Evaluation of people. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. 1934

tsiolkovsky_smileLet us start with the most sublime. Only history serves us as a guide.

Let us distribute people on grounds of their value, starting from the top.

Love of a few, hate of many and indifference of the majority. Their destiny is, having done their duty, to die young due to the high and mighties. A cross, a guillotine, gallows, a bullet, all sorts of torture – that is their fate. They leave neither wives, nor offspring (Giordano Bruno).

Hundreds and thousands of years pass, and fame of the tortured grows, their influence continues after their death. It yields majestic beneficent results. Humankind raise them to the rank of gods.

Some of the despised, persecuted, arrested, sentenced to penal servitude, but nevertheless dying a natural death. Their dignity grows from the day of their death and reaches a high value many centuries after (Hamilton, Kepler).

And here are genii of a bit lower rank. They are not killed, not tortured to death, but forgotten. Their works are rejected, or decay in cellars. Hundreds of years after their death they are accidentally unveiled. Dignity of a forgotten genius is restored. It also increases with centuries. Leave no offspring (Mendel).

And here is the fourth level of extraordinary people. These obtain some fame at the end of life. Youth spent in pain, frustration, poverty, in prisons. But they die a natural death, although deprivation, exhaustion, humiliation and hunger significantly shorten their lives. Leave no offspring. Examples: Kepler, Copernicus, Galileo, Mendeleev, Lamarck. Their fame is much greater after death. It grows from century to century.

We also have people who reach success in middle age.  They endure a lot as well, but glory and correct assessment come earlier. They are comforted and rewarded with it, although in old age. Often they reach wealth and power by the end of life. Their lineage continues rarely.

At the sixth level of outstanding people we see the following: quick success in youth, honor and wealth. Their works are highly valued after death as well, but do not live for hundreds of years. Offspring, if any, is miserable.

The seventh level: loud practical success, career, conquests, throne. Highly praised only while alive. Estimation is ambivalent. After death, it falls and reaches negative value.

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Creatures from Different Stages of Evolution. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.









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Planets are inhabited by living creatures. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. 1933

tsiolkovsky_smileMany well-educated and worldwide-known scientists disbelieve existence of animals on other planets on the grounds that nobody saw them and they do not show themselves. Likewise, for a long time Europeans believed that there is no America and people living there.

Here we want to prove the contrary: it is quite impossible to doubt inhabitance of numberless planets.

There is undoubted knowledge, although currently it is impossible to verify it. For example, chemical composition of suns’ surface is known in theory. However, we have not hold a single crumb of their substance in our hands. Much is known about celestial bodies. For example, their sizes, distances, densities. But nobody measured all this directly, and only theoretical verification of this knowledge is possible. Nobody saw atoms, however, they undoubtedly exist. Similarly, there are solid grounds for complete confidence in existence of numerous units of nonearthly habitants.

Which are these grounds? We will name them.

  1. All these trillions of suns and all rarefied gaseous masses of the above consist of the same substance as the Earth is composed of.
  1. All planets separated from suns. Therefore, they are also composed of the same matter as the matter which our planet is formed of.
  1. All celestial bodies are subject to gravity. Therefore, weight is found on all planets.
  1. There are liquids and gases on all major planets.
  1. All planets are exposed to the same rays of their suns.
  1. Almost all planets have day-and-night cycles and seasons.

It is evident from the above that planets from various solar systems differ from one another only quantitatively, not qualitatively. Well, they are of different size, have different gravity, different depth of their oceans, different atmospheric depth, they have different mean temperature, different duration of day-and-night cycles and year, different harshness of climate, etc. But, certainly, there are planets extremely similar to the Earth.

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Creatures higher than a Man. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. 1939

tsiolkovsky_smileDevelopment (phylogenesis) of organic world have not ceased on the Earth, especially development of a man.  A thousand of years ago he was not the same as he is now, 5,000 years back – he was even simpler, 10,000 years back he was close to animals, and 100,000 years ago he was a relative of apes. Going further back, we will reach mammals, reptiles, fishes, worms and bacteria.

And a man has passed through all these stages, before he became the nowaday “tsar” of animals. It is clear that in 1000, 10,000 years he will be a different creature, of a higher type.  Since before we saw only his progress in regard to weight, complexity, intelligence, knowledge and power, in future we could not expect it to be otherwise. So, we expect for higher creatures on the Earth. On a million of billions of another planets there also must be animals. What are they?  On the Earth their height depends on their generical (phylogenetic) age, and so is on another planets. But age of the Earth is extraordinarily young, particularly, age of humankind. Babies, in general, are the fewer in numbers, the less they have lived.   So, there are not so many of such infantile planets as Earth in the Universe. Most of planets, in particular, their humankind, have attained mature age, so will the Earth – in course of time.

In this mature age, animals must be perfect as to body, feelings, mind, knowledge and power.

This power must be enormous. Even now a Man hopes not only to subdue nature, but also to travel among planets and stars of the Universe, so how inconceivably high will his real power be – and, the more so, power of mature planetary creatures?

Here you are: the first category of higher animals; almost all creatures in the Universe are of this kind.

But these creatures are not identical; the same as animals and people on our planet are different. All people will be high, but the degree of this highness is far from being unvaried. Similarly, perfection of habitants of any planet is not equal: the select few are higher than ordinary ones. But on each of the planets there are different levels of selection – someway, different “commanders”. All these people vary in degree of merit. The highest degree will belong to the very last one, chosen from the chosen, the most eligible creature of the planet. He, together with a council, manages the entire planet. How high must he be?!  It will happen on the Earth; it took place on vast majority of planets long ago.

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Conditional Truth. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. 1932

tsiolkovsky_smileThere is no real (absolute) truth, because it is based upon total comprehension of space. But there is no such total comprehension, and there will never be.  Science that gives knowledge continuously moves forward, it rejects or asserts the old and finds out the new.  Every century changes science – does not reject, just changes its content more or less, deleting one and adding other. There will be no end to this process, as there is no end to centuries and to development of brain.

So, it means that truth can only be conditional, temporal and variable.

Religious faiths name their dogmas truth. But can any faith be truth? Faiths number in thousands. They conflict with one another, are often disproved by science and that is why cannot be taken even for conditional truth. Political beliefs also disagree more or less. Therefore, we will say the same about them. Philosophical musings created world-views. Their disagreement also compels us to view them as personal opinions. Some philosophers accepted nothing but exact scientific knowledge for their conclusions. But, similarly, their conclusions do not deserve the name of conditional truth, because did not agree inter se.  Finally, there is not a single person that would not understand truth in his own way. So many men, so many truths. How can it be truth!

However, we should initially agree about what we want to denote by conditional truth.

Philosophers, sages and scientists, certainly, assist distribution of knowledge about the Universe and thereby refine people’s idea of conditional truth.

Conditional truth can be global, national, town, district, community, village, family and personal.

Personal conditional truth is what a man acquires in various ways and considers to be the best, the most correct and the most fair. Generally, it is the lowest sort of conditional truth. It changes with age and experience of a man. Village truth is the one which a village is ready to accept and submit to.

How can it be? A village, with a considerable majority vote (0.6, 0.7, 0.8, etc.), elects a person from this social environment whom it considers to be the highest in all respects. The village authorizes him to produce a code of truth, as far as he is able to do it. The approved code will be conditional village truth. Certainly, it changes with the change of the person elected. This truth yet stands some higher than personal views of ordinary villagers. I mean averages.

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