New Planet: Good or Bad?

This week, new Hubble photos revealed an image of a planet hovering around a star called Fomalhaut. This planet, called Formalhaut B, is not the first extrasolar planet or "exoplanet" to be discovered, but it is one of the first to be photographed. A UC Berkeley scientist named Paul Kalas (Go Bears!) captured several images of this gas giant as it revolved around its huge star.

For me and for others, seeing is believing. Discovering planets by observing the "wobble" of the star is not enough to hit me in the gut. But actually seeing an image of a planet -- especially one that orbits a star looking like the Eye of Mordor -- now that is convincing.

At this point, we can only detect big gas giants, usually bigger than Jupiter. But once we have better optics, we should be able to find smaller, rocky planets like our own. This is especially important because ultimately we are all interested in the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

The discovery of exoplanets is monumental for a number of reasons, not least of which is because the Drake equation, first formulated in 1961, is quickly crystallizing. Frank Drake drafted his equation to determine the chances for extraterrestrial life. Among the different parameters he included were the percentage of stars that have planets and the number of those planets that can sustain life. With our detection of exoplanets, particularly by direct observation, we are filling in the unknowns of the Drake equation. When each unknown is converted to a "known," then we will be more confident about the chances of extraterrestrial life.

At this moment, the world's astronomers are as joyful about these discoveries as the world at large feels about Obama's election. However, I say, "Not so fast." Speaking for myself, I am as fearful about these discoveries as the world's bigots feel about Obama's ascendancy. After all, our science fiction is littered with stories of extraterrestrial adventures. Rather than leading to greater appreciation for our place in the universe, such discoveries instead accelerate the plunder of our own world. (Consider Battlestar Galactica, Wall-E, and Blade Runner, just as a small sampling.) Knowledge of other worlds furthers the "foreclosure" mentality that informs our treatment of Earth's environment. We will look around and say, "Let this one go. There are better planets out there, maybe ones without Sarah Palin. Besides, we already owe a huge carbon debt on this one."

In the end, other planets are ultimately not good for us. They provide unreasonable escapist fantasies. And I am against fantasies. I am conservative in the sense that I favor traditional time-tested planet values such as

• "do not destroy the earth"
• "take care of the earth so that it is not destroyed by people who want to visit another planet"
• "write a blog so that people take care of the earth so that it is not destroyed by people who want to visit another planet."

(These could probably be simplified, but since they are time-tested, I'll leave them be.)

For the sake of our planet, please remain focused on the challenges we face here. It is acceptable to look at the pictures of other planets, but do not look with a covetous heart. Admire the pictures as you would Giorgione's The Sleeping Venus. Don't stare at the particulars. Whatever you do, don't imagine yourself within the image. Just glance quickly and get back to your life.

Thoughts on MLK and Proposition 8

With Obama's rise to the presidency, everyone is talking about Martin Luther King. That is great. I am happy that he is remembered. But the MLK that I remember is much more revolutionary and challenging than the dreamer of his "I Have a Dream" speech. He was more complex than our cultural memory allows. And judging by his other writings, I think that he would have more to say about the passage of Proposition 8 than our black community may yet recognize.

MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" is, for me, the quintessential text to emerge from the Civil Rights era. It is especially important in its capacity to explain the purpose of the struggle even when things look very bleak.

There he was in 1963, sitting in the lion's den as it were, decommissioned by the legal authorities and forcibly prevented from agitating in the streets. In the meantime, he was being criticized from every quarter. Yet he maintained his sense of purpose and his pursuit of justice. He even committed his views to paper -- to toilet paper, to be precise, since that was all he was given.

We talk of approaching the challenges presented by Prop 8 with love. MLK would agree. I always return to one passage in particular about law and its willful disobedience. I think that it is particularly apropos:

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.

I understand the other two parts plainly enough -- "openly" and "with a willingness to accept the penalty" -- but what did MLK mean about breaking the law "lovingly"? His meaning becomes clearer when he asserts, "I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time [of WWII], I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers." That is, I believe, what he means about breaking the law with love. One must break the law in service of your fellow woman and man. To do so selfishly, only out of narrow self-interest, is not a loving disobedience but rather a vainglorious one.

As we black people continue to celebrate achievements in human rights, we must always bear in mind the "loving" aspect to the endeavor. We fight for the rights of people we might not even know because to exclude or segregate is to coddle the enemies of love.

Whether we will it or not, the world will be looking to African Americans in the coming years to gage the barometer of human rights in the world, now that Obama has ascended the world stage. Who are we? What is our status? How are we truly treated by our white counterparts? And also how capable or competent are we? Are there more Obamas among us? In these many questions, what we have perhaps neglected to ask ourselves is "how do we as a community treat those who are struggling as well?" We must show ourselves to be loyal allies to all who struggle, not adversaries.

For me, what is most frustrating is that we can be easily drawn into interracial and inter-ethnic competition by consequence of the divide-and-conquer game that the establishment always plays. But those "games" are real, material battles over limited resources. However, Prop 8 presented no such competition: It was not economic. It was not a fight over ownership, real estate, or other resources. Rather, it was about dignity. The most clear analogy is that it was about where gay people sit on the marriage bus!

If as we have been told we are finally realizing the "dream" articulated by MLK those 45 years ago, then we should truly understand what it means. To my mind, it is not primarily about "getting our due." It is about getting the opportunity to show and be recognized for the "content of our character." Civil disobedience therefore continues to play a role. If we are not revealed to be loving, dignified, and consistent with our own values of human rights for all, then the dream will be for naught.

As MLK understood, the Civil Rights era was as much a test of our own mettle as it was a test of the establishment. We must therefore regard this time as both an opportunity and a challenge which we must meet, or again risk becoming a dream deferred.