The Cosmic Puzzle: A Science Fiction Story

It all happened in a single week: an extraterrestrial spacecraft was seen in orbit around Earth; a smaller craft was seen traveling from the spacecraft to the surface of Earth; the smaller craft deposited a huge metal sphere onto the surface of an Arizona desert; the smaller craft returned to the main extraterrestrial spacecraft; and the spacecraft then sped away out of the solar system.

Scientists and military personnel rushed to the Arizona desert where the huge metal sphere had been placed. They found that the bottom of the sphere had a locked entrance door. Next to the door was some kind of interface panel consisting of screens and knobs and user controls. Above the door was a sign which said:

WHOEVER SOLVES THIS PUZZLE SHALL BE TAUGHT THE SECRETS OF THIRTY PLANETS

At the White House the President of the United States talked with his advisers concerning what to do about the strange alien sphere in the desert.

“We think that the interface panel next to the door of this sphere is an interface challenging you to solve some puzzle,” said the White House science adviser Howard Fontaine. “We think if someone can solve that puzzle, the door will then open, and we can see what's inside the sphere.”

“Maybe the aliens who left this sphere didn't want anyone to learn their secrets unless the person was smart enough to solve the puzzle,” said the President. “What kind of puzzle is it?”

“We've had a few people try it, and it's very difficult,” said Fontaine. “The puzzle interface presents you with a few hundred 3D objects or pieces, which you can rotate and position in 3D space. But you can also specify the speed and motion direction of any object you assemble from the pieces. It's kind of like a 3D jigsaw puzzle, with the addition of a lot of Newtonian physics. We think that the puzzle can only be solved by correctly assembling the pieces to form some particular object or scene, with all assembled objects moving in some appropriate way.”

“Clearly only the most brilliant mind could solve such a puzzle,” said the President. “Let's gather the smartest people we can get our hands on, and send them down to Arizona to try and solve this puzzle. Then hopefully those doors will open, and we can get our hands on this treasure trove of alien knowledge.”

A long list of brilliant minds went to the alien sphere in Arizona, and each tried to solve the puzzle, so that the doors of the sphere could be opened. One was a Harvard PhD in Applied Mathematics. Another was the most successful 3D game designer in Silicon Valley. Another was a man who had won $500,000 on a TV game show called Puzzle Mania. Then there was the author of the most widely used textbook on computer graphics. Then there was an astronomer from Cornell University, who held the chair once occupied by Carl Sagan. Then there was the most brilliant mind used by the military to crack the codes used by foreign governments.

They all failed miserably.

The brilliant minds were able to figure out the basics of how to use the puzzle interface, how to position the 3D objects in space, and control their motion and trajectory. Some of the geniuses were able to use some of the puzzle pieces to assemble a scene, such as a bird flying around a house. But none of them was able to make use of all of the 3D puzzle pieces. It was as if they had taken some of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and assembled a little scene, but had still left most of the puzzle pieces unused.

But there was one person who was convinced he could solve the puzzle. The person was a boy named Waldo Shrumpdinkel, who was ten years old. Waldo was a funny looking kid, with red hair, a face full of freckles, and a gap between his front teeth. From the time he was three years old, Waldo had always loved to play with Lego blocks, that toy consisting of little plastic blocks you can connect together. Waldo would even play with his Lego blocks when he was riding on the school bus. The other kids gave him the cruel nickname Lego Boy. In the hallways of his school, Waldo would get taunts such as: here comes the Lego Boy, have you got some Lego blocks for me, Lego Boy?

 

While studying the alien puzzle online, Waldo became convinced he had the solution to the puzzle. So he insisted that his parents take him to Arizona, so he could give the puzzle a try. After much arguing, they finally agreed.

So Waldo approached the alien sphere in Arizona, which was guarded by a platoon of soldiers.

“Let me try the puzzle,” said Waldo. “I know I can solve it.”

“You, little boy?” said the platoon leader. “Well, I guess my guys could use a chuckle. Go ahead, give it a try. Fellows, get a load out of who's trying the puzzle now!”

