpsuits and food in a tube--no, no. no.. We must face reality and ask the hard questions: Will the astronauts murder each other three days into the mission? Will they leave behind a grizzly scene of floating gelatinous balls of cold blood and body parts haunting the hull of the ship for all of the world to see? Or---not? More importantly, is there a middle ground? Perhaps not everybody has to die. Could half survive and actually make it to Mars? With twice the allotted supplies per astronaut? Remember: assume nothing. There is always an extra tank of oxygen behind every dark cloud.
How best to explore such a controversial topic? I was provided with an answer just days ago.
How best to explore such a controversial topic? I was provided with an answer just days ago.
I will apply an established scientific approach to this mystery. My eight-year old son recently brought home a 47th-generation photocopy of a crap 6-page paperback book, courtesy of the Public Education System of the United States. This "book" was about, you guessed it-- the Scientific Method. The mystery: could an orange float in water? Or was this miracle reserved only for biblical times? I won't leave you hanging-- it's all about salt. But how did they arrive at this answer? Luckily, this is what the distorted and barely readable pages were all about. Here's how it works:
1. Ask a question
2. Guess an answer
3. Create an experiment to test your guess
4. Do the experiment
5. Write it down what happens
Remember, even a wrong guess is an important discovery!
Since I have the science education of a second-grader, I am going to apply this tried and true method to the issue at hand: Polar Madness!
How did I even begin to concern myself with such thing as Polar Madness? Luckily, I am not alone in this. I have a friend who likes to think of Things That Will Go Wrong. He is convinced there's no way the astronauts aren't going to start plotting each others murders within three days. I'm talking about three days on the spaceship. Like, still within Skyping range! (I actually know nothing about Skyping range--I was just trying to make as point as to how little time had passed.)
1. Ask a question
2. Guess an answer
3. Create an experiment to test your guess
4. Do the experiment
5. Write it down what happens
Remember, even a wrong guess is an important discovery!
Since I have the science education of a second-grader, I am going to apply this tried and true method to the issue at hand: Polar Madness!
How did I even begin to concern myself with such thing as Polar Madness? Luckily, I am not alone in this. I have a friend who likes to think of Things That Will Go Wrong. He is convinced there's no way the astronauts aren't going to start plotting each others murders within three days. I'm talking about three days on the spaceship. Like, still within Skyping range! (I actually know nothing about Skyping range--I was just trying to make as point as to how little time had passed.)
Is it not Occam's Razor that says that the simplest answer is most likely to be the correct one? My simple answer to murderous co-astronauts isn't to not go to Mars--that would be too complicated. My simple answer is to make a shiv. I watch a lot of TV, and according to prison dramas a shiv can be pretty effective in terms of personal protection. I believe I will start practicing my shiv making now--but I am really not sure what materials to start with. A spoon? A plastic lunch tray? A bar of soap? (Any suggestions?) I think I will etch a list of stabby human parts on the "hilt". Maybe my name too, so no one takes it?
Now--madness, murder and Martians. It is time to use The Second Grade Scientific Method.
The question: Will the astronauts murder each other?
|
My guess: NO
|
His guess: YES
|
The experiment: coming soon!
Over the next month (Science Month!) I will painstakingly apply the Second Grade Science Method to explore this controversial issue. I will devise an experiment, I will do the experiment, the truth shall be revealed. One way or another.
February 06, 2014, later that day
After some thought
After some thought, I have devised what I think will be a sound and fair science experiment. Now, I don't know much but I know about "control groups."When I say I know about "control groups" it means I have HEARD about "control groups." I believe every experiment needs a "control group" to most accurately acquire the best results--(I am familiar with Heisenberg) Thusly..........I will begin by recreating one of the original Polar Expeditions.
After unextensive and sloppy research I am ready to present this condensed version of:
The Polar Expedition of the Belgica, 1897-1899
In Which A Finite Period of Madness and Paranoia Ran Rampant
In Which A Finite Period of Madness and Paranoia Ran Rampant
The Belgica:
After 13 months of being trapped in the ice of the Antarctic , almost the entire crew went insane--but only temporarily.
Besides being surrounded by ice threatening to crush the hull of their ship, the largest problem was the unrelenting darkness of the winter months. People started getting weird and the darkness was blamed.
When the sun returned, it was hoped that their tentative hold on sanity would improve--but it only got worse. The sunlight was blamed.
