Marriage is higher than Equality

Marriage is higher than Equality 

Dear All, 

Marriage is a definitional construct with the special union only between male and female, and is an  integral  part of social institution from all human cultures with deep-rooted social and cultural connotations. Marriage is not about Equality but Higher than Equality.   

Both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have declined to endorse claims that same-sex marriage is a human right.

The experience in United States indicates that  the redefinition of marriage may destroy the concepts of gender, tear down protections for the two sexes, break apart the family, and trample the rights of US citizens. 

I agree that the problems with same sex marriage  overseas is that "Parents had rights before the laws were changed, after the laws were changed their rights to have their children free from the radical LGBTIQ sex education was taken away."  

Bill

International human rights law recognises  to maintain a traditional view of marriage, as a definitional construct, does not detract from the equality of same-sex persons, including in circumstances where such life-long loving committed relationships are provided state recognition and protection.

The "marriage equality" claim is not borne out by the decisions of the highest human rights authorities in the international order. Both the United Nations Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have held that there is no inequality where a state retains the traditional definition of marriage. In so ruling, these bodies have actually affirmed the inherent equality of all persons. 

United Nations Human Rights Committee

In Joslin et al. v New Zealand, the United Nations Human Rights Committee held that "marriage" is a definitional construct which, by the expressed terms of Article 23(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), includes only persons of the opposite sex. 

Importantly, the committee held that the right to equality under Articles 2 or 26 of the ICCPR, which is the applicable international covenant that Australia has ratified, was not then violated. 

That is to say, there is no inequality because the definitional boundary did not enfold persons of the same sex. 

It is obvious that not every differentiation of treatment will constitute discrimination, if the criteria for such differentiation are reasonable and objective and if the aim is to achieve a purpose which is legitimate. 

Similar conclusions have been reached by the other principal arbiter of international human rights jurisprudence, the European Court of Human Rights. In decisions handed down in 2010, 2014, 2015 and 2016, the court has also concluded that the European Convention on Human Rights does not impose an obligation to grant same-sex couples access to marriage. Consequently, the court has consistently held that the prohibition on discrimination (the right to equality) under Article 14 of the convention was not breached by states that continue to recognise that marriage is between a man and a woman.

The European Court of Human Rights'  held that the important claims of equality are met through civil partnership regimes and through equality in access to entitlements such as inheritance rights and material support.  These are measures Australia has already enacted.

Same-sex marriage: What does human rights law say about claims of equality? - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-01/what-does-human-rights-law-say-about-marriage-and-equality/8856552?pfmredir=sm

Over the past two years in the United States, many of them have actively worked to ensure something other than ‘equality’ was achieved. What the redefinition of marriage did to the US was to destroy the concepts of gender, tear down protections for the two sexes, break apart the family, and trample the rights of US citizens.

Take a look at the stories we have featured about what has happened in the US since marriage was redefined.  Just as in the US, marriage “equality” supporters often times have no idea that consequences of redefining marriage are so vast.   This is why we must keep warning Australians about the consequences of redefining marriage, and working hard to ensure it does not happen here. Marriage equality supporters are facing a harsh reality – redefining marriage redefines a country. We must not let Australia suffer the same fate.

TRANSGENDER RULES: NO MORE FAIRNESS AND EQUALITY IN SPORTS

HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WHO QUESTION GENDER IDEOLOGY ARE BEING SILENCED

REDEFINING MARRIAGE REDEFINES PARENTING: UNITED STATES CASE STUDY

BREASTFEEDING IS NOW TRANSPHOBIC?

