Public Intellectual Profile - Dr. Michio Kaku

I recently read an article from The Guardian about the decline in UFO sightings that has occured, worldwide, since 2014 (when sightings historically peaked). Although analyzing UFO eyewitness accounts would be interesting, the aspect of the article I wish to focus on is the disposition of the author toward the topic and his attempt to assign meaning to the data point. The author of the article approaches the topic in such a way that seems to suggest the public is moving away from, not just belief in some wild idea of flying saucers or little green men abducting cows in rural America, but from a general interest in space exploration.

|“Perhaps UFO and alien lore is seeming more like a reflection of human
culture, tied to the space age, motivated by conquering new existential frontiers.”|

Setting aside the question of whether extraterrestrials are currently interacting with Earth or not, it is here that the author seems to claim that advancing into space is a romanticized notion, exclusively cultivated during the second half of the 20th century, and that it is now dying out after a prolonged infatuation following space-race era mania. Along with attempting to make the case for unsubstantiated claims about the “progression” of culture and suggesting that a disbelief in the possibility of extraterrestrials is the mark of a more “mature” societal collective (a claim that could be taken as a demonization of imagination and open-mindedness) the author, Philip Jaekl, does simultaneously highlight a potential problem that concerns humanity as a whole. The problem of our priorities, as a species.

When the idea of space exploration is brought up in common conversation, occasionally one will hear a question of justification arise from certain individuals. These are the same individuals who would see NASA funding drastically reduced or the agency expunged completely. From these groups, questions such as, “Why are we worried about space when we have our fair share of problems down here?” are often heard. This reassortment of priorities, at face value, seems rational and logical. However, based on every possible historical example, the sad reality is that humanity will always possess major problems and as long as we, as a species, are unable to exist beyond Earth, we will always run the risk of extinction (one could call that the greatest problem of all). In this way, the truly logical progression is to embrace our advancement into space, and more specifically colonize another planet. This then begs the questions “How do we do that?” and “Where do we go from there?”

These are the exact questions asked by theoretical astrophysicist Dr. Michio Kaku, a man who has virtually dedicated his entire life to the study, contemplation, and search for our future ventures into the vast reaches of space and what they could means for us down the proverbial road. It is from the results of these contemplations and studies that Dr. Kaku has ultimately claimed that our insured survival as a species lies in the stars, as long as we don’t blow ourselves up first. But before the warranted unpacking of Dr. Kaku’s theories on this topic, and some minor critiques of his oversimplified hyperbole and bias against spirituality and religion takes place, I want to briefly shift the focus back to the article from The Guardian.

Jaekl also suggests that this decline in UFO sightings could be a result of an increased indifference, by the public, toward all aspects of life that, he claims, may stem from the current political climate that seems to raise the bar of absurdity on a daily basis.

|“A key factor, however, may be that more people simply don’t care anymore.
As we are accustomed to being inundated with wild claims churned out by
politicians, media and advertisers, the next report of a UFO is no more
believed than the long-range weather forecast.”|

In short, according to Jaekl, people have become desensitised by twitter battles between the President and Speaker of the House that the idea of life on other planets has become stale. Whether it’s the fact that those in office provide the public with a daily dose of discussion material or that the possibility of planetary annihilation creeps ever closer, as world leaders toy with the idea of using their nuclear arsenals, Jaekl is leading his readers to believe that many people, either consciously or subconsciously, are placing space exploration at the end of their list of priorities and if true, that is bad for the future of the species.

Whichever way you feel about this topic, it’s important to remember the promise that space offers us. Our advancement into the cosmos is something that keeps the human machine turning and has since the beginning. Dr. Michio Kaku himself put it best. In a televised lecture, he opened his talk by explaining where the current technological boom, which includes the internet, robotics, and A.I., came from,

|“People call me and they say to me: professor where did the internet come
from? The iphone? All these wonders, it happened so suddenly. It must
have been from aliens from outer space. Nope. It came from the space program.”|

Here, Dr. Kaku illuminates how integral the lasting effects of the space program are for the establishment of an age of unprecedented global communication. If the article from The Guardian is truly any sort of litmus test of the current public opinion of all things space then now, more than ever, we should be promoting individuals among us that make scientific topics, particularly the ones that make our brains whirl, more accessible and easier to see the immediate benefits of and simultaneously make those scientific topics “cool.” Dr. Michio Kaku is one such individual.

Dr. Michio Kaku was born in San Jose California in 1947. As a young child, he became enthralled with science and famously built his own atom-smasher in the garage of his parent’s home (this was later revealed to be a slight exaggeration by Kaku himself). Nevertheless, with the ability and means to carry out the construction of such a machine, it is safe to say that Dr. Kaku was given a generous amount of freedom by his parents. This point is crucially important in order to fully understand the way Kaku thinks. His upbringing evidently allowed for him to be inquisitive, curious, and to seek out the answers to any questions he had, whether it was through reading or through experimentation. It is no surprise then that Dr. Kaku gained notice by his “atom-smasher” experiment and ultimately earned a scientific scholarship to attend Harvard University (where he finished first in his physics class), out of high school. He then continued on to receive his P.h.D. from UC Berkeley where he excelled in the radiation laboratory program. More recently, Dr. Kaku has pursued a life of teaching and publishing, holding a lectureship at Princeton University as well as both NYU and City College of New York over the past several decades, while simultaneously writing several New York Times best-sellers that both tackle complex scientific topics as well as extrapolate on Kaku’s own thoughts and theories that pertain to the future of the human race and what is necessary, often societally, to get us there. One such theory involves placing the human race on a societal scale that Kaku devised himself.

