| "To suppose that Earth is the only populated world in infinite space is as absurd to believe that in an entire field sown with millet, only one grain will grow." - Metrodorus of Chios (Greek Philosopher, Fourth Century BP.) "The hazard of fission products persists for a time that is longer than any I can conceive." - Larry Bogart (1914-1991), Anti-Nuclear Activist. "I see Congress as a place where strong progressive voices must be heard and basic changes must be fought for." - Norman Solomon, Author and Candidate for California's North Coast District. Forelaws on Board The Age of Empathy and Compassion on Earth "In less than 20 years, we have gone from not knowing if any other planets exist in the universe, to being able to look out at the night sky and realize that essentially any star we can see has at least one planet, and a good number of those are likely to be habitable." - Dr. Alan Boss, Science Working Group, NASA Kepler Mission. "Create a multi-disciplinary environment whereby compassion and altruism studies are supported and legitimized within the broader scientific community." - Vision of The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, Stanford University. Early successes of NASA's Kepler Mission (logically inferring that in a Universe of infinite Earth-like exoplanets "we are not alone") . . . . . following Louis Pasteur's pivotal work in 1859 in disproving spontaneous generation of life and, in modern times, that (in astrobiology) of the late Sir Fred Hoyle, N. C. Wickramasinghe, Brig Klyce, Halton Arp, and others . . . . . begin the transition on Earth to a compassionate/cooperative society consistent with universal forelaws of empathy and compassion. As empirical attributes of cosmic genealogy and the foundation of life-centered cosmologies, universal forelaws of empathy and compassion (seated within the genome of humankind and all intelligent life), underlie, particularly, reciprocal propagation and dissemination of intelligent life from infinity to infinity by intelligent life (RDIL) and global water equilibrium. Global water equilibrium - extant, in process, or in prospect on all planets with intelligent life - describes the state of balance between seawater converted to freshwater amply available worldwide on one side and, on the other, relative constancy in planetary ocean and sea levels. Life-centered cosmologies, part and parcel of naturalistic Nature ("everythng is connected to everything else"), reflect cognizance of the observable universe of humankind (13,000 million light years in all directions), of solar systems with and without intelligent life, and of intelligent life reciprocity in cosmic propagation and dissemination of intelligent life. Asteroids, like comets, are apparent carriers of DNA materials germane to reciprocal propagation and dissemination of intelligent life by intelligent life. Inviting human participation, this cosmic reality/morality interacts with the phenomenon that no two solar systems with intelligent life are exactly the same - which explains "races" (superficial genomics before amalgamation) in the makeup of intelligent life. The search for parent planets of humankind (SPPH) - addressing the deep human need to know from whence we came - creates new frontiers for nascent astrobiology. SPPH efforts will likely focus on planets showing evidence of global water equilibrium, signature of intelligent life. Reciprocal propagation and dissemination of intelligent life by intelligent life, and the search and discovery of parent planets of intelligent life - meaningful and fulfilling - capture the questing spirit of all intelligent life. Thus far on Earth exemplars of intelligent life as a gift with indefinable promise include progress toward global water equilibrium, ethnicity revisited, the merger of astronomy and biology (astrobiology), discovery of over 2000 exoplanets, and NASA's OSIRIS-REx - lifting off in 2016 and returning >to Earth in 2023 with samples from asteroid 1999 RQ36. Residents of Beijing, China's capital, could be drinking desalinated seawater within five years. As part of China's eleventh five-year plan, this source could become a main supply in efforts to deal with the water shortage (National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) People's Republic of China.) Eminently in order on a global scale, the potential and success of global five-year plans aimed at satisfying freshwater needs, at job creation and environmental sustainability through seawater desalination represents a giant first step toward achievement of global water equilibrium on Earth. The current growth rate of desalination at coastal locations bodes well for strategic and direct movement of freshwater to inland points. A turning point for environmental sciences and for planetary stewardship and climate stability, dramatically accelerated, expanded and sustained seawater desalination - receiving