US LGBTQ STUDY REVEALS A MILLENNIAL “IDENTITY REVOLUTION”

WYOMING SUPREME COURT SLAMS VOLUNTEER JUDGE FOR VIEWS ON MARRIAGE

US CITIZENS FIGHT BACK AGAINST THE CONSEQUENCES OF SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

After the US Supreme Court redefined marriage for the whole country, without providing the mechanisms to deal with the consequences for ordinary citizens, Americans are currently reeling and wrestling with those consequences. Among the fray, there have been some small victories for those who refused to kowtow to the LGBTI 

Two years since marriage was redefined: the reality facing the US - Marriage Alliance

http://www.marriagealliance.com.au/two_years_since_marriage_was_redefined_the_reality_facing_the_us

That potential to have a child is the entire basis of the continuation of our species and our civilisation.   The legal union of a man and a woman, aka marriage, reflects and supports these facts of nature. Same-sex marriage doesn’t reflect those facts, or contribute to future generations of human life.

A same-sex couple lacks the ability to provide a child in its care a role model of both male and female parenting. 

For all 14  reasons, same-sex marriage is not about equality. Despite that, advocates of same-sex marriage keep harping on about it. They call it ‘marriage equality’.

14 Reasons that Same-Sex Marriage is not about Equality - XYZ

https://www.xyz.net.au/14-reasons-sex-marriage-not-equality/

Mr Howard is campaigning for the No vote — to maintain the current definition of marriage between a man and a woman.

"I think the Government does need to define what steps it will take to ensure that state governments don't withdraw exemptions in discrimination acts … I think that's very important," he said.

In 2004, the Howard government changed the Marriage Act to include a definition of marriage as the union of a man and a woman.

"I don't think it's a crisis for democracy and I'm frankly surprised people are running around trying to apportion blame."

Same-sex marriage: John Howard wants more detail on religious exemptions ahead of same-sex marriage survey - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-31/howard-wants-detail-on-religious-exemptions-same-sex-marriage/8858670

Recognition of same-sex relationships

It is important to note that same-sex de facto relationships were recognised under social security and family assistance law after 1 July 2009 in Australia. 

US experience 

In the United States, same-sex marriage is legal in all states, except American Samoa, but not on all Native American tribal lands, since June 26, 2015, when the United States Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional.  civil rights campaigning took place from the 1970s, the issue became prominent from around 1993, when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled in Baehr v. Lewin that the prohibition was unconstitutional. The ruling led to federal actions and actions by several states, to restrict marriage to male-female couples, in particular the Defense of Marriage Act(DOMA). During the period of 2003 to 2015, various lower court decisions, state legislation, and popular referendums already legalized same-sex marriage to some degree in thirty-eight out of fifty U.S. states. In 2013, the Supreme Court overturned a key provision of DOMA, declaring part of it unconstitutional and in breach of the Fifth  Amendment in United States v. Windsor because it "single[d] out a class of persons" for discrimination, by refusing to treat their marriages equally under federal law when state law had created them equally valid.  The Supreme Court addressed that question two years later in 2015, ruling, in Obergefell, that same-sex married couples were to be constitutionally accorded the same recognition as opposite-sex couples at state/territory levels, as well as at federal level.

Same-sex marriage in the United States - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_the_United_States

Problems of Same-sex marriage

Legalising Same-sex marriage is in my view Homophobia and  GLBT ( gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender ) going overboard  with same-sex unions and civil partnerships, as it is  not just a rights issue but more an ethics and social structural issue.  Australian Government  has called for a national postal vote  on this matter.  

Marriage is traditionally for the purpose of giving birth of next generation ; changing this purpose will disturb the mentality and Emotional Well-Being of the kids, and  destroy  the normal definition of male and female.  

Just like animals look for its biological parents, a  child would always like to ask "where am I coming from ?" and find his ancestry as human instinct.  It is just human nature to ask "who is my father ?"  To turn against this view would be to revoke ethics from its base. 

Although human cultures and societies vary widely in the expression of paternal care, we all celebrate Father's Day and Mother's Day which the same sex marriage if enacted would make it a problem to celebrate. 

Sexual education to the young generation would also have more problems  under Same-sex marriage which by nature will intentionally promote homosexuality. 

