Velapanti Diaries 4

CONTEMPLATING THE STARS

“The most oft quoted iconic phrase in scientific circles, ‘absence of evidence is not evidence of absence’, and the ‘Fermi Paradox’, together acknowledge ‘Velapanti’ contributions not only towards art but also to serious ‘science’ as well.” – Vela Sidhu

The Extraterrestrial Intelligence (ETI)

The deepening understandings of modern science owes a lot to ‘Velapanti’.

Archimedes discovered his principle of buoyancy in 246 BCE while dallying in his bath.

Newton discerned the existence of gravity in 1867 CE while idling under a tree observing the fall of an apple.

In 1998, ‘Viagra’, the famous erectile dysfunction medication, was discovered by scientists at Pfizer, while attempting to develop medication for ‘Angina’, a heart related ailment; the two organs being at the opposite spectrum of the human body.   

In a similar vein, the ‘Fermi Paradox’ arose from a casual remark, “where is everybody?”, made by Nobel laureate physicist Enrico Fermi in 1950, during informal conversation in a scientific peer group. It alludes to the inherent contradiction between distinct lack of convincing evidence about signs of ETI despite the high likelihood of its existence.

Where is Everybody?!!

Fermi’s query is premised on the estimated data of there being 100 billion stars in our ‘Milky Way’ galaxy, in a diameter spread of 120,000 light years, and the Earth being in existence for 4.5 billion years.

If even 10% of the stars have habitable planets supporting intelligent life, as is the case in our solar system; then moving at 1/100^th velocity of light, the entire ‘Milky Way’ galaxy can be traversed in about 12 million years.

So why has Earth not been visited by ETI?!

The query gets even more absorbing when we broaden the horizon of our challenge across the estimated ‘observable’ universe that is 13.8 billion years old, is spread over a diameter of 46 billion light years, and comprises of 2 trillion stars. The existence of ‘unobservable universe’, beyond the distance that has been traversed by light, has not even been conjectured by modern science.

This is where the difference between ‘Velapanti’ and ‘scientific rigour’ tends to be fudged. Faced with absolute uncertainties in a scientific approach to understand the presence and search for ET intelligence, Frank Drake, a US astronomer and astrophysicist, formulated the ‘Drake Equation’ in 1961. It is expressed as

N = R_* f_p n_e f₁ f_i f_c L

where N represents the number of technologically advanced civilisations in the Milky Way

R_* is the mean rate of star formation in the Galaxy; 

f_p is the fraction of stars with planetary systems; 

n_e is the number of planets ecologically suitable for the origin of life; 

f₁ is the fraction of planets where life develops; 

f_i the fraction of planets where life evolves to an intelligent form; 

f_c the fraction of planets intelligent life form invents high technology;

L the average lifetime of such advanced civilizations. 

This takes ‘Velapanti’ to scientific heights, as the answers to the first four listed factors are intelligent scientific conjectures, while nothing is known to science about the last four.

It is scientific hubris to presume that with 87,000 million suns in just the Milky Way Galaxy, and with around two trillion galaxies, the Earth is the only cosmic body in Time and Space harbouring ‘intelligent’ life!

Much like the ‘principle of buoyancy’, and the realisation of gravity, the evidence on the existence of ETI and its contact with the Earth, may be lying out in the open, waiting for an Archimedes or a Newton to connect the dots.

Investigation of ‘Non Existing Phenomenon’

Simply put, current science does not possess mathematical foundations to understand the complexity of the building blocks of the Universe. Under the circumstances, the only way to satisfy scientific curiosity is to physically produce an ‘ETI smoking gun’ as evidence. In other words to capture and exhibit an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).

But even this ‘wild’ thought is highly impractical, as no Government has accepted on record about the provenance of the UFOs during the last 75 years of their rumoured existence. The US, Canada, UK, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Russia, and China are some of the countries known to have documented and investigated UFO sightings. The only known outcome of these continuous investigations have been to change the nomenclature of the stigmatised UFO phenomenon to that of a more scientific sounding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP)!  

But this itself provides grist for more ‘Velapanti’. Why should the Governments continue to spend time and resources to investigate a phenomenon that does not exist?!

The US itself has undertaken investigations, starting from Project Sign (1948), Project Grudge (1952), Project Blue Book (1952 -1969) that recorded 12,000 events, Robertson Panel (1952), Condon Committee (1966), Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program (2007-2012), and the ongoing Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force.

But there may be light at the end of this mysterious tunnel.

In 2020, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) in a report submitted to the US Congress acknowledged, for the first time, that a few of the investigated UAP events defy explanation as they lie beyond the known frontiers of science and technology.

Two years later, in 2022, the US House Intelligence sub-committee on Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence and Counterproliferation held inconclusive public hearings on the subject.

In August 2023, the US House Oversight subcommittee on National Security, Border and Foreign Affairs conducted public hearings on the issue.

Though no ‘smoking gun’ was produced as evidence during the hearings, the key impact of has been a shift in the overall narrative from UFOs to the existence of Non-Human Intelligence (NHI), including physical alien biological entities. With this, ETI gets replaced by the new nomenclature of NHI, just as UFO was earlier transplanted by UAP.  

The Indian Context

The Indian polity is the oldest known continuous civilisation on earth. The depth and vastness of its civilisational knowledge is compelling, despite being at odds with the current postulations of modern science. But the most interesting observation is that as the modern science increases its overall ‘Understanding of Things’, the gap with ancient Indian knowledge and beliefs is reducing!

