5. Selection allows the existence of bifurcation states in which it is impossible to predict the way of further development since the new channel is largely determined by factors out-of-control at the bifurcation point.
Judging from the synergetic principles, it is possible to develop an idea of the intelligences occurrence within the various material forms of matters self-development. The universal matters property is «reflection», manifested by the object of influence in the form of a response. Reflection is a philosophical category denoting the universal matters property, stating the fact that under certain conditions of interaction one material system reproduces certain aspects of another system interacting with it in its specific form. In this case, the reflection is either the new properties acquisition, or the certain reactions development, or the restructuring of the object that is being affected. A function occurs as the result of the multiple consolidations. A consolidated response to a frequently repeated influence is the reflection function.
The principle of reflection is characteristic for the matter at all levels of its organization and is the cornerstone of the materialist theory of cognition. Spontaneous development of the surrounding world occurs until the moment when material objects acquire the ability to think starting from the primitive responses to external stimuli formation to the information storage devices, the improvement of which can lead to the occurrence of intelligence, analytical abilities and adequate interaction with the environment. Then development takes on the features of awareness and controllability. Moreover, in addition to the passive adaptation to the changing external conditions, the former intelligence will consciously initiate further development of the surrounding world by planning and creating new materials and technologies in accordance with its needs.
Therefore, it is necessary to consider two stages in the spontaneous and self-organizing processes of the matters development spontaneous (synergistic one) and managed by the developed intelligences one. Each of them has its fundamental features. On the initial stage there is a spontaneous complication of the physic-chemical structures until the initial intelligences occurrence capable of accumulating and analyzing information about the environment. On the second stage, the development of the material world is not a spontaneous one, but with the intelligent structures that carry out the activity aimed at their own life support. In this case, the environment changes already involuntarily. At this stage of development it is not the fortuity of the new material forms occurrence which will be observed but the design and expediency.
The possibility to use the information accumulated is the main factor of development. The intelligence carriers can be of different material nature. People used to associate thinking with the protein carriers of information inherent to all living beings on Earth. People have created artificially other information storage media on the basis of which the design of robots with artificial intelligence is carried on. Taking into consideration the fact that plasma represents the most part of the Universe matters main phase state according to modern concepts (the weight of about 99,9 %) it is logical to assume that the development of thinking matter took place and was improved on the basis of this form of the material world. It is established that the information transfer is an energetic process based on both the active substances and the receptive structures physic-chemical restructuring. Nowadays it is difficult to imagine the way of the information transmission and perception on the plasma level.
2.2. CIVILIZATION AS THE «THINKING SUBSTANCES» HIGHEST FORM OF DEVELOPMENT
The intellect occurred seeks to avoid the influence of the chaotic synergetic processes and manage its development. At the same time, the intelligence of an individual is not able to carry this process out. Such opportunities are being realized when thinking objects create associations that ultimately form a civilization that functions on the basis of material world developments certain laws.
Civilization is the highest form of the thinking matters development. Its formation is the inevitable result of the thinking matters development. This is the highest form of its existence. At the same time, the intelligence-bearers capabilities and needs undergo changes ranging from the use of their own labor and the slavish exploitation of other peoples labor in various forms (through violence or material incentives) to the development of self-reproducing structures that can satisfy all the needs of a highly developed intelligence in energy and information provision. Therefore, the Universes global processes must be considered not on the basis of individual ideas, but from the point of view of a civilizational intelligence.
Thus, the development of civilizations, regardless of their physic-chemical properties, is accompanied by the certain laws implementation which can be formulated as follows:
1. The matters self-organization occurs as a result of the ability to think and influence the surrounding world (environment).
After this, the development goes according to civilizations development laws.
2. The development of any civilization requires a growing energy provision, the main and best source of which is the Suns renewable energy.
3. A highly developed civilization must develop a system of self-replicating structures that can store and process the solar energy at a certain stage of development in order to use the Sun energy, as well as for the development of new living spaces. Various types of such structures will be developed and improved. They will be adapted to the conditions of the environment under exploration and programmed to provide a constant energy supply.
In a human society, the possibility of the highly developed civilizations parallel existence is not considered and the results of its activity are not analyzed, while this can be observed in the diversity of species of protein organisms on Earth. This may be a thinking form that is absolutely unusual for us. «The intelligence that we will discover one day may be so different from our ideas that we dont want to call it Intelligence,» Stanislav Elm wrote in his book «The Sum of Technologies».
