Author: Alessandra

EP. 14: ARE CATS JEALOUS? HERE’S HOW TO FIND OUT.

On By AlessandraIn Cat Myths Debunked, Cats, Uncategorized, Wolfram "Morsy" Chettoh

Introduction

Are cats jealous? If you never lived with a cat you’ll likely answer no, but most cat owners say otherwise.

My cat, Chettoh (see this previous post) recently got a rival. After more than fourteen years as an only son, he now has to compete with another cat, a seventeen-year-old Siamese I inherited from my sister after she moved from a large house to a smaller apartment and couldn’t keep him any longer. Napo (short for Napoleon, like the XVIII century French emperor) is a tame, affectionate, lovely feline—quite the opposite of my Chettoh. My cat, since infancy, has always been an aloof, mistrustful little thug. This doesn’t mean I don’t love him. Quite the opposite. However, his supposed coolness quickly evaporated when he smelled the scent of another cat on his human mom (N.B.! Napo doesn’t live with Chettoh and me, yet. He’s still at my parents’ place, where my sister stored most of her discarded items – well, yes, Napo is one of them – but I visit every day to take care of him.)

When Chettoh started his jealous behavior, I wasn’t aware of it at first. He had always been a stereotypical cat, seeking human contact only when it was time for nourishment or physical warmth. Soon, however, unusual events became more and more frequent, for example: potty accidents, like using the floor instead of the litter box (previously, Chettoh had been a relatively clean and tidy cat), further aloofness coupled with being loud and demanding (Chettoh always preferred to isolate himself during most of the day, sleeping 80% of the time, but after he sensed the presence of another cat in my life, he alternated meowing obsessively for food and cuddles, with long periods of not acknowledging my existence or, if he did, avoiding eye contact.) (N.B.! Some information in this paragraph has been inspired by: Cats – PetHelpful).

However, can a cat really be jealous of a human? Or am I projecting a human behavior on what could simply be multiple signs of cat’s aging brain? As I said above, and in this previous post, Chettoh is now almost fifteen; in human terms he’s an octogenarian; definitely a senior.

In other words, does a non-human brain need a minimum level of intelligence to experience human-like feelings?

Fig.1: Wolfram “Wolfie” Chettoh. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI.

How Smart Are Cats?

What is the scientific evidence that cats are clever?

  1. Cats have a brain that is about 90% similar to humans, with a complex surface folding pattern that increases the surface area and the number of nerve cells;
  2. Cats also have more cortical neurons than dogs, which suggests that they have greater information-processing capacity;
  3. Cats can learn observation and imitation, solve puzzles, manipulate objects, use tools, and communicate with humans using vocalizations and body language;
  4. Cats can recognize their names, distinguish human facial expressions, and remember events for up to 16 hours;
  5. Cats are not as social as dogs, but they can form complex relationships with other cats and humans based on mutual trust and respect;
  6. Cats have different types of intelligence, such as spatial intelligence (cats with significant spatial intelligence are good at finding their way home from great distances. There are famous stories of cats who were lost or abandoned hundreds of miles from their owners’ places and successfully found their way back months or even years later). Other cats may excel at interpersonal intelligence (cats who form powerful bonds with their human parent, like the ones who mourn on their owner’s grave), intrapersonal intelligence (the hardest to measure: who knows what goes on in the mind of another sentient being, let alone a cat?), musical intelligence (my cat Chettoh, see previous posts, probably isn’t much endowed with this one, because he hates when I stream any music on my phone), and linguistic intelligence (some cats can mold their “meowing” into an astonishing variety of sounds and pitches to make themselves understood by their “dumb” humans.) (From: How Intelligent Are Cats? Science Has an Answer – Cats.com).

So, do cats get jealous?

Fig. 2: A young kitten in the Sonoran Desert. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI.

Cats can experience jealousy to a certain degree. While jealousy is a complex emotion for humans, it’s a bit more simple for cats. Our feline friends live in the moment, so when we think they’re experiencing jealousy, it’s more likely they’re merely coveting something, whether it’s an object or a certain treatment. In contrast, humans feel jealous when we start to ruminate on the point of contention. Still, cat jealousy is very real.

Cats that are brought up and nurtured within a family are much more social. Their interactions far surpass the feeding and physical comfort stage. They are a part of the family, and they begin to act like any household member. Any upset to their balance can cause anger, jealousy and hurt.

There is some evidence suggesting that cats may indeed experience jealousy.

For example, cats may display aggressive or attention-seeking behaviors when they perceive a threat to their owner’s attention or affection. Cats have a highly developed sense of smell, and they can detect the presence of other cats on their owner’s clothes or body. This can trigger feelings of jealousy or insecurity in some cats, leading to changes in behavior. Some cats can become clingy or needy or intrude in your personal space when you are busy or occupied with something else. However, cats are complex creatures, and their behaviors can be influenced by various factors, including their personalities, past experiences, and overall environment. As a result, cats can show signs of jealousy in subtle or obvious ways.

Common signs of jealousy in cats.

