17-Nov
2003
Cosmologists have now grasped at least the outlines
of our entire cosmos, and learnt what it is made
of. We can trace the evolutionary story back
before our Solar System formed --- indeed back
to an epoch, long before there were any stars,
when everything sprouted from an intensely hot
'genesis event', the so called Big Bang, nearly
14 billion years ago.
The
first microsecond is shrouded in mystery but
everything that happened since
then --- the
emergence of our complex cosmos from simple beginnings
--- is the outcome of laws that we can understand,
even though the details still elude us. Quasars,
black holes, neutron stars and the 'big bang'
have entered the general vocabulary, if not the
common understanding. A challenge for the 21st
century is to refine our present picture, filling
in ever more detail, just as generations of surveyors
did for the Earth -- and, especially, to probe
the mysterious domains where earlier cartographers
wrote "here be dragons".
We are discovering new planets around distant
stars, and probing the underlying laws that
allowed their emergence. We are starting to
address Einstein's famous question: 'Did God
have any choice in the creation of the universe?'
Cosmic exploration has never been as rapid and
dramatic as it is today; the conceptual excitement
of the subject has never been more intense.
But science is an unending quest, and cosmologists
have brought into sharper focus a new set of
questions. What happened before the big bang?
Is there life elsewhere? What causes gravity
and mass? Is the universe infinite? How did atoms
assemble into brains able to ponder these mysteries?
How did an immensely complex biosphere emerge
on at least one planet around at least one star?
These fundamental questions fascinate a wide
public. Cosmology is becoming a part of common
culture in the 21st century, just as Darwinism
was in the 20th.
The stupendous timespans of the evolutionary
past are now part of common culture. But most
people still perceive humanity as some kind of
culmination of evolution: cosmologists, in contrast,
are mindful that still vaster timespans lie ahead
and can offer a distinctive perspective on our
fragile Earth. The unfolding of intelligence
and complexity could still be near its cosmic
beginnings: in far-future aeons even more marvellous
biodiversity could emerge.
Our
Earth, a tiny 'pale blue dot' in the cosmos,
may be of galactic --even cosmic -- significance.
It could be one of the rare locations where
advanced life has merged and with the potential
to develop further.
From this perspective, the present century seems
the most crucial in Earth's history -- it is
a century when human choices and actions could
ensure the perpetual future of life (which may
lie not just on the Earth, but far beyond it);
in contrast, through malign intent, or through
misadventure, 21st-century technology could jeopardise
life's potential, foreclosing its human and posthuman
future.
The wider cosmos has a potential future that
could even be infinite. But will this eternity
be filled with ever more complex and subtle forms
of life, or as empty as the Earth's first sterile
seas? The choice may depend on us, this century.
By research, writing and persuasion, I hope
to raise consciousness and spread awareness of
the intellectual fascination, the potentialities
and the potential hazards of 21st century science.
Science is a global culture, and the challenges
are global too.
PAST
RECIPIENTS