Chapter 3
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF HIGHLY DEVELOPED CIVILIZATIONS
3.1. OTHER WORLDS
The existence of an infinite number of different cosmic civilizations was allowed by many thinkers throughout the history of humanity. According to the principle of Copernicus, the laws of nature are universal and function the same way everywhere in the Universe, which means that there is a possibility that, in addition to the Sun and Earth, there are other planets in the Universe with identical conditions where life could have occurred.
Developing the Copernicus (Mikoyan Copernic) heliocentric theory, Giordano Bruno stated in his book «On the Infinity of the Universe and the Worlds» (1584) that the omnipotence of God allows Him to create not one world, but an infinite number of them. Bruno quoted Epicurus, Lucretius, and also wrote about the infinite Universe in other works published beyond the reach of the Inquisition in Protestant countries. He believed that, despite the highest temperature, stars can be inhabited by plants and animals, which develop due to the cooling effect of neighboring celestial bodies (just like living creatures on Earth develop due to the heat of the Sun). All stars are the living and thinking beings. A fluid similar to blood circulates in their internal channels. Such an approach to the Universes nature was called the «Copernicus Bruno principle». For the church fathers, multiple worlds concept was an attribute of pagan beliefs. After the publication of the Brunos Inquisition case, it became known that his biggest «heresy» was the idea of multiple inhabited worlds in the Universe. However, some authorities of the Catholic Church also expressed similar ideas. For example, Thomas Aquinas, the theology founder, wrote that the world in which we live is not the only possible one. Hercules Cyrano de Bergerac, Fontanel, Bernard le Bevier de Fontanelle, Christiaan Huygens, Voltaire, Immanuel Kant, Pierre-Simon de Laplace, and William Herschel dedicated their works to this issue, though they were the speculative ones. Camille Nicolas Flammarion wrote in his works «La plurality des Mendes Habits» (Numerous inhabited worlds, 1862), «Les Mendes imaginaries et les modes reels» (Imaginary worlds and real worlds, 1865), «Les Etoiles et les curiosities du ceil» («Starry Sky and Its Miracles») (1881) and others that there is a dynamic principle in space, invisible and intangible, dispersed throughout the Universe, independent of the visible and weighty matter and influencing it. And the intelligence superior to our one is in this dynamic element.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky expressed similar ideas in his works «Cause of the Cosmos», «Will of the Universe», «Unknown Intelligent forces», «Monism of the Universe», «Scientific Ethics». In a philosophical note «Planets Inhabited by the Living Beings,» he wrote the following: «In the known Universe, one can count a million billion suns. Therefore, we have the same number of planets similar to Earth. It is inconceivable to deny the lifes availability on them. If it has occurred on Earth, why cant occur it under the same conditions on planets similar to Earth? Their number may be less than the number of suns, but still they should be. It is possible to deny life on 50, 70, 90% of these planets, but it is absolutely impossible to deny live of all of them».
Winston Churchill, a famous politician, wrote an essay entitled «Are We Alone in the Universe?» in which, on the grounds of the «Copernicus principle», he stated that the Universe is too vast for the life on Earth to be unique. He determined that reproduction is the necessary condition for life, and the presence of water, appropriate temperature and gravity to form the atmosphere stand for significant factors. Based on these assumptions, Churchil believed that, speaking of the Solar system, the life could have occurred only on Mars and Venus in addition to Earth.
Hugh Everett, an American physicist, put forward a theory of parallel worlds in the mid of the XX century. His article on Physics titled «Formulation of quantum mechanics through «related states» was published in the journal «Reviews of Modern Physics» (1957, v. 29, 3, p. 454-462). The authors multi-world interpretation (The Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics) suggested the «parallel universes» existence, in each of which the same laws of nature function and which are characterized by the same world constants, but which are in different states.
Hugh Everett suggested that the Copernicuss Universe is only one of the universes, and it is the physical multitude that is the basis of the Universe. In his opinion, the «perceived reality» is a multitude of classical realizations of physical worlds, built on the basis of rationally conscious worlds that reflect the interaction of the Observer with a single quantum reality.
According to the H. Everetts concept, the Object and the Observers quantum-mechanical interaction leads to the formation of a set of different worlds, and the number of branches equals to the number of physically possible outcomes of this interaction. And all these worlds are real. Hugh Everett called the multidimensional interpretation of quantum mechanics the «state relativity». In his opinion, this theory perfectly explained the mysteries of quantum mechanics, which caused fierce debate among scientists at that time.