(The Poetry of Blame)
On top of being trapped for what was becoming a VERY long period of time, the finite geography of the ship, ridiculously cramped personal quarters (each man had actually been measured for his bunk so that no space was wasted) there was the even larger issue: boredom. You would think men living in the 1800's would be more accustomed to long periods of silence and/or lack of entertainment. But, it may not have been boredom at all. It may have been what we now call "Subliminal Distraction"
Subliminal Distraction: When one person peripherally (and thus subliminally) detects the presence of another person, or persons, right beside them, without interruption, for long periods of time..
Why is this a problem? Primaly, after dropping from the trees, early folks started passing the night in super-tiny cave-apartments. Minute to minute survival in the wilds of dawning civilization depended on environmental hyper-awareness. Close quarters with another person puts the mind into a state of overdrive to maintain safety, without the owner of said mind being very aware of the taxing activity (hence: "subliminal").
Basically, your brain buzzing without pause: "Make sure that person doesn't kill you. Make sure that person doesn't kill you. Make sure that person doesn't kill you."
So, exhaustion, paranoia and plotting result: "Maybe, you should just kill them first. Maybe, you should just kill them first. Maybe, you should just kill them first."
In the end, one of the Belgica men become deaf and mute and one other went permanently insane. Most crew members experienced extreme "short-term" madness and paranoia--shoving themselves in tiny spaces for protection, convinced their fellows were plotting murder--and plotting their fellow's murder in return. But there weren't a lot of fatalities. Because...
The ice finally broke, the Belgica was set free and the men returned home having actually accomplished their scientific mission--and received a lot of applause to boot.
Ok. Maybe not the worst example of Polar Madness.
After 13 months of being trapped in the ice of the Antarctic , almost the entire crew went insane--but only temporarily.
Besides being surrounded by ice threatening to crush the hull of their ship, the largest problem was the unrelenting darkness of the winter months. People started getting weird and the darkness was blamed.
When the sun returned, it was hoped that their tentative hold on sanity would improve--but it only got worse. The sunlight was blamed.
(The Poetry of Blame)
On top of being trapped for what was becoming a VERY long period of time, the finite geography of the ship, ridiculously cramped personal quarters (each man had actually been measured for his bunk so that no space was wasted) there was the even larger issue: boredom. You would think men living in the 1800's would be more accustomed to long periods of silence and/or lack of entertainment. But, it may not have been boredom at all. It may have been what we now call "Subliminal Distraction"
Subliminal Distraction: When one person peripherally (and thus subliminally) detects the presence of another person, or persons, right beside them, without interruption, for long periods of time..
Why is this a problem? Primaly, after dropping from the trees, early folks started passing the night in super-tiny cave-apartments. Minute to minute survival in the wilds of dawning civilization depended on environmental hyper-awareness. Close quarters with another person puts the mind into a state of overdrive to maintain safety, without the owner of said mind being very aware of the taxing activity (hence: "subliminal").
Basically, your brain buzzing without pause: "Make sure that person doesn't kill you. Make sure that person doesn't kill you. Make sure that person doesn't kill you."
So, exhaustion, paranoia and plotting result: "Maybe, you should just kill them first. Maybe, you should just kill them first. Maybe, you should just kill them first."
In the end, one of the Belgica men become deaf and mute and one other went permanently insane. Most crew members experienced extreme "short-term" madness and paranoia--shoving themselves in tiny spaces for protection, convinced their fellows were plotting murder--and plotting their fellow's murder in return. But there weren't a lot of fatalities. Because...
The ice finally broke, the Belgica was set free and the men returned home having actually accomplished their scientific mission--and received a lot of applause to boot.
Ok. Maybe not the worst example of Polar Madness.
~~~
February 07, 2014
Let's try again with:
John Franklin's Northwest Passage Expedition:
In Which a Dark Side of Humanity Was Revealed
Over a 140-Year Period of Time
In Which a Dark Side of Humanity Was Revealed
Over a 140-Year Period of Time
Now, this is what I'm talking about. (Or, more accurately, this is what my friend is talking about.)
(I paraphrased and plagiarized much of this information from THIS ARTICLE I am not much a researcher as you may have already guessed.--but I do believe I rendered the article more interesting and succinct.)
In 1845 John Franklin and crew set out from Great Britain to find the fabled Northwest Passage across the Atlantic. They were never heard from again. The End.
