Intuition has always intrigued scholars and philosophers, both the deep and the superficial ones, because it offers material to all of them - after all, its “hints” lack rigueur and scientific respectability. However, sometimes it hits bullseye (i.e., it is correct), heading straight to the “Columbus egg” without having to run the bureaucratic (or more “stupid-o-cratic”) way of long and endless researches which lead to nowhere.
But intuition is often wrong. It manifests itself as an impulsive “flash”, not clearly grounded – “something tells me that...” —, something that comes much more from the heart than from the brain. It is more of a feeling, an instinctive reaction, than a logical thought. I won’t go the point of calling it an “animal reaction” because the intuitive “thing” may be of a high ethical, scientific or spiritual nature, such as the case of sudden religious conversions, great scientific discoveries and other “sparks” totally opposed to what the adjective “animal” suggests. When it is right, despite the initial appearance of absurdity, the reaction is a either disconcerting amazement – “who would have thought...?” — or indignation: “I always thought that... I just didn’t say anything because I didn´t want to be ridiculed”.
Even “high” Mathematics — not “low” Maths, where 2+2 shall never be 5 as much as the heart insists on that — values intuition, as revealed by Einstein, a frank admirer of such an elusive faculty. He used to say that “if facts don´t fit the theory, let´s change the facts”. The Theory of Relativity itself owes a lot to the intuition of the great mathematician and scholar. This theory is so abstract, so difficult to explain through a simple mathematical explanation such as “a+b”, that it generated an impasse with the Committee which decided about who to hand the Nobel Prize of Physics in 1921.
With the intention of corresponding to the heated popular pressure in favor of a Nobel Prize to Einstein— for the confirmation of his Theory of Relativity—, the Nobel Committee did not grant him the prize with such a justification because one of its members had the audacity to admit he could not vote for Einstein because he didn´t understand his prestigious theory. How to grant a prize — he asked his colleagues — to a theory which we do not understand? And the other members of the Committee had to admit, against their own will, that they also had no way of understanding the theory. For that reason, they justified the granting of the prize by focusing on the theory´s photo-electric effect, which was something easier to demonstrate. For me, in my utter ignorance of Physics and with a slight suspicion regarding everything derived from the human intellect — as good as it is—, I only believe 99,9% in the acclaimed Theory of Relativity. I don´t think it is impossible that in a few decades, after the appearance of new facts, a new Einstein will explain that “things are not exactly what we thought they were”.
I have always suspected the conclusions of this great man – as a scholar, a scientist and an ethical man — when he affirmed that no speed could be superior than the speed of light. I have always imagined — stubbornness of an intuitive ignorant—, that perhaps it would be possible to activate a rocket through a mere push when the object was already travelling in the abovementioned speed of light.
For the sake of my simple intuition, I have read on the internet that “according to measurements made my specialists of the international experience Opera, neutrinos run the 730 km which separate the headquarters of the European Center of Nuclear Research (Cern), in Geneva, from the underground laboratory of Gran Sasso (in the center of Italy) at a speed of 300.006 km/second, i.e., 6 km/s above the speed of the light”. The same report adds that “This result, which was totally unexpected for the scientists, was verified during six months, but still needs to be confirmed through other experiments, as said by physicist Antonio Ereditato, Opera´s speaker” (Exame Magazine website, 22-set-11, at 5:06 p.m.)
In past decades, there were people who would say that intuition was an inferior faculty, something “typically feminine”. In such misogynous imaginations, intuition would be analogous to the connection of “cause and consequence” elaborated by the brain of a dog who would “feel” that it is going to go for a walk just because its owner got a hold of its dog-collar - a “logical” indication that both were going on their usual walk. In the dog example, the animal was right and was acting by deduction; what offends women is the comparison with the canine primitivism.
It is part of tradition, and not only the popular one, the assertion that intuition is much more present in women than in men. I agree with that. Maybe there is some connection with motherhood, the greatest concern with the future of the offspring and a higher level of sentimentalism. And as much as the tough economical competition has been deforming this nice feminine dimension — seen nowadays as a sign of weakness, which is usually abused by men — I believe that if every country had women as presidents the wars would be much less frequent. No mother accepts easily the idea of seeing their sons in uniforms and going to die in battlefields. The father, on the other hand, the “tough one”, is always proud to see little Junior marching to war. When the typical telegram sent by the government arrives, saying that the kid has died in war, “serving his country”, the father cries with pain and civic pride. Even in business, the woman, perhaps out of shyness, is always more aware, intuitively, to the possibilities of a business working or not. Her intuition also seems more accurate when evaluating the character of her daughter´s boyfriend who proposes marriage. We cannot forget that “deep down inside” the somewhat unorganized intuition there is a mixture of various components, including logic – even if in a secondary position.