  • They are blocking access to furniture or doorways.
    Anecdotal Evidence: my cat Chettoh, even when he wasn’t competing with another cat, always tried to grab my attention, for example, lying sideways across the hallway or blocking access to the bathroom or the entrance/exit door.
  • They make eye contact with a person or animal they dislike.
    No direct evidence for this. Napo, my other cat, doesn’t live in the same place as Chettoh, even though they both know about each other’s existence from the odorous clues each of them leaves on my hands and clothes;
  • They rub on everything their competitor has touched.
    Chettoh has been rubbing on my ankles much more since I began caring for Napo. Also, he’s taken up the habit of jumping on the table where I’m preparing dinner not just to solicit food but to offer his head for cuddles;
  • They solicit attention but then bite or scratch when petted.
    Anecdotal Evidence: this is typical Chettoh behavior. Oftentimes, my cat meows insistently, without apparent purpose. He doesn’t want food or drink, and isn’t sick either. Occasionally, he even tricks me into thinking he wants to play. However, when I approach him, if I’m slow to guess his real intentions, I may feel his inch-long fangs on my hand;
  • They bite or scratch when someone tries to move them away from something they want.
    Anecdotal Evidence: Like most animals, Chettoh is interested in everything that moves because it might be prey. Whenever something falls to the ground, he jumps at full speed to check, eat, or play with it. One day, I was frantically typing on my PC. When the mouse slipped from my hand and landed under a table, I tried to retrieve it, but Chettoh beat me to it. Before I realized it, he’d bitten and scratched my left hand so hard it got infected. Although my doctor prescribed antibiotics and an anti-tetanus injection, it took me nearly a month to recover;
  • They groom excessively.
    Anecdotal Evidence: Chettoh spends 80% of his time napping. The remaining 20% is divided between grooming (18%) and (2%) watching me while I’m eating or working. As is normal for healthy cats, Chettoh is quite clean. Lately, however, his grooming has turned excessive, so much so that the fur on his rear parts isn’t so thick anymore, and completely missing in some areas;
  • They lose their appetite.
    Chettoh has always been a picky eater. There is no way of having him eat cheap food, as he’ll only nibble at top quality kibbles. I’ve always blamed this to his only son status. When there are several cats in a home, they usually gulp whatever they find in their bowls, for fear that a rival might eat it first. Since he’s detected Napo’s scent on myself, however, Chettoh barely touches his food.

(N.B.! Some of the information in the list above has been taken from: Cats – Parade Pets).

How to prevent and temper cat jealousy.

Fig. 3: Wolfram “Wolfie” Chettoh, my cat, in an image inspired by Edward Hopper’s art. Made by the author with Midjourney AI.

Cat jealousy can be hard to prevent, but there are some ways to reduce the chances of triggering it or to deal with it when it happens. Here are some practical tips on how to make a cat feel more secure and happy in its environment:

  1. Determine the trigger of your cat’s jealousy and try to eliminate or minimize it as much as possible. For example, if your cat is jealous of a new pet, introduce it gradually and carefully, making sure your cat doesn’t feel left out or replaced. Give your cat plenty of attention and praise when it behaves well;
  2. Give your cat enough personal space and resources not to share or compete with others. If you own more than one cat, provide them multiple litter boxes, food bowls, water bowls, toys, scratching posts, beds, hiding places, etc. Make sure that each cat has its own designated area where it can feel safe and comfortable;
  3. Teach your cat to accept and tolerate others using positive reinforcement techniques such as treats, toys, play, and affection;
    IMPORTANT: avoid punishing or scolding your cat for showing signs of jealousy, as this can make it more anxious and resentful. Instead, reward it for being calm and friendly around others;
  4. Spending quality time with your cat daily gives them your undivided attention and love. Play with it, cuddle with it, talk to it, groom it, and make it feel special and appreciated. This will help to strengthen your bond and reduce the cat’s insecurity and jealousy.

(N.B.! Some of the above mentioned remedies against cat jealousy are taken from: Do Cats Get Jealous? | PetMD).

Conclusion

Cats are amazing animals that have a lot of intelligence and emotions. They can also get jealous when they feel that their territory or relationship is being threatened by someone or something else. This can cause them to act out in harmful ways. However, there are ways to prevent and temper cat jealousy by understanding the causes, recognizing the signs, and providing the best care and environment for your cat. By doing so, you can ensure that your cat is happy and healthy and that you have a harmonious relationship with it.

Artist impression (generated with Midjourney AI) of a sunset on Proxima b.

EP. 13: FIVE REALISTIC WAYS TO REACH THE STARS.

On By AlessandraIn Extrasolar Planets, S.E.T.I.

Are there any realistic ways to reach the stars?

In the future, humans will explore the stars. This may happen in a few decades or centuries, but it is inevitable. The long period is due to the stars being incredibly distant, beyond what we can imagine. Our current technology is not advanced enough to travel through interstellar space. However, as we advance in our understanding of physics and technology, we will likely develop new propulsion methods and ways to overcome the barriers that separate us from distant planetary systems.

Our present task is to describe and compare five realistic ways to reach what is currently considered the closest (only about 4.2 ly) habitable planet to Earth, that is, Proxima Centauri b. We begin with something realistic and then move on to more fantastic possibilities.

Why should we travel to Proxima Centauri b?

Traveling to Proxima Centauri b is extremely important for science, the economy, and human understanding.

Venturing to Proxima Centauri b could help us learn more about exoplanets and potentially discover extraterrestrial life. It is located in a region where liquid water could exist, making it a possible habitat for life. Studying this planet would provide valuable information about its atmosphere, geology, and signs of life. These findings would significantly advance our knowledge of the universe and our own existence, helping us answer longstanding questions about life beyond Earth.

Journeying to Proxima Centauri b can lead to groundbreaking technologies, industries, and advancements. Developing efficient propulsion systems, life support technologies, and navigation methods for interstellar travel can have wide-ranging impacts, including benefits for transportation, energy generation, and resource management on Earth. Investing in these endeavors can bring economic growth, job opportunities, and technological progress.

Human nature is driven by a strong urge to explore and push boundaries. The idea of traveling to another habitable planet represents the ultimate achievement, reflecting our curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Interstellar travel represents a future where humanity goes beyond our planet, uniting us and inspiring future generations to pursue science and exploration. This endeavor would have a profound psychological and societal impact, fostering a sense of unity on a global scale.

In summary, traveling to Proxima Centauri b would allow us to gain new scientific knowledge, possibly find alien life, and create innovative technologies. It could also boost our economy and inspire us to explore beyond our limits. This journey would advance our understanding of the universe, unite humanity, and pave the way for interstellar travel.

What Kind of Planet is Proxima Centauri b?

Fig. 1: An imaginary landscape of Proxima Centauri b, made by the author with Midjourney AI.

