OBLIGITORY "ABOUT ME" SECTION
When I'm not fumbling around with my other websites I can be found hiking, surfing, or playing soccer. I just finished my masters thesis and plan to work as lab tech (in New York) for a while and then try my luck applying to PhD programs in neuroscience. I've just finished up my masters thesis at the San Diego State University, Center for Behavioral Neurobiology. I've also worked at the Brain Developmental Imaging Laboratory at SDSU on a diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) project aimed at finding the neural correlates of autism disorders. I was recently invited by the University of California, Irvine to collaborate on a robotics intelligence project which is turning out to be really cool. As an undergrad I double majored in biology and psychology, with an interest (minor) in Computer Science.
Me
I wake-up every morning, and much to my indifference, I am still me. At least it seems like I am. What's even more peculiar is that I've been me for as long as I can remember. However, I've been thinking about this for the last few days, and I've come to the realization that this is indeed a phenomenon worth addressing.
You don't agree? Well think about this - We are probably the most intelligent living organism in the universe. Maybe that is a bold statement, but from the info we've gathered about life on other planets, we know that we are the most intelligent in our solar system. Astronomers have reported info on only several planets that might be earth-like; but they are in far away solar systems, such as the one orbiting a star in the constellation Libra. We know that much.
The Earth is 1.00 AU from the Sun (~150 million kilometres). Good for life. Neptune on the other hand, is ~30 AU from the sun and with a mean temperature of 72 degrees above absolute zero, it's a giant ball of ice. Not so good for life, but then again, Neptune is like 5 planets away from us. What about Venus and Mars, the next closest planets to Earth. Venus is 0.7 AU from the sun (not bad), and it is sometimes called Earth's "sister planet" because they are similar in size, gravity, and bulk composition. Venus is also covered with opaque clouds of sulfuric acid, preventing visible light from reaching the surface. The water has most likely dissociated, and, because of the lack of a planetary magnetic field, the hydrogen has been swept into interplanetary space by solar wind. Shucks.
At 1.6 AU, Mars is cool. Literally, the hottest Mars gets is -5 C which is probably the result of having almost no atmosphere and 10,000 km wide meteors hitting the surface.
So maybe those Earth-like planets in other solar systems are between 0.9-1.5 AU (we can't tell precisely), which might result in that key temp for liquid water, a vital element for the spontaneous generation of life. This doesn't come close to implying that there are creatures as intelligent as we are. There are still other obstacles; one being - the spontaneous generation of life. It took Earth about 4.53 billion years to produce humans. Also, evolution is not very good at yielding animals with "human-like intelligence." I was reminded a few days ago that bacteria is as evolved as we are. Bacteria has also been able to reproduce and sustain itself longer than humans. The species with the next closest intelligence to humans lives right here on our own planet - Apes. These guys are locked into the alpha-male system of reproduction, meaning the biggest most baddass ape gets to spread the most seeds. Every once in a while there might be two equally baddass ape, and the smarter one may win, but that doesn't happen very often, and it also doesn't necessarily mean it will have ofspring any more intelligent than the other ape. So basically what I'm saying is, a human-level intelligence is an unusually high level under the laws of nature. We're lucky.
That's not all though. If there were creatures out there just a little further along in evolution, they would have contacted us by now. We obviously want to be contacted. We are obviously of no threat to them. Maybe they aren't interested in us, because we're too primitive, but still, we want to be contacted damnit!
But, that's not my main point anyway. My point is, I am me; one of the few humans that have existed in the infinite history of time and space. Somehow a me was woven into my mental capacity, and every day I've woken up since I was a child, this me-ness has been the facilitator of my own actions. I am not a passive observer, and although I know more about the world, I am no different from the person I was a decade ago. Somehow, in all incalculable fate, I exist as a human in this universe, but if only for a fleeting moment.