Indian society has since pre-historic times gazed at the stars for provenance of its historical records. It posits a fourteen dimensional construct of the ‘Brahmand’ (Multiverse) rather than a Universe.

Its names for the ‘Akashganga’ (Milky Way) and the neighbouring ‘Vaikunth’ (Andromeda) galaxies find mention in ancient Indian astronomical texts dating back to 8000 BCE. It identifies with the Sagittarius A* ‘Black Hole’ at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, close to the ‘Dhanu’ (Sagittarius) constellation, as the abode of the Lord Vishnu.

Indian astronomical texts since earliest times have reflected the astrophysical concept of ‘precession of equinoxes’, and identified four distinct Polaris anchor stars for the Earth, one for each ‘Yuga’ (Cycle of Ages); Dhruv Polaris lying in Ursula Minor constellation during ‘Kalyug’, Deneb Polaris in Hamsa constellation during ‘Satyug’, Vega Polaris in Lyra constellation during ‘Treta Yuga’, and Cepheus Polaris in Vrishparva constellation during ‘Dwaparyug’. The reconnect of axial rotation of the earth from one Polaris to another is also linked to tectonic upheavals and reversal of Poles.

Its religious practice of invoking the ‘Navagraha’ (nine planets) defines own solar system including the sun and two component of dark matter; its worship of ‘Shakti’ (energy) embodies the knowledge of the etheric energy as the binding force of the universe; its designing infrastructure in conformity with ‘Vastu’ (earth energy) symbolises the knowledge of negative and positive earth energy flow impact on all creations on earth; its concept of ‘Kaal’ (Time) is multi-dimensional omnipresence of the past, present, and future, of Time being cyclic rather than a linear irreversible progression.

Ancient Indian scriptures, of prehistoric vintage, have accurately mapped the evolution of life on earth through the concept of ‘Dasavtars’ (ten divine incarnations), from ‘Matsya’ (fish), through ‘Kurmi’ (tortoise), ‘Varaha’ (boar), ‘Narsimha’ (half lion half human), ‘Vaman’ (dwarf), ‘Parshuram’ (axe wielding warrior sage), ‘Maryada Purushottam’ (Righteous Being), ‘Krishna Consciousness’ (worldly wise), ‘Buddha’ (Enlightened One), to ‘Kalki’ (Future One who shall usher new civilisation cycle).

But the most contextual concept recorded in ancient Indian ‘Vedic’ scriptures is the postulation that ‘Saptrishis’ (Seven Sages) are the progenitors of humanity. All human ‘Gotra’ (lineage) can be traced to one of the seven sages, namely, Atri, Bhrigu, Kashyap, Vasishtha, Gautam, Bhardwaj, and Angiras.

What’s most interesting is that they are recognised as celestial beings (NHI) residing in the ‘Saptrishi’ (Ursa Major or Great Bear) star constellation. In a way, this supposition ascribes to the belief that intelligent human life on Earth may in fact be star seeds of NHI.

In fact, ‘Mahabharat’, one of the numerous ancient epics, records large numbers of instances of Celestial Beings having procreated with humans on Earth.

Nevertheless, this whole idea of intelligent human civilisation having ‘star seeds’ origin, may rightfully be assumed as too preposterous for modern science to even contemplate undertaking scientific rigour.

However, what should hold attention is not the lack of supporting evidence for this hypothesis; rather it is the very thought, that a civilisation of pre-historic times could even conceive it!!! 

A Progressive Logic

The belief in the ‘Immaculate Conception’ by Mary Magdalene, and the three Magi, identifying the time and place of the birth of the Messiah by ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ in the sky, is reasonably widespread in Christianity.

This is quite akin to the ancient Indian beliefs discussed earlier. But there’s a subtle difference in the standpoint of the two beliefs. While the ‘Star of Bethlehem’ remains unidentified to date, the date and time of discussed events, recorded in ancient Indian texts, are substantiated and astronomically validated with precise positions of celestial bodies.      

Michio Kaku, a renowned US theoretical physicist, famously states that “common sense has no place in Quantum mechanics”. His, yet unproven, ‘Superstring Theory of Everything’, postulates vibrating strings as the basic building block of a ten multidimensional Universe. This theory comes tantalisingly close to the ancient Indian cosmology which posits a fourteen dimensional construct of the ‘Brahmand’ separated by vibration frequencies.

That the US Congress is now seriously seized with the subject of ‘existence of Non-Human Intelligence (NHI), including physical alien biological entities’, and this attention has strong bipartisan support on the Capitol Hill, is a strong indicator of it being critical to national security of the US, and by implication to the world at large.

India would be well advised to shed its colonial inhibitions to deeply study its treasure trove of scientifically rich traditional texts. It is this past that shall guide it to future greatness. Therefore, setting up an autonomous institute for ‘Study of Anomalous Phenomenon’ (SAP), may be a good food for thought.

While the majority may not agree with the viewpoints discussed herein, the only solace is that the idea may find relatively greater acceptance than the thought of a scientific formulae that can predict the decision making process of POTUS Donald Trump in calculating and applying tariffs on US global trading partners!

 

Cautionary advice: This is a ‘humoserious’ dialogue…any attempt at commenting on it may make you vulnerable to be branded a ‘Vela’, unless of course you are truly that gem!