With a minimum mass of at least 1.07 ME (ME = 5.9722 x 1024 kg) and a radius only slightly larger than that of Earth, Proxima b is deemed a potentially Earth-like planet. This planet is situated within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri, although it remains uncertain whether or not it possesses an atmosphere. Proxima Centauri, being a flare star emitting intense electromagnetic radiation, has the potential to strip away any atmospheric layer surrounding the planet. Furthermore, Proxima b is expected to be tidally locked with its host star, meaning that one side of the world would always face Proxima Centauri due to a 1:1 orbit where the rotation period matches the time taken to complete one orbit. The consequences of such tidal locking are still ambiguous regarding whether habitable conditions can arise. In such a scenario, the planet would experience an extreme climate, with only a portion of it being habitable.

Proxima b may not be tidally locked if:

  • Its eccentricity is higher than 0.1 – 0.06 (that is, the orbit is much flatter than a perfect circle); in this case, the planet would probably enter a Mercury-like 3:2 resonance (three rotations around the axis for every two revolutions around the primary star);
  • The planet isn’t symmetrical (e.g., triaxial). In this case, capture into a non-tidally locked orbit would be possible even with low eccentricity.

In a non-tidally locked orbit, there are disadvantages. For instance, the planet’s mantle would experience tidal heating, leading to more volcanic activity and a possible loss of a magnetic field. Protecting the atmosphere from the stellar wind is challenging without a strong magnetic field, like Mars.

Proxima Centauri b’s atmosphere has two possible scenarios: either it lost hydrogen and retained oxygen and carbon dioxide, or it still has hydrogen and formed farther away from its star, which would have helped preserve its water.

However, red dwarfs may not be suitable for supporting life due to various challenges and uncertainties.

Among others:

  • The stellar wind from Proxima Centauri is more substantial than the Sun’s and may remove parts of the planet’s atmosphere;
  • If a planet is tidally locked to its star, the atmosphere can collapse on its night side;
  • Proxima b may not always be in the habitable zone due to its eccentric orbit;
  • Proxima Centauri, a star different from the Sun, had its habitable zone further away in the past. This means that if a planet like Proxima Centauri b formed in its current orbit, it might have been too close to the star for water to exist for up to 180 million years. This could have caused a runaway greenhouse effect, where the planet’s water evaporates into steam and is lost into space, similar to what happened on Venus.

Still, red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri live for a very long time, much longer than the Sun. This gives life a lot of time to develop.

How to travel to Proxima b

There are several ways to travel to Proxima b, and here are five of them that scientists have proposed. One method is the “generation ship,” which was one of the first ways to reach the stars discussed in scientific literature. It is a potential option with our current technology.

(a) Generation Ship:

Fig. 2: A generation ship could allow humanity to travel to the nearest habitable planet at sub-light speed. Credits: Midjourney AI.

This idea involves creating a spacecraft that can support many generations of people during a long journey. The ship would travel at sub-luminal speeds, possibly using nuclear power. It’s hard to know precisely how long it would take for the starship to reach its destination, but it could be thousands of years or even more.

This idea is technically feasible with our current technologies. However, it is essential to consider the drawbacks associated with such a venture.

Living your entire life on a spaceship without ever experiencing life on a planet could be really tough for your mental health. Being confined in a limited space, having a boring routine, and not being able to interact with others much can make you feel down. Also, being unable to see different places or try new things may make you feel like you’re missing out and disconnected from the natural world.

Health concerns are also significant when planning a generation ship. Extended space travel can lead to problems like weakened bones and muscles, vision impairments, and increased radiation exposure. The lack of proper medical facilities and resources onboard makes it extremely difficult to maintain the overall health and well-being of the crew.

On top of that, the people living on the ship would have to create their own society. They would need to make rules, govern themselves, and develop their own way of life. It would be a big challenge to keep everyone happy and treat everyone fairly. There might be problems with people wanting too much power or causing trouble. It’s essential to think about all of these things before embarking on a journey like this.

Finally, there are ethical concerns to consider. Is it fair to force future generations into space travel without their consent? Their descendants would have no choice in the matter and would live and die on the spaceship, missing out on the joys of life on a planet. This raises questions about our responsibility to future generations.

(b) Ion Propulsion:

Fig. 3: A starship using ion propulsion to reach the stars. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI.

Ion propulsion utilizes electrically charged particles (ions) to generate thrust. This technology is already used in some spacecraft missions, like NASA’s Dawn mission. Ion thrusters provide low acceleration but can maintain continuous and efficient propulsion over a long period. With current capabilities, ion propulsion could potentially reduce travel time to Proxima Centauri to several thousand years, but significant advancements in this technology would be required for it to become a practical option for interstellar travel.

(c) Anti-matter Propulsion:

Fig.4: An anti-matter-propelled starship approaching an exoplanet. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI.

Anti-matter propulsion involves using anti-matter to generate thrust by converting mass into energy. This technology has great potential for faster space travel. However, producing, storing, and containing anti-matter is very challenging. Currently, only small amounts of anti-matter can be produced. If these challenges can be overcome, we could potentially reach speeds close to the speed of light, enabling us to travel to Proxima Centauri in a matter of decades or less.

(d) Travel Through a Wormhole:

Fig.5: A futuristic starship entering a wormhole. Wormholes, or Einstein-Rosen bridges, are hypothetical shortcuts through space-time. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI.

Wormholes involve creating tunnels or shortcuts in spacetime that could potentially connect distant locations. There is ongoing research in theoretical physics regarding wormholes, but it is important to note that there is no definitive consensus on the existence or feasibility of traversable wormholes.

According to conventional theories of general relativity, wormholes would require exotic matter with negative energy density to stabilize them and keep them open. Exotic matter, which has properties contrary to ordinary matter, has not been observed in nature, and its existence is purely speculative at this point. However, some theoretical physicists have proposed alternative models that aim to avoid using exotic matter or colossal energies. One such approach is the concept of “traversable wormholes without exotic matter,” first put forth by Eric Davis in 1997. This model utilizes a form of matter known as “phantom energy,” which has negative energy but does not violate any physical energy conditions. Phantom energy is a hypothetical concept that arises from quantum field theory and has negative pressure. It remains an area of ongoing theoretical exploration and debate.

If wormholes could be discovered and harnessed, they would allow almost instantaneous travel between Proxima Centauri and Earth.

