From: matus [matus@snet.net]
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 8:25 PM
To: matus@snet.net
Subject: MFD List - A Candle Goes Out

I recently completed a course at a local community college called 'Processes
and Inquiries into Natural science' My fellow students would remark at how
envious they are that this comes 'so easily' to me.  It doesnt.  I tell them
that I have spent that last 4 or 5 years reading, and reading a lot.

The more somebody does anything, read, write, calculate, jog, dance, play an
instrument, estimate sizes or distances, write songs, track wild animals,
garden, cook, throw javelins, the better they get at doing it.  In fact,
there is a 'expert' requirement that the human brain tends to require before
really excelling at something, usually around 10,000 hours.  Even Beethoven
had the required hours, he just had them by the age of 6.  I read about 2
books, almost always non-fiction, every month for the past 4 years.  I have
probably barely reached 1,000 hours worth of study in the general science
field, let alone the 10,000 required to master a field.  And should I reach
that, I will only have a encompassing concept of science in general, not the
specifics, as each field, sub field, and sub sub field can require 10,000
hours to really comprehend.

The human brain has tremendous information storage capacities, but its
memory is continually subjected to a process of natural selection.  Memories
require precious molecules and synaptic connections which are of limited
supply in the brain.  Memories that are not actively used therefore are
discarded so these connections and molecules can be used for more important
and useful memories.  The brain determines how usefull a memory is simply by
how often the memory is used.  This is why you forget things if you havent
done them in a while, like played a song on a guitar. Conversely, the more
times you access a memory, the more reinforced its content is, and the
longer it will remain.  The more times you access a memory the easier it is
to recall it.  The more times you perform a task the better you are at it.
You can do things or remember things so often that they can become so easy
that they are actually reflexive.  That is, they are as intuitive to you as
a simple reflex, and you no longer think about actually performing the task.
Do you still think about how to walk while walking?  Things like motions and
movements are also memories.  When we learned to walk, we built new memories
describing this behavior, and the more times we did it the less we had to
think about actually doing it.  Kip Thorne touches on this somewhat in a
book of his I recently read called 'Black Holes and Timewarps'.  Kip is a
good friend of Stephen Hawking, one of the best known physicists alive
today.  Stephen Hawking is afflicted with ALS, which has been destroying his
ability to use his muscles and limbs. Hawking no speaks through a computer
console, he types words and phrases in by moving a cursor around with his
mouth.  It is a time consuming process for Hawking.  Because of this, he
found it in his best interest to make his statement as clear, short, and
concise as possible.  A difficult question was proposed and Hawking would
ponder it for sometime, formulating a quick,
precise, easy to understand response.  Hawkings messages also get played
back through a voice synthesizer, beacuse of all these factors, Kip Thorne
said that talking to Hawking, one of the most brilliant men alive, would be
like talking to an oracle.  Hawking perfected the ability of saying and
formulating complex information into concise answers.

People we see on television, in movies, or on stage are people who can do
amazing and fascinating things.  We see these people and wish we could do
what they do, play the piano as well, paint or write as well, or know Kung
Fu as well.  But these people have chosen to devote thier entire life to
this one particular object in order to accell at it, and we would have to
devote just as much time to be that good at it.  We all pick things in our
lives that we choose to devote our time and energy to, these things we spend
doing are no more or less valid then any one else choice of how to spend
thier time, as long as no one is hurt.  I have, at least in this stage in my
life, chosen to devote most of my attention to understanding the way the
world works, trying to understand the way things are and how they got that
way.  This is a relatively recent development in my life and I can attribute
the developemnt of this interest to one particular passionate writer,
scientist, and humanist, Carl Sagan.  More than five years ago now I read
his book 'Science as a Candle in the Dark' a book which introduced me to the
wonders of nature and science and the excitement that one can get from
learning about the way the world works and the process of investigating
nature.  He has been the single biggest intellecual inspiration in my life.
Sadly, Carl Sagan passed away a few years ago, before I ever became
interested in his work.  I would have loved to see him speak.

Following is a moving article written by a fellow practical skeptic (of whom
Sagan was an icon of) on Carl Sagan, his worldview, and how his death
effected us.  Most notable is the Excerpt from Carl Sagan 'Pale Blue Dot' in
which he conveys his deep understanding of the nature of man in the universe
so eloquently and passionately, nothing I have read since has ever conveyed
the notion of 'Humility' that science inspires in one than this particular
passage. - Mike

A Candle Goes Out.

Carl Sagan, Astronomer, Author, Skeptic and Teacher died December 20th of
pneumonia. He was 62 years old. In his life Carl Sagan has published
research on the atmosphere of Venus, the dust storms of Mars, nuclear winter
and extraterrestrial intelligence. He has also written a dozen popular books
and countless articles on science which have been read by millions.

I had the great pleasure of hearing Carl Sagan speak in 1994 at the State
University of New York at Albany. This was just before the publication of
Pale Blue Dot, and Dr. Sagan's talk included a short reading from that book.
The passage was about the only voyager photograph of Earth. In this
photograph, taken at Sagan's insistence, the earth was a single pixel---a
pale blue dot.

"On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of,
every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our
joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and
economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every
creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young
couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, Inventor and
explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every
``superstar,'' every ``supreme leader,''every saint and sinner in the
history of our species lived there---on a mote of dust suspended in a
sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers
of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and
triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of
this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner,
how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one
another, how fervent their hatreds. "

Carl Sagan saw the big picture.

More importantly, Carl Sagan was passionate about bringing the big picture
to others. He was above all else a teacher, and I think an extraordinary
one. After his talk, he sat down and took questions from the audience for
nearly an hour. People lined up at the microphone to ask him about life on
other planets, UFOs, the nature of science, and his views on religion. I sat
there in awe.

Carl Sagan looked perfectly at ease, in his natural environment, while
answering those questions. And what questions they were! Many of them would
have left me, and I suspect most skeptics, exasperated.

Just after an insightful question about the future of planetary exploration,
would be a question about the government cover up of UFOs. After one
concerned questioner asked what she can do about the environment, another
asked about the growing synergy of science and religion. If one questioner
wanted to know if there was life on mars, another wanted to know why
scientists were so close minded.

In The Demon Haunted World, his last book, Carl Sagan said there is no such
thing as a dumb question. He really believed this. Never did he show a lack
of patience. Never once did he answer in a way that would make the
questioner feel silly. He used each question to teach something. He might
say that he didn't know the answer, ``but, let me tell you a related story''
and proceed to use the question as a jumping point for something better. The
questioner never seemed unsatisfied.

My favorite story that night started with ``When I was talking with the Dali
Lama, I asked the same question I ask all great religious leaders.'' He then
discussed the nature of religious beliefs that might conflict with science,
and the nature of those that do not. (This story is in The Demon Haunted
World.) When I'm 62, I only hope I could have have lived the kind of life
were I could, with a strait
face, begin a story ``When I was talking with the Dali Lama....''

We skeptics lost a friend when Carl Sagan died. But more, we lost a teacher.

-Mike Sofka

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