Empathy and Compassion Settling the Question of Why the Universe and Intelligent Life Exist From Infinity to Infinity "the human brain is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter in the universe." - Isaac Asimov (1920-1992), professor of biochemistry at Boston University, USA. (descriptive of that of all intelligent life in the cosmic community of intelligent life). "We must move forward together, as one, in a renewed spirit of fraternity and solidarity, cooperating generously for the common good." - Pope Francis, speaking to the United States Congress. The cosmic community of intelligent life translates into empathy and compassion - settling the question of why the Universe and intelligent life exist.   Universe forelaws (empathy and compassion), and intelligent life (Universe medium for eternal empathy and compassion), constitute a cause, norm and way forward on all planets with intelligent life. Empathy and compassion, climate change, and cosmic genealogy - part and parcel of naturalist Nature (everything is connected to everything else) - coalesce as intelligent life philosophy, environmental science, and cosmology.   Every 230 million years Earth, its inhabitants and the Sun (our star) orbit the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.   The Milky Way is the galactic home of humankind and untold numbers of fellow counterparts - many far more advanced than humankind, particularly respecting cosmic genealogy and climate change.   Slowly but surely the forelaws principle is transitioning humankind to concerted global cooperation in eradicating war, terrorism, and racism, in riddance of nuclear weapons/energy - and in addressing climate change. Cosmic genealogy operates in a cosmic setting where no two star systems with intelligent life are exactly the same - explaining the phenomenon of "races" (before amalgamation) in the makeup of intelligent life . . . with cosmic dissemination of intelligent life by intelligent life (CDIL), from infinity to infinity, serving as the mechanism and medium for eternal empathy and compassion.   Human progress and ultimate participation in CDIL has lineage and roots in the new science discipline of astrobiology (merging astronomy and biology), given birth in the 1970/80s through pioneering investigation of organic matter in space conducted by astronomers Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) and Chandra Wickramasinghe.   Chandra Wickramasinghe is currently director of Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, UK, focused primarily on the role of comets and related materials as apparent/specific DNA carriers.   Chronicled since 1996 by Brig Klyce (author of Cosmic Ancestry) in the website Cosmic Ancestry, this unfolding paradigm change (and that of united albedo regions) will occupy special places in the coming 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." - Alan Boss, Science Working Group, NASA Kepler Mission. Climate change addressed by optimizing planet atmosphere and surface reflectivity of solar radiation (referred to as planetary albedo) for benign/relative stability in weather and climate - i.e. albedoism - describes the pathway to united albedo regions and a compassionate/cooperative global society.   Leading to United Albedo Regions on Earth, albedoism comes to grips with recurring weather and climate instability, and with continuing nuclear weapons/energy vulnerability to climate change, to natural disasters, and to global terrorism.  United albedo regions deals realistically with climate change ranging from droughts to ice ages (taking into account desertification, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning-induced wildland fires, subsidence).   Albedoism and united albedo regions engages, interconnects, consolidates (and merges into oneness of purpose for the common good of 194 nation-states), along with other entities, geopolitical science, the plant kingdom, atmospheric and planetary sciences, civil engineering, architecture, urban and rural planning, materials technology (development of materials changing color with temperature changes), dramatic production, use and belowground storage of freshwater from seawater. "This Pope has become a figure like Gandhi, or President John F. Kennedy, going beyond their own cultural surroundings." (concerning climate change) - V. Ramanathan, Director, Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate, UC San Diego, USA. "The solar energy reflected from Earth is a fundamental component of the Earth’s energy balance, and processes that define the albedo of Earth are of elementary relevance to the Earth’s climate . . . Joint analyses of surface solar flux data that are a complicated mix of measurements and model calculations with top-of-atmosphere (TOA) flux measurements from current orbiting satellites yield a number of surprising results . . . " - The Albedo of Earth, from Reviews of Geophysics, March 2015. The next ideological and geopolitical era and an all-important step toward the age of empathy and compassion on Earth, united albedo regions takes humanity beyond nationalism, militarism, war, nuclear weapons/energy, racism, global terrorism, and capitalism . . . to a cooperative global society characterized by empathy and compassion, and the common good.   