Submarines are one of the greatest inventions that man has ever designed. These vessels can support dozens of sailors for months on end without ever having to surface. Although modern submarines employ the same principles of physics as the first submarines, they are much more complex and are capable of far greater achievements.
This week I would like to respond to the commentary by William Powell ("No escape: a black hole is coming for you," The Triangle, Feb. 27, p. 18). He predicts doomsday in the form of freezing cold or scorching heat due to the orbit disturbance of the Earth by a black hole passing near the sun.
What is life? Something that has the following characteristics is considered: it moves, talks or makes noise. Basically, something that has some or one of its characteristics like us is "life" (according to us). If you see the movie Frankenstein, when the robot stands up (moves), the doctor exclaims "It's alive!" Well, how did he reach that conclusion? Why was it alive when it moved? Couldn't it have been alive all the time? Who knows? I believe that our perception of life has been and is something that moves, and therefore, to say that something is alive, something has "life" in it, is to imply that something moved.
In my opinion, a black hole is the most bizarre place to be in the entire universe. It's a place where surrealism rules and the ordinary rules of reality are contemptuously discarded, much like the secret conference room where the administration made its decision to enforce annual registration.
