M-Brane Mailbag

Once more we return to the M-Brane Mailbag, and answer emails:


Q. I see a lot of blog space devoted to things like the greenhouse effect and the need to curb fossil fuel production. But what about exploring some actual applications, such as electric cars, or maybe wind turbines that people can build themselves? Art M., in Kankakee, MI


You raise an excellent point, and I will be devoting at least three blogs per month, starting in the next couple days, to the applications of alternative energy sources, including in electric cars, and also for solar and wind power. So, keep looking and you won't be dissatisfied!


Q. You indicated in one blog not long ago that religious believers' brain might be modified using the implantation of quantum dots, or neural networks. How close do you think we are to doing that because I can't take much more of this religious nonsense!, Abel in Darien, CT


My best guess is about five years before the first fully functional quantum dots are integrated into neural nets that can be implanted in brains. We know it's fairly close because already the capacity exists to control people's eating habits by using brain electrode implants. Quantum dots are a whole other order smaller magnitude precisely because they operate at the level of quantum bits, or 'qubits'. They are also of the scale that can influence brain function, on the scale of the synaptic cleft or 200- 300 nm (nanometers).

The obvious problem is that even if and when they're ready you can't be assured any religious people will want to have their brains adjusted! They may like their brains just fine, god mongering and all, no matter what you or I think. However, if a large enough enticement can be made, perhaps they can be persuaded. We will see!


Q. In your blog against Terry Jones you essentially seemed to say that his act was intolerable, and shouldn't be countenanced. But isn't that a bit extreme given that the guy is just destroying an inanimate object. I mean really, those deaths from that burning shouldn't fall on him but on the nuts that killed because of burning a book! What say you? Ernest M., Norman, OK

Let me put it this way: a book is never "just a book", a flag is never "just a flag", and no "inanimate object" is really devoid of context, meaning that it's nature is always simply reduced to "what it is". If we've learned anything through some 3,000 years of recent human history it's that humans implicitly imbue symbols with messages and import. If this wasn't the case, people would not become outraged emotionally when such objects appear to be violated.

For example, while at university in the late 60s I saw protesting students' heads cracked open by hardhats. Why? They burned an American flag, protesting the Vietnam war. But it's just an "inanimate object", you say! Not by a long shot! To those workers, it embodied liberty, mom, apple pie and their whole country and seeing it burned was to them EQUAL to a mini-destruction of their country, and it was worth delivering 25 fractured skulls to make that point! This is also why during the 80s an effort was also underway by conservatives in this country to pass - get this now- a Constitutional amendment to ban flag burning! So it somewhat renders me nonplussed when I see or read conservatives blathering now about Terry Jones and the fact that all he did was to burn an inanimate object- when they themselves wanted to pass an amendment against burning a flag!

Similar outrage was at work when Andres Cerrano produced his artwork called "Piss Christ" which was basically his own crucifix immersed in a jar of his urine. People went nuts, rioted and even tried to burn an art gallery sponsoring the work. To those people, the ones reacting, their most sacred symbol was being violated and blasphemed. To therefore say a similar sacred symbol to Muslims (their Qu'ran) shouldn't entice the same or more outrage is to be both blind and a fool. Further, it is to divest those Muslims of human reaction and rage. Is their reaction, killing innocent people wrong? Yes, and as surely as the hardhats were wrong fracturing even innocent bystanders' skulls for flag burning.

The disingenous argument here is that Jones couldn't have known of the immense reaction to his burning, but this is nonsense. Of course he KNEW, THAT is why he did it! But you can't simply shout 'FIRE!' in a crowded theater, then high tail and laugh it off!

Irrespective of what anyone thinks about his burning a Qu'ran, the fact is it has consequences for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, because they will be even more pronounced targets. Anyone who denies this is either deaf, dumb, blind or stupid - or maybe all. Those who applaud his act are as vile and uncouth as he is. Those who argue it is "free speech" don't understand free speech, and would also have to say that shouting 'FIRE!' in crowded theaters qualifies too! To deny it is to be inconsistent.


