Finding Excitement in a Monotonous Red Movie

TWO OF THE MOST EXCITING events in human intellectual history are transpiring right in front of our faces. A big robot is rolling around Mars exploring and making admittedly monotonous movies, and planets which are similar in size to Earth are being discovered on a daily basis, orbiting other stars. The mother of organic compounds, water, has been discovered on Mars. It is now estimated that in the Milky Way galaxy there are nearly nine billion earth sized planets, many of which undoubtedly have similar suns, orbits, and surface features to those of Earth. So far only a few hundred of such planets have been verified through observation, but its still early in the search. Statistical extrapolation, a proven technique, strongly implies the other nine billion. Yet here we sit in the United States, voyeuristically watching the Kardashians on the flatscreen, tweeting, twittering, texting about all manner of inanity, our most exciting accomplishments relegated to the back page. And that's OK. We are what we are, and cultural values change. But within five or ten years we will most probably know for sure how many earth like planets there are, what they are like, and whether there is life on any or all of them. And this is truly exciting. More exciting, we will soon see, than even American Idol or the Kardashians or testing while driving. Will all this new knowledge have an impact of the religions of the world, and our culture, including choice of entertainment? NO doubt. What about the new age people, the people who absolutely know for certain that extraterrestrial other dimensional beings are numerous among us even now? Does all this Mars roving and planet telescoping bore them to tears? Do they feel sorry for those of us whose worldview is confined to Mars roving and telescoping? Well, they needn't. The Andromeda people and the Kardashian people are not yet on board with red monotonous Mars or fuzzy planets afar, but they will be someday. As exciting as Kardashians, Greys and the Andromedans are, there is plenty of excitement in a monotonouse movie made in red, if you know where to look.