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Displaying entries 31 through 45 of 104 found.

Ecosmos: A Revolutionary Fertile, Habitable, Solar-Bioplanet, Incubator Lifescape

Haqq-Misra, Jacob, et al.. Projections of Earth's technosphere. Scenario modeling, worldbuilding, and overview of remotely detectable technosignatures.. arXiv:2409.00067.. Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center consider project plans in search of near and far exocivilizations that could be detectable as atmospheres and geoengineering here spread over a millennium span. See also Waste Heat and Habitability: Constraints from Technological Energy Consumption by Amedeo Balbi and Manasvi Lingam at arXiv:2409.06737.

This study uses methods from futures studies to develop a set of ten self-consistent scenarios for Earth's 1000-year future, which can serve as examples for defining search strategies. We consider worldbuilding scenarios that evaluate the human needs as to define the observable civilization. Our scenarios include three with zero-growth stability, two that have collapsed into a stable state, one that oscillates between growth and collapse, and four that continue to grow. Only one scenario includes rapid growth that could lead to interstellar expansion. We have looked at a wide array as a basis for systematic thinking about technosignature detection as well as imagining a broad range of for Earth's future.

Lai, Yanhong, et al.. Ocean Circulation on Tide-locked Lava Worlds, Part II: Scalings.. arXiv:2408.09985.. We cite this work by Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, Peking University and Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Science, MIT astronomers for its content and in a philoSophia view to glimpse the present spacescape vista whereof a collaborative sapiensphere has at last formed over an infinitesimal bioplanet and in a few decades learned to explore, quantify an infinity of vicarious global, solar and galactic phenomena. See also Lapi, Andrea, et al. Semi-empirical Estimates of the Cosmic Planet Formation Rate by Andrea, Lapi, et al at 2408.08611 for another example of our Earthuman multiversal acumen.

On tidally locked lava planets, a magma ocean can form on the permanent dayside. Its circulation can be driven by stellar radiation and atmospheric winds. In this study, we develop scaling laws for the magma ocean depth, oceanic current speed, and heat transport convergence driven by stellar and wind forcings in three different dynamic regimes: non-rotating viscosity-dominant Regime I, non-rotating inviscid limit Regime II, and rotation-dominant Regime III. (Excerpt)

Morbidelli, Alessandro, et al. Formation and evolution of a protoplanetary disk: combining observations, simulations and cosmochemical constraints.. arXiv:2409.06342. A posting by fifteen astronomers in France, Germany, Spain, Taiwan and Japan that as a current status report of our collaborative Earthuman project to explore, reconstruct, quantify and learn how orbital worlds and this home abide originally came to form out of primordial pebble-like accretions. An incredible scenario presents itself in the 2020s whence a late, optimum global sapience can achieve a necessary ecosmic self-description.

We present a plausible and coherent view of the evolution of the protosolar disk that is consistent with the cosmochemical constraints and compatible with observations of other protoplanetary disks and sophisticated numerical simulations. The assumption that the material accreted towards the end of the infall phase was isotopically distinct allows us to explain the observed dichotomy in nucleosynthetic isotopic anomalies of meteorites. In conclusion, the evolution of the protosolar disk seems to have been quite typical in terms of size, lifetime, and dust behavior, suggesting that the peculiarities of the Solar system with respect to the extrasolar planetary system probably originate from the chaotic nature of planet formation and not at the level of the parental disk. (Excerpt)

Smith, Harrison and Lana Sinapayen. Smith, Harrison and Lana Sinapayen. An Agnostic Biosignature Based on Modeling Panspermia and Terraformation. arXiv:2403.14195. Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology and National Institute for Basic Biology, Okazaki, Japan astroscientists consider novel perceptions that ought to be factored in when it comes to assessing whether bio-friendly worlds have actually been found.

A main goal of astrobiology is to detect life outside of Earth. Our approach shows that as life propagates across the galaxy, correlations emerge between planetary types and location. This biosignature is agnostic because it is independent of assumptions about any particular instantiation. Rather it focuses on a specific hypothesis of what life may do, rather than what life may be. By clustering planets based on their observed properties we propose a way to prioritize specific planets for further observation. We identify various ways in which better understandings of astrophysical and planetary processes would improve our ability to detect life. (Excerpt)

Berger, Vera, et al. Stellar flares are far-ultraviolet luminous.. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.. 532/4, August, 2024. Based on better instruments and gigabyte analysis methods, Cambridge University, Ohio State University (Michael Tucker) and University of Hawaii astronomers find that stars which bear planets can emit higher degrees of radiative flares than previously thought to levels which are harmful to resident life.