Or is it..............?
The first search party to find anything of significance regarding the Franklin expedition occurred in 1854. The searchers discovered a party of Inuit who were in possession of articles from the Franklin expedition: a gold cap band, some silverware and Franklin's order of knighthood. The Inuits revealed that they had never actually met the British sailors, but knew of others who had. As far as this group knew, all the white men had died years before--and any papers that had been found were simply gone. The Inuits who had made contact with the crew years earlier claimed that the sailors were in poor condition and afflicted with disease (probably scurvy). But the most startling story the Inuits related was about what they perceived to be evidence of cannibalism. Corpses had been found mutilated and human remains and bones were discovered in cooking pots. (Note to self: Do NOT bring cooking pots to Mars) Britain received this news with much skepticism and even the author Charles Dickens claimed the Inuit account to be "the chatter of a gross handful of uncivilized people." In essence, no one believed it.
Later, in 1859, after yet another extensive search for new evidence of the fate of Franklin and his crew, a cylindrical tin was found containing what appeared to be a (very short)written record of the lost expedition. (Note to self: Bring cylindrical tin to Mars) But, what Britain had been heralding as an expedition with a tragic but respectable unknown outcome, suddenly took on a another dark aspect The tin contained two written messages. The first was benign enough describing how the ships (HMS Terror and HMS Erebus*--are you kidding me?) had wintered here and there and that Franklin was in command. and "All well." he second message was written in the margins of the same paper and it had a very different tenor (isn't that how it always is?) It reported that Terror and Erebus had been trapped in the ice for a year and a half--(that is longer than The Belgica) the crew had abandoned the ships and 24 men were dead, including Franklin. This marginal note was dated only 2 weeks after the first. (Note to self: Do NOT bring cylindrical tin to Mars) These scraps of paper carried more weight than the words of the Inuit people but it's not like someone had written, "Long march today, going to eat Charles for dinner."There was still a very large chance that the Franklin expedition had ended in honor. The mystery weighed heavy on so many for so long that people just couldn't stop searching for an explanation of the expedition's end.
As evidence was collected, over the next 140 years, it became undeniable: the men of the Franklin Expedition had not only resorted to cannibalism, but they seemed to take to it with a mad and brutal passion. There was no doubt that the men who had left Britain were not the same men as the ones who butchered and ate their comrades. But good British gentlemen?--eating each other? When this was first suggested it was almost the same as claiming they had sprouted wings and learned to fly. Indeed, to this day there are those who don't believe it actually happened.
No one knows when it started, or how it started (or how it ended for that matter) but at some time in 1848, British sailors from HMS Terror and HMS Erebus began butchering and eating their fellows.
These are a few of my favorite forensic details--based on various discoveries by various groups over many years:
It is unlikely that that particular detail will ever be known. And it is this, this missing fact within this example, that illustrates what I enjoy so much in life: the attempt to define the undefinable part of the mystery. To see yourself in how you fill in the blanks. I stop and look at how I behave and think and act and feel and process the information and experiences thrown in my path. The results of this information, even though there are almost what I could describe as a FINITE amount of stories and revealed displays, can be drawn into an INFINITE amount of conclusions. Especially by beings, such as myself, who were generally designed with limited access to the complete environment.
February 08, 2014
Change of focus:
One of the most interesting aspects of this story in the level of disbelief maintained, even in the face of forensic fact. As the broad strokes of questionable events turn to finer ones, opportunity for agreement becomes less and less. In the broad stroke phase, philosophy and fact are seen as harmonious:
After that things start to break down. Besides the very obvious (we all saw them leave, we all saw them never come back) what might have happened to those men and what they may have done under those circumstances--without modern forensic evidence--opinions of The Truth are now not able to rely on fact. So, they become more reliant on philosophy. Philosophy and fact are no longer harmonious. What is the nature of man? Can anyone--under a perfect storm of variables--turn into something so very unrecognizable? Something no longer "human"?
Then, as facts eventually roll in, slowly over years, over decades, an imbalance is struck and philosophy gradually becomes challenged by fact:
Re: Franklin's Party
Now, as even more time passes, and those folks who are directly emotionally involved are not so abundant, and hard science gets more involved, what looks like MORE RELIABLE FACTS start to accumulate.
Re: The studies of the human remains found in a more modern age:
And now, philosophy has been compromised by fact, and how we view each other and ourselves is changed forever.
