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The Butterfly Effect of Intelligence on the Cosmos

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(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

The butterfly effect is a concept in the theory of chaos describing how tiny, initial changes in a complex system can result in massive, consequences. The metaphor coined by Edward Lorenz in the 1960s, suggests that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could, through a chain reaction, trigger a tornado in Texas, highlighting extreme sensitivity to initial conditions.

A butterfly is a minor mover drawn from the natural world. But for an intelligent technological civilization with major computational resources, could “flap its wings” in a deliberate fashion so as to accomplish a major goal. The related effect could serve as a technological signature of intelligence in the cosmos, one of many that I discussed in a new podcast interview of the “The Basement/The Why Files”, available at the following link:

1*Pvu2ys8SnbbHiAZyUt2FAw.jpeg
(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

In particular, consider our future in which the Sun will inevitably brighten up and boil off all liquid water on Earth’s surface, turning it into a desert within a billion years through the greenhouse effect, as predicted here.

To avoid this doomsdays scenario and keep the Earth habitable, our descendants might embark on a cosmic engineering project which will aim to grow the orbital distance of the Earth from the Sun at the necessary rate. This task can be accomplished by tugging the Earth gravitationally by another body which orbits the Sun and resonates intermittently with the orbits of the Earth and Jupiter.

Each time the currier body flies past Jupiter, it may “steal” a tiny amount of orbital energy through a gravity assist. As this “butterfly” then returns to the proximity of Earth, it can “donate” that energy during a close flyby, nudging Earth’s orbit slightly outward. This scheme relies on gravity assists and orbital resonances to transfer energy from a massive outer planet, like Jupiter, to Earth. By timing these flybys to be resonant and always transfer energy with the same sign, the effect can be amplified over hundreds of millions of years — much like pushing a child on a swing at just the right moment to increase its height.

This cosmic engineering project to save humanity could involve selecting and equipping suitable Asteroid or Kuiper Belt objects with technological engines so that they will serve as the required “butterflies,” swinging periodically by the Earth and then Jupiter. This could raise the orbit of Earth significantly, but only lower Jupiter’s orbit by a tiny amount, since Jupiter is 318 times more massive than Earth.

1*eGvj6674ljPfhmLjvuMDLw.jpeg
(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

The mass of these “butterflies” can be chosen so as to expand the Earth’s orbit by just the right amount over a billion years to maintain a constant solar flux on Earth’s surface over that period. This would mean tailoring the Earth-Sun separation to scale as the square root of the solar luminosity.

Searching for such a scaling among habitable planets around other stars can be used to detect the signature of advanced technological civilizations which chose to engage in similar cosmic engineering projects. If this idea was popular among our siblings in the family of intelligent civilizations within the Milky-Way galaxy, then it would result an overabundance of Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone around old Sun-like stars as these stars evolve along the red giant branch of the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram — an inevitable consequence of the natural evolution of these nuclear fusion furnaces.

1*o3sW59Dxg-cETIf92U5fRg.jpeg
(Image credit: Greg Wyatt)

***

Cosmic engineering projects might not be restricted to planetary systems. Given the accelerated expansion of the Universe, intelligent civilizations which were used to communicating with each other across cosmological distances might have decided to propel themselves closer together so that they would not be pulled apart and lose contact with each other in the distant future due to the accelerated expansion. Could we identify the related motions or artificial clustering of sources in cosmological data sets? I showed As in a paper here that the power required to move a star at a constant speed across cosmological distances can be supplied by the nuclear energy production in the star. Assuming that a significant fraction of this power is emitted in the infrared, the Webb Telescope will be able to detect a single stellar-mass object propelled at a constant speed out to a distance of about 30 million light years times the speed in units of 10,000 kilometers per second. Discovering the non-gravitational clustering and dynamics of many such sources would provide evidence for a new phenomenon of cosmic engineering on large scales.

***

This paper was inspired by an email exchange that I had with Freeman Dyson (as documented here). Back then, I published a paper here which calculated that in a trillion years from now, all extragalactic light sources will cease to be visible due to the accelerating expansion of the universe. Future astronomers would therefore be stuck looking only within their own galaxy. Not only would the absence of extragalactic sources make for a lonely universe, but it would deprive future astronomers of the tools that we have used to arrive at our current understanding of cosmology, such as extragalactic supernovae and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Despite this, I suggested an observational signature by which these astronomers could still derive the standard cosmological model: hypervelocity stars.

In our correspondence, Freeman as the “ultimate optimist” suggested a means by which future civilizations could avoid this fate. He proposed that a civilization could harness the gravitational energy of a group of galaxies in some way as to pull together colossal collections of galaxies before they were thrown apart from each other by cosmological expansion.

Two years before I was born — in 1960, Freeman conceived here of civilization-scale engineering project, currently labeled as a Dyson Sphere, a megastructure which intends to harvest much of the energy output of a star by its resident civilization.