We identify 182 flares on 158 stars within 100 pc of the Sun in both the near-ultraviolet and far-ultraviolet using light curves from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Ultraviolet (UV) emission from stellar flares plays a crucial role in determining the habitability of exoplanetary systems. Most studies assessing the effect of flares on planetary habitability assume a 9000 K blackbody spectral energy distribution Instead, we observe the opposite with the excess FUV several times the expectation of a 9000 K blackbody. (Excerpt)

Mills, Daniel A., et al. A reassessment of the "hard-steps" model for the evolution of intelligent life. arXiv:2408.10293. As the major evolutionary transitions scale gains a central theoretic role, DM, Maximilians-Universität München, Adam Frank, University of Rochester, Jennifer Macalady and Jason Wright, Center for Habitable Worlds, Penn State consider how its sequential stages might play out on candidate exoplanets. Braced by some 200 references, their likelihood or difficulty, relative rates of passage, and so on are seen as paramount, check point factors. In a wider scan, we should note that life’s capricious development is yet now tacitly seen as an oriented emergence on its course to our personsphere sapience. See also Catastrophe risk can accelerate unlikely evolutionary transitions by Andrew Snyder-Beattie and Michael Bonsall in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B (March 2022) wherein Oxford University zoologists offer more thoughts on major transitions as a crucial aspect of the perilous ascent.

According to the "hard-steps" model, the origin of humanity required a successful passage through intermediate steps that were improbable within the time available for biological evolution on Earth. This scheme similarly predicts that technological life is "exceedingly rare" in the universe. In light of recent scientific findings, we enter an alternative where there are no hard steps, nor novelties required for human origins. If Earth's surface environment was initially inhospitable to vital earlier steps in human evolution (eukaryotic cells, animals), then the "delay" in the appearance of humans might be explained through a sequential opening of global habitability environs, with humanity arising quickly once the right conditions were in place. (Excerpt)

Zhang, Fan. A dynamical systems perspective on the celestial mechanical contribution to the emergence of life.. arXiv:2408.10544.. The author has a physics Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology where his Thesis title was Tools for the study of dynamical spacetimes. He is now at the Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University. As the Abstract says, his research seems to suggests that variable solar phenomena need be additionally factored in.

Biological activities are often seen as entrained onto the day-night and other celestial cycles but origin of life studies have mostly not accounted for these seasonal and lunar environs. We argue that this may be a vital omission, because the replication behaviour of life represents temporal memory in the dynamics of ecosystems, such as precursors to abiogenesis and onto evolution. In short, life may precariously rest on the edge of chaos, which may implicate periodic celestial mechanics. Such considerations, if pertinent, would also be consequential to exobiology, e.g., in regard to tidal-locking properties of potential host worlds. (Excerpt)

Ecosmomics: Independent, UniVersal, Complex Network Systems and a Genetic Code-Script Source

Abreu, Carlos, et al. Extreme fractal dimension at periodicity cascades in parameter spaces. . We cite this journal article by five physicists based in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Oldenburg, Germany as a current observance of nature’s inherent self-similar universality across every atom, cosmos and human infinity phase.

In the parameter spaces of nonlinear dynamical systems, we investigate the boundaries between periodicity and chaos so to discern the existence of fractal sets with a singular dimension that deviates from other fractals in their vicinity. We show that such singular sets dwell along parameter curves that intersect periodicity cascades at their centers of stability across all scales and spaces. The results reported here are exemplified by the class of one-dimensional maps with at least two control parameters. (Excerpt)

Altmann, Eduardo. Statistical Laws in Complex Systems. arXiv:2407.19874.. A University of Sydney mathematical physicist draws on extensive studies (search) to provide a latest text for this field to be published by Springer in December. In this year, its contribution is a further grounding of these nonlinear features in the deep theories of statistical physics. After an introduction in this regard, the next chapter offers manifest exemplars from earthquakes and cities to metabolisms and literary texts. Followed by a long session on ways to gain samples, analyze data, identify scales and so on, the work closes with views of machine learning and artificial intelligence. As the third quote cites, an overarching theme is a natural universality as the same patterns and processes are found to repeat in kind everywhere.