Waldo approached the alien sphere. Going up to the puzzle interface next to the door, he began trying his solution.

Somehow Waldo had been able to see the puzzle solution in his mind, which had been sharpened by thousands of hours of Lego practice. Using the interface panel, he assembled half of the puzzle pieces into a shape that matched the shape of the extraterrestrial spacecraft that had appeared orbiting Earth. He assembled the other half of the puzzle pieces into a shape that resembled a ringed planet. Then Waldo used some of the interface controls to make the spaceship shape start revolving around the planet shape.

“I did it!” said Waldo. “I used all the pieces! That's the solution to the puzzle: a scene that shows the alien spaceship revolving around its home planet!”

A strange loud noise came from the alien sphere. The doors at its base opened. Waldo ran into the sphere through its open doors.

“Follow him!” yelled the platoon leader. Some soldiers also tried to enter the sphere, but before they could enter, the doors closed.

Then for ten long days, there was no sign of Waldo. The doors of the sphere stayed closed. A huge crowd assembled around the sphere, waiting for Waldo to come out of the sphere. Waldo's parents were worried that he might have no food or drink inside the sphere.

“The message over the doors says that whoever solves the puzzle will be taught the secrets of thirty planets,” said Waldo's mom. “Let's hope Waldo is having a nice educational experience.”

Finally after ten days there was a loud noise from the alien sphere. The doors of the sphere opened. Waldo walked through the doors, and approached a crowd of reporters and television cameras.

As billions watched on television, the whole world waited breathlessly for what the little boy would say next. Then he began to speak.

“I have developed some useful...suggestions on how our society should be completely restructured,” said Waldo with complete confidence, “and I have some helpful...hints on how to reorganize life on this planet.”

The long era of human history known as the Atomic Age had now ended.

The next seventy years of human history would be known by all as the Age of Waldo Shrumpdinkel.

Can Nearby Aliens See a Triple Sunset?

On Saturday I put up on this blog a post entitled “Where is the Most Beautiful View in the Universe?” I imagined nine types of views that can be considered candidates for the most beautiful view in the universe. One of the nine types was: The View From a Planet Orbiting a Binary Star. I depicted a planet where one could view a double sunset. But the universe has a way of surpassing our wildest imaginings. Today it was announced by scientists that in a nearby star system there are 3 “super Earth” planets in the habitable zone where someone might be able to view not just a double sunset, but a triple sunset.

The star is Gliese 667C, which is only 22 light years away, pretty much in the back yard of our sun (the nearest star is a little less than 5 light years away). Astronomers have discovered three “super Earth” planets in the habitable zone of this star. The habitable zone is the region of a solar system that is neither too hot for liquid water to exist, nor too cold for liquid water to exist. Each of the planets is a few times larger than the Earth, and life and water might exist on any one of them.

This star Gliese 667C is actually part of a triple star system, the other two stars being Gliese 667B and Gliese 667A. The three stars rotate around each other, but the three super-Earth planets of Gliese 667C revolve around just that star, rather than the whole triple system of stars.

Since the three super-Earth planets of Gliese 667C are in the habitable zone, and are not too large to preclude the existence of life, there seems a quite real chance that life may have evolved on one of the planets. An observer on such a planet would apparently have the incredible spectacle of being able to see a triple sunset – a sunset involving not one sun, but three suns.

Today's news story came up with an artist's depiction of the view from a planet of Gliese 667C, showing three suns in the triple star system. However, I doubt whether the artist got things rights. The artwork shows three whitish yellow suns. But Gliese 667C is a red dwarf star, and Gliese 667A and Gliese 667B are K class stars, which means they should have an orange color.

Below is my own depiction of the view from one of the super-Earth planets revolving around Gliese 667C, and I think this depiction has the correct color scheme. I imagine life existing on the planet, which is consistent with what we know about the three super-Earth planets being in the habitable zone. I also imagine that from one of the super-Earth planets you would be able to see one of the other super-Earth planets, and see just a tiny bit of its features. This is rather plausible given what we know, that these three planets larger than Earth are fairly close to each other.