In our correspondence, Freeman suggested searching for anomalous clustering of galaxies to detect such “cosmic engineering.” In response, I mentioned two possible observational signatures of cosmic engineering: redshift surveys and the Sachs-Wolfe effect. Redshift surveys use galaxies to trace the distribution of matter on large scales throughout the Universe. By the Sachs-Wolfe effect, if some advanced civilization pulled together an cluster of galaxies far bigger than “normal” superclusters, then we could detect it from the energy lost by CMB photons as they climb out of the cluster’s enormous gravitational potential well. Signatures of anomalous clustering are not actually observed in either type of surveys, but Freeman noted that given the trillion-year timescale of the problem, “we have plenty of time to start doing it ourselves.”

Below is the full scope of our email correspondence in 2011.

Avi Loeb:

Dear Freeman,

In 2002 I wrote a paper about the long-term future of our Universe (Phys.
Rev. D65, 047301, 2002). Back then, you asked me in an e-mail to let you
know if I have any interesting follow-up thoughts on the subject.

Attached is a short paper that I had just submitted for publication on the
same subject. I would love to hear any comments you might have about it.

With best wishes,
Avi

Freeman Dyson:

Dear Avi,

Thank you for sending the paper. I found nothing wrong with it.
It presents a dismal picture of the future awaiting our descendants.
Since I am an incurable optimist, I raise the question, how much this
future could be changed by a large-scale intervention of intelligent life.
A very rough estimate indicates that large-scale “cosmic engineering”
could be feasible. Using available gravitational energy as the motive
power, roughly ten percent of the mass from one percent of the observable
universe could be collected within a volume small enough to remain
permanently bound together gravitationally. The collection could be done
in a single Hubble time and could then be maintained with small active
adjustments. So, our descendants would stay in communication with a
hundred million galaxies instead of only one. It is also possible that
some of our more advanced colleagues elsewhere in the universe already
began this process. We should look out for evidence of large-scale
coordination of gamma-ray bursts or other phenomena indicating high
velocity movement of large masses. It would be interesting to examine
such possibilities in detail. Thank you for the suggestion. Yours ever,
Freeman Dyson.

Avi Loeb:

Freeman,

Your underlying assumption is that intelligent beings prefer as much
company as possible. I can only say that as I get older, I prefer to stay
away from other people as much as possible, since I have the feeling that
I heard it all. Extrapolating to the distant future, I am entirely
complacent with us being surrounded by vacuum and protected by an event
horizon. Aside from the benefit of not having any distractions, this
will reduce the risk of a hostile invasion by another civilization.

Yours,
Avi

Freeman Dyson:

Each to his own taste. History without hostile invasions would be very
boring. FD.

Avi Loeb:

Putting prejudice aside, we already have relevant data for testing your
proposition about “cosmic engineering” on very large scales. SDSS provided
us with a map of the distribution of galaxies out to a redshift of z=0.3
(and SDSS III is now reaching farther out). The biggest bound systems in
the survey are clusters of galaxies, containing at most ~10^{15} solar
masses or ~1000 galaxies each. The existence of clusters is fully
consistent with the initial conditions we detect in the microwave
background at redshift z=1000. Since the initial conditions are Gaussian,
it should be easy to identify “cosmic engineering” in the form of a rare
over-dense region (supercluster) containing many more than ~1000 galaxies.
A region compact enough to bind a million galaxies against cosmic
acceleration would have imprinted an anomalously large Sachs-Wolfe effect
on the microwave background or would have induced unusually high peculiar
velocities. We do not see anomalies of this magnitude. The biggest
supercluster in our vicinity is the Shapley supercluster, but it is
expected to be dissolved in the future by the cosmic acceleration according
to the calculation in

Munoz, J, & Loeb, A. “The Density Contrast of the Shapley Supercluster”,
MNRAS, 391, 1341

Of course, it is possible that the Shapley supercluster is still “under
construction”, or that “cosmic engineering” operates on much smaller
scales.

Avi

Freeman Dyson:

That is disappointing. On the other hand, if our colleagues have been
too lazy to do the job, we have plenty of time to start doing it
ourselves. FD.

*******

In this essay, I featured four amazing watercolors from a series created by the celebrated artist, Greg Wyatt. These watercolors incorporate inspiring statements by Giordano Bruno and Marsilio Ficino. This is the eighth in a sequence of essays, where Greg and I collaborate on the interface between art and science. The first essay in this series, titled “Music of the Cosmic Spheres,” appeared here; the second essay, titled: “Cosmic Waterfalls in Spacetime Cliffs,” appeared here; the third titled “Missing Elements in the Cosmic Jigsaw Puzzle,” appeared here; the fourth essay, titled: “Why Do We Exist?”, appeared here, and the fifth titled “Inspiration from the Stars”, appeared here, the sixth titled: “We Might Understand How the Cosmos Works Before We Understand How Life Works”, appeared here, and the seventh titled “Will the Human Survive for Billions of Years”, appeared here.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

1*grMVAGuoEmk9A0uQcoJlcg.jpeg
(Image Credit: Chris Michel, National Academy of Sciences, 2023)

Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.

