Scylla and Charybdis (Thoughts & Review on “Sonic Sea”)

In recent years, scientists have made many discoveries in terms of studying sound and its relations to the ocean. One such study showed that a noise made deep in the heart of the Indian Ocean could travel through the murky waters of the Pacific, to as far as the West coast in the United States. Researchers tracked and detected the noise, using hydrophones to detect the noise along the coast of Washington state.

In short, sound travels through water extremely efficiently – as efficiently as light travels through air. With that in mind, research has found that the amount of sound in the ocean has increased dramatically in the last five decades. From freight ships to cruises to the many sonar mapping systems used by private companies and the government alike, our oceans have become flooded with human-made noise. And, as a result, the marine life that relies on echo location and auditory senses have suffered greatly.

Dolphins, whales, and some types of fish use sound as a means to communicate, to hunt, and to reproduce. With all of the white noise filling their seas, it has become increasingly difficult for any of these animals to do this.

One study followed the diet of a group of whales in the Atlantic, collecting fecal samples to analyze for certain chemicals and hormones. In this study, the concentration of stress hormones was relatively high throughout the study, which spanned several years. However, around 2001, the levels of stress hormone documented in whale feces began reducing significantly. The numbers all began declining sharply after 9/11. Conclusively, the reduced freight traffic following 9/11 and the subsequent reduction of human noise polluting the ocean led to lower levels of stress in the whales. In other words, the amount of stress hormone in whales correlated with the amount of machinery traffic in the ocean.

The film Sonic Sea presents case after case, study after study, of marine wildlife adapting poorly to the noises humans are dumping in the ocean.

But what is there to do with this knowledge? Stopping mass transportation of people and produccts by sea is near impossible; over 90% of the world’s transportation occurs by sea. Stopping industry on the seas altogether would be an inefficient and impractical way to help marine life.

Instead, there are many other ways to solve this problem. Better technology to replace destructive seismic airguns and noisy ships would reduce the noise pollution in our oceans. Unlike chemical pollution or other damaging human by-products, “noise pollution disappears once you stop making it,” making it entirely possible for our oceans to become serene once more.



Sources:

Sonic Sea. Dir. Michelle Dougherty and Daniel Hinerfeld. 2016. Film.

The Invisible Boundary (Review of ‘The Spiritual Universe’ by Alan Lightman)

The central doctrine of science (as explained by Alan Lightman): all properties of life and matter are governed by laws which are true at any place and at any time in the universe. As he writes in his essay, The Spiritual Universe, these laws – like ones relating to gravity or the conservation of energy – are ubiquitous. 

But if this is true, then how does religion fit in with these laws and this doctrine? Lightman elaborates on a hierarchy of religious beliefs, on a spectrum from altruism (believe that no God does exist) to interventionalism (where God violates the laws of the universe from time to time). From a logical standpoint, “except for a God who sits down after the universe begins, all other Gods conflict with the assumptions of science” (42). 

And yet, many scientists and science teachers believe in religion and believe in God. While science seeks answers, philosophy values the question; both play an equally important role in our lives. Additionally, Lightman describes religion and science as two separate entities, each deserving recognition and distinction. 

As mentioned in The Accidental Universe, life forms on Earth have risen within very specific parameters. If Earth’s distance from the sun were perhaps slightly less, then all water on Earth would be perpetually boiling. If we were farther out, then all of our oceans would freeze. On a grander scale, if there was too much dark matter in the universe, it would expand too rapidly. If there was not enough, it would expand too slowly. Neither outcome would result in favorable conditions for plant Earth. With this in mind, how can there not be a God? With our Earth falling so perfectly within the parameters for life, how can there not be a higher being allowing us to come into being?

Which leaves room for faith alongside science. 

As Lighman puts it, 

“Some people believe that there is no distinction between the spiritual and physical universes, no distinction between the inner and the outer, between the subjective and objective, between the miraculous and the rational. I need such distinctions to make sense of my spiritual and scientific lives. For me, there is room for both a spiritual universe and a physical universe, just as there is room for both religion and science. Each universe has its own power. Each has its own beauty and mystery.”