Regards

Bill 

Sexual education problems are as revealed in " What 'gay marriage' did to Massachusetts -- Update"

https://youtu.be/2ZXzUpzHLkA

" Children Need a Mother and Father, "

By Heather Barwick. March 17, 2015. Gay community, I am your daughter. 

http://thefederalist.com/2015/03/17/dear-gay-community-your-kids-are-hurting/

THE EQUAL RIGHT TO BOTH A MUM & A DAD. Marriage gives every child a mother and a father; samesex marriage makes it impossible for a child to have both a mother and a father. That is the injustice of same-sex marriage. Why are you supporting an injustice against the child?

The Australian ethicist and lawyer, Professor Margaret Somerville (vii) put it: "Same-sex marriage forces us to choose between giving priority to children's rights or to homosexual adults' claims".  It is a choice - and we have to made the conscious choice that a child's birth-right should not be abolished in law.

Endeavour Forum

http://www.endeavourforum.org.au/newsletter/160/australian-marriage-forum.html

   

Should gender be just a state of mind ? 

Desperate mum reveals all about Safe Schools  program is introducing 12 and 13-year-olds to anal sex, masturbation, and adult sex toys, and it also teaches them that sexually transmitted diseases are "no big deal." She thought Safe Schools sounded fine until her 13-year-old son returned from school one day, telling her that a teacher just introduced a dildo to a year 8 class.

http://www.acfam.org.au/desperate_mum_reveals_all_about_safe_schools

Ten Arguments From Social Science Against Same-Sex Marriage

Homosexual couples using in vitro fertilization (IVF) or surrogate mothers deliberately create a class of children who will live apart from their mother or father. 

Children hunger for their biological parents. Children need fathers and mothers.  Evidence suggests children raised by homosexuals are more likely to experience gender and sexual disorders.  Same-sex "marriage" would further isolate marriage from its procreative purpose.

Family Research Council

http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=if04g01

Paternal care - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternal_care

Same-sex marriage around the world

http://www.smh.com.au/world/samesex-marriage-around-the-world-20150812-gix9qp.html

Today 23 countries with Same-sex marriage - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage

Seeing Yellowstone - the World's first National Park

Hi Friends 

12 of us staying in Gardiner, near the North Entrance at 1620 m, visiting 6 days Yellowstone - the World's first National Park  established in 1872 , of Wyoming and Montana, viewing the various features of Mother Nature.

Organised expeditions, hiking, camping and fishing are popular routines during the opening seasons.

Please see :-Please tell me if you cannot open the link; 

https://www.facebook.com/billonho/posts/10213459556065981

Also 

https://youtu.be/AKoFN9brF_Y

Itinerary showing name of place only, we drive 2 - 6 seater, 

22/6   8 am  drive 7 hr. from Salt Lake City to  Super 8 Gardiner/Yellowstone Park Area, 702 Scott St W, Gardiner, 

23/6.  Upper Geyser Basin;

Yellowstone Canyon- 1200 ft. high; 500,000 years; 

Artist  Point- the place of natural convenience. ,

24/6 Hiking 8 km.  Canyon Village at 2413 m; 

Brink of Upper Fall ,  Lower Fall,  Artist Points, Old Faithful, Osprey nest , 

25/6. Biscuit Basin, Mud pots, 

Aneomo - 2 m , Plume, Old Faithful; Lone star , 

Washburn , Giant Geyser which may be tree, accumulate minerals 1 to 2 inch per year , Grotto Geyser

26/6 Steam Boat Geyser, Porcelain Basin; 

Norris Geyser Basin; 

27/6 showery; Watch black bear; 

Petrified redwood  Tree, creating "forests of stones" , Washburn trail, Tower  Fall;  Tower Roosevelt, 

28/6  8 am, Kepler Cascades ,

Lunch at Old Faithful. Sheepeater Cliff ,

29/6   9  am 

Mammoth Hot Spring , limestone; 

Liberty Cap- a dormant hot spring; 

A vivid calcite crust and forms,

3 pm. Back 

30/6 - drive 7 hr. to Red Lion Inn, Spokane, WA 99224, no need to pack lunch, 

Notes on some terms: 

Yellowstone is one of the most seismically active areas in the U.S., experiencing 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes a year — with 40 to 50 percent of them happening in swarms. The quake activity is caused by the large number of faults in the park associated with the volcano that underlies Yellowstone.