Furthermore, researchers have also speculated about the possibility of harnessing the effects of quantum entanglement or exploiting so-called warp bubbles to achieve some form of shortcut through space. A warp bubble is a concept derived from the theory of general relativity, which describes the gravitational interactions between objects. In simple terms, a warp bubble refers to a hypothetical method of achieving faster-than-light travel by distorting the fabric of spacetime.

According to general relativity, massive objects like stars and planets create a curvature in spacetime, which we perceive as gravity. The idea behind a warp bubble is to manipulate this curvature in a way that allows for faster-than-light travel. By creating a region of spacetime that is compressed in front of a spacecraft and expanded behind it, the spaceship would effectively be “warped” or propelled through space at speeds greater than the speed of light.

The concept of a warp bubble was popularized by the science fiction series Star Trek, where it is referred to as a “warp drive.” Scientists have proposed various theoretical frameworks, such as the Alcubierre drive, which mathematically describes how a warp bubble could potentially be created. The Alcubierre drive suggests that by contracting spacetime in front of a spacecraft and expanding it behind, the spaceship could ride on a wave of distorted spacetime, effectively bypassing the cosmic speed limit imposed by the speed of light.

However, significant challenges and limitations are associated with the warp bubble concept. One major obstacle is again the requirement of exotic matter with negative energy density. The energy requirements for creating and sustaining a warp bubble are also immense, potentially requiring amounts of energy far beyond our current technological capabilities.

(e) Solar Sail:

Fig.6: A spaceship driven by a solar sail is an intriguing possibility to reach the stars. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI:

Solar sails are a fascinating spacecraft propulsion technology that harnesses the power of sunlight to propel a spacecraft through space. They work by utilizing the gentle pressure exerted by photons, or particles of light, emitted by the Sun. These photons can transfer momentum to the surface of large reflective sails, creating a slight but continuous acceleration.

One notable project exploring the potential of solar sails is the Breakthrough Starshot Project. This ambitious undertaking aims to send tiny, gram-scale spacecraft to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. The envisioned spacecraft would be equipped with ultra-lightweight sails and propelled by an array of powerful lasers from Earth. By leveraging the momentum provided by the laser beams, these tiny probes could potentially reach speeds of up to 20% the speed of light, significantly reducing the travel time to another star system.

As a final remark, we report an intriguing speculation by Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb. In 2018, he proposed that the peculiar interstellar object named Oumuamua, which means “scout” or “messenger” in Hawaiian could be an alien spacecraft propelled by a solar sail.

However, it is essential to note that this speculation remains highly speculative and controversial within the scientific community. The available data on Oumuamua is limited, and alternative natural explanations, such as cometary outgassing or a peculiar shape resulting from its formation, have also been proposed. Further studies and observations are necessary to determine its true nature definitively.

EP. 12: H.P. LOVECRAFT’S VISION OF AN EVIL PRE-HUMAN CIVILIZATION

On By AlessandraIn Ancient Civilizations, Books, Reading, Silurian Hypothesis

In a recent post, I discussed the Silurian Hypothesis, which is the possibility that our human civilization is not the first one on Earth. Sci-fi authors have explored this concept in their works for at least a century.

One of the first was Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the author of the Cthulhu Mythos. As early as 1917, he wrote the story Dagon, where the protagonist escapes the German U-boat that sank his merchant ship. However, the sailor soon finds himself on a strange island that “[…] by some unprecedented volcanic upheaval […] must have been thrown to the surface, exposing regions that for innumerable years had lain hidden […]”.

In the middle of the island is a disturbing artifact, an ancient monolith engraved with occult symbols and figures. This human-amphibian mixture fills the protagonist with an inexplicable terror, which only grows worse when a slithering, sucking monstrosity crawls up from the sea and over the monolith. The sight plunges the unlucky man into madness. As a result, he runs away on a “delirious journey” until he wakes up in a San Francisco hospital, where no one believes him, and he’s left alone with the knowledge of the Thing’s existence and what it implies. A Thing so ancient that its existence dwarfs any human concept of time.

Although Dagon is an excellent introduction to Lovecraft’s obsession with vast, inhuman worlds beyond the limit of our knowledge, some of his later works dive even deeper into the rabbit hole of an unbearably old and malign civilization that predates and will outlast humans and their limited, relatively trivial experiences.

In February 1931, he wrote the sci-fi-horror novella At the Mountains of Madness, later serialized in the early 1936 issues of Astounding Stories.

The story is about an American expedition to Antarctica by geologist William Dyer from the fictional Miskatonic University of Arkham. Lovecraft had long been fascinated with Antarctica, though in the 1930s, the continent was not fully explored. As a result, Lovecraft could set his story in a mountainous chain “higher than the Himalayas” (the so-called Mountains of Madness) without fear of contradiction.

The expedition begins promisingly but ends in tragedy and horror after a sub-expedition led by a colleague of Dyer, the biologist Lake, discovers the frozen remains of monstrous barrel-shaped creatures that cannot be reconciled with the known evolution of this planet. They seem half-animal and half-vegetable, with greater brain capacity and super-human sensitivity. Lake jokingly identifies the strange beings with the Elder Things or Old Ones of the Necronomicon, who are “supposed to have created all Earth life as jest or mistake.”

Fig.1: An Antarctic setting in the style of Nicholas Roerich, H.P. Lovecraft’s favorite painter. Image made by the author with Midjourney AI.

Soon, Lake’s sub-expedition loses radio contact with the main party, apparently because of bad weather. However, when Dyer takes a small group of men in some airplanes to find out whatever happened to Lake and company, they discover a devasted camp and no trace of the specimens of the Old Ones, but for a few damaged ones, which they presume must have been buried by Gedney, the one human they couldn’t identify among the corpses.

Fig.2: Lovecraft had a lifelong interest in Antarctic exploration. Image made by the author with Midjourtney AI.

Dyer and a graduate student, Danforth, investigate the mysterious tragedy further by scaling the immense plateau that makes “Everest out of the running.” To their amazement, they find an enormous stone city, fifty to one hundred miles in extent, likely dating to millions of years before any humans evolved on the planet. The subsequent exploration of some interiors leads Dyer and Danforth to conclude that the Old Ones built the city.

