somniloquy.org: Europa

Europa

Recently a friend and I were talking about visiting Europa, Jupiter's sixth moon. I forgot to tell my friend why exactly I want to explore other worlds; it's something so basically human, the precise reason we climb a tree, read a book or fall in love. It is because the elemental process of discovery is the process of changing a place by entering it, and of changing yourself by allowing that place to enter you.

Europa is one of the most fascinating bodies in the solar system. It is composed of silicate rock, much like Earth or Mars, and is covered by a thin layer of ice and a tissue-like atmosphere. What's amazing about Europa is this -- its surface is relatively smooth and featureless. Like any body in this system, this Jovian moon receives regular hits from meteors and similar debris, but it shows no substantial fresh craters. This is because, scientists say, Europa is covered in liquid water, perhaps as much as 50 kilometers deep. This means that there is potential for life under the Europan ice.

Europa and Jupiter make me think for some reason about Dr. Claude Shannon. Shannon was one of those brilliant and unspeakably able people who lived a vigorous life in science and mathematics. He was also a touch eccentric, if charmingly so; every Friday afternoon Dr. Shannon could be seen in the hallway of the MIT math department, juggling and riding a unicycle.

Juggling was, in fact, Dr. Shannon's first love; as a result, he is famed for his theorem to explain the temporal restraints of juggling:

(F+D)H = (V+D)N

Where F is the time the ball spends in the air, D is the time the ball is in the hand, V is the time the hand is vacant, N is the number of balls, and H is the number of hands. Let's solve this, for example, for V. We'll assume two hands, three balls, two units of time in the air, and one unit of time in the hand:

F (time in air) = 2
D (time in hand) = 1
N (number of balls) = 3
H (number of hands) = 2
V (time the hand is vacant) = ?

(2+1)2 = (V+1)3

6 = 3V+3

3 = 3V

V=1

This is pretty simple math, but the consequences are interesting. Play with this elegant little formula and you'll find that all the elements are interconnected -- to change the quantity of one element is to necessarily alter the others. Juggling is an act bound in time, where parameters must be satisfied simultaneously in order to maintain the pattern. The more balls one introduces into the act, the less the margin of error; at some threshold, even the slightest mistake will destroy the pattern and end the event.

"Juggler," has an interesting etymology. It comes from French "jongleur," which comes from Middle and Old French "jougleur," "jouglere," and "jogler," meaning fool or joker. Jogler comes from late Latin "ioculator," from "iocus," joke (or trick). Ioculator has a close cousin in Latin -- ioviator, or jovial host (also trickster). Ioviator is derived from iovius, which comes from the proper name Iove, or Jove. This is why thinking of Europa, the sixth Jovian moon, makes me think of Dr. Claude E. Shannon.

You might be interested to know that, in classical Latin, the v sound is actually pronounced as a w; hence, the name Iove is pronounced "YOH - weh," which sounds awful close to Yahweh. This is probably because Iove and Yahweh share an Indo-European root. Jove and Yahweh are reflections of one another in a manner of speaking, gods of power and might.

And now I think of the old church song, "He's Got the Whole World In His Hand." It never occurred to me that the world is in God's hand because God is juggling, tossing up this world with an infinite number of other worlds with a precision so absolute it must be divine, even though the act itself -- juggling worlds -- is cruel. jouglere, iocus, iovius. God the juggler, God the joker, God the trickster.

If such an entity as God exists, it must be responsible for our golden rule: (F+D)H = (V+D)N. This must be here to remind us that we are bound in time, helplessly in movement, with so much beyond our control. And it is also here to point out that, as much as we worry about our time in the air, it is D, the time we spend at rest in a divine hand, that is our commonality. It is this time which lies on both sides of that bridge, the equal sign.

And if such an entity as God is still with us, if it isn't somewhere sleeping off the great hangover of creation, perhaps there are exceptions to our golden rule. Perhaps miracles, in their purest defiance of nature, are possible. If so, my friend and I will visit Europa, long after we have left the earth.