Among associations not specifically committed but relevant in the movement to united albedo regions is Washington Geoengineering Consortium at American University, Washington, DC, USA. - "In this effort, we convene and report on meetings, invite written and other contributions both from important figures representing the full spectrum of views on geoengineering, and support robust public and civil society interactions . . . The definition and use of the term ‘geoengineering’ is not fully agreed upon, and given what is at stake, can be contentious." "We believe we as a country can be a trailblazer for a new age of renewable energy sources," - German Chancellor Angela Merkel (on phase-out of nuclear energy). "Several states have used civilian nuclear reactors as a cover to make nuclear weapons. The "spent fuel" waste produced by a civilian reactor contains plutonium that, if separated out, can be used to make a bomb." Graham Allison, Nuclear Terrorism, USA. "Despite the end of the Cold War over two decades ago, humanity still has over 15,000 nuclear weapons. Some of these are hundreds of times more powerful than those that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki . . . " - Future of Life Institute. "We should phase out all (nuclear) plants beginning with those that are close to heavily populated areas." - Larry Bogart (1914-1991), Coordinator, Citizens Energy Council. "Other nations, such as Germany, are increasing renewable energy sources, while creating jobs, as they phase out nuclear energy and seek to reduce carbon emissions.” - Lloyd Marbet, anti-nuclear and peace activist. The forelaws principle at work locally prioritizes common good education, science, energy, economics, politics, early emergence of the forelaws party and the democrathon process - with proper emphasis on creative/productive employment availability, public-supported quality health care, public-supported education at all levels, and public-funded quality housing . . . fundamental in united albedo regions and a compassionate/cooperative global society.  Interrelating intelligent life meaning, purpose and fulfillment (enhanced by the amalgamation of "races"), the coming of age of empathy and compassion - inseparable from existential life procreation - rests, finally, on paradigms change grounded on Universe forelaws of empathy and compassion. The coming age of empathy and compassion on Earth - in harmony with empathy and compassion as the rationale for Universe and intelligent life existence - speaks volumes not only for climate change (united albedo regions) - ending nuclear weapons/energy, for the democrathon process ("people power" for the common good), for desalination (freshwater from seawater), and for future human activism in cosmic genealogy - but, more profoundly, for intelligent life itself . . . a gift with indefinable promise and potential both locally and cosmically. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Toward that end (veganism) Gentle World has served as a clearing house of information for nearly 40 years, helping children, teens and adults embrace a lifestyle that incorporates their values." "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 BC). "The historian of science may be tempted to claim that when paradigms change, the world itself changes with them." - from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Thomas S. Kuhn, 1962, 2nd ed. 1970). "It (darwinism) proclaimed that our true relation is that of competitors and combatants in a struggle for mere survival . . ." - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), socialist, author, playwright, vegetarian. "Life comes from space because life comes from life." - Brig Klyce, Director, Astrobiology Research Trust, USA. ". . . herald a new worldview that I hope will unite the many nations and races of people that inhabit our planet." - Chandra Wickramasinghe, Director, Buckingham Centre for Astrobiology, UK. "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). ----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Among U.S. states, Maryland, Virginia, and DC are exceptionally vulnerable to climate change.  The states have more than 5,000 miles of Chesapeake and Atlantic shoreline, almost every inch of which would be degraded or inundated completely by the projected sea-level rise of up to three feet." - Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Empathy and compassion unifies past, present and future generations of intelligent life in the cosmic community of intelligent life.   On Earth, spawning common good economics/politics, empathy and compassion manifests itself in early childhood education - in veganism - in climate change (united albedo regions) - in the forelaws party and the DEMOCRATHON process - in redefining the concept of socialism - in digital direct democracy - in freshwater production from seawater - in confronting sentient life predation:     culminating in future activism by humankind in CDIL.   Ethnicity revisited, astrobiology merging astronomy and biology, and discovery thus far of over 4000 exoplanets are indicative on Earth of empathy and compassion both locally and cosmically.   