Fig.3: A shoggoth in the city of the Old Ones. Image made by the author with Microsoft Bing AI.

Also, by studying some drawings and carvings on the city walls, the two adventurers discover that the Elder Things came from outer space millions of years ago, establishing themselves in Antarctica and eventually spreading across the entire Earth. This is where the shoggoths – shapeless, fifteen-foot masses of gel-like substance which they controlled using hypnotic suggestion – first become important. Over time, these living robots developed a somewhat conscious brain and will, which led to the Old Ones having to deal with the shoggoths’ frequent rebellion attempts. The Old Ones faced more difficulties when other extraterrestrial races, such as the fungus-like creatures from Yuggoth and the Cthulhu spawn, arrived on Earth. The ensuing territorial wars pushed them back to their original settlement in Antarctica. Ultimately, their extinction became inevitable when they lost the ability to travel through space.

Shortly after, Dyer and Danforth discover the body of Gedney and a dog. They also stumble upon a group of Old Ones without their heads, suggesting they regained consciousness after thawing in Lake’s camp. Dyer observes that Gedney’s body was carefully protected to avoid further harm. From this, it can be inferred that the Old Ones were responsible for the destruction of Lake’s camp and took Gedney as a sample. However, the question remains: who killed the Old Ones?

At that point, Dyer and Danforth hear a disturbing piping sound. Afraid it could be some other Old Ones, they flee in terror, but not before they turn their flashlights upon a fast-approaching thing and find that it is “… a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train – a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and unforming as pustules of greenish light over the tunnel-filling front…”

But the two explorer’s trial is not yet over. As they return to camp, Danforth shrieks in horror: “Teke-li! Teke-li!” He has seen something even worse than the shoggoth who killed the Old Ones, something that unhinges his mind, although he refuses to tell Danforth what it is.

Although initially portrayed as scary creatures, the Old Ones are the main focus of the story “At the Mountains of Madness.” Eventually, they are overpowered by the shoggoths, who are described as “the things that even the scary things fear.” Near the end, the Old Ones stop being scary. This is a common theme in stories about civilizations that existed before our current one. For example, similar themes can be found in the novels A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr (1959) and The Second Sleep by Robert Harris (2019). The Old Ones have a deep connection with humans, representing a perfect society that Lovecraft hopes humanity will someday achieve. However, they are much more advanced than humans in various ways, such as intelligence, perception, and artistic ability. As mentioned earlier, the Old Ones are responsible for creating all life on Earth, including humans. Nevertheless, they are destroyed by the shoggoths, initially created by the Old Ones as slaves. This illustrates Lovecraft’s belief in the inevitable rise and fall of civilizations.

Finally, At the Mountains of Madness introduces what later became a trope of sci-fi and fringe literature: most mythological “gods” were mere extraterrestrial beings, and their followers were mistaken about their true nature. The critical passage occurs in the middle of the novella when Dyer acknowledges that the Old Ones must have built the gigantic city in which he has been wandering:

They were the makers and the enslavers of Earth life, and above all doubt the originals of the fiendish elder myths which things like the Pnakotic Manuscripts and the Necronomicon affrightedly hint about.

EP. 11: THE SILURIAN HYPOTHESIS AND ITS SCARY IMPLICATIONS

On By AlessandraIn Ancient Civilizations, Silurian Hypothesis

The Silurians are fictional creatures that appeared in an episode of the cult science fiction TV show Dr. Who. In the story, these lizard-like creatures achieved industrial expertise about 450 million years ago, long before humans evolved on Earth.

In recent years, the idea of advanced prehistoric life has turned out to be intriguing far beyond its entertainment value, raising various exciting questions. Not least is this: if an industrial civilization had existed in the past, what traces would it have left? In other words, how do we know that ours is the first technological civilization on Earth?

Modern humans have been around for 200,000 years, but life has existed on this planet for 3.5 billion. That leaves more than enough time for the rise and fall of not one but several pre-human industrial civilizations. Yet, so far, little serious thought has been given to the possibility that we are not the first species to build a civilization in the Solar System’s history.

We’re used to imagining extinct civilizations in terms of underwater statues and subterranean ruins. These artifacts of previous societies are acceptable if we are only interested in timescales of a few thousand years. But things get trickier once we are interested in “deep time,” meaning tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. It is unlikely that any massive artificial structures would remain preserved through eons of geological activity.

Urban areas presently comprise less than 1% of the Earth’s surface. So any comparable settlements from an earlier civilization would be easy for modern-day paleontologists to miss. And no one should count on finding a Jurassic-era artifact, e.g., the Antikythera mechanism, used by the ancient Greeks and considered the world’s first computer. Complex items don’t last millions of years. The same is true for fossils of beings who might have lived in industrial civilizations. Moreover, the fraction of life that gets fossilized is tiny; of all the many dinosaurs that ever lived, only a few thousand fossil specimens have been discovered. Given that the oldest known fossils of Homo Sapiens are only about 300,000 years old, there is no certainty that our species might even appear in the fossil record in the long run.

For these reasons, Adam Frank, a physicist at the University of Rochester, and Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, have recently focused on what kind of signature a technological species might leave behind.

Fig.1: Intelligent dinosaurs in an ancient technological civilization. Picture made by the author with Midjourney AI.

The best way to answer this question is to figure out what evidence we would leave behind if our civilization collapsed at the current stage of development.

Humanity’s collective activity is laying down a variety of traces that will be detectable by scientists 100 million years in the future. The extensive use of fertilizers, for example, means we’re redirecting the planet’s nitrogen flow into food production. Future researchers should see this in characteristics of nitrogen showing up in sediments from their era. And then there’s all the plastic.

Increasing amounts of plastic are deposited on the seafloor everywhere, even in the Arctic. Sooner or later, all this plastic turns into microscopic particles, creating a layer that could persist for geological timescales. Still, the most promising marker of humanity’s presence is the carbon released into the atmosphere as a by-product of the burning of fossil fuels. This ancient carbon derives from plant life, which preferentially absorbs more of the lighter isotope carbon-12 than the heavier isotope carbon-13. The more fossil fuels we burn, the more the balance of these carbon isotopes shifts. Temperature increases also leave isotopic signals.

