Michael H. Hart

Last updated
Michael H. Hart
Born (1932-04-27) April 27, 1932 (age 92)
New York City, U.S.
Alma mater
Known for

Michael H. Hart (born April 27, 1932) is an American astrophysicist, author and white nationalist. Since 1978, he has published five books, most notably of the best-selling work, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History.

Contents

Fermi paradox

Hart published in 1975 a detailed examination of the Fermi paradox: [1] the contrast between the extreme likelihood of extraterrestrial life somewhere in the universe and the total absence of any evidence for this. Hart's work has since become a theoretical reference point for much of the research into what is now sometimes known as the Fermi-Hart paradox. [2] Concerning Hart's contributions to the study of the paradox, Geoffrey A. Landis writes: "A more proper name for [the paradox] would be the Fermi-Hart paradox, since while Fermi is credited with first asking the question, Hart was the first to do a rigorous analysis showing that the problem is not trivial, and also the first to publish his results". [3] Robert H. Gray views Hart as the proper originator of this argument, in Hart's 1975 paper. Gray argues that the term Fermi paradox is a misnomer; that it is not the work of Fermi, nor is it an actual paradox (rather an argument). [4] He therefore proposes that, instead of the (standard, but in his view incorrect) name Fermi paradox, it should be known as the Hart-Tipler argument – acknowledging Hart's priority as the argument's originator, but also acknowledging Frank J. Tipler's substantial extension of Hart's arguments in his 1980 paper Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist. [5]

Hart is an advocate of the Rare Earth hypothesis; he proposed a very narrow habitable zone based on climate studies. He advocated for this hypothesis in the influential book which he co-edited, "Extraterrestrials: Where are They", [6] in particular in the chapter he contributed to it "Atmospheric Evolution, the Drake Equation and DNA: Sparse Life in an Infinite Universe". [6] : 215–225 

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History

Hart's first book was The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (1978), which has sold more than thousand copies and been translated into many languages. The first person on Hart's list was Muhammad, chosen over Jesus or Moses. [7] Hart attributes this to the fact that Muhammad was "supremely successful" in both the religious and secular realms. He also accredits Muhammad for his role in the development of Islam, far more influential than Jesus' contribution to the development of Christianity. Hart claims that Paul the Apostle was more pivotal than Jesus to the growth of Christianity.[ citation needed ]

White nationalism

Hart has described himself as a white separatist and is active in white separatist causes. [8] In 1996, he addressed a conference organized by Jared Taylor's white separatist organization, New Century Foundation, publisher of American Renaissance . He proposed partitioning the United States into four states: a white state, a black state, a Hispanic state, and an integrated mixed-race state. [8]

At the 2006 American Renaissance conference, Hart, who is Jewish, had a public confrontation with David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and former Louisiana state representative, over Duke's antisemitic remarks. Hart then stood up, called Duke a Nazi and stormed out and some participants jeered at Hart. [9] [10] [11] After this incident, Hart left American Renaissance. [9]

In 2009, Hart organized a racist conference in Baltimore with the title Preserving Western Civilization. It was billed as addressing the need to defend "America's Judeo-Christian heritage and European identity." [12] Invited speakers included: Lawrence Auster, Peter Brimelow, Steven Farron, Julia Gorin, Lino A. Graglia, Henry C. Harpending, Roger D. McGrath, Pat Richardson, J. Philippe Rushton, Srdja Trifković, and Brenda Walker. [13] In this conference, Hart compared Qur'an to Mein Kampf and Islam to Nazism. [9]

Books

Related Research Articles

The anthropic principle, also known as the observation selection effect, is the hypothesis, first proposed in 1957 by Robert Dicke, that the range of possible observations that could be made about the universe is limited by the fact that observations could happen only in a universe capable of developing intelligent life. As Steven Weinberg puts it: "Where else could we be, except on a planet that can sustain life?" Proponents of the anthropic principle argue that it explains why the universe has the age and the fundamental physical constants necessary to accommodate conscious life, since if either had been different, no one would have been around to make observations. Anthropic reasoning is often used to deal with the idea that the universe seems to be finely tuned for the existence of life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fermi paradox</span> Lack of evidence that aliens exist

The Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. As a 2015 article put it, "If life is so easy, someone from somewhere must have come calling by now."