Challenges ahead for the forelaws principle as humanity transitions to united albedo regions and beyond include nuclear weapons/energy disposal - freshwater and food shortages - fossil fuels and excessive CO2 emissions - the specter of international trade wars - overpopulation - energy conservation and global energy sufficiency, the latter supplied by solar energy on a global grid system - hydrogen produced by solar energy - natural (unmodified)/organic foods including stevia, a plant replacing refined sugars. "I look forward to working with the Steering Committee, Second Nature, and our growing network of universities and colleges to tackle society's most difficult climate challenges." - President Wim Wiewel, Portland State University, USA (Chair, Steering Committee, American College and University President's Climate Commitment.) "After I had given just a few talks about the climate, I realized that the action I was suggesting to my listeners to take, while essential, were not a match for the problem." - Marshall Saunders, Founder, Citizens Climate Lobby, USA. "The dialogue is now shifting gears from climate science to climate action.  There's still a lot we need to learn about the science, but the events of the past year have ended much of the lingering debate and controversy." - Jane Lubchenco, former administrator of The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2009 to 2013; currently a distinguished professor in the department of integrative biology at Oregon State University, while serving as adviser to the university on marine studies issues. ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Location, topography, and the exchange of radiant energy between the sun and Earth ultimately determine weather" (from Retrieval of Surface Albedo from Space, December, 2002.) - John Maurer, University of Hawaii at Manoa. Terra Mission (NASA, 1999) . . . "carries five instruments that observe Earth's atmosphere, ocean, land, snow and ice, and energy budget. Taken together, these observations provide unique insight into how the Earth system works and how it is changing." "As a joint initiative between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and NASA . . . . . Landsat represents the world's longest continuously acquired collection of space-based moderate-resolution land remote sensing data.   Four decades of imagery provides a unique resource for those who work in agriculture, geology, forestry, regional planning, education, mapping, and global change research.  Landsat images are also invaluable for emergency response and disaster relief." - NASA Landsat Science. "USGS LCI (Land Cover Institute) is a focal point for advancing the science, knowledge, and applications of land use and land cover information." - USGS LCI, USA. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Concerns about global warming, energy consumption and increased demand for potable water sources are causing a dramatic expansion of the desalination industry.   These changes present an exciting opportunity for IDA to play a more centralized role in speaking for the industry to increase public awareness of the many benefits of desalination, including drought-proof reliability, expandability, availability and potentially unlimited production." Lisa Henthorne, International Desalination Association. Residents of Beijing, China's capital, could be drinking freshwater from 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.)  The current growth rate of desalination at coastal locations bodes well for direct transport of freshwater from seawater to inland points such as Beijing.   Mandated and coordinated by progressive efforts the world over, dramatically accelerated, expanded and sustained seawater desalination - receiving important impetus from the International Desalination Association - aims at (1) globally plentiful freshwater and food surpluses, (2) relief for low-lying communities vulnerable to sea-level rise, (3) favorably enlarged land mass/biomass (4) replenishment of aquifers with significantly increased freshwater storage in belowground areas including those where once resided coal and petroleum. "A UK researcher (Philip Davies, Aston University) has proposed a new process to decompose waste desalination brine using solar energy that could allow desalination plants to act as a sink rather than a source of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and help to neutralise ocean acidity." - Chemistry World, 22 January 2015. "CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — A new approach to desalination being developed by researchers at MIT and in South Korea could lead to small, portable desalination units that could be powered by solar cells or batteries and could deliver enough fresh water to supply the needs of a family or small village. As an added bonus, the system would also remove many contaminants, viruses and bacteria at the same time." . . . . . Source: “Direct Seawater Desalination by Ion Concentration Polarization,” by Sung Jae Kim, Sung Hee Ko, Kwan Hyoung Kang, and Jongyoon Han. Nature Nanotechnology, March 21, 2010. - from MIT News 23 March 2010. ". . . 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." - Mohammed Rasool Qtaishat, Water for All. Global freshwater from seawater envisages a growing network of overland pipelines (new &/or converted to freshwater use) carrying freshwater from desalination plants - and from seaports (forwarding points for freshwater transported by tanker ships) - to interior locations for local and regional needs including irrigation and replenishment of aquifers.   Interport transportation of freshwater converted from seawater can be expected to take advantage of surplus marine tanker capacity coincident with ongoing trends to green energy sources.   