Can't you just feel what a crucial moment that is--to be denied that last piece of knowledge.? The very core of the issue--were the people eaten already dead or killed for that purpose? That is the piece of information we are always seeking--that piece that can't be known. It is the crucial piece, the Divine piece, the piece that exists in us and around us but remains unknowable. For me, a road of facts is always incomplete. Philosophy and fact must include some form of faith in order to transmute it into truth.
*Ererbus is the God of Death and/or Darkness
(I paraphrased and plagiarized much of this information from THIS ARTICLE I am not much a researcher as you may have already guessed.--but I do believe I rendered the article more interesting and succinct.)
In 1845 John Franklin and crew set out from Great Britain to find the fabled Northwest Passage across the Atlantic. They were never heard from again. The End.
Or is it..............?
The first search party to find anything of significance regarding the Franklin expedition occurred in 1854. The searchers discovered a party of Inuit who were in possession of articles from the Franklin expedition: a gold cap band, some silverware and Franklin's order of knighthood. The Inuits revealed that they had never actually met the British sailors, but knew of others who had. As far as this group knew, all the white men had died years before--and any papers that had been found were simply gone. The Inuits who had made contact with the crew years earlier claimed that the sailors were in poor condition and afflicted with disease (probably scurvy). But the most startling story the Inuits related was about what they perceived to be evidence of cannibalism. Corpses had been found mutilated and human remains and bones were discovered in cooking pots. (Note to self: Do NOT bring cooking pots to Mars) Britain received this news with much skepticism and even the author Charles Dickens claimed the Inuit account to be "the chatter of a gross handful of uncivilized people." In essence, no one believed it.
Later, in 1859, after yet another extensive search for new evidence of the fate of Franklin and his crew, a cylindrical tin was found containing what appeared to be a (very short)written record of the lost expedition. (Note to self: Bring cylindrical tin to Mars) But, what Britain had been heralding as an expedition with a tragic but respectable unknown outcome, suddenly took on a another dark aspect The tin contained two written messages. The first was benign enough describing how the ships (HMS Terror and HMS Erebus*--are you kidding me?) had wintered here and there and that Franklin was in command. and "All well." he second message was written in the margins of the same paper and it had a very different tenor (isn't that how it always is?) It reported that Terror and Erebus had been trapped in the ice for a year and a half--(that is longer than The Belgica) the crew had abandoned the ships and 24 men were dead, including Franklin. This marginal note was dated only 2 weeks after the first. (Note to self: Do NOT bring cylindrical tin to Mars) These scraps of paper carried more weight than the words of the Inuit people but it's not like someone had written, "Long march today, going to eat Charles for dinner."There was still a very large chance that the Franklin expedition had ended in honor. The mystery weighed heavy on so many for so long that people just couldn't stop searching for an explanation of the expedition's end.
As evidence was collected, over the next 140 years, it became undeniable: the men of the Franklin Expedition had not only resorted to cannibalism, but they seemed to take to it with a mad and brutal passion. There was no doubt that the men who had left Britain were not the same men as the ones who butchered and ate their comrades. But good British gentlemen?--eating each other? When this was first suggested it was almost the same as claiming they had sprouted wings and learned to fly. Indeed, to this day there are those who don't believe it actually happened.
No one knows when it started, or how it started (or how it ended for that matter) but at some time in 1848, British sailors from HMS Terror and HMS Erebus began butchering and eating their fellows.
These are a few of my favorite forensic details--based on various discoveries by various groups over many years:
- Bones were discovered with very precise knife cuts. Numbers of broken skulls and disproportionate quantities of limb bones suggested that Franklin's men had been carrying the most portable joints with them as they marched. (Yikes--that paints quite a picture!)
- Other human bones were discovered scattered, showing evidence that they had been "butchered" with knives--the way one would butcher an animal for consumption. The largest bones were often broken in a manner to indicate that the bone marrow, containing many nutrients, was sought.
- Franklin's men were pretty thorough. They took the heads, ripped off the jaw-bones and smashed in the bases of the skulls to get at the brains. (In other recorded cases of cannibalism to stave off starvation, the heads and hands of the victims were usually removed and discarded, seemingly too human to be eaten.)