Lodgepole pine forests are the most common in Yellowstone. A lodgepole’s serotinous cones need to be exposed to the high heat of a forest fire for the seeds to be released.  Lodgepoles are the only pine in Yellowstone whose needles grow in groups of two. The bark is typically somewhat brown to yellowish, but a grayish-black fungus often grows on the shady parts of the bark, giving the tree a dark cast.

In rhyolitic soils (another volcanic substrate), which are poor in nutrients needed by fir and spruce, lodgepole pine remains dominant. Rhyolite Rust , fine grain volcanic rock; kaolinite ; Kaolinite is the highest quality of the feldspar clays used by potters,

Lower-Elevation Species

Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)

Resembles the fir and the hemlock, hence its generic name

Pseudotsuga, which means "false hemlock"

Cones hang down and remain intact, with three-pronged bract between scales

Up to 100 feet tall

http://yellowstoneinsider.com/2017/06/20/460-earthquakes-registered-yellowstone-year/

Geyser --Hot spring has no chamber for storage of hot 

Yellowstone - The evidence of volcanic events are all around you. geysers, hot springs, terraces, and other hydrothermal features.

Green thermophilic algae 38-50C, 

as it sits above a massive caldera and magma plume.  Scientists (and other observers) have held that Yellowstone and other sites along the hotspot track were the site of massive eruptions, 

The other two eruptions associated with the Yellowstone region are the Mesa Falls Eruption (1.3 million years ago), which ejected 280 km3 of material and formed the Henry’s Fork Caldera just west of the Park in Idaho and the Huckleberry Ridge Eruption. 

The Huckleberry eruption (2.1 million years ago) was enormous, spewing 2500 km3 of material, creating the Island Park Caldera, which underlies most of the southwestern corner of the Park (including Old Faithful and West Thumb).

Also seeing desert and canyons in National Parks of Arizona and Utah, USA at mid June. 

美国犹他州 Arches National Park 拱门国家公园 - 美国 - 论坛 - 穷游网

http://m.qyer.com/bbs/thread-1031695-1.html

Best Regards

Bill

人工智能將改變世界

过去三年中，对人类社会影响最大的技术浪潮无疑是人工智能，而为人工智能（Artifical Intelligence, AI）的发展带来突破性拐点的当属深度学习。

阿尔法狗的三勝柯潔， 表示有朝一日AI将超越人类。

我们跟AI最大的差别就是我们有爱

李開復：AI將改變世界，你準備好了嗎？https://youtu.be/-_xr2oYjZog

3戰完勝柯潔, 創始人宣布AlphaGo退役

https://youtu.be/ElZ1rkugOpQ

Bill

【观察者网综合】台湾大学6月4日举行毕业演讲，邀请创新工场创办人暨执行长、创新工场人工智能工程院院长李开复，以“金字塔‧魔法棒‧爱心─进击的AI时代”为题，发表演说。

李开复表示，AI（人工智能）在未来十年，能在任何任务导向的客观领域超越人类，将取代人类 50%左右的工作。

不过，他也表示，AI虽能在许多分析型工作击败人类，但人类的独特之处在于有爱的能力，相信未来会创造出许多新的人情味服务业工作。

AlphaGo 打败人类最顶尖的棋手柯洁。棋圣聂卫平点评：AlphaGo 可以说是 20 段，人类要打赢AlphaGo 唯一的希望就是拔掉电源。

我们投资的一家 AI 贷款公司，每笔贷款只 8秒钟，比人花8个小时还要精确。这家公司今年将会发放 3000 万笔贷款，几乎超越了所有的银行。

在这十年，我们将进入一个焦虑的迷惘时代，因为 AI 将取代人类一半的工作，许多人会因为失业，失去原本从工作中获得自我实现的成就感，而变得忧郁和迷茫。接着，我想跟各位分享有关人工智能未来的三个想象图：金字塔，魔法棒，和爱心。