The same is true concerning existing overland pipelines (in the future a medium for the transport of freshwater) now used in moving petroleum and petroleum products. --------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We are particularly interested in the science of prosocial emotions, including moral elevation, compassion, empathy, and altruism." - The Saturn Lab, Sarina Saturn, Director, Oregon State University, USA. "We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race." - Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary-General. "D. But greatest of all would be the effect upon our ethical and aesthetic culture if we made ourselves consistent with that primate nature which was built over long ages into our very genes.  We have tried to operate a church and a schoolhouse at one end of the street and a slaughterhouse at the other, to fill our minds with kindness and our stomachs with tortured flesh; to teach peace and eat like beasts of prey.   But we have overlooked the moral in the story of Diomedes.  Each generation has run amok and torn us to pieces in turn for the ugly lies which it has been taught - viz. that animals must be killed for food and people for military objectives." - from The Recovery of Culture (Diet and War) by Henry Bailey Stevens, 1949. "Vote Hemp seeks the full normalization of and a free market for industrial hemp in America. Vote Hemp's mission is to educate consumers, business owners, farmers and legislators about the many benefits of industrial hemp and to mobilize voters to elect pro-hemp politicians. Hemp is one of the few issues on the national debate that enjoys tremendous bipartisan and cross-cultural support. Democrats, Libertarians, Progressives, Greens and Republicans, farmers and hippies, global corporations and small mom-and-pop businesses are all part of the broad coalition in favor of industrial hemp.Vote Hemp seeks the full normalization of and a free market for industrial hemp in America. Vote Hemp's mission is to educate consumers, business owners, farmers and legislators about the many benefits of industrial hemp and to mobilize voters to elect pro-hemp politicians. Hemp is one of the few issues on the national debate that enjoys tremendous bipartisan and cross-cultural support. Democrats, Libertarians, Progressives, Greens and Republicans, farmers and hippies, global corporations and small mom-and-pop businesses are all part of the broad coalition in favor of industrial hemp."     Vote Hemp, Inc. P.O. Box 1571 Brattleboro, VT 05302 Email: hempinfo@votehemp.com. Any product made from petroleum (not excluding 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.)  As humanity transitions to albedoism and united albedo regions products made from industrial hemp - and industrial hemp itself as a growing plant - will make a major contribution.   A plant requiring no genetic modification, industrial hemp can be cultivated with and without irrigation in countries like Afghanistan, Columbia, Mexico, and the USA - and processed into upwards of 10,000 useful products which include paper, food and building materials. Advocacy on behalf of empathy, compassion and the common good presupposes a geopolitical vehicle with corresponding values, pursuits and goals, namely, The Forelaws Party - in league with the democrathon process.   The democrathon process ("people power") - functioning in unison with the Initiative and Referendum currently available in some form in 24 States in the USA and continuing to grow worldwide (with prospects and efficacy significantly more practicable and widespread since the advent of Internet communication) - is a strategic and effective political-educational-fundraising tool, potentially instrumental as a forelaws party cornerstone.   DEMOCRATHONS ("people power") can achieve important changes in controversial areas where legislatures have failed to act for the common good, anticipating the arrival and potentiality of digital direct democracy.   The democrathon process is designed to promote and enact common good legislation while at the same time furthering worthy causes locally and globally in addition to those of subject DEMOCRATHONS - through both education and funding (provided by monies over and above DEMONCRATHON costs). "Whatever you can do . . . . . or believe you can . . . . . begin it Boldness has magic . . . . . power . . . . . and genius in it." Johnne Goethe -------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Forelaws on Board CosmiGenealogy@yahoo.com www.forelawsonboard.net/ "There is no such thing as a B12 deficiency, even in 100% raw vegan food eaters.  They do not have to eat dirt, animal products, or take pills to secure coenzymes of B12.   Bacteria in the intestinal tract make it for us, and the metabolically usable and necessary forms of coenzyme B12 are contained in unprocessed, fresh natural plant foods, particularly in nuts and seeds.  The real problem in so-called B12 deficiency is a failure of digestion and absorption of foods, rather than a deficiency of the vitamin itself . . ." - Virginia Vetrano, D.C., M.D., D.Sc. "SIMPLY PUT, the common good is the well-being of a community considered as a whole.  