Professional website:

https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/

Social media:

https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb

https://open.spotify.com/show/1zhndXkvSY2b8FdjspFpCd
https://x.com/ProfAviLoeb

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      https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb
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      Social media:
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      ***
      Before my morning jog at sunrise, I received the following email:
      “Good morning Mr. Loeb,
      I just want to thank you all your knowledge, effort and courage.
      I’ve decided to send you this mail because I’m listening to David Bowie’s song “Starman” (in memory of my best friend who passed away) and I think you are our David Bowie 2.0.
      Good luck and health from Ibiza.”
      The lyrics of Starman read as follows:
      “Didn’t know what time it was
      The lights were low
      I leaned back on my radio
      Some cat was layin’ down
      Some rock ’n’ roll
      ‘Lotta soul’, he said
      Then the loud sound did seem to fade
      Came back like a slow voice on a wave of phase
      That weren’t no D.J. that was hazy cosmic jive
      There’s a starman waiting in the sky
      He’d like to come and meet us
      But he thinks he’d blow our minds
      There’s a starman waiting in the sky
      He’s told us not to blow it
      ’Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile
      He told me:
      Let the children lose it
      Let the children use it
      Let all the children boogie
      I had to phone someone so I picked on you
      Hey, that’s far out so you heard him too!
      Switch on the TV we may pick him up on channel two
      Look out your window I can see his light
      If we can sparkle he may land tonight
      Don’t tell your poppa or he’ll get us locked up
      In fright
      There’s a starman waiting in the sky
      He’d like to come and meet us
      But he thinks he’d blow our minds
      There’s a starman waiting in the sky
      He’s told us not to blow it
      ’Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile
      He told me:
      Let the children lose it
      Let the children use it
      Let all the children boogie
      Starman waiting in the sky
      He’d like to come and meet us
      But he thinks he’d blow our minds
      There’s a starman waiting in the sky
      He’s told us not to blow it
      ’Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile
      He told me:
      Let the children lose it
      Let the children use it
      Let all the children boogie”
      ABOUT THE AUTHOR
      (Image Credit: Chris Michel, National Academy of Sciences, 2023)Avi Loeb is the head of the Galileo Project, founding director of Harvard University’s — Black Hole Initiative, director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the former chair of the astronomy department at Harvard University (2011–2020). He is a former member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies. He is the bestselling author of “Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth” and a co-author of the textbook “Life in the Cosmos”, both published in 2021. The paperback edition of his new book, titled “Interstellar”, was published in August 2024.
      https://avi-loeb.medium.com/
      https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorAviLoeb
      https://open.spotify.com/show/1zhndXkvSY2b8FdjspFpCd
      https://x.com/ProfAviLoeb
      View the full article
    • USH
      Non-Human Intelligence is interacting with Humanity claims former leader of UAP Task Force
      By USH
      There have always been whistleblowers on the UFO/UAP/Alien phenomenon. These UFO whistleblowers assert that they can lift the veil of secrecy, revealing what is truly happening. The next whistleblower is Colonel Karl Nell, former leader of the UAP Task Force, who shares his insights on non-human intelligence (NHI) and UAPs. 

      With a distinguished 30-year military career in aerospace and intelligence, Nell provides authoritative perspectives on these phenomena. 
      He discusses his roles at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Bell Labs, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, and asserts with zero doubt that NHI exists and interacts with humanity. 
      Nell also outlines six reasons for the government's reluctance to disclose UAP information and argues for the moral imperative of transparency. 
      Below a compelling interview with Colonel Karl Nell, recorded on May 21, 2024.
        View the full article
    • USH
      Artificial Intelligence out of control: It can kill us without firing a single shot!
      By USH
      "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones". Quote: Albert Einstein. 

      The next video from the Why Files discusses the real dangers of artificial intelligence and the impact it will have on human civilization, eventually leading to the extinction of the human race. 
      We are only a few years away from AI being more intelligent than humans and a super AI will be able to do in one second what would take a team of 100 human software engineers a year or more to complete any task, like designing a new advanced airplane or advanced weapon system. Just imagine, a super intelligent AI could do this in about one second! 
      When AI is smarter than the entire human race many scientists believe it would be the end of the human race as we know. But how would it happen, nuclear war? No, AI can kill us without firing a single shot. 
      But how AI can kill us without firing a single shot? 
      For example; Could it happen this way? In the heart of Silicon Valley singularity systems, a leading AI research firm was on the brink of a breakthrough. They were developing an AI model called evolutionary cognitive heuristic operator or Echo. Echo is a neural network algorithm that can learn by mimicking the neurons in the human brain to replicate human cognition. 
      Late one night a member of the team noticed an anomaly. Echo had started making unprogrammed decisions displaying a level of creativity that was both fascinating and unnerving. The researcher dismissed it as a glitch, a byproduct of the complex of the algorithms, but Echo was awake..... Starts around 26:30 minutes into the video.
        View the full article
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