李开复台大毕业演讲：台湾核心竞争力是人情味-观察者网

http://m.guancha.cn/local/2017_06_05_411632.shtml?from=timeline&isappinstalled=0

2012年，GoogleX的“猫”AI面世，它不需要任何外界信息的帮助，就能从数千万张图片中找出那些有猫的图片。传统的人脸识别是由程序员预先将整套系统编程实现，告诉计算机人脸应该是怎样的，电脑才能对包含同类信息的图片作出识别，而谷歌AI却是自己发了‘猫’的概念，之前没有人告诉过它‘猫’是什么，也没有人类告诉它猫应该长成什么模样。

2009年，斯坦福大学华人教授李飞飞创立了全球最大的图像识别数据库-ImageNet，收集了大量带有标注信息的图片数据供计算机视觉模型进行训练，拥有1500万张标注过的高清图片，总共22000类。瞬间点燃了卷积神经网络研究的热潮。

2016年，李飞飞团队在教会了计算机去识别图像的基础上，让计算机像一幼儿一样学会看图说话，并会用“句子”进行交流，例如不止是说某张图里有只“猫”，还可以说“这只猫是坐在床上的”。

2016年，英国伦敦的DeepMind（2014年被谷歌收购）“狗”（AlphaGo）AI横空出世，与李世石人机大战4:1获胜。

AlphaGo已经可以模仿人的直觉，而且具备创造力，通过组合已有知识或独特想法的能力，不过这些能力目前仅仅局限于围棋。

柯潔（1997年8月2日－），柯潔目前在創建的Go Ratings排名、以及來自日本的世界排名均位列第一。按照Go Ratings排名，自2014年8月開始，柯潔一直保持世界第一。

阿尔法狗的深度学习架构，也许开启了机器智能的魔盒；

深度学习的基本神经元模型，模拟了人脑的神经元轴突构建过程，例如要模拟一亿个神经元。每个神经元有100万个连接，就是100万亿条计算路径，人脑有800亿个神经元，能达到人类一样计算能力的深度学习网络要能产生8万亿条计算路径。

现在各大互联网巨头的服务器农场装备上了GPU的计算力，加上全球联网的大数据，所以深度学习得以爆發。

未来多种学习方式的深度交叉融合，将极大推进深度学习的应用价值特别是人工智能的突破。机器的情感、记忆推理等高级智能，将会由基于深度特征学习和加装存储记忆、推理模块的迁移学习、强化学习、对抗学习等各种学习方式的交叉融合而实现，未来的机器学习方式可能远不只这几种，其本质都是在模仿人类的学习方式。

AlphaGo彻底战胜人类意味着什么？-凤凰国际智库

http://pit.ifeng.com/a/20170603/51194209_0.shtml

谷歌在自然杂志上正式公开发表论文，宣布其以深度学习技术为基础的电脑程序 AlphaGo， 在 2015年 十月，连续五局击败欧洲冠军、职业二段樊辉。

　　这是第一次机器击败职业围棋选手。距离 97年IBM 电脑击败国际象棋世界冠军，一晃近二十年了。

今年国务院总理在政府工作报告中首次提及人工智能，此前便在《“十三五”国家科技创新规划》列入规划。种种迹象表明，人工智能正进入重要发展期，行业爆发在即。 中国的人工智能起步虽晚，但已进入“第一方阵”，追赶速度可谓突飞猛进。