important impetus from the International Desalination Association - will ensure (1) globally plentiful freshwater, (2) relief for low-lying communities vulnerable to sea-level rise, (3) stabilization of ocean shorelines, (4) enlarged land mass/biomass on Earth, (5) freshwater storage in areas which include those where once resided coal and petroleum, (6) climate stability. Planetary climate stability rests on innovative permaculture dedicated to refinement (by each generation) of Earth's surface reflectivity (albedo) in concert with continuing scientific research and understanding of solar radiation. In all stages of global water equilibrium, from seawater desalination to rolling back desertification, plastic pipe and other products made from industrial hemp are destined to make a major contribution. Universal forelaws of empathy and compassion, grounding and shaping education at all levels, operate cosmically as well as locally and globally - with marked relevance to human mate selection, nurturing of offspring, and early childhood education in a healthful, sustainable environment. Ending international terrorism requires employing the total resources of the United Nations, including military (right of self-defense), with primary emphasis on forelaws education coupled to scrutiny of all social dichotomies ranging from religious dogmas, to political ideologies, to economic systems. Though actively in denial of their own intrinsic humanness, adherents of international terrorism remain genetically predisposed (and reeducable) to appreciation of their creative potential and positive contribution as part of the cosmic community of intelligent life. "Peace is the marriage of the people and the planet, with all attendant vows." - Anonymous World summitry on economic/societal sustainability, marshalling previously untapped human cooperation, energy and resources, faces challenges not least of which deal with terrorism - fossil fuels - nuclear weapons/energy - the specter of international trade wars - overpopulation - world hunger - integrity of the human gene pool - climate stability - as well as the unifying legacy of Kyoto, Rio+10, Johannesburg and Copenhagen. Bolstering world summitry on economic/societal sustainability as a new cornerstone proposed for the United Nations is scientific research validating both the biological basis for human cooperation (Rilling/Berns et al, Emory Univ.), and empathy and compassion (Rodrigues/Saslow et al, Oregon State Univ. & UC Berkeley.) A compassionate/cooperative global society on Earth manifests the essential and basic goals of progressive science, five-year plans, neo-economics/politics. and the DEMOCRATHON Process: (a) a healthful, sustainable environment for every planetary citizen, (b) universal health care publicly supported, (c) education for all based upon individual capability, (d) creative/productive employment for every planetary citizen, (e) post-retirement security, (f) global water equilibrium. Key to this societal evolution are new cornerstones and guidelines for the United Nations: (1) Forelaws Education, (2) World Summitry on Economic/Societal Sustainability, (3) Global Water Equilibrium, (4) The DEMOCRATHON Process. Industrial hemp elicits appropriate recognition at world summitry on economic/societal sustainability. Worldwide production of industrial hemp (re-introduction in the USA) - locally grown, processed and manufactured into products locally consumed (and exported/imported where in order) - is a realistic response to "Peak Oil" and the inevitable depletion of extractable petroleum. Any product made from petroleum (including high octane gasoline and plastics) can be made from industrial hemp. Industrial hemp seeds can produce food such as bread, hempburgers, milk and ice cream. Hemp fiberboard has been demonstrated to be twice the strength of wood fiberboard. "Hempcrete" blocks, "lighter, stronger and easier to work with than masonry concrete," have been manufactured at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota (start-up costs were under $10,000.00). "From Petrol to Agro: Seeds of a New Economy," by Dr. Robert E. Armstrong, Center for Technology and National Security, National Defense University, discusses the transition to renewable resources. The DEMOCRATHON process ("people power"), proceeding from the Initiative and Referendum currently available in some form in 24 States in the USA and continuing to grow worldwide, is a political-educational-fundraising mechanism with potential and efficacy uniquely more widespread since the advent of Internet communication. The advancement of progressive science, neo-economics/politics, the search for parent planets of intelligent life on Earth (SPPH), veganism, achievable global water equilibrium, and industrial hemp are among the globally important issues apropos to the DEMOCRATHON process. