Electricity and Consilience, Part 8

See Part 1 here.
See Part 7 here.

The consequences of research into plasma cosmology are far-reaching, and draw attention to our ignorance of the origins of the universe. If plasma physicists are correct, the Big Bang may have been much different than currently thought, if it even occurred at all! The universe's age would be unknown once again, and it may be much smaller than previously thought. Rather than thermonuclear reactors, stars are more like galactic electrical transformers. There may no such thing as black holes or neutron stars. We may not even know the true age of the Earth, because the radioactive clocks used to determine this can be upset by powerful electrical discharges.

NASA-JPL.

If these possibilities are further explored and found to hold up under subsequent experimentation and observation, though many textbooks will have to be rewritten, other potential benefits could follow. The search for intelligent life in the universe may be focused on brown dwarf stars, which theoretically would provide a much more stable environment for biological systems. The speed of light may not always be an insurmountable obstacle, and real-time communication over galactic distances could be possible. Time-travel and parallel universes might have to be ruled out, but anti-gravity may be achievable! Major breakthroughs could be made in solving the energy crisis by discovering ways to tap into the vast electrical forces that surround our planet, and clean nuclear power may be available from resonant nuclear systems. Implications for biology could be massive as well, as electrical currents control our brains and nervous systems.

Axonal Nerve FIbers in the Brain, jgmarcelino. Wikimedia Commons.

By opening itself to the possibilities implied by the electric universe model, science may open itself to new wellsprings of insight and inquiry. Using our advanced technology, by reexamining abandoned nineteenth-century trends in light of new evidence, we may be taking a small step back in order to make a giant leap forward. Such scientific syncretism would be a major victory for champions of consilience, and may well open up those "terrifying vistas of reality" that Lovecraft warned of. Yet I believe, along with E. O. Wilson, that this unification of knowledge could indeed bring about "a betterment of the human condition."