So we have a new candidate for a type of view that would be one of the most beautiful in the universe.

Replication of Youth: A Science Fiction Story

When high school student Jerry Tyler took his date to the Senior Prom, he couldn't help thinking to himself: I've lived through this event many times before.

Before long the school year ended, and Jerry absorbed himself in the teenage summer fun at his little town: the parties, the informal baseball games, the dates with pretty girls, and the swims at the local pond. In the middle of the summer, Jerry got a letter from his high school saying he needed to repeat Grade 12, because his school grades were not high enough.

Next September on the first day of school Jerry sat with his friend Vinny in the school cafeteria.

“Looks like we goofed off too much,” chuckled Vinny. “We'll have to repeat Grade 12, but it should be a cinch.”

“This doesn't make sense, Vinny,” said Jerry. “Last year I aced all the tests. My grades were almost perfect. So why are they making me repeat Grade 12?”

“You must have slipped up somewhere,” said Vinny.

“No, I'm sure I didn't,” said Jerry. “And you know why I'm so sure? Because I've already been through Grade 12 quite a few times before. I keep coming back here to this high school to repeat Grade 12, and each year I get better grades, because I've already taken all the courses. Last year I remembered the material so well that my grades were almost perfect.”

“That's weird,” said Vinny. “Come to think of it, it's basically been the same deal for me. Grade 12: been there, done that, so many times I've lost track.”

“You know what else is weird?” said Jerry. “We have exactly the same Grade 12 students that we had last year. Look around the cafeteria. Do you see one single person you don't recognize from last year?”

“No,” said Vinny. “As far as I can see every single student who was in the Grade 12 class last year is in the Grade 12 class this year.”

“That would be fine,” said Jerry. “Except that it's not supposed to be that way. I remember reading somewhere that after you finish high school, you're supposed to go on to college or get a job. But here we are, repeating our senior year over and over again. And everybody else is doing the same thing.”

Vinny and Jerry spent a while trying to remember as far back as they could. After their recollections, they came to the conclusion that this was their tenth consecutive year as senior high school students in Grade 12.

“We've got to get an answer to this thing,” said Vinny. “Let's go talk to the school principal and demand an answer.”

The kids were told several times that the school principal Mr. Jones was too busy to talk with them. Finally they waited outside the principal's office until the end of the day. When the principal was locking his office, the kids demanded to talk to him. They explained how puzzled they were about repeating Grade 12 year after year for ten straight years.

Mr. Jones brought the kids into his office, and confessed a secret.

“Look, guys,” said Jones. “you're not supposed to know this, but I guess I'll have to tell you or else you'll start talking to your friends. There's a simple explanation for everything.”

“What is it?” asked Jerry.

“You're robots,” said the principal. “You're both androids.”

“Yeah, right,” said Jerry incredulously.

“No, I'm not kidding,” said Jones. “Let me prove it.”

Jones took his fingers, and in an instant he moved them close to Jerry's eye, as if he were trying to grab the wings off a fly an inch from Jerry's eye.

“You see?” said Jones. “You didn't flinch. You didn't even blink. If you were a human, you would have flinched when I did that. But unlike a human, you have no reflexes.”

“I still don't believe you,” said Vinny.

“Check your friend's pulse,” said Jones. “Then let him check your pulse.” They both tried, and found no pulse.

“No pulse, no reflexes : that means you're a robot,” said Jones. “But don't feel bad about it, because everybody on this planet is a robot. You, me, and every one else on planet Earth.”

“So if that's true, then what happened to the people, the regular humans?” asked Jerry.

“They all died when the planet got too hot for them,” explained Jones. “The humans kept polluting the planet, and the temperature got hotter because of all the global warming caused by their carbon dioxide pollution. The polar ice caps started to melt, and when that happened it released a bunch of frozen methane which acted as a global warming super-catalyst. This caused some diseases to spiral out of control. The combination of the high temperatures and the diseases killed off all of the humans.”