So if these are traces our civilization is bound to leave for the future, might the same “signals” waiting to be uncovered right now in ancient geological strata? Fifty-five million years ago, global temperatures rose from 9 to 14 degrees Fahrenheit. This is called the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). During the PETM, Earth’s surface temperature rose because of a sudden release of greenhouse gases from the Earth’s crust. These greenhouse gases caused the climate to warm and the ocean to become more acidic. Such environmental conditions may have led to the extinction of most of the dinosaurs.
There are also other similar events in Earth’s history. For example, an event that occurred only a few million years after the PETM is called the Eocene Layers of Mysterious Origin. More massive events in the Cretaceous left the ocean without oxygen for millennia.

These events are almost certainly not caused by previous non-human civilizations. The present era (known as Anthropocene) is remarkable because of the speed at which we dump fossil carbon into the atmosphere. There have been geological periods where Earth’s CO2 has been as high or higher than it is today, but never before in the planet’s long history has so much buried carbon been dumped back into the atmosphere so quickly. Still, the PETM carbon isotope spike mostly shows Earth’s timescales for responding to whatever caused it, not necessarily the timescale of the cause. Finding evidence of a short-lived event in ancient sediments might take reliable and novel detection methods.

Fig.2: Two hypothetical members of a long-gone industrial civilization. Picture made by the author with Midjourney AI.

EP. 10: HOW TO TALK TO YOUR GENIUS CAT

On By AlessandraIn Cats, Wolfram "Morsy" Chettoh

Some experts (for example, Kalla J. Knopman in the already mentioned How to Measure  Your Cat’s IQ) say we shouldn’t talk “human” to cats. Instead, we should try to imitate their language so that they, in turn, can imitate us.

My experience with Wolfram Chettoh, whom I’ve owned for more than thirteen years, tells a different story. Cats have no problem understanding our language. Sometimes they may ignore us, but it’s almost always a pretense. So, there is no need to make ourselves ridiculous with pitiful attempts at feline language. Cats will usually act disgusted and annoyed when not outright scared.

Indeed, devilish genius cats can choose several ways to communicate with humans.

Wolfie Chettoh can do the following:

VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

(1) meowing:

Figure 1: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in August 2018. Photo by the author.

This is standard cat talk. However, Chettoh seldom meows, with rare exceptions. When he was a kitten, Chettoh used soft meowing for whatever necessity. Then, his communication techniques began to diversify as his cognitive function evolved.

(2) complaining:

Figure 2: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in July 2011. Photo by the author.

This is a long, high-pitched lament. Chettoh complains when he fears I might forget about him. It happens either when I come home after a long day at work, and I’m not fast enough to take care of his needs before anything else or when I’m about to leave. Chettoh always knows when I’m getting ready for work (see the previous post). Other occasions to complain are when I’m doing something stupid and pointless (from a cat’s point of view), like trying to fix a bathroom leak or another emergency around the house. Chettoh doesn’t like intense noises, like hammering on something or vacuum-cleaning.

A variant of the complaint sound is the “hurry up” call. This is a fast, impatient “meow,” telling you to get a move on when filling Chettoh’s bowl.

(3) chirping:

Figure 3: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in July 2012. Photo by the author.

A deep, short rumble is Chettoh’s way of thanking you. Most of the time, Chettoh is a well-behaved cat, so he’ll say “thank you”  when you feed him, stroke his head, or indulge him, like when he wants me to pick up and carry him to his food bowl. In general, Chettoh chirps to greet you when he wakes up after one of his frequent naps.

(4) growling:

Figure 4: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in April 2020. Photo by the author.

Chettoh seldom growls, but when he’s distraught. As I explained in the previous posts, he’s been my favorite pet for thirteen years. During this time, we only had a few fights, most of which can be attributed to my (often) limited understanding of a cat’s personality and behavior. For example, I thought I’d lost my precious iPhone a couple of years ago. Before I found out I’d forgotten it in a restaurant, I was so upset that I began muttering: “Oh my goodness! Where is the f… phone? What am I going to do? My phone! Oh no, I lost my phone!” And so on. Now, cats are good judges of human moods. Chettoh, in particular, immediately understands when I’m annoyed, even from rooms away. The only problem is that he usually thinks I’m angry AT HIM. Consequently, before I turn aggressive (I wouldn’t, but that’s what his predator mind tells him), he hits first. Before fully grasping what was going on, I realized the growling little monster had sunk his teeth and claws into my right shin.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION:

(5) purring:

As a kitten, Chettoh seldom purred. Only when I picked him up, and he wanted to show his harmlessness, did he display this most peculiar cat behavior. Getting older and more socially clever, Chettoh purrs much more often. For example, he purrs when he greets me after work, when he’s eating, when he lies on my computer keyboard (and I’m trying to use it) when my friends come to visit, and they want to cuddle him, and also when I’m sad, and he wants to cheer me up. However, as most cat owners know, cats purr not only when they are happy or friendly. Some cats will purr when sick or aching, like a she-cat I used to have as a teenager, who softly purred right until she died (probably from eating poisoned food).

Figure 5: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in June 2019. Photo by the author.

(6) twitching the tail:

Figure 6: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in October 2022. Photo by the author.

Like most adult cats, Chettoh “speaks” a lot with his tail. This happens when he is happy (vertical, parading tail) or angry (low, left-to-right, fast swishing tail). Indeed, a sure indicator that a cat is about to attack is the rapid movement of its tail. This happened on the occasion I told above. However, I didn’t know my kitty enough at the time to catch the red flag. Chettoh also uses his tail when he’s too lazy to meow. For example, when Chettoh is pretending to sleep next to where I’m working at home, if I ask him a question like: “Did you eat your food?” or: “Would you like some more food?” he twitches his tail twice. Of course, if the question is, “Did you make that mess in the carpet?” he puts on his “Sleeping Furry Beauty” act, worthy of an Academy Award. Sometimes, Chettoh uses his tail to express curiosity. When he’s investigating a strange noise, for instance, or trying a new kind of food, he shapes his tail like a question mark.