Statistical laws describe regular patterns observed in diverse scientific domains such as the magnitude of earthquakes (Gutenberg-Richter law) and metabolic rates in organisms (Kleiber's law), the frequency distribution of words in texts (Zipf's laws), and productivity metrics of cities (urban scales). This monograph provides an unifying approach to the study of these statistical phenomena in the theoretical understanding of complex systems and the different data-analysis methods to evaluate them. Starting with simple examples and progressing to more advanced time-series methods, the text will provide comprehensive material for researchers interested in analyzing data, testing and comparing different laws, and interpreting datasets. (Abstract excerpt)

From a complex-systems perspective, statistical laws are emergent properties with inherent characteristics which are universally observed across different scenarios. Their explanation considers microscopic models that lead to the manifest observations at macroscopic scales. Numerous scientific disciplines have adopted this paradigm to understand system processes by the identification of emergent patterns. Today the influx of data inundating science and technology in the 21st century has brought not only opportunities for applications of statistical laws but also their reevaluation of their relevance and validity. (6)

An unified view on statistical laws The main motivation and crucial point of this monograph is to argue for an unified treatment of statistical laws in complex-system research. The justification for this unified approach is not that the same functional forms or generative models apply for different laws, as has been the motivation for the unified treatment of power-law distributions (e.g., underlying rich-get richer mechanisms) and scaling laws (e.g., connections to fractal geometry and critical phenomena). Instead, the more abstract commonality we explore in this monograph is based on the conceptual use of statistical laws in different settings and by various research communities. (106)

Bellomo, Nicola, et al. Life and self-organization on the way to artificial intelligence for collective dynamic. Physics of Life Reviews.. Volume 51, December, 2024. NB, University of Granada, Marina Dolfin, King's College London and Jie Liao, Shanghai University biotheorists present their latest frontier studies with regard to a mutual integration of complex, self-organized system phenomena with AI neural network methods and procedures. See A Quest Towards a Mathematical Theory of Living Systems by Nicola Bellomo, et al (Springer, 2017) for an earlier edition.

This work is dedicated to the study, modeling, and simulation of the collective dynamics of interacting living entities. The first perspective is to develop a mathematical theory of swarm intelligence in this consideration. The second intent is to design conceptual tools for an artificial intelligence AI version whereby interacting entities learn from each other as well as the environment. Then, out of this collective learning process, a strategy can be formulated by which to pursue specific goals through a decision making process. Our contribution is to propose, scope out and foster an AI based collective dynamics.

Gersherson, Carlos. Self-Organizing Systems: What, How, and Why?.. doi.org/10.20944/preprints202408.0549.v1. The SUNY Binghamton and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México complexity theorist (bio below) has been a leading advocate and communicator of this 21st century organic revolution (search). This 2024 Preprint provides a latest progress review of its transitional scientific theories as theymay proceed to quantify, distill and express its spontaneous energies and vital formations.

I present a personal account of self-organizing systems which might help motivate useful discussions. The relevant contribution is to provide some steps towards framing better questions to understand self-organization, information, complexity, and emergence. With this aim, I start with a notion and examples of self-organizing systems (what?), continue with their properties and related concepts (how?), and close with applications (why?). (Abstract)

There are many examples of systems that we can usefully call self-organizing: flocks of birds, schools of fish, swarms of insects, herds of cattle, and crowds of people. For animal occasions, the collective behavior is a product of the interactions of individuals, not determined by a leader or an external signal. There are also several instances from non-living systems such as vortexes, crystallization, self-assembly, and pattern formation in general. In these cases, elements of a system also interact to achieve a global pattern. (1)

It is the function of science to discover the existence of a general reign of order in nature and to find the causes
governing this order. And this refers in equal measure to the relations of man — social and political — and to
the entire universe as a whole." (Dmitri Mendeleev, select quote)

Carlos Gershenson is a tenured professor at SUNY Binghamton and is affiliated with the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) where he was a Research Professor (2008-2023). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Complexity Digest (2007-), and member of the Board of Advisors for Scientific American (2018-).