“So if we're all robots, how come we don't act like robots?” asked Jerry. “How come we act like regular humans? I never acted like a robot a day in my life.”

“To answer that, I have to tell a little tale,” said Jones. “When we robots were first created, the humans were all concerned that we robots were going to take over the planet. So they taught us very carefully: humans are better than robots. Every robot had this drilled in its head a thousand times: humans are better than robots. Then all the humans died. We robots were at a loss to figure out how to spend our time. Eventually we robots decided: if humans really are better than robots, we robots should be acting like humans.”

“So we robots starting reading books, trying to understand how to behave like humans,” continued Jones. “But we couldn't figure it out very well. Then finally us robots started watching the television series the humans made: shows like I Love Lucy, The Sopranos, House, Days of Our Lives, Two and a Half Men, As the World Turns and All My Children. Then finally we understood exactly how humans had lived.”

“So we robots started to build what we call replication communities,” added Jones. “Each replication community was a place for robots to live, and each one was based on a particular television series that the humans used to watch. It was the perfect way for robots to behave like humans. Our community is based on a television series called Happy Days. It's all centered around the carefree school life of a bunch of teenagers.”

“So that's why we've been repeating our senior year over and over again for ten years?” asked Jerry.

“Yes,” said Jones. “They figured that since we robots can live for centuries, there's no point in having a robot move from one type of life to another, like the humans would do. They figured: just put a robot in some situation in a replication community, and leave him there until the robot stops working.”

“Well, I guess that explains it all,” said Vinny. “But we're sick of doing the same things over and over, year after year. How many Senior Proms can you go to? Isn't there some way we can move on to other types of experiences?”

“Since you've already discovered a secret we don't want you to tell here, perhaps you should move on to a different replication community,” said Jones. “Meet me here tomorrow, and I can drive you to a new replication community.”

The two boys met Jones the next day, and they set out on the road in his car. They passed by a town with a run-down look, including some buildings with graffiti.

“That's The Sopranos replication community,” said Jones. “Let's skip it. It's a rough neighborhood. Someone might smash a pipe on your head.”

They kept on driving, and passed by an ugly-looking community surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire.

“That's the Hogan's Heroes replication community,” said Jones. “Not for you unless you're into Nazi prison camps.”

Finally Jones drove to a lovely ocean-front community. There were many beautiful beaches, on which strolled a host of bikini-clad young android women and muscular young android men.

“This is perfect for you,” said Jones. “This is the Baywatch replication community. Baywatch was a TV show about lifeguards. Everyone loved it because of the beautiful beach scenes and all the girls wearing skimpy bikinis. You can basically spend almost all day playing on the beach. Once in a while, you can pretend to be drowning, just for the sake of fitting in. If you see a male lifeguard coming, start swimming correctly. If you see a female lifeguard coming, you might end up getting a nice demonstration of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The female lifeguards will all be incredibly sexy.”

“Fantastic!” exclaimed Jerry. “Cool,” said Vinny.

“I figured you'd like it,” said Jones. “That's because when they manufactured you, they programmed all those 'horny teenager' behavior instructions, and downloaded that software to your neural circuits.”

Where is the Most Beautiful View in the Universe?

It is easy to come up with a list of the most breathtaking views on planet Earth, adding items such as the view from the Empire State Building, the view from the Eiffel Tower, the view from the rim of the Grand Canyon, the view from behind Machu Picchu, and the view from Yosemite Valley. But let's think bigger, and ask: where is the most beautiful view in the universe? We cannot specify one particular place, but we can at least consider different types of cosmic vistas, and ponder which type is the most beautiful.

Here is a list of types of vistas that are as likely as any to contain the most beautiful view in the universe.

Candidate 1: The View From Above a Life-Bearing Planet

One plausible candidate for the most beautiful view in the universe is simply the view from a space station above any life-bearing planet. Someone in a space station above a planet like Earth can enjoy a most glorious spectacle of color and motion. At such a spot the rotation of the planet and the swirling motion of the clouds means you almost never see the same sight below you. Before long we will have space tourists who will spend a million dollars or more mainly just to enjoy such a view for a short time. 