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * "The first message from an intelligent extraterrestrial civilisation may not emerge from a radio telescope but, instead, from a DNA sequencing machine." - John Walker, Fourmilab Switzerland. "We are witnessing the birth pangs of a paradigm shift as important as the Copernican revolution half a millennium ago." - N. C. Wickramasinghe, Director, Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, discussing panspermia (fast becoming mainstream science) and the significance of "Fossils of Cyanobacteria in C11 Carbonaceous Meteorites" (The Journal of Cosmology, March, 2011), by Richard B. Hoover, NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center. "But the climaxing observation appeared in year 2002. How exceedingly ironic that 30 years after Fred Hoyle pointed to NGC 7603 as a crucial system which must force out acceptance of the existence of discordant redshifts - after a generation has passed - the luminous link between this active Seyfert and its appendage is observed to have two high redshift, quasar-like objects in it." - Halton C. Arp, American Astronomer, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, and author of Seeing Red, Apeiron, 1998 (refuting "Big-Bang" theory). "It would be good to prevent the vast suffering and countless violent deaths caused by predation." - Jeff McMahan, Department of Philosophy, Rutgers University. "The good of society as a whole can be promoted through the science of positive and "prosocial" emotions and behaviors - for example, by studying emotions and behaviors such as compassion, respect, joy, trust, love, empathy, gratitude, and tolerance." - Greater Good Science Center, University of California, Berkeley "Detection of convincing evidence for extraterrestrial life would be a significant event in human history. Efforts to detect signs of intelligent life should be directed by the kind of signals which intelligent life is most likely to produce, given the constraints of physical reality. Activities designed to spread life throughout the universe may not seem like reasonable behavior to us now, but as we learn more about life and its possibilities, it may seem like the most reasonable way we can participate in the evolution of life across the universe. The discovery of intergalactic seeds produced by intelligent life would immediately change our view of the origin and purpose of life on Earth, and improve our expectations for the future of life in this universe." (Robert T. Hemphill, from Searching for Signals from Civilizations Spreading Life Among the Galaxies). "But in order for life to climb the tree to a higher level, new genetic programs are required - which mutation and recombination alone cannot supply. When they are supplied (through horizontal gene transfer), a major advance may ensure. Thus, in strong panspermia, the problem of punctuated equilibrium is also resolved. . . . . . A consequence of this reasoning is that life on Earth can have descended only from life elsewhere that was at least as highly evolved as it is here." (Brig Klyce, founder of Cosmic Ancestry and Astrobiology Research Trust). . "Darwinian evolution can produce variation that results from one or two point mutations, and can, by natural selection, lead to adaptation, or microevolution. But that is not the same as macroevolutionary progress requiring whole new genes that differ from known predecessors by dozens to hundreds of essential nucleotides. In strong panspermia, those new genes must be supplied from elsewhere . . . . . . . . . . Energy reaches Earth from the Sun, of course, but encoded instructions do not. We have long believed that evolutionary progress takes place in a biologically closed system, because we thought, until recently, that life could not survive in space." (Brig Klyce, Astrobiology Research Trust). "The lethal wave of influenza in 1918-19 . . . was first detected on the same day in Boston and Bombay. Yet in spreading within the United States it took three weeks to go from Boston to New York." - Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe. "Microbiology may be said to have had its beginnings in the nineteen-forties. A new world of the most astonishing complexity began then to be revealed. In retrospect I find it remarkable that microbiologists did not at once recognize that the world into which they had penetrated had of necessity to be of cosmic order. I suspect that the cosmic quality of microbiology will seem as obvious to future generations as the Sun being the centre of the solar system seems obvious to the present generation." (Sir Fred Hoyle, 1980, concluding a university lecture at the Sherman Theatre in Cardiff with the title "The Relation of Biology to Astronomy"). ". . . . . this essay will examine the possible role of viruses in the evolution of complexity, including the evolution of human-specific attributes." - from "Can Viruses Make Us Human?" by