Hugh Everetts theory is sometimes mistaken for the parallel worlds theory. However, it does not imply the real existence of other worlds, but only one really existing world, which is described by a single wave function, which, while measuring a quantum event, must be divided into an observer (conducting a measurement) and an object, each being described by its own wave function. On the contrary, the Copenhagen interpretation places the observer in his classical world, which is different from the quantum world of the object observed.
The main reason for rejecting the Everetts ideas recognition is the assertion that they are «experimentally unprovable». In addition, scientists using this interpretation cannot explain the nature of the boundary between the quantum and classical worlds. This theory explains a number of phenomena only at the micro-level, and it does not agree with the laws of preservation of mass, energy, momentum, etc. at the macro-level of our existence.
Modern Physics, based on a multi-world interpretation of quantum mechanics, superstring theory, multiuniverse theory, implies the multiple worlds existence. According to the theoretical physicists estimates adhering to the theory of superstrings, parallel worlds can be from ten raised to one hundredth power to ten raised to five hundredth power. Today the «many-world interpretation» is called the Oxford interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is one of the leading ones along with the Copenhagen one.
Experts do not exclude the possibility that the other worlds representatives of live somewhere in the depths of the vast universe. Physicists of Stanford University have been able to establish a hypothetical number of universes formed as a result of the Big Bang. Moreover, it is possible that they can be included into each other and inside our Earth as well. Perhaps there is a hidden Earth-2. They also estimated the amount of information that such a number of the parallel worlds existence carries, and came to the conclusion that a person is not able to observe all the universes, since the structural features of his brain are not able to perceive more than ten raised to the sixteenth power bits of information during his lifespan.
Frank Donald Drake, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, has developed a formula that, in his opinion, determines the number of extraterrestrial civilizations. The formula named after him consists of seven constituent elements: the number of stars formed during the year; fraction of stars representing planets; the number of planets or their satellites with livable conditions; the probability of the lifes occurrence, the probability of turning it into an intelligent one; fraction of planets with highly developed creatures; lifetime of a civilization that lives on the planet. Depending on the choice of parameters, the Drake formula gives grounds to believe that there are from 10 to 100 extraterrestrial civilizations in the galaxy at each separate moment.
However, repeatedly performed calculations with the Drakes formula being used gave a different number: from their complete absence up to 5 thousand. Such a dispersion arose due to the fact that the researchers evaluated the values of the parameters included in the formula in different ways. Critics note that the Drakes formula does not take into account the time variation of the parameters included in the formula. At the current level of the scientific development, only two coefficients for this formula can be relatively accurately determined, while others cannot be determined at all.
Brian Lacki, an astrophysicist at the Institute for Advanced Study showed that depending on the combination of parameters necessary for the intelligent lifes occurrence, the probability of its existence in the world ranges from 1.4 up to 48%. He mentioned the type and mass of the planet, the distance between it and the star, as well as the variety of genetic material for the various life forms occurrence among the factors determining the appearance of civilization.
Adam Frank, a professor of Physics and Astronomy from the University of Rochester and his colleagues from the University of Washingtons astronomy and astrobiology department, by means of the Drakes formula, calculated not the estimated number of intelligent civilizations, but rather the probability that human civilization is the only one intelligent in the Universe. It turned out that this probability is less than one divided by 10 raised to the 22nd power. Their further calculations showed that there are approximately 10 billion intelligent civilizations in the Universe. There are several thousands of them only in our galaxy, in the Milky Way. Many of them died, but it is possible that several hundreds of high-level civilizations still survive in our galaxy. In their view, the intelligent life is a common phenomenon in the Universe.
Duncan Forgan from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland developed a mathematical model and software that analyzed the probable number of inhabited worlds (not in the entire Universe, but only in the Milky Way) on the basis of three criteria: living organisms either occur with difficulty, but then develop well, or they have difficulty with turning into intelligent creatures, or life could be transferred from one planet to other one. As a result, three positive results were obtained. In the first case, the number of intelligent civilizations will be no less than 361, in the second 31 513 and in the third 37 964. William Borucki, the head of the group of researchers working with the «Kepler» space telescope, presented the data on potentially inhabited planets at the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Statistical analysis of data gathered by means of the telescope showed that 44% of the stars in the galaxy have planetary systems. Since there are approximately 100 billion stars in the Galaxy, it turns out that they can have about 50 billion planets. Out of them, approximately 500 million may be in the so-called zone of life, i.e., at approximately the same distance from the star as Earth from the Sun.