Intuition is a synthesis which connects imagination, perception, accumulated facts, memories, prejudice and every other thing which inhabits and co-habit inside the human brain. Being a mental “mix”, with components to which even the “bartender” himself is unaware, the “cocktail” cannot be entirely trustworthy. Its conclusion could never be approved for public consumption by a kind of mental DFA. If, however, the intuitive conclusion is not completely annihilated by logic and specialists´ unquestionable opinions, surviving with a minimal chance of hitting jackpot, then it is a case of accepting and following intuition. Especially because it is “following the heart”, the interested person would act with more enthusiasm. And everyone who acts with enthusiasm works, thinks and articulates more, thus increasing his chances of winning, even if making a theoretically less certain decision. Bad business conducted by an enthusiastic, active and smart entrepreneur can become good business. There are many examples of this, such as bankrupted companies which become prosper with new owners.
In order not to bore the readers with theoretical general stuff of common knowledge, I take the liberty of expressing with extreme brevity – one of the characteristics of intuition— some of those which I still have not seen mentioned in the media. Perhaps they are foolish, perhaps not, but the fear of being ridiculed will not prevent me from expressing what I think – or better yet, not what I think, but what I “feel”. After all, I am not defending an academic thesis. If my intuition is correct, then I will be able to say so in the future, in the “skeleton stage”, with the large smile of a skull, that I saw beyond the others. Those who will be a few feet above my tomb will imagine that the wind is playing a trick, laughing deeply among the eucalyptus. But make no mistake, it will in fact be me, happy with my predictions. But before that, let´s proceed with my intuitions.
The first one is related to the planet Mars. Media often refers to the remote possibility of the planet having enough water in its underground to allow the existence of some simple and already extinct form of life – perhaps bacteria. It is predictable that Nasa and other similar entities will be able to reach, however briefly, the fourth planet with manned spaceships. When that happens, astronauts, scientists and technicians will be able to research what is beyond all that dust accumulated for millions or billions of years. And dust is something that is definitely not lacking in the planet.
From my part, I would bet some money that when deep prospections are finally possible on Martian soil, not only water will be found, but also an entire extinct civilization, a civilization probably much more advanced than ours. On the surface they will find what has already been seen in pictures and analysis. The secret to be revealed is hidden some kilometers deep, under tons of dust which has been accumulated for millions of years. I´ll explain now the reasons for such intuition of mine, which, as I´ve already mentioned, does not derive from a mere imaginative “spark”. Do I need to remind that within the “intuition soup” there is also the spice of logic, of deduction? And what is such logic? That´s what I am going to explain.
Initially, I consider as certain that millions or billions of years ago our Sun was even hotter than it is nowadays. After all, Astronomy says – or suggests – that in every second more than 4 million tons of solar matter are converted into energy. This represents an emptying of the “fireplace”. One day the Sun will extinguish itself by exhaustion – something that the whole Astronomy agrees on – after a sudden growth which will burn our planet. This will be the “swan song” of our star. The Sun, in the beginning of times, was hotter than it is today. It was so hot that our planet could not host life. Mars, on the other hand, at that time was able to flourish a crescent civilization, since it was more distant from the Sun. After that long phase, with the Sun reducing its size and heat, Earth became inhabitable and Mars, as far from the Sun as it was, became too cold, which made it more difficult for it to be a place for intelligent beings with a high level of technology – superior to ours today.
I consider possible for Mars to have had life before it became terribly colder, an intelligent species, perhaps even more intelligent than ours depending on how long the planet benefited from the advantages brought by a friendly Sun. When the cold became extreme, Mars could only survive in underground cities, such was the threat of constant meteor showers and the impossibility of having a breathable atmosphere on the surface. If the Martians reached such level of technology, there would be a possible explanation for the unidentified flying objects which probably exist and are from an extra-terrestrial origin. There are so many reports from serious people that it is questionable to attribute the apparitions of UFOs to madness or an impulse to lie. Let´s say that at least 3% of the reports or films of UFOs are honest. Raquel de Queiroz, a great writer, wrote in a chronicle that she saw a “flying saucer” following for some minutes an airplane in which she was travelling. She was a smart, brave, mentally honest woman and she didn´t report the fact when she was too old.
If the eventual inhabitants of Mars have not reached a level of technology superior to the Earth´s, being unable therefore to avoid their own extinction, future excavations might be able to find, as I´ve said, the remains of a civilization similar to ours, hundreds of meters or kilometers below the dust. Similar because 2+2 will always be 4 and without Mathematics – a universal language — no civilization would be able to flourish. It is even possible that Mars has produced and kept atomic weapons, followed by a total war which contaminated soil and water and ended up extinguishing all life, which would be a good lesson for us. Without life and away from the Sun, there came desertification , with dust always present in huge clouds.