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other planets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kardashev scale</span> Measure of a civilizations evolution

The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilization's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy it is capable of harnessing and using. The measure was proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev (1932–2019) in 1964 and was named after him.

The concept of self-replicating spacecraft, as envisioned by mathematician John von Neumann, has been described by futurists and has been discussed across a wide breadth of hard science fiction novels and stories. Self-replicating probes are sometimes referred to as von Neumann probes. Self-replicating spacecraft would in some ways either mimic or echo the features of living organisms or viruses.

<i>The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History</i> 1978 book by Michael H. Hart

The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History is a 1978 book by the American white nationalist author Michael H. Hart. Published by his father's publishing house, it was his first book and was reprinted in 1992 with revisions. It is a ranking of the 100 people who, according to Hart, most influenced human history. Unlike various other rankings at the time, Hart was not attempting to rank on "greatness" as a criterion, but rather whose actions most changed the course of human history.

American Renaissance is a white supremacist website and former monthly magazine publication founded and edited by Jared Taylor. It is published by the New Century Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jared Taylor</span> American white supremacist author

Samuel Jared Taylor is an American white supremacist and editor of American Renaissance, an online magazine espousing such opinions, which was founded by Taylor in 1990.

The zoo hypothesis speculates on the assumed behavior and existence of technologically advanced extraterrestrial life and the reasons they refrain from contacting Earth. It is one of many theoretical explanations for the Fermi paradox. The hypothesis states that extraterrestrial life intentionally avoids communication with Earth to allow for natural evolution and sociocultural development, and avoiding interplanetary contamination, similar to people observing animals at a zoo. The hypothesis seeks to explain the apparent absence of extraterrestrial life despite its generally accepted plausibility and hence the reasonable expectation of its existence. A variant on the zoo hypothesis suggested by the former MIT Haystack Observatory scientist John Allen Ball is the "laboratory" hypothesis, in which humanity is being subjected to experiments, with Earth serving as a giant laboratory.

The Great Filter is the idea that, in the development of life from the earliest stages of abiogenesis to reaching the highest levels of development on the Kardashev scale, there is a barrier to development that makes detectable extraterrestrial life exceedingly rare. The Great Filter is one possible resolution of the Fermi paradox.

Active SETI is the attempt to send messages to intelligent extraterrestrial life. Active SETI messages are predominantly sent in the form of radio signals. Physical messages like that of the Pioneer plaque may also be considered an active SETI message. Active SETI is also known as METI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert H. Gray</span>

Robert Hansen Gray was an American data analyst, author, and astronomer, and author of The Elusive Wow: Searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

The planetarium hypothesis, conceived in 2001 by Stephen Baxter, attempts to provide a solution to the Fermi paradox by holding that our astronomical observations represent an illusion, created by a Type III civilization capable of manipulating matter and energy on galactic scales. He postulates that we do not see evidence of extraterrestrial life because the universe has been engineered so that it appears empty of other life.

First Soviet-American Conference on Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence was a conference held on September 5–11, 1971, at the Byurakan Observatory, USSR. The conference was jointly organized by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences.

The aestivation hypothesis is a hypothesized solution to the Fermi paradox conceived in 2017 by Anders Sandberg, Stuart Armstrong and Milan M. Ćirković. The hypothesis, published on 27 April 2017, suggests advanced alien civilizations may be storing energy and aestivating, until the universe cools to better make use of the stored energy to perform tasks.

The dark forest hypothesis is the conjecture that many alien civilizations exist throughout the universe, but they are both silent and hostile, maintaining their undetectability for fear of being destroyed by another hostile and undetected civilization. It is one of many possible explanations of the Fermi paradox, which contrasts the lack of contact with alien life with the potential for such contact. The hypothesis derives its name from Liu Cixin's 2008 novel The Dark Forest, although the concept predates the novel.

