Space. The final frontier...
Quite.
The edge of this universe is also the edge of space. Frankly, without the matter in between, there can be no space at all. Space is defined by matter. Actually, space is defined by energy. The notion that space, or space-time for that matter, is somehow a fabric in which mass is dispersed is a little far-fetched. Since space is expanding, it must have been a singularity once - with no space at all, no fabric either. Rather, the fabric of space is being woven by the expanding energy.
The matter in between space is quite something.
It was the year 1989. I was stationed in Pretoria at the South African Air Force Chief of Staff Logistics, doing my national military service. Since I had some time on hand serving God and country under duress of the law, I became fascinated with Schroedinger's wave equation. Well, Schroedinger's equation, as well as statistical thermodynamics that was taught at Master's level in Mechanical Engineering at the Stellenbosch University during my run up that ladder, made an intriguing pair. Threw in Einstein's E=mc^2 and one was tempted into wild thoughts over how all things were composed of the superposition of energy vibrations, a bit like a violin playing a note consisting of a base tone and harmonics.
What really poked my fancy was the perpetual discovery of new subatomic particles, all depending upon how an experiment was set up. It seemed that all these "particles" were hiding in E=mc^2, and realised as superimposed energy wave spectra, a bit like a set of Schroedinger waves superimposed on each other.
And then we had to content with Heisenberg and his frustratingly taunting uncertainty principle. Perhaps, this principle was only valid in the projection of a high-dimensional space onto the 3-D + t with which we had to make do. Perhaps, the universe was build up of ever higher dimensions like the complex plane on one axis and another dimension on the other of a Cartesian plane, recursively for several iterations.
I ran out of physics knowledge and mathematical steam long before my wild thoughts ran out. So, I tried to convince a physicist at the CSIR in Pretoria where I did my national service as an engineer. But she had little stomach for my silly ideas.
Shortly after, the father of a university friend of mine handed me a popular article on a possible fifth dimension to the universe, having heard my ideas on dimensionality of matter. It was interesting but a bit odd, not quite what I was contemplating. So, I buried my thoughts and only dusted them off at the odd gathering in a pub over several beers, but not too often lest I would never be joined in a pub ever again.
And then came the outburst of string theory - at least, it crossed into my awareness. A brother-in-arms during my Ph.D onslaught first mentioned the theory to me after one of my rambles. Interesting, I thought. Sounded familiar and infinitely more exact and elaborate than my musings of yesteryear.
Verily it is said in science: He who wins the race to the publisher, wins the prize.
25 October 2007
12 October 2007
The tale of two tragedies
Life can be brutal. And human life is no different. Despite what the romantics and the poets may conjure about the beauty and lofty values of human life, history paints a grim picture. Indeed, in the past 100 years, recent human history recollects one massive genocide upon the next: Seven in all, according to UHRC. Yet, this posting is the tale of two tragedies amongst these seven, viz. the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire and the Jewish genocide in Germany.
Every human life is supposedly precious, yet it too often appears in practice that some are less equal than others. It should not matter whether 1000 or 100000 or even 1000000 died in brutal extermination - each such course of events is a tragedy, a ridicule of the very morals of humanity. Why then, does one group's genocide receive more prominence and awe than the others? Why is one genocide, the Jewish genocide of 1941 until 1945, a pivotal period and the other, the Armenian genocide only recently and barely acknowledged as genocide? What can explain the relentless roar that ensured the blatant land grab in Palestine by 500000 Europeans that became the State of Israel in 1948 in response to the Jewish genocide, whereas the Armenians lost to the Turkish nationalists all they had negotiated over the dead and broken bodies of their people with the Treaty of Sevres, signed on 10 August 1920 by the Allied Powers. The world stood by while more than a million Armenians were brutalised in all manners.
On Thursday, the US Congress passed at last a resolution, non-binding, yet formally acknowledging the Armenian massacre as genocide - almost a century after the fact. And yet, the vote has since proven controversial. Turkey, a current ally of convenience for US expansionism in the Middle East, is expectedly outraged and metering out all sorts of threats against the US for taking such a noble if dismally belated stand.
On the other hand, besides the likes of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, most of the world appear either prudently quiet or, more often, ostentatiously eager to chip in their bit in support of the perpetual invocation of the Jewish genocide for various aims and purposes. A relentless barrage of reparation claims of ever growing sums has been bolstering the coffers of the propped-up State of Israel since 1951.
Now, with the genocide resolution passed in Congress, will Armenians begin to see some reparations coming their way from Turkey? Will the UN take on the matter? Who will champion the course of the slaughtered Armenians? Will we see a Conference on Armenian Material Claims Against Turkey? Will Turkey oblige in humility as Germany has done since 1945 until this day?
Will we see epitaphs and mausoleums and yearly commemorations in Washington DC and Istanbul? Will it become immoral to deny the Armenian Genocide? Will a special term, such as Holocaust be coined for the Armenian Genocide? Will Hollywood turn out countless films in full gore over the details of the atrocities that tormented the Armenians from 1915 until 1918? Will we see archetypal Turkish caricatures as we have of Nazis whenever there is need of a quick laugh?
Or is the Armenian genocide an inconvenient truth and the Armenians simply not well enough connected in US society, business and government to ensure even fair justice for themselves?
Every human life is supposedly precious, yet it too often appears in practice that some are less equal than others. It should not matter whether 1000 or 100000 or even 1000000 died in brutal extermination - each such course of events is a tragedy, a ridicule of the very morals of humanity. Why then, does one group's genocide receive more prominence and awe than the others? Why is one genocide, the Jewish genocide of 1941 until 1945, a pivotal period and the other, the Armenian genocide only recently and barely acknowledged as genocide? What can explain the relentless roar that ensured the blatant land grab in Palestine by 500000 Europeans that became the State of Israel in 1948 in response to the Jewish genocide, whereas the Armenians lost to the Turkish nationalists all they had negotiated over the dead and broken bodies of their people with the Treaty of Sevres, signed on 10 August 1920 by the Allied Powers. The world stood by while more than a million Armenians were brutalised in all manners.
On Thursday, the US Congress passed at last a resolution, non-binding, yet formally acknowledging the Armenian massacre as genocide - almost a century after the fact. And yet, the vote has since proven controversial. Turkey, a current ally of convenience for US expansionism in the Middle East, is expectedly outraged and metering out all sorts of threats against the US for taking such a noble if dismally belated stand.
On the other hand, besides the likes of Iranian President Ahmadinejad, most of the world appear either prudently quiet or, more often, ostentatiously eager to chip in their bit in support of the perpetual invocation of the Jewish genocide for various aims and purposes. A relentless barrage of reparation claims of ever growing sums has been bolstering the coffers of the propped-up State of Israel since 1951.
Now, with the genocide resolution passed in Congress, will Armenians begin to see some reparations coming their way from Turkey? Will the UN take on the matter? Who will champion the course of the slaughtered Armenians? Will we see a Conference on Armenian Material Claims Against Turkey? Will Turkey oblige in humility as Germany has done since 1945 until this day?
Will we see epitaphs and mausoleums and yearly commemorations in Washington DC and Istanbul? Will it become immoral to deny the Armenian Genocide? Will a special term, such as Holocaust be coined for the Armenian Genocide? Will Hollywood turn out countless films in full gore over the details of the atrocities that tormented the Armenians from 1915 until 1918? Will we see archetypal Turkish caricatures as we have of Nazis whenever there is need of a quick laugh?
Or is the Armenian genocide an inconvenient truth and the Armenians simply not well enough connected in US society, business and government to ensure even fair justice for themselves?
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