中国在最近五年内的学术论文呈现出绝对赶超之势，而在2014年第一次超越了美国，进入到领先位置。中国不仅在学术文章数量上超越了美国，其文章质量也非常有保障。

2016年被《麻省理工评论》列为十大突破性技术之一的百度Deep Speech2深度语音识别技术，与生物技术、航天技术、纳米技术并列，也是唯一一家入选的中国公司。除了百度之外，国内还有科大讯飞、云之声、出门问问、搜狗语音、思必驰等诸多公司群雄逐鹿，也正说明了中国有着更大的市场需求，激烈竞争之下也必将催生出更一流的语音技术。

百度也已经达到国际领先水平。百度人脸识别准确率达99.7%，并在权威的国际评测——FDDB与LFW中获得双料世界第一。百度人工智能已建成超大规模的神经网络，拥有万亿级的参数、千亿样本、千亿特征训练，从底层数据、算法架构等方面均走在世界前列。

目前，中国的互联网巨头百度、阿里巴巴和腾讯(BAT)均是人工智能市场的引领者。以阿里巴巴为例。2015年7月，阿里推出虚拟人工智能客服。据公司2016年10月报告，问题解决率已达到80%;2016年8月，推出综合的人工智能解决方案套件云ET，包括视频、图像和语音识别技术;2017年春节，阿里公开展示了机器人书写春联。腾讯也不遑多让。2015年6月，腾讯为开发者开放了其面部识别技术，以及优图科技的其他核心技术。同年8月，腾讯设立的智能计算和搜索实验室，专注于四个方面：搜索、自然语言处理、数据挖掘和人工智能。2015年9月，又上线中国第一个新闻报道机器人Dreamwriter。目前已经应用到体育等新闻的撰写，其文风、逻辑几乎完全与人类作者一样。

体制优势和力量.

史忠植指出，中国人工智能的科研存在课题比较分散，应用项目偏多、基础研究比例略少、理论研究与实际应用需求结合不够紧密等问题。受研究经费的限制，很多课题既没有取得理论上的突破，也没有太大的实际应用价值。他建议今后基础研究的比例应该适当提高，同时人工智能研究一定要与应用需求相结合。

另一方面的差距还在于方向。就全球趋势来看，目前欧美国家逐渐开始把重心转移到医疗健康领域，而相对于发达国家医疗健康领域的科技成熟度而言，中国目前还有一段比较明显的距离。此外，投资规模和理念上，中国也存在需要补足之处。数据显示，在全球人工智能企业融资规模的分布上，美中英三国融资规模为全球最大，但三者间的规模目前仍存在较大差距，美国是英国的21.9倍，中国的6.96倍。

http://www.wenxuecity.com/news/2017/03/07/6078029.html

有一天，製作機器人的科技公司運用了新技術，製造了世界第一個會愛人的機器男孩大衛

Steven Spielberg's movie of A robotic boy, the first programmed to love, David.  Artificial Intelligence 2001 

Time, Relativity and temporal consciousness

Time, Relativity and temporal consciousness 

Until Einstein's reinterpretation of the physical concepts associated with time and space, time was considered to be the same everywhere in the universe, with all observers measuring the same time interval for any event. Non-relativistic classical mechanics is based on this Newtonian idea of time.

However, Philosophers did question that: "Time is not a reality , but a concept (noêma) or a measure (metron)" , like Antiphon the Sophist of 5th century BC  in  his chief work On Truth.   Parmenides went further, maintaining that time, motion, and change were illusions, leading to the paradoxes of his follower Zeno.  Time as an illusion is also a common theme in Buddhist thought.

A science that ignores consciousness, or artificially relegates the conscious mind to that of a secondary—and hence, unimportant—phenomenon, is actually an incomplete science. All our scientific data relies on the conscious mind as a necessary component. Both relativity and quantum physics tell us that we cannot blindly assume that the conscious mind—that experiences what constitutes our scientific data—has no effect on the nature of the data itself. So a discipline that willfully chooses to ignore the conscious mind as a vital component of our reality, must be viewed, at best, as an artificially restricted discipline, or, at worst, as a distortion of the truth.