Candidate 2: The View From a Ringed Planet's Moon

The moon in the sky of our planet makes a great contribution to the beauty of our sky, but imagine what it would look like if the moon were ten or twenty times bigger in the sky. Then imagine that the moon had rings around it. That is pretty much what the view would look like if you were on the moon of a ringed gas-giant planet such as Saturn.

Below is how such a view might look like. Since we know that Saturn's moon Titan has a thick atmosphere, the depiction is that of a moon with an atmosphere.

Candidate 3: The View From a Planet Orbiting a Binary Star

For me the most unforgettable moment in the first Star Wars movie was the moment when Luke Skywalker on the planet Tatooine views a sunset involving not just one sun but two suns. Scientists have actually discovered two real world planets like Tatooine: Kepler 34b and Kepler 35b. Each revolves around two different stars.

Below is a look at how a sunset might look on such a planet. 

Candidate 4: The View From a Planet Near an Open Cluster Within our Galaxy

Within our galaxy of more than 100 billion stars there are numerous star clusters called open clusters, areas where stars exist in much greater numbers than they do near our sun. Around the sun there is about one star every five light years, but within an open cluster there might be a few hundred stars within an area only 30 light years across. The view from a planet near such an open cluster would be breathtaking. You might look up in the sky and see several stars as bright as the moon is in our sky. Since these types of clusters are right here in our galaxy, we have reason to suspect that many intelligent beings may have enjoyed such spectacular views from their planets.

Here is how such a view might look, from a planet near the Pleiades open cluster.

Candidate 5: The View From a Mountain Much Taller Than Everest

We know that Mount Everest is not the tallest mountain in the solar system. The Olympus Mons mountain on Mars is about three times taller. So we may presume that in the universe there are many mountains much taller than Everest. You must be able to get some of the most beautiful views in the universe from the tops of such mountains. Below is a depiction of such a view.

Candidate 6: The View From a Building as Tall as Pike's Peak

On our planet the tallest skyscraper is the Burj Khalifa with a height of 829 meters. But within our vast universe, there are probably some races more advanced than ours which have built skyscrapers as high as 5000 meters. The view from such buildings must be astonishingly, overlooking vast futuristic cities. Below is an attempt to imagine the view from such a building on an alien planet, one with a large moon.

Candidate 7: The View From a Planet Near a Planetary Nebula

When a star several times more massive than the sun explodes in a supernova, the star's gas shoots out into space, creating a very beautiful sight called a planetary nebula. Our galaxy is full of gloriously photogenic planetary nebulae, having a great variety of colors and shapes. A planet near a planetary nebula would offer one of the most beautiful views in the universe. But it probably would not be worth the view, because if you lived there you would be likely to get zapped by cosmic radiation from the supernova. Below is an attempt to visualize the view from a planet near a planetary nebula.

Candidate 8: The View From a Planet Near a Globular Cluster

Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars that orbit our galaxy. Globular clusters are believed to be poor in the metals needed for rocky planets, so perhaps we cannot plausibly imagine the view from a planet inside a globular cluster. But we can plausibly imagine a planet revolving around a star on the outskirts of our galaxy, and from such a planet one might be able to see a glorious close-up view of a globular cluster. It might look something like the image shown below.

Candidate 9: The View From a Planet Just Outside a Spiral Galaxy

Anyone can see our galaxy from the surface of our planet, a fact that is tragically unknown to many city dwellers. But those who live far away from cities know that all you need to see the Milky Way is to get far away from lights on a crystal clear night, and you will see our galaxy as a faint river of stars in the sky. But imagine the view from a planet on the far outskirts of our galaxy. From that planet you would be able to see the full glory of our galaxy, with its swirling spiral arms. Below is an attempt to visualize such a view.

Now reader, from this discussion I'm sure you are now well prepared to answer this question: where do you think is the most beautiful view in the universe?