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<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Astronomers are pretty darn certain the Oort
Cloud exists. The Dutch astronomer Jan Oort (1900-1992) posited that it is
a debris field far beyond the orbit of Pluto from which iceballs we
perceive as comets "fall" in highly eccentric elliptical orbits toward the Sun,
and then shoot back to the far-off Oort Cloud.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">It's additionally fitting that Glenn Gould's
Bach, on a never-rust CD of gold, is heading toward distant stars, because GG's
life was coeval with the belief -- once considered outre and loony,
but now standard consensus among astronomers and cosmologists -- that we are not
alone, that our Milky Way galaxy is strewn not just with biological life,
but with intelligent civilizations. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The (Frank) Drake Equation, which takes a
precise scientific guess at the number of intelligent civilizations in the
Milky Way, is the Founding Charter of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial
Intelligence (SETI), and was first proposed in 1961.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Hollywood and Japan have engaged in a
lengthy cinema dispute about the nature of First Contact. Some sci-fi
flicks assume our first meeting with another intelligence will be violent, for
plunder and conquest. (Or worse -- for protein.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But others -- "Close Encounters of the Third
Kind," "E.T." -- assume First Contact will be peaceful, a mutual exchange of
information AND culture. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">They are waiting for our Glenn
Gould (and our Chuck Berry, he's on the gold CD, too); and eventually we
may get to hear the electronic symphonies Krell musicians performed shortly
before their super-advanced civilization mysteriously vanished
overnight.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">(Stephen Hawking predicts the Violent
Scenario, because we have direct experience with only one scientifically
intelligent species, and they -- we -- are a notoriously violent bunch.
Projecting that our nature is the typical, average nature of advanced
civilizations, we can expect an unpleasant First Contact.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Pat mentioned the Oort Cloud, and I wanted
to add a bit about Jan Oort himself. He was a giant of 20th Century astronomy,
and another great astronomer, </FONT><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Subrahmanyan
Chandrasekhar, </FONT><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">eulogized him this
way: </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"><STRONG><EM>"The great oak of Astronomy has
been felled, and we are lost without its shadow."</EM></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">As violent darkness seized continental
Europe, science in the occupied countries sputtered, went underground, and
practically disappeared. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">But finally the war's end approached, and
the occupation troops fled the Netherlands and retreated back to
Germany.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">One piece of war machinery they abandoned
was a portable radar dish that had warned the Germans of attacking Allied
aircraft. Within a day, Oort assembled engineers from the telecom
giant Philips, and they quickly modified the war radar dish to
become Europe's first radiotelescope. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">After years devoted to war
and violence, Oort pointed the dish straight up at the heavens,
and began mapping radio signals from the galaxy and the
universe.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"><STRONG><EM>"... and they shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not
lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." --
Isaiah</EM></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">For the rest of Oort's career, he designed
ever larger and more powerful radiotelescopes, and made ever more profound and
unexpected discoveries about our universe -- both its size and structure, and
because radio signals travel at the speed of light, discoveries about the
ancient past and the very origins of the universe. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Oort nursed radioastronomy from an abandoned
war contraption to the cutting-edge science we now use to listen
for signals (and maybe music!) from other intelligent
civilizations.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Oort's amazing life and achievements are
reflected in an important and beautiful <STRONG><EM>roman a
clef</EM></STRONG>, later made into a distinguished movie, "The
Discovery of Heaven / De Ontdekking van de Hemel," by Dutch novelist Harry
Mulisch.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Bob</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Massachusetts USA</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=pzumst@bluewin.ch href="mailto:pzumst@bluewin.ch">Pat</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=f_minor@glenngould.org
href="mailto:f_minor@glenngould.org">Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn
Gould.</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, June 14, 2012 9:14
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [f_minor] Glenn Gould leaves the
Solar System</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV><FONT size=4>Dear all</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>This has nothing to directly with GG, but he is a tiny part
of the story so please hear me out.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>You probably know that the NASA Voyager spacecrafts contain
a Golden Record on which sights and sounds from Earth are stored, among them a
Bach recording by Glenn Gould. If you remember “32” you can see the
spacecrafts being launched, accompanied to Die Kunst der Fuge while the end
credits are rolling.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Now according to NASA Voyager I is about to leave the
Heliosphere (the realm where solar winds can still be measured) according to a
recent press release and will enter Interstellar Space soon. It will be the
first spacecraft to achieve this, followed by its companion:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new_region.html
href="http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new_region.html"><FONT
size=4>http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new_region.html</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Now put on some Bach (for his music is infinite) and think
about this for a minute: One Astronomical Unit (AU) is about the distance
Earth-Sun. Voyager has crossed around 120 AU by now. The next physical object
(probably the Oort Cloud, if it exists) is just some 1000-3000 AU away,
followed by the next star system at 270 000 AU. Still think it’s a long walk
home from the local pub ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Yet this should not depress you, au contraire ! GG’s music
is almost in Interstellar Space and somehow this gives me
comfort.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Pat</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV>
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