- It appeared, according to remains, that after the heads and bodies were gnawed to nothing, the crew members scavenged for scraps, flaying the flesh from the fingers, stripping off every last remnant. (Again, another pretty picture)
It is unlikely that that particular detail will ever be known. And it is this, this missing fact within this example, that illustrates what I enjoy so much in life: the attempt to define the undefinable part of the mystery. To see yourself in how you fill in the blanks. I stop and look at how I behave and think and act and feel and process the information and experiences thrown in my path. The results of this information, even though there are almost what I could describe as a FINITE amount of stories and revealed displays, can be drawn into an INFINITE amount of conclusions. Especially by beings, such as myself, who were generally designed with limited access to the complete environment.
February 08, 2014
Change of focus:
One of the most interesting aspects of this story in the level of disbelief maintained, even in the face of forensic fact. As the broad strokes of questionable events turn to finer ones, opportunity for agreement becomes less and less. In the broad stroke phase, philosophy and fact are seen as harmonious:
- We know the explorers left their homeland at a certain time, a certain way in a certain direction. (Most agree.)
- We know that all traces of the expedition disappeared--seemingly became consigned to oblivion. (Most agree.)
After that things start to break down. Besides the very obvious (we all saw them leave, we all saw them never come back) what might have happened to those men and what they may have done under those circumstances--without modern forensic evidence--opinions of The Truth are now not able to rely on fact. So, they become more reliant on philosophy. Philosophy and fact are no longer harmonious. What is the nature of man? Can anyone--under a perfect storm of variables--turn into something so very unrecognizable? Something no longer "human"?
Then, as facts eventually roll in, slowly over years, over decades, an imbalance is struck and philosophy gradually becomes challenged by fact:
Re: Franklin's Party
- We assume handicaps were probably introduced. (Many agree.)
- We assume, with the introduction of new evidence of these handicaps, that people must have died, got lost, got hungry, got desperate. (Most agree)
- We assume the men must have struggled as gentlemen struggle, preserving not only their integrity , but our own integrity, to the end--there is nothing yet to tell us otherwise! (Some agree)
- Evidence is uncovered. It looks a little........off. We assume that it is probably not what it looks like.
- More evidence is uncovered-- it looks like they may have actually done some of these unspeakable things. What do we assume now?(Less agree)
- Even More evidence is uncovered and it looks even more likely that the men of Franklin's Party had been severely compromised. We assume that this "can't be right." (Less agree. Charles Dickens himself refused to believe any of it, regardless of the evidence, claiming that "gentlemen do not eat human flesh.")
Now, as even more time passes, and those folks who are directly emotionally involved are not so abundant, and hard science gets more involved, what looks like MORE RELIABLE FACTS start to accumulate.
Re: The studies of the human remains found in a more modern age:
- Oh my god, they were butchered!! They may have even butchered each other!!? (few agree)
- Oh my God, they did butcher each other!! They may have even resorted to cannibalism!!? (a few more agree)
- Oh my God, they did resort to cannibalism!! They must have been horrified, right!!? (a few more agree)
- Oh my God, they do not appear to have been horrified!! They may have skillfully and cunningly butchered and consumed each other!!? (more agree)
- Oh my God, they did skillfully and cunningly butcher and consume each other!! They must have been out of their minds, right!? They must have only done that to those already dead, right!!? (many agree)
- Oh my God!! We have no way of accessing any more information!! (all agree)
And now, philosophy has been compromised by fact, and how we view each other and ourselves is changed forever.
Can't you just feel what a crucial moment that is--to be denied that last piece of knowledge.? The very core of the issue--were the people eaten already dead or killed for that purpose? That is the piece of information we are always seeking--that piece that can't be known. It is the crucial piece, the Divine piece, the piece that exists in us and around us but remains unknowable. For me, a road of facts is always incomplete. Philosophy and fact must include some form of faith in order to transmute it into truth.
*Ererbus is the God of Death and/or Darkness
Next Up:
The experiment to definitively determine the murdering capabilities of the mars one astronauts,
as designed by me, a future Mars one astronaut
I don't know much about science but I've seen it on the TV. It seems to me that anytime someone is a real scientist and he or she wants people to respect their findings, LAB RATS are involved. If you use lab rats in your experiments, people will believe you. So, it makes sense that if I want people to take my experiment seriously, it must involve actual lab rats.*
I have devised an experiment in which I will recreate the voyage of The Belgica, utilizing lab rats. It is going to be awesome.
*There will not be actual lab rats involved