Q. As an atheist, aren't you ashamed to be living in this country, which, after all, is designated "one nation under God"? Doesn't it make you feel guilty to be living here? Abigail W., Jackson, Miss.

Well, I see you've been drinking some of Pastor Mike's kool aid. I always figured he'd eventually reach the renown of Pastor Jim Jones, and maybe he already has! But seriously, this is not a "Christian nation" in any manner, shape or form.

For example: How did the claptrap of "one nation under God” ever get started? Most historians point to the alterations in the original words of the pledge of allegiance (composed in 1892 by Socialist minister Francis Bellamy), rendered by a pathetic, fraidy cat, insecure U.S. congress ca. 1954, because it was petrified of not being exclusive enough in the club of nations. The big, bad Soviet commies had scared them to a tee. Rather than cave in to the religious zealots, they ought to have developed a spine and stood up for their actions, not mere words to appease god mongers!

The original pledge by Bellamy never used or had the words “Under God”. As a young student at St. Leo’s School in 1952 Milwaukee, the words we used when we recited the pledge were:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

There was no “under God” in the words. But two years later, hysteria reigned as the despicable McCarthy hearings heated up (Sen. Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin, under the aegis of his “House UnAmerican Activities Committee"- made his name by conducting an inquisition of military, actors, decent citizens, political leaders….in order to discern who was a “real American” and who was a commie or commie symp).

This was one of the saddest chapters in living American history, and we behold the same bigoted mindset again taking hold. It's estimated that over 59% of the Tea-baggers are also god mongers, a kind of revival of the Christian Coalition.

What about the words, "In God We trust" on coins. Again, a case of simpering, cowardly congressional capitulation to religious blowhards and bullies! In this case, specifically, the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto, in a letter dated November 20, 1861. However, an Act of Congress dated January 18, 1837, prescribed the motto that could be placed upon the coins of the United States. This meant that the mint could make no changes without the enactment of additional legislation by the Congress. The Congress passed the Act of April 22, 1864 and authorized the motto in the minting of the two-cent coin.

Bottom line here? 'God' became a device for holding the union together during the Civil War. Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury received an appeal from a parson, urging that the United States give recognition to God on coins. I the same way later, "parsons" appealed to the 1954 Congress to add the words, "one nation under God" to the flag.

My point? The additional words for the coins (in addition to E Pluribus Unum) and to the Pledge, were both the work of pusillanimous congresses to try to play the "God" card. They passed these odious pieces of legislation as sober minds looked on, passive and intimidated. But in either case the actions were human acts, not ordained by any Almighty, nor do these cowardly, craven acts make the U.S. a "Christian nation".

As I already showed in previous blogs, the “God” the Founders invoked was not a Christian God but a DEIST one. This is an important distinction, never mind people like a certain FLA pastor like to conflate the two in order to make a specious case. A case predicated on citing state constitutions which have no heft on the level of the federal constitution (which only recognized a Deist “Creator” or God).

Further, the states’ constitutions, no matter how many times they cite “God” or “Supreme powers”, have no mandated and specific rights. Thus, as Prof. Gary Wills notes ('A Necessary Evil: A History Of American Distrust Of Government', Simon & Schuster, 1999, p. 108) there's no such entity as “states’ rights). Only citizens can have rights, under the Bill of Rights, and since atheists meet every real criterion for citizenship (under the U.S. Constitution) their rights trump the artificial “powers” and prerogatives of the states. Thus, no state can ever ban an atheist from exercising his or her franchise based on “godlessness”.

For this same reason, states can’t impede or remove a citizens’ unenumerated rights under Amendment IX of the Bill of Rights). As Alexander Hamilton first observed, governments have prerogatives, people have rights - so Hamilton referenced "abridgments of prerogative" in the state to protect rights of citizens.


Q. I really enjoyed the book Mathematical Excursions in Brane Space. Is there any chance of getting a book with all the physics blogs in it, you know, all in one place? Melissa Myers, Sacramento, CA

That project is actually in the pipeline and I hope to have a book with all (or nearly all) the physics blogs collected by topic, and ready for interested people by late May. I will keep readers posted!