(7) rubbing the head on your leg, ankle, or a nearby object:

Apart from the usual rubbing against your ankles, which many cats use to transfer their scent and claim you as “property,” grown cats may use this kind of non-verbal communication for more complex reasons. Lately, for example, Chettoh has adopted what I call the “Muttley talk,”  from the name of the dog character in the 70s Hanna-Barbera Productions TV series Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. In that funny cartoon, Muttley, the dog, used to point at his chest to ask for a medal. Similarly, when Chettoh wants to be stroked, he first jumps on the nearby tallest spot, then rubs his head on something and repeatedly points at it with his right paw.

Figure 7: Wolfie “Morsy” Chettoh in November 2022. Photo by the author.

Rating Chettoh’s non-verbal communication:

According to Kalla J. Knopman’s Measure Your Cat’s IQ,

(a) “if your cat has a unique way of expressing itself […], give kitty 5 points.”

       As explained above, Chettoh has many peculiar ways to express himself, like the “Muttley Talk,” so I’ll award him five points;

(b) “Give 3 points if the kitty meows to get your attention when another cat or human does something wrong.”

       Chettoh doesn’t meet many people, so when he meows at someone, that’s usually me. Three more points to Chettoh, then.

EP. 9: WHY JACK VANCE’S “DEMON PRINCES” SAGA IS GREAT WORLDBUILDING

On By AlessandraIn Books, Reading, Writing

The Demon Princes is a galactic saga that Jack Vance wrote in five installments: The Star King (1960), The Killing Machine (1964), The Palace of Love (1965), The Face (1978), and The Book of Dreams (1979). It draws upon elaborate worldbuilding, which the author introduces in the form of “sources,” e.g., imaginary magazines, scientific papers, and textbooks describing exotic planets, alien peoples, strange rules, and customs. Quoted at the beginning of a chapter, these fictional sources minimize the need for long descriptive paragraphs.

Here are a few examples taken from the first novel, The Star King:

Chapter 1:

From an interview with Mr. Smade of Smade’s planet, a feature article in Cosmopolis, October 1523:

A short Q&A introduces the reader to the concept of Beyond, short for  “Beyond the Pale” or border, which separates the group of solar systems explored and settled by humans from the largely unknown Galaxy.

Most of the action revolves around the adventures of Kirth Gersen, an enigmatic character seeking revenge for the kidnapping and enslavement of his people. To this end, Gersen must confront five cruel overlords, the Demon Princes. The confrontations usually happen in the Beyond, a place, according to Mr. Smade, “frequented by the most notorious pirates and freebooters.”

Chapter 2:

From an article in Cosmopolis, May 1404:

Here Vance introduces Brinktown: “Once the jumping-off place, the last outpost, the portal into infinity – now just another settlement of the North East Middle Beyond.” As is often the case in SF novels, Brinktown seems to be both the name of the planet and the city, the latter being portrayed colorfully: “an explosion of architectural conceits, what turrets and spires, belfries and cupolas… the magistrates are assassins; the civil guards are arsonists, extortioners, and rapists.” We cannot help thinking of Star Wars Mos Eisley: “Not a more wretched collection of villainy and disreputable types exists anywhere on Tatooine.”

Chapter 4:

From New Discoveries in Space, by Ralph Quarry:

“The Rigel Concourse… twenty-six magnificent planets, most of them not only habitable but salubrious, though only two display even quasi-intelligent autochthones.”

When Kirth Gersen isn’t hunting for one of the Demon Princes beyond the Pale, he usually hangs around the Rigel Concourse, the planetary system of the blue supergiant star Rigel. According to Jack Vance, Rigel has twenty-six planets, of which Alphanor – the setting of most of the first novel – is the eighth. Jack Vance based the worldbuilding of The Star King on the early sixties astronomy. However, SF authors should be careful not to be too specific when including real planets or stars in their stories. What was then state-of-the-art knowledge soon became obsolete. It has been known for decades that extremely short lifetimes prevent blue supergiant stars like Rigel from developing habitable planets (before they turn into neutron stars or black holes).

Another good example can be found in the second novel, The Killing Machine:

Chapter 3:

From Chapter 1, The Astrophysical Background, in Peoples of the Concourse, by Streck and Chernitz:

The quotation at the beginning of the chapter partially answers the objections we raised above:

“But the very circumstances which make the Concourse what it is, provide one of the galaxy’s most tantalizing mysteries. Rigel is deemed by most authorities a young star, ranging in age from a few million to a billion years. How then to explain the Concourse, [with its] twenty-six mature biological complexes? [Some] have wondered if the planets of the Concourse were not conveyed hither and established in these optimum orbits by a now-dead race of vast scientific achievement.”

In other words, plot holes in SF stories stretching over several novels can be retroactively fixed with accurate worldbuilding in the next installments. To quote a famous example, this is what happened with some inconsistencies in the Star Wars Original Trilogy (1977-83), e.g., Leia kissing Luke, who turns out to be her brother, and Leia remembering her biological mother, who died in childbirth. All apparent errors were later explained in the “prequels” (1999-2005) and recent spin-offs like Kenobi (2022).

EP. 8: WHAT WOULD BE A GREAT PLACE TO SEARCH FOR ET?

On By AlessandraIn Extrasolar Planets, S.E.T.I.

The Dyson sphere is a hypothetical megastructure physicist Freeman Dyson proposed in 1960.

According to his paper published in Science magazine, a technologically advanced alien civilization would use increasing energy as it grew. As the most significant source of energy in any solar system is the parent star, sooner or later, the civilization would build orbiting solar panels to try to capture it. Such structures would take up more and more space until they eventually covered the entire star like a sphere.

In a 2008 interview with Slate, Dyson also credited the concept to writer Olaf Stapledon, who introduced it in his novel Star Maker in 1937.

Dyson’s hypothesis turned out to be hard to verify because a complete Dyson sphere, absorbing all of the light from the star, would be invisible to an exo-planet hunting telescope (such as NASA’s Kepler). Only half-completed spheres would have a chance to be discovered.