Dr. Luis P. Villarreal, Director, Center for Virus Research, University of California, Irvine. "Theories of panspermia are rapidly coming into vogue, with the possibility of the transfer of viable bacterial cells from one planetary abode to another being generally accepted as inevitable." - from Progress Towards the Vindication of Panspermia - N.C. Wickramasinghe, M. Wainwright, J.V. Narlikar, P. Rajaratnam, M.J. Harris and D. Lloyd (Astrophys. Sp. Sci., 283, 403-413, 2003). "We can soon launch panspermia missions to seed other habitable solar systems. We can target nearby stars and star-forming zones in interstellar clouds. Each mission can seed dozens of new solar systems where local life has not formed." (Dr. Michael N. Mautner, Society for Life in Space (SOLIS). "and then there is the greatest opportunity of all, the prize of securing and safeguarding the planet for our generations to come." - UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on global warming and the Stern Review. "A human being is part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." - Albert Einstein ". . . we have found a way to make a membrane (for use in seawater desalination) that can produce higher amounts of water compared to the commercial membranes being used today, while using the same process." - Dr. Mohammed Rasool Qtaishat, Water for All. "knowledge gained is always subject to further testing as understanding matures" - The Center for Naturalism. The Kepler Mission (launched by NASA in 2009 to monitor 100,000 stars for orbiting Earth-size planets) is the first space mission to search specifically for terrestrial-like planets. 100 billion planets are estimated to be in the Milky Way galaxy alone, many of them rocky and Earth-like. A promising ally in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, innovative technology by NASA will aid observation of planet formation and planet detection by suppressing the light of stars. This emerging expansion of cosmic focus and direction - likely to involve (complementing NASA) the European Space Agency (ESA), the Hubble Telescope, the International Space Station, and many if not most of Earth's space agencies and observatories - has important meaning for life-centered cosmologies. "Of course, today, for science in particular, electronic communication makes possible communities of individuals from all corners of the world. The most direct evolution toward an enlightened science is for these groups to just go about supporting each other in doing science free of disproved, official assumptions." (Halton C. Arp). "I am certain and have always stressed that the destination of mankind is to become more and more humane. The ideal of humanity has to be revived." - Albert Schweitzer ""The survival of all living beings on this planet, the entire ecosystem, depends on our civic engagement . . . . . to be part of the political process . . . . ." - Norman Solomon (author, recipient of Alex Forman Peace Award, founder of Institute for Public Accuracy. Whatever you can do . . . . . or believe you can . . . . . begin it Boldness has magic . . . . . power . . . . . and genius in it." Johnne Goethe Internal Pages: - Cosmic Genealogy - Ethical Veganism - Global Water Equilibrium - Industrial Hemp - - The DEMOCRATHON Process External Links: AGE OF COSMIC GENEALOGY - Cosmic Ancestry - Can Viruses Make Us Human? - Astrobiology Research Trust - Halton Arp Website - NASA Astrobiology - NASA NEO Program - National Space Society - The Planetary Society - The SETI Institute - SETI League - International Astronomical Union - Exoplanets - Habitable Planets - The Rosetta Mission - Kepler Mission - Society for Life in Space (SOLIS) - Universe Today - Terraforming Directed Panspermia - Influenza from Space? - WORLD SUMMITRY ON ECONOMIC/SOCIETAL SUSTAINABILITY - Greater Good Science Center- The International Behavior and Neural Genetics Society - Federation of European Neuroscience Societies - The Biological Basis for Human Cooperation - Sustainability (In Context) - The Oregon Sustainability Act - World Constitution and Parliament Association - Commonalities - Peak Oil - The Sun-Earth Connection - Superfluidity in the Solar Interior: Implications for Solar Eruptions and Climate - Solar Activity: A Dominant Factor in Climate Dynamics - Changing Sun, Changing Climate - Living With a Star - Project Worldview - COMPASSIONATE/COOPERATIVE GLOBAL SOCIETY - Proutist Universal - Ethical Vegetarianism (Book)- The New Paradigm Journal - International Institute for Humane Education International Humanist and Ethical Union - Humanists Net - Altruists International - Dematerialism - EarthSave International - Encoding Altruism - Topia.net - Peter Singer Links - Eubios Journal of Asian and International Bioethics (EJAIB) - Eco-Ethics International Union (EEEU) - Pasteur Institute - Pasteur Foundation - J. 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