The New York Times interviewed several young people who were in the audience for President Obama’s speech in Israel. As I indicated in an earlier post, I thought Obama’s speech was brilliant. Reading the statements from the audience it is clear that he touched a genuine chord. Although Obama did not accomplish much in terms of specific changes in the situation in his trip, I think that he laid some very important seeds in the minds of the next generation. Never underestimate the power of ideas.
The melting of the polar ice cap has opened up new strategic possibilities for a number of countries, and the jockeying for territorial claims has been a fascinating exercise. But the recent Chinese moves in Iceland have been nothing short of surreal. A Chinese company, headed by a former official in the Communist Party, has been angling to buy/lease almost 100 square miles of wilderness in Iceland to build a golf course. High marks for creativity–Bismarck would have been proud.
I often feel as if the details of world politics are beyond human comprehension, and that the social sciences can never hope to be able to describe reality with the same precision as the natural sciences. But I take refuge in the fact that the natural sciences know even less than the social sciences. The European Space Agency has been able to determine the composition of the universe with astonishing precision with its new Planck telescope. According to the ESA here is what we know about the reality of the universe:
If I read the pie chart correctly, physics can explain about 4.9% of the universe. If you were to ask a physicist what dark matter is (26.8% of the universe) and what dark energy is (68.3% of the universe), you would get the honest answer: “We don’t know.” Ignorance loves company.
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Out of that 4.5% of the universe 176 billion galaxies in the observable universe, about 300 billion stars in the milky way, the earth is about three millionths of the mass of the solar system, the mass of all humans is about 10^-13 the mass of the earth. So “[b]ut I take refuge in the fact that the natural sciences know even less than the social sciences.” is probably misleading.
Carl Sagan – Pale Blue Dot
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But the real question is whether we understand that 10^-13th% better than we understand the 4.9%. I’m not even sure that we understand much of the 4.9%. Let’s just agree that we don’t know all that much right now.
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