 Sources:

Popova, Maria. "Godliness in the Known and the Unknowable: Alan Lightman on Science and Spirituality." Brain Pickings. N.p., 26 Apr. 2016. Web. 28 May 2016.

The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman

Still(ed) Life (Thoughts on the Getty, Timken Museum, & SDMA Revisited)

Within the span of one month, I’ve had the opportunity to visit three beautiful art museums in California: the J. Paul Getty in LA, the Timken Museum of Art and the San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park. Three beautiful museums that vary slightly from each other, but still capture the essence of art and architecture.

The Getty Center is the most spacious of the three – it’s sprawling grounds are sprinkled with modern outdoor sculptures, from Horse to Running Man at the base of the center, outside the tram waiting center, to Air by Aristide Maillol and That Profile by Martin Puryear. The path that runs alongside the tram tracks are cloaked in the shadow of luscious trees, and as one approaches the center, the freeway cuts across the hills below. The steps to the Getty are a clean marble, and the main entrance hall has it’s characteristic curving walls, lined with perfect squares like graphing paper. 

While outside of the buildings the Getty seems modern and clean, with white walls and cactus gardens, inside of the exhibitions are lavish and meticulous. 

Woven Gold: Tapestries of Louis XIV features a collection of beautiful ecru and gold tapestries, highlighted with deep red and blues. As overhead lights highlight the giant tapestries, the walls of the exhibition are painted with a deep burgundy in sharp juxtaposition to the lightness of the tapestries. The exhibition room is dark; the skylights are covered and the only light comes from the ones shining on the tapestries.

In the plaza level, sculpture and decorative arts galleries are found. In one ancient Greece gallery, marble columns support the roof, and a pale blue color coats the walls. There are elegant bronze vases and pearly white busts of ancient Greek philosophers and mathematicians.

In the upper pavilions, painting galleries are illuminated by skylights, sunlight streaming into the exhibitions and washing over paintings and wood floor alike. The walls of each gallery vary in color, from light gray to patterned olive to a brilliant scarlet. The selection and placement of each painting in these galleries is deliberate; each painting’s center lines with the next. One’s eye falls easily over the line of paintings. The frame sizes are varied as well, allowing for variety. Gold and auburn frames are paired with brilliant scarlet backgrounds, matching with the varnished wood slats. The walls of the upper pavilion are white at the very top, sloping inward to form skylights. Each painting has its own headlight.

A similar set up can be seen in the San Diego Museum of Art. In the exhibition Ferocious Bronze, sculptures of the late artist Arthur Putnam are dark and tarnished bronze, set against a vibrant background of daisy yellow paint. 

Art of Asia is an intricate exhibition, with sculptures of Buddha from ancient temples to gold and silver manuscripts to a collection of beautiful Persian pottery and ceramic art. Sculptures of Buddha are mainly schist or rock, set against a simple white background. The blue in Persian pottery and ceramic tiles are highlighted by the royal blue background of the gallery. 

Upstairs, German Expressionist works hang in a dark gallery, walls of ebony. Brueghel to Canaletto: European Masterpieces from the Grasset Collection features still life and landscape; the yellows and pinks and whites of still-life – flowers and cheese, peaches and grapes – pop against a simple silver background. The gallery is spacious and skylights allow natural sunlight to filter into the exhibition. Across the hall, The Art of Devotion, a series of religious pieces are framed by a wine-red background. Once again, the paintings all hang in such a way that their centers line on a baseline perfectly, and the frames alternate between larger and small. 

The exterior of the museum is intricate. Along with the rest of Balboa Park, the architecture has its roots in Spanish Baroque and Colonial styles. The doors are nestled below a large and decorate scallop; four decorative pillars frame the door as well, two on each side. Above the scallop are a series of sculptures embedded in the building’s façade, as well as many other beautiful designs and coat of arms.

The Timken Museum of Art is a squat, square, one-level building. It’s glass doors are framed in gold and the spacious interior is split into two wings. The walls of the museum are covered in a pale pink fabric, unlike the paints of the Getty and the SDMA. Nevertheless, the effect is still delicate, and each doorframe that leads to another wing of the gallery has pink curtains pulled back delicately to reveal the juncture between two wings.

