I am going to Moscow. I have been invited to speak there at Lomonosov Moscow State University at the 3rd International Scientific Congress “Globalistics 2013” October 23-25, dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir I. Vernadsky. Vernadsky (1863-1945) was an important Russian scientific thinker who founded the field of biogeochemistry. He is most famous, however, for setting forth a concept of planetary development in which a planet starts as a geosphere, is which what happens is limited by the laws of chemistry, but which then potentially evolves into a biosphere, where the laws of biology prevail over those of chemistry per se, and from there on to a “noosphere,” where intelligence has the final say. Examples supporting the validity of this concept include the presence of free oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere, an artifact of the biosphere which could not exist on a planet ruled by the laws of chemistry alone, and metallic aluminum on the Earth’s surface, an artifact of the noosphere that is quite impossible according to the limits of the geosphere or biosphere. Vernadsky’s ideas have been subject to a very wide variety of interpretations including Christian (e.g. Teilhard de Chardin), Communist, and Gaian. My own take (which influenced the final chapter “North to the Stars” of my book “Entering Space”) is humanist. What I see in Vernadsky is a cosmic concept supporting the creative evolution of ever greater degrees of freedom. Accordingly, the title of my paper to be given at the congress is “The Self-Expanding Noosphere and the Creation of Unlimited Resources.” I am going to reach Moscow Oct 20, and so will have a couple of days before the Congress to do other things. I hope, if possible, to arrange for one of more talks to Russian institutes interested in space exploration on the subject of my “Mars Direct” plan, which could enable human exploration of Mars within a decade using current day technology.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 15:38:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015