For me it is evident that in every “telluric” planet such as Earth and Mars, for example — i.e., non-gaseous (as Jupiter and Saturn are, for instance) – which keeps an adequate distance from its star (the Sun in our case), being neither too hot nor too cold, life will inevitably flourish. In the presence of light and heat, earth and water, the starting point of life will flourish in there. And life, any life, develops towards more complexity, “upwards”, as if following an inner “intelligence”, proper of this mysterious knowledge which even dismisses the existence of a localized brain. Such is the case, for example, of the intelligence of the plants, something that is considered proved nowadays. A creeper which is planted in a garden grows disoriented when it doesn´t “see”, or better yet, when it doesn´t feel, when it doesn´t have to touch a wall or a stick where it can grab itself, because that is what its nature demands. If, however, the garden´s owner puts a stick not very far from the frustrated creeper, it starts “seeing”, even without eyes, the stick, changing direction and growing towards the stick, to which it will attach itself and grow. This “intelligence” of the living things, with no conscience of themselves, is also proved in bacteria, which modify themselves when attacked by antibiotics which try to kill them. I also don´t believe that the mutations happen by chance. I believe that the need to change in face of the hostility of the environment explains a great number of fast mutations.
In summation, the impulse of life flourishes in any “telluric” planet provided there is a “friendly” Sun to provide it with light and heat in the appropriate amount. And life starts growing in complexity and intelligence when it isn´t interrupted, this normal impulse, by a cataclysmic event coming from space, from abroad or from its own madness, including a nuclear source or the destruction of the environment. That´s why it is necessary that every war on Earth is prohibited, although in order for that to happen there should be a democratic central power monopolizing the use of force. The weapons available today no longer advice their use by individual initiative of all the governors of all countries. And we´d better stop right here, before the reader starts getting nervous. Let us proceed.
In this probable evolution, Mars, with a strong level of probability, has known the immense potential of nuclear fission and fusion. Martian life, in its period of warm Sun, must have produced its equivalent “Martian Einstein”, or similar scientists. It is absurd to imagine that if Einstein and other Physics geniuses had never been born, then humankind would have never been able to know the nuclear secret, for bad or for good.
To summarize it, future excavations in Mars, if they find anything “interesting”, it will not be only water or extinct forms of microbial life. What they will find are burried constructions, remains of an extinct civilization or — perhaps more difficultly—, evidence of an “advanced underground civilization”, intelligent and pacific because it was too advanced. I piously believe that the more advanced the civilization is, the more understanding and ethical it becomes, which would explain the lack of an attempt by the Martians to dominate the Earth using the advantage of their technological advancements. I just don´t formalize my financial bet — that future excavations will find organized and intelligent life under the dust — because I´m no longer a young man who can wait for decades the perforations in the Red Planet. I won´t be able get the dividends of my bet after I am dead anyway.
Another intuition, closer to the ground and less speculative, refers to the climatic change that everybody correctly relates to global warming, which would follow the melting of the polar caps and frozen mountains and the elevation in the level of the seas. Everybody, or almost everybody, agrees that the increase in global warming is responsible not only for the elevation of the level of the seas but also to the increased occurrence of hurricanes, storms, droughts etc. What I never see mentioned, however, is an explanation as to why the melting of ice causes different modifications in the temperatures of the countries in the planet. Countries are not uniformly warmer, as logical as it might sound. Some of them get colder, in a paradox.
The explanation I dare give is that with the melting of the polar caps and frozen mountains, the water of the planet is being distributed differently than what happened in the past, generating a slight modification in the axis of the Earth. There is an accumulation in the Ecuador layer, for instance. Earth, which turns around itself like a slightly inclined top — which explains the alternation of the seasons in both hemispheres —, is starting to turn in a different way, altering the rhythm of the seasons in all countries. That would explain why, in a time of so much warming, countries traditionally cold are getting warmer and vice-versa. The interesting thing is that if the weather treaties are able to revert global warming, the water which has poured from the icy mountains and polar caps will not return to their place of origin. The ice will accumulate in neighboring areas. Thus, if we stop global warming, some countries which up until now have been considered as “very warm” will start being “less warm” and cold countries “less cold”. This permanent weather change will have a big influence on civilization. Less energetic people will become more energetic when the heat diminishes, thanks to the weather. People who are more energetic might become less efficient because the heat causes a relaxation, which is compensated with the air conditioning equipments in offices and stores but with no big effect on outdoors work.
I could mention other intuitions, but they are too daring, dealing with some delicate subjects, so I´d better keep silent for now because they might cause unnecessary coyness. After studying these new subjects I might be able to return with full charge to my “cavalleria rusticana”. Even though I know the limitations of intuition, I can say that it has helped me a lot in life, at least with joy. Every time I was in a dilemma and didn’t follow my crazy intuition, I didn´t do well.
Happy 2012.
(13-12-2011)
