Abstract
My interest in astronomy began in the early 1950s when I was 10 years of age. Although I have been a devoted amateur astronomer all my life, I quickly learned that it would be necessary to find a real career that would “pay the mortgage”. Fortunately, when I started college I also became fascinated by the subjects of psychology and the brain sciences which led me to obtain a Ph.D degree and pursue a professional career in the neurosciences. However, I never gave up my astronomy hobby. For 46 years now I have been a somewhat weird combination of an amateur astronomer and a professional neuroscientist. In more recent years, with the advent of computers, rocket science, and the exciting new field of astrobiology, I have discovered that my being an amateur and not a professional astronomer has provided me with what I believe may be a unique and important advantage in my personal understanding of astronomy and the space sciences. I believe that, as an amateur, I am more in tune with what the average non-scientists or hobbyists (i.e. people who spend rather than receive monies for pursuing their interest in astronomy) think and believe about the new field of astrobiology. When I use the term “mind boggling” in my writings, I am not trying to be a funny brain scientist, but rather am relating more closely to how many of the average citizens of our planet respond to this very fascinating new science of astrobiology.
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Notes
- 1.
Although our scientists and science teachers have been telling us for many years that we live in an extremely hostile universe that could easily destroy all life on our planet at any time, the average adult citizens of our world would not freak out in any way to this idea unless they saw it happening before their own eyes. It appears that science’s concept of deep time has totally made most of us immune to any fears of imminent destruction from the skies or from beneath the Earth. People still live quite comfortably and fearlessly at the base of dangerous volcanoes or in “severe” tsunami or earthquake zones.
- 2.
Although life is still extremely plentiful everywhere on our planet, most scientists believe that the evolution of life has now peaked and is on the decline, and will disappear entirely in a few billion years as our sun continues its normal “warm-up” thing. While all planets probably undergo similar longterm changes in response to this normal evolution of their home stars, man’s incessant pollution of his environment is likely speeding this process up quite rapidly.
- 3.
However, as a trained scientist, I must blame my overly enthusiastic response in parts of this book as being the result of my “amateur” astronomer status and not my professional training in science. Scientists must always be conservative and never declare any research evidence as being any more than “highly suggestive” in supporting some conclusion or hypothesis as to how something works. As an amateur, I feel somewhat more free to join the ranks of our science fiction cohorts and express my enthusiasm in a less conservative and professional manner, as long as I am careful to make sure my listeners or readers know the difference.
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Cranford, J.L. (2015). Some Final Thoughts from This “Amateur” Astronomer on Mankind’s Imminent Discovery that We Are Not Alone in the Universe. In: Astrobiological Neurosystems. Astronomers' Universe. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10419-5_7
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