In his book, Physics of the Future, Dr. Kaku explains the criteria for each of these stages. The first stage is one of planetary control, wherein the civilization in question would be able to manipulate every aspect of the planet they live on and harness said planet’s energy completely. The second stage involves the ability to harness the energy of every planet in the solar system. It is here that Dr. Kaku makes an analogy to Star Trek explaining that, as in the show and movies, the characters are interplanetary, just as a stage 2 civilization would be. The third and final stage in Dr. Kaku’s scale involves harnessing the energy of an entire galaxy. Here, Dr. Kaku uses Star Wars as an example. As the characters of Star Wars are able to jump to lightspeed at will and traverse solar systems as we would cities, so too would this hypothetical third stage civilization. Dr. Kaku goes on to unceremoniously declare that humanity is currently a stage zero civilization, not even “on the board.” He explains this stage zero to be a sort of crossroads. A test to see if we can even make it onto the board. Dr. Kaku asserts that it is within this era, this attempt to rise to stage one, in which we will either go extinct from self-harm(such as nuclear war or unchecked environmental change that can spiral into uninhabitability) or we will ascend, our survival virtually secure. According to Kaku, at stage one we will be able to deflect asteroids that would otherwise cause extinction and manipulate the weather at will, avoiding any sort of meteorological disasters. While Dr. Kaku’s predictions are grounded in science and reinforced by historical analysis to better understand our societal trajectory, there are times when Dr. Kaku seems to be so damn sure that he begins to express disdain for the institutions that cultivated some of the most accomplished scientific minds throughout human history. The institutions of religion and spirituality.

Understanding that the methodology behind branding an individual as a public intellectual seems to rely on a healthy blend of academic pursuit as well as accessibility with the layman, makes Dr. Michio Kaku a “no-brainer.” He’s most definitely “in the club.” His admittance into the public intellectuals group was never in question. Rather, the issue at question here is one of Dr. Kaku criticizing his fellow public intellectuals. If his public comments, and more importantly his comparisons, involving religion are any indication, Dr. Kaku would most certainly denounce the idea of most people from the theological realm as fellow carriers of the title of public intellectual. While Dr. Kaku’s writings are an impressive blend of scientific jargon and relevant pop-culture comparisons and references that make topics like technology of the future or space exploration more accessible, there are times in both his writing and his publicized lectures that he shifts to extraneous and arguably non-conducive hits on religion. For example, in one mini-lecture, Dr. Kaku mentions that our stagnation toward advancement into a stage one civilization is a product of the archaic savagery and fundamentalisms that we cling onto in the modern day. This isn’t a cut and dried slight against religion, but it is for that reason I chose it as an example. Here, in the same way that Jaerkl navigates the topic of his article with implication, Dr. Kaku claims, indirectly, that in order to ascend to the next stage of civilization we must abandon the rigid ideologies and pillars of thought that accompany religion. It is within these moments that Dr. Kaku both comes across as arrogant of the unifying effect of many religions, as well as negligent of the great scientists, of both the past as well as the present, that have either benefitted from religion or furthered our understanding of it. This is an issue tackled by Dr. Stephen Mack in his essay entitled “The Cleric as Public Intellectual”.

|“One of the great ironies of this debate is that historically, public intellectuals
in America are a product of both our secular and religious traditions.
Indeed, our entire liberal, secular democratic tradition is an extension
of our religious origins.”|

Here, Dr. Mack refutes the assertion that anything involving a religious connotation should be ultimately considered academically invalid, countering comments, like Dr. Kaku’s, that involve baseless and generalizing abandonments of religion as a whole.

Imagine for a moment that humanity had absolute peace. Imagine that all of the problems plaguing the world today were gone. There is no threat of nuclear annihilation. No threat of environmental catastrophe. No hunger. No sickness. What would the logical progression forward be, for our species? In our stagnation we, as curious beings, would incontrovertibly take to the cosmos with full force. Now understand that this reality will never come. One must remember that while the aforementioned problems may one day be solved, new major and global problems would undoubtedly appear. So then how do we break this cycle of solving and creating problems as a species? It doesn’t matter. This very ponder would be moot if a large-enough asteroid struck the Earth right now, for our ultimate problem as a species is our inability to survive an extinction level event. To ensure our survival as a species we have to exist on more than one celestial body, and the way to do that is to have space on the mind, more specifically on the societal mind. Space exploration and planetary colonization must be a global priority and without public interest in space, we will never be a priority. This is why public intellectuals such as Michio Kaku must be championed to the forefront of media outlets and be allowed to make topics like space exploration something to be desired.






LIST OF SOURCES

Freeman, David. “Michio Kaku Foretells Humanity’s Extraordinary Future” .

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/michio-kaku-sees-amazing-things-our-future-

except-those-scary-ncna851226, Accessed 23 January 2019.

Jaekl, Philip. “What is Behind the Decline in UFO Sightings” The Guardian,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/what-is-behind-the-decline-in-ufo-sightings

Accessed 23 January 2019.

Kaku, Michio. “Dr. Michio Kaku”, http://mkaku.org , Accessed 24 January 2019.

Lundman, Susan. “Michio Kaku: Will Mankind Destroy Itself?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NPC47qMJVg Accessed 24 January 2019

Mack, Stephen. “The Cleric as Public Intellectual”,

http://www.stephenmack.com/blog/archives/2013/08/index.html. Accessed 23 January 2019.

“Michio Kaku - Immortality, Space, A. I. ”YouTube,

.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKjvL6ugpKU&t=568s. Accessed 24 January 2019