Pursuing the common good involves thinking about how the various parts and their interrelationships can be maintained, developed, and corrected so that the whole community flourishes in a way that enhances the well-being of its various parts." - from Defining "Common Good" in the Digital World, by Deanna B. Marcum, ITHAKA, USA. "I endorse wholeheartedly The Forelaws Principle" - Brig Klyce, Director, Astrobiology Research Trust, USA. "Win-win sees life as a cooperative arena, not a competitive one. Win-win is a frame of mind and heart that constantly seeks mutual benefit in all human interactions." - Author Steven R. Covey (1932-2012.) “From the right to know and the duty to inquire flows the obligation to act.” - Sandra Steingraber ("Rachel Carson of the 21st Century"), author of Living Downstream (1997, 2010.) "Selecting and implementing a common language will be a major development not only for the nearly 500 million people of the EU, but also for the more than 6 billion people who populate the rest of the world." - Author Philip Yaffe. "The globalization process has brought great opportunities as well as new challenges, especially within communication:" - The Future Global Language. ". . . Which then means that everyone has their own perception or version of `reality'.  That's because each of us `physically' perceives the external world slightly differently, and each of us carries a unique baggage of a life-time's concepts and assumptions which further influence those perceptions." - Ray Dickenson, Editor, Perceptions. "Even though we can't conceive of the number of stars in the Milky Way or the number of neurons in the human brain, equating the two gives people a sense of enormity.  And as conscious beings we like to find patterns, and we find equivalencies interesting, especially when the things being equated are "important" or "epic" (like neurons and stars)." - Scitable by Nature Education. "It would be good to prevent the vast suffering and countless violent deaths caused by predation." - Jeff McMahan, Department of Philosophy, University of Oxford, UK. "The initiative already has led to six completed science textbooks in Tibetan and English, with two more textbooks in various stages of completion." - from the Robert A. Paul Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, Emory University, USA. "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 (1915-2001) - "The Relation of Biology to Astronomy". "We have discussed five modes of using mathematics as a tool which partly overlap and are partly heterogeneous in kind.  The instrumental use of mathematics is not governed by a single scheme.  Rather, the heterogeneity of tools and of tool usages teaches a lesson about the limits of mathematization." - from Mathematics as a Tool, by Johannes Lenhard and Martin Carrier, Philosophy Department, Bielefeld University, 2/2015. ". . . . . I believe a non-Platonist position gives us greater freedom of thought.  If we accept that mathematics is invented, rather than discovered, we can be more daring, ask deeper questions, and be motivated to create further change." - Derek Abbott, University of Adelaide, Australia, from "Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?" (Huffpost Science, 9/13/2013). “A man can do what he wants, but not want what he wants.” - Arthur Schopenhauer. "You would then want to draw on research findings from a wide range of disciplines to try to determine the kinds of interventions with the greatest likelihood of success in pushing the system in this direction." - from Compassionate System Design, by author Jonathan Leighton. "To realize we are all in the same boat and need to walk in each other's shoes." - Edwin Rutsch, founder and director of Center for Building a Culture of Empathy, USA. “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.  Without them, humanity cannot survive.” – His Holiness the Dalai Lama. “…respect for oneself, understanding and compassion for others, and a sense of responsibility for the world, its citizens and its future.” - Mary Gordon, founder of Roots of Empathy and author of Roots of Empathy: Changing the World, Child by Child (2005.) "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. ". . . to understand how our knowledge about the brain maps onto the world we live in, and how we can structure things at a government level . . . to make a better place, given the knowledge we have." - David Eagleman, Baylor College of Medicine, USA. "A scientific and lay community that understands the neural basis for empathy and compassion and uses newly developed insights and tools to create methods to enhance the ability of humans to practice these mental states." - Center for Empathy and Compassion, University of California at San Diego, USA. "That leads me to my next point, which is how we can more broadly engage each of you – students, educators, researchers, engineers, and the larger academic community – in our nation's cybersecurity efforts. To meet the challenges I've discussed, DHS needs a world-class cybersecurity team – a strong, dependable pipeline for the future." - Janet Napolitano, former Secretary, Department of Homeland Security, at San Jose State University, April 16, 2012. "This is one of the defining battles of our age, one that takes place for the most part out of the public eye." - Mark Bowden, author of Worm: The First Digital World War (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011.) "The first law of ecology is that everything is related to everything else" - Barry Commoner (1917-2012), author of The Closing Circle. Forelaws on Board CosmicGenealogy@yahoo.com www.forelawsonboard.net/