The Berserker hypothesis, also known as the deadly probes scenario, is the idea that humans have not yet detected intelligent alien life in the universe because it has been systematically destroyed by a series of lethal Von Neumann probes. The hypothesis is named after the Berserker series of novels (1963–2005) written by Fred Saberhagen.

The Hart–Tipler conjecture is the idea that an absence of detectable Von Neumann probes is contrapositive evidence that no intelligent life exists outside of the Solar System. This idea was first proposed in opposition to the Drake equation in a 1975 paper by Michael H. Hart titled "Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth". Assuming that the probes traveled at 1/10 the speed of light and that no time was lost in building new ships upon arriving at the destination, Hart surmised that a wave of Von Neumann probes could cross the galaxy in approximately 650,000 years, a comparatively minimal span of time relative to the estimated age of the universe at 13.7 billion years. Hart’s argument was extended by cosmologist Frank Tipler in his 1981 paper entitled ‘Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist’.

The firstborn hypothesis is a proposed solution to the Fermi paradox which states that no extraterrestrial intelligent life has been discovered because humanity is the first form of intelligent life in the universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Byurakan Conference</span> Byurakan Conference in Armenia, 1964.

The Byurakan Conference was held at the Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory in Armenia in 1964, at the initiative of the young scientist Nikolai Kardashev. It brought together a large number of Soviet astronomers and astrophysicists to take stock of knowledge and results in the search for traces of extraterrestrial life. The possibility of detecting extraterrestrial civilizations with the instruments available at the time was also discussed, as well as the criteria for communication with extraterrestrial intelligence.

References

  1. ↑ Hart, Michael H. (1975). "An Explanation for the Absence of Extraterrestrials on Earth". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society . 16: 128–135. Bibcode:1975QJRAS..16..128H.
  2. ↑ Wesson, Paul (1990). "Cosmology, extraterrestrial intelligence, and a resolution of the Fermi-Hart paradox". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society . 31: 161–170. Bibcode:1990QJRAS..31..161W.
  3. ↑ Landis, Geoffrey A. (1998). "The Fermi Paradox: An Approach Based on Percolation Theory". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society . 51 (5): 163–166. Bibcode:1998JBIS...51..163L . Retrieved 2016-06-12.
  4. ↑ Gray, Robert H. (2015). "The Fermi paradox is neither Fermi's nor a paradox". Astrobiology . 15 (3): 195–199. arXiv: 1605.09187 . Bibcode:2015AsBio..15..195G. doi:10.1089/ast.2014.1247. ISSN   1531-1074. PMID   25719510. S2CID   8753391.
  5. ↑ Tipler, F.J. (September 1980). "Extraterrestrial intelligent beings do not exist". Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. 21: 267–281. Bibcode:1980QJRAS..21..267T.
  6. 1 2 Extraterrestrials: Where are They? 2nd ed., Eds. Ben Zuckerman and Michael H. Hart (Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1995)
  7. ↑ Alphonse Dougan, "Understanding Prophet Muhammad Beyond the Stereotypes", The Fountain , Issue 46 (April–June 2004).
  8. 1 2 Interview with Michael H. Hart by Russell K. Neili, April 14, 2000. Swain, Carol M.; Nieli, Russell K. (24 March 2003). Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism in America. Cambridge University Press. p. 201. ISBN   978-0-521-81673-1 – via Google Books. I (like other white separatists) resent being called a white supremacist.
  9. 1 2 3 "Californians for Population Stabilization Board Chair Ben Zuckerman Co-Edited Book with White Nationalist". Southern Poverty Law Center. 2017-04-19.
  10. ↑ Beirich, Heidi; Potok, Mark (2006). "Irreconcilable Differences". Intelligence Report. Southern Poverty Law Center. Archived from the original on 2014-04-18.
  11. ↑ Tilove, Jonathan (2006-03-03). "White Nationalist Conference Ponders Whether Jews and Nazis Can Get Along". The Forward . Retrieved 2009-04-08.
  12. ↑ "Statement of Purpose". Preserving Western Civilization. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  13. ↑ "Conference 2009". Preserving Western Civilization. Archived from the original on 2021-05-06. Retrieved 2020-06-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.