Each of these museums is unique and different in its own way, but each own shows a deliberate and articulate collection of paintings and art, and the design of each museum elevates the art to its fullest.

Getty Museum

Getty Museum

San Diego Museum of Art

San Diego Museum of Art

Timken

Timken

A World of Distractions (Review of ‘A Deadly Wandering’ by Matt Richtel)

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs begins with physiological needs – sleeping, eating, breathing et cetera. Then comes physical safety, and then social belonging. How do these things relate to us today? Don’t we have all we need now? In his book A Deadly Wandering, Matt Richtel researches the effects of technology on our attention span, and whether the progression of technology can turn our instincts against us.

The full subtitle of A Deadly Wandering is A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention. It’s a story, in the sense that there are characters and conflict. However, it is also an informative piece of literature. The book is divided into chapters, each chapter title appropriately denoting the contents of the chapter. There are chapters that propel the plot of the story forward – following a young man who was texting while driving and the repercussions of his actions – and then there are chapters that focus on neuroscientists discussing the effects of technology.

While the story was compelling and appealed to pathos, the science behind the story was fascinating, at least to me.

Initially, Richtel begins his journey by attempting to define attention. What is attention and how does attention work in humans? His research brings him to a network of scientists who explain the cocktail effect – the ability we have to filter, out of an entire room, one single conversation. According to the doctors that Richtel talked to, there are two aspects of attention: bottom up, and top down. Top down attention is focusing on our objectives and attempting to complete goals. Bottom up attention is involuntary, the capture of attention by an external stimulus. Richtel explains that attention is a combination of both top up and bottom down. Top up allows us to complete a set of tasks while bottom down alerts us of any potential danger.

Then, Richtel reveals two laws fundamental in the bridge between understanding technology and attention: Moore’s law and Metcalfe’s law. The former explains that computer processing power doubles every two years, allowing for an exponential amount of growth in computer power as the years progress. The latter explains that the more people are involved in a network – say, Facebook for example – the more valuable the network becomes. Interestingly enough, the two laws combined predict the allure of technology – as time progresses, technology becomes more and more advanced. More and more people become involved and it becomes more and more valuable.

Furthermore, as the value of social media increases with the progression of technology, our attention spans begin to shrink. Each text, every alert disrupts our focus in the form of bottom up attention. Our top down system is drawn to the allure of technology as well, the promise of maintaining relationships and communication.

In a surprisingly apt metaphor, technology is compared to food. Food is the very base of the hierarchy of needs. After the industrialization of food, it’s no longer necessary to go to extreme lengths to find the calories needed to survive, but our bodies are still driven to crave the salty and fatty foods that humanoids needed before industrialization. In a sense, our most primal instincts are turned against us; it is easy to become obese when food comes so readily and when our DNA has not changed significantly from when food was scarce.

Social media is a form of social belonging. It forges connections, revives old friendships and forges new ones. Social acceptance is the third tier of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is a primal need. Richtel writes, “In the same way we crave food, we crave connection. Not just for its own sake but because connection is essential survival. It helps us form networks, understand sources of opportunity or threat, create alliances, fight enemies. It is primal.”

And then, Richtel digs into the biological response to using technology. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with rewards. It’s commonly released with rewarding stimuli like food and sex. However, research shows that dopamine is released when you receive a text, or even anticipate a text. With the amount of texting and use of technology, younger people are filled with dopamine constantly, and when they don’t have it, they crave it, not dissimilar to substance abuse. This is how the attention span of our generation grows shorter and shorter as Metcalfe and Moore’s laws are pushed into motion.

Initially, A Deadly Wandering seemed like a cautionary tale about the dangers of distracted driving. However, after delving into the first few chapters, I soon realized that Richtel was capable of simultaneously weaving a decent story and incorporating new scientific data into his novel. With a little less than half of the book left to read, I find myself anticipating a much broader question: how will the progression of technology come to affect our lives and our minds in the very near future? And most importantly, if it is proved to be detrimental, how do we stop something that is hardwired into our DNA?