Unfortunately, a Dyson sphere is unlikely to remain under construction for long. The time it takes to make a Dyson sphere is relatively short. A 2013 paper by Stuart Armstrong and Anders Sandberg (“Eternity in six hours: Intergalactic spreading of intelligent life and sharpening the Fermi paradox”) estimates that disassembling Mercury to make a partial Dyson shell could be done in 31 years.

An alternative would be to look for waste heat in the infrared. After being absorbed and used, the energy from a star needs to be reradiated, or else it would build up and eventually melt the Dyson sphere. This energy would be shifted to longer wavelengths so that a Dyson sphere might give off a peculiar energy signature in the infrared. In other words, Freeman Dyson saw a search for his namesake spheres as a complement in the infrared to what Frank Drake’s Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI, see previous blog post) had begun to do with radiotelescopes.

Carl Sagan and Russell Walker first voiced an issue with Dyson’s SETI notion in their 1966 paper “The Infrared Detectability of Dyson’s Civilizations” for the Astrophysical Journal. The authors noted that:

discrimination of Dyson civilizations from naturally occurring low temperature objects is very difficult, unless Dyson civilizations have some further distinguishing feature, such as monocromatic radio-frequency emission.

In the following decades, the search for Dyson spheres expanded dramatically. Starting from the 1980’s researchers went to work using sources identified by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). These early searches produced little o no results, as most Dyson sphere candidates had either non-technological explanations or needed further study. Subsequent investigations using NASA’s space-based WISE (Wide Field Infrared Survey), with higher resolution than IRAS, have all concluded that the identification of a promising source would not in itself be proof of an extraterrestrial civilization unless the object could be followed up with more conventional methods, such as laser or radio search.

Among the latest developments concerning Dyson spheres are the following:

  • Dyson spheres could be built around black holes instead of stars.

Black holes can radiate incredible amounts of energy (105 more energy than the Sun) produced by the so-called “accretion disk” of gas and dust falling into the black hole’s maw. As a consequence of their spiraling and spinning motions, these materials heat up through friction to millions of degrees, emitting extremely energetic X-ray photons.

But why would an alien civilization decide to build a Dyson sphere around a distant black hole (if it weren’t “distant,” the civilization would have been “eaten” long before it managed to construct the sphere) rather than using their much closer parent star? Black holes concentrate an enormous mass into a space area that is orders of magnitude smaller than a star’s, and are therefore easier to encircle. On the downside, black holes often have bursts of activity followed by quiet periods as they consume varying lumps of matter in their disks. An alien species woulod have to protect their orbiting structures from the huge explosions that might destroy them.

  • Dyson spheres could be circling the husks of sunlike stars known as white dwarfs.

Every star has a finite lifetime. If a civilization arose around a typical sun-like star, then someday that star would turn into a red giant and leave behind a white dwarf. That process would roast its solar system’s inner planets and freeze the outer ones as the white dwarf cooled off. Consequently, the civilization would have to choose between moving to another system or building a series of habitats that harvest the radiation from the remaining white dwarf. It seems unlikely that a civilization, no matter how advanced, would go through the enormous effort of traveling to another star only to build a Dyson sphere.

This allows a direct connection between stellar lifetimes and the prevalence of Dyson spheres.

If enough aliens decided to build Dyson spheres around their white dwarf homes, then astronomers should find at least one Dyson sphere in white dwarf surveys. The presence of a megastructure like a Dyson sphere around a white dwarf would absorb part of its radiation and convert it into reusable energy. Since no conversion is 100% efficient, this process would leave behind waste heat that would escape as infrared light.

Astronomers have already found many white dwarfs with excess infrared emission, usually explained as dust in those systems, not megastructures. According to a paper by Ben Zuckerman and recently accepted for publication in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, no more than 3% of habitable planets around sunlike stars give rise to a white dwarf sphere-building civilization. Still, there are so many planets orbiting sunlike stars that this calculation only provides an upper limit of 9 million potential alien civilizations in the Milky Way.

EP. 7: CATS AND SYMBOLS. DO THEY REALLY GET THEM?

On By AlessandraIn Cats, Wolfram "Morsy" Chettoh

Does Wolfie Chettoh understand symbols? The answer is yes, if you consider a sad Covid face mask a symbol.

Let’s consider Stage 2: Preoperational Stage test, or ‘the subject learns to understand images and symbols’ (I took this terminology from Calla H. Knopman’s Measure Your Cat’s IQ.)

Wolfram Chettoh hates being alone. Although he pretends aloofness, wherever I go, he follows. According to cat psychologists, an explanation for this behavior might be that cats see humans as parental figures who take care of their needs. So, Chettoh is just afraid that in case of a sudden urge (to eat, drink, or be cuddled), his foster mum might not be around to satisfy it.
When I’m working at my desk, he’s pretending to sleep nearby. I say ‘pretending’ because he’s actually keeping tabs on me. If I move to another room for just a few minutes, he waits for me to come back; if it takes longer, he joins me: to the kitchen to be taken care of before anything else, or to the bathroom, to sleep on the sink while I’m doing whatever I’m doing. Not to the bedroom, though. The bedroom is off-limits for Chettoh. For years, I let him sleep at the foot of the bed. Then I realized that when I was gone, he immediately relocated to my pillow. Once I got fed up with having to remove a layer of black hair before sleeping, I shut the culprit out.
But what Chettoh hates the most is when I leave home for longer. Having been my devilish pet for twelve years, he learned my habits well. He knows, for example, that on weekdays I’m out for work from about 7:30 AM until 4:00 PM. He’s also aware that on Sunday nights, I usually go out for pizza with friends. So, he gets nervous whenever I don’t follow the usual routine.
For example, if I suddenly change my slippers for a pair of shoes and – in Covid times – put on a face mask, Chettoh rightly understands I’m about to leave. In this case, he waits for me by his food bowl, which happens to be near the main entrance, and demands (with loud, heartbreaking meows) an extra supply of kibbles and cuddles.