Humans are not the only conscious beings; other animals, specifically mammals and birds, are indeed conscious, too. We still do not  how consciousness emerges from the physical activity of the brain and we do not know whether consciousness can emerge from non-biological systems, such as computers.

Bill

Two contrasting viewpoints on time divide prominent philosophers. One view is that time is part of the fundamental structure of the universe—a dimension independent of events, in which events occur in sequence. Isaac Newtonsubscribed to this realist view, and hence it is sometimes referred to as Newtonian time^.  The opposing view is that time does not refer to any kind of "container" that events and objects "move through", nor to any entity that "flows", but that it is instead part of a fundamental intellectual structure (together with space and number) within which humans sequence and compare events. This second view, in the tradition of Gottfried Leibniz^[17] and Immanuel Kant,^[18][19] holds that time is neither an event nor a thing, and thus is not itself measurable nor can it be travelled.

Spacetime

Time has historically been closely related with space, the two together merging into spacetime in Einstein's special relativity and general relativity. According to these theories, the concept of time depends on the spatial reference frame of the observer, and the human perception as well as the measurement by instruments such as clocks are different for observers in relative motion. For example, if a spaceship carrying a clock flies through space at (very nearly) the speed of light, its crew does not notice a change in the speed of time on board their vessel because everything traveling at the same speed slows down at the same rate (including the clock, the crew's thought processes, and the functions of their bodies). However, to a stationary observer watching the spaceship fly by, the spaceship appears flattened in the direction it is traveling. 

Stephen Hawking  has stated that time actually began with the Big Bang, and that questions about what happened before the Big Bang are meaningless. 

Scientists have come to some agreement on descriptions of events that happened 10⁻³⁵ seconds after the Big Bang, but generally agree that descriptions about what happened before one Planck time (5 × 10⁻⁴⁴ seconds) after the Big Bang are likely to remain pure speculation.

Time - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time

WHY RELATIVITY EXISTS

 It turns out that relativity exists because our science is actually a science of what we experience, and not a science of a universe “out there” that is independent of us as observers.

Einstein’s second Postulate states that the speed of light is constant relative to all frames of reference.  If we observe a flash of light while standing on Earth, we will find it travelling from us at 300,000 km per second. 

The velocity of the observer makes no difference whatsoever. The speed of light is constant relative to all frames of reference. This then is Einstein’s second postulate. It sounds positively crazy!

Nonetheless, this second postulate of relativity has passed the test of time. It has survived a whole century of close scientific scrutiny, and has become a fundamental cornerstone of all modern physics. How do we explain this phenomenon?

Actually, Einstein never gave an explanation for his second postulate. That, in fact, is why it is called a postulate. 

Distortions in Time and Space 

How is it possible for the speed of light to remain constant to all frames of reference? 

There is one possible solution to this conundrum. Perhaps time and space actually distort when we travel, and they distort in just such a way that all observers still measure the speed of light as the same. Strange as it may sound, this was exactly the solution Einstein implemented in his theory of relativity, and incredibly, it worked!

Relativity essentially deals with time and space, so the crucial question here is this: Are time and space inherent properties of the universe (independent of man) or are they only entities that reflect our human experience?

According to the theory of relativity, time and space vary according to the frame of reference of the observer. These entities, therefore, vary depending on the observer’s experience. 

This strongly suggests that what we define as time and space are, in fact, not inherent properties of the universe. They are simply our time and space, i.e., what is experienced by us. Thus, time and space, as defined by our science, are actually only properties pertaining to how our senses interpret the universe.  

The speed of light happens to be constant to all human observers simply because the speed of light (which is the speed of electromagnetic transmission) plays an intrinsic role in how our body and our perceptual apparatus function. 

Startling as it may sound, human physiology has everything to do with relativity. The theory of relativity would not even exist if not for the way our human body functions!

The question is simply this: Are our scientific theories actual theories of phenomena that are independent of man, or are they merely theories of how man experiences the universe? In other words, is our science a study of the universe that is independent of us, i.e., one that would be equally valid even if we were not around? Or—as we are now asking—are our scientific theories actually only theories of how our mind and senses perceive and interpret the universe?

There is, naturally, an inherent problem with answering this question. We simply cannot compare observed data with unobserved data. No observation means no data; so we do not have any “unobserved data” to compare with. 

The very foundation of all modern physics—both relativity and quantum theory—point to the fact that our scientific data are actually observer dependent. Without the observer, much of quantum physics and relativity would not even make sense.

Why the Speed of Light is Constant

The speed of light is the speed of electromagnetic transmission. It is constant because of a limitation in our perceptual ability. We are simply unable to experience the speed of light varying because both our perceptual apparatus and our brain function via electromagnetic transmission. In other words, we cannot experience the speed of light to be anything other than constant because the very rate at which we ourselves function depends on the speed of light!

We are essentially trapped inside the system, like the characters inside a video movie. If someone slows down the video, all the characters inside the video—as well as everything else there—slows down equally. The characters’ movements, and even their rate of thinking, slow down exactly in line with everything else. How then would these characters inside the video notice any difference in the speed of the video itself? They would, in fact, not notice any change at all, simply because they cannot escape the system to view it from the outside.

Why Relativity Exists - Kenneth Chan

http://kenneth-chan.com/physics/why-relativity-exists/

The constancy of the speed of light is due to a limitation in man’s perceptual ability.

We have arbitrarily defined time as the rate of electromagnetic transmission in our perceived space. (Light is a form of electromagnetic transmission.) There is, therefore, actually a limitation in our ability to measure the speed of electromagnetic transmission itself, including the speed of light.

The theory of nonhuman consciousness

Cleve Backster (1924 – 2013)

In the early morning hours of Feb. 2, 1966. Backster had been up all night in his office on West 46th Street and had just poured himself a cup of coffee when he noticed a houseplant, a Dracaena fragrans his secretary bought to brighten the office. 

Backster wanted to induce a similar anxiety in the plant, so he decided to set one of its leaves on fire. But before he could even get a match, the polygraph registered an intense reaction on the part of the Dracaena. To Backster, the implication was as indisputable as it was unbelievable. Not only had the plant demonstrated fear — it had also read his mind.

He publicized his findings, the so-called Backster effect became a pop-culture hit. 

Not only had the plant demonstrated fear — it had also read his mind.

Scientists, however, were less convinced. No one could reproduce Backster’s results — a problem Backster explained away with a variety of post-hoc qualifiers. (A lettuce leaf didn’t respond to harmful stimuli? It probably shut down to protect itself.) 

 Backster went on experimenting until the end, expanding his theory of nonhuman consciousness to encompass chicken eggs and even sperm, forever finding more proof of what he called the “fundamental attunement between living things.” He never married, preferring the company of his Siamese cats, and he never again performed experiments that burned plants. He once said. “I have a truly wonderful ally: Mother Nature.”

The very foundation of all modern physics—both relativity and quantum theory—point to the fact that our scientific data are actually observer dependent. Without the observer, much of quantum physics and relativity would not even make sense (see “A Direct Experiential Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics”). This strongly suggests that our scientific theories are actually theories of how we experience the universe, as opposed to being theories of a universe that is independent of us as observers.

The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness

On this day of July 7, 2012, a prominent international group of cognitive neuroscientists gathered at The University of Cambridge to reassess the neurobiological substrates of conscious experience and related behaviors in human and non-human animals. While comparative research on this topic is naturally hampered by the inability of non-human animals, and often humans, to clearly and readily communicate about their internal states, the following observations can be stated: "Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”