“The Cosmic Philosophy”
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
A selection of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky`s works, translated into English
1935
The article, written on May 8, 1935, i.e. shortly before the death of the genius scientist, summarizes in a brief form his science-fiction reflections on the possible inhabitation of the cosmos by intelligent beings. First published in the magazine “Technics for Youth” (№ 4, 1981) with a foreword by candidate of philosophical sciences N. K. Gavryushin, according to a typewritten copy corrected by K. E. Tsiolkovsky himself (Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences, fond 555, inventory 1, case 535).
The Cosmic Philosophy
We doubt that life is widespread everywhere
Of course, on the planets of our system it is possible, if not the absence of life, then its primitive, weak, perhaps ugly, and, in any case, backwardness from the Earth, as being in particularly favorable conditions of temperature and matter. But the milky ways, or spiral nebulae have each billions of suns. A group of them contain millions of billions of billions of luminaries. Each of them has many planets, and at least one of them has a planet in favorable conditions. So at least a million billion billion planets have life and intelligence no less perfect than our planet. We have limited ourselves to a group of spiral nebulae, that is, the universe available to us. But it’s infinite. How can we deny life in that infinity?
What would be the meaning of the universe if it were not filled with an organic, intelligent, sentient world? Why would there be endless blazing suns? What would their energy be for? Why would it go to waste? Do the stars shine to decorate the sky, to please man, as was thought in the Middle Ages, the time of the Inquisition and religious madness.
We are inclined to think also that the highest development of life belongs to the Earth
But its animals and man are relatively new and are in a period of development. The Sun will continue to exist as a source of life for billions of years and mankind will have to advance and progress in this unimaginable period – in body, mind, morality, knowledge and technical power. Something brilliant and unimaginable lies ahead of it. At the end of a thousand million years, nothing imperfect like modern plants, animals and man will exist on Earth. One good thing will remain, to which reason and its power will inevitably lead us.
But are all the planets of space as young as the Earth? Are they all in a period of development, in a period of imperfection? As we know from astronomy, the ages of suns are varied, from just-born rarefied giant luminaries to extinguished black dwarfs. Older ones are many billions of years old, younger suns have not even given birth to their planets yet.
What is the conclusion? It turns out that there must be planets of all ages: from blazing like suns to dead, thanks to the extinction of their suns. Some planets, then, have not yet cooled down, others have primitive life, others have grown to the development of higher animals on them, others have already a mind similar to that of man, others have stepped forward, and so on. Hence it is evident that we must renounce the opinion that the most perfect life belongs to our planet.
Yet we come to a conclusion not altogether comforting: in the universe imperfect, unintelligent, and tormented life is as common as the highest intelligent, powerful, and beautiful life.
But is this conclusion correct?
No, it’s not, and we’re about to find out. We have found that the ages of the planets are most varied. From this it follows that there are planets which, in the development of intelligence and power, have reached the highest degree and have surpassed all planets. They, having gone through all the pains of evolution, knowing their sad past, their former imperfection, wanted to spare other planets the pains of development.
If we, earthlings, already dream of interplanetary travel, what have the planets, which are billions of years older than us, achieved in this respect! For them, this travel is as simple and easy as for us to travel by rail from one city to another.
On these advanced, mature planets, reproduction is millions of times faster than on Earth. However, it is regulated at will: if you want a perfect population, they will breed them quickly and in any number.
Visiting immature worlds with primitive animal life around them, they destroy it as much as possible without suffering and replace it with their perfect breed. Is this good, is it not cruel?
If it were not for their intervention, the agonizing self-extermination of animals would have gone on for millions of years, as it still does on Earth. But their intervention – in a few years, even days destroys all suffering and puts in its place intelligent, powerful and happy life. Clearly, the latter is millions of times better than the former.
What follows from this? And that there is no imperfect and suffering life in the cosmos: it is eliminated by the intelligence and power of the advanced planets. If there is any, it is on a few planets. In the general harmony of the universe it is imperceptible, as imperceptible as a speck of dust on a snow-white field.
But how can we understand the presence of suffering on Earth? Why don’t the higher planets eliminate our miserable life, stop it and replace it with their own, beautiful one? There are other planets similar to Earth. Why do they suffer? In a perfect world, besides the prevailing progress, there is also regression, a backtracking. Besides, the flowers of life are so beautiful, so varied, that the best of them must be nurtured, wait for seeds and fruits. Though the advanced planets are ahead of the others, yet, after all, this may be due to their old age.
There may be late planets with better fruits. It is necessary to replenish the regress of the universe with these its late fruits. That is why a small number of planets that promise to produce extraordinary results are left uninterfered with. Earth is among them. She suffers, but not without reason. Its fruits must be high if it is left to its own development and inevitable torment. Again I will say that the sum of these sufferings is imperceptible in the ocean of happiness of the whole cosmos.
Others think: we have years of life and decillions of years of nothingness!
Is not this, in fact, nothingness, since being in the mass of nothingness is imperceptible and the same as a drop in an ocean of water.
But the point is that nothingness is not marked by time and sensation. Therefore, it is as if it does not exist, but life alone exists. A piece of matter is subject to an innumerable series of lives, though separated by vast intervals of time, yet merging subjectively into one continuous and, as we have proved, beautiful life.
What is the conclusion? And that, the total biological life of the universe is not only high, but appears to be continuous. Every piece of matter lives this life continuously, since the intervals of long non-existence pass imperceptibly for it: the dead have no time and receive it only when they come to life, i.e. when they take the highest organic form of a conscious animal.
It may be said: is organic life available to the centers of suns, planets, gas nebulae and comets. Is not their matter doomed to eternal death, i.e., non-existence? And the Earth, and we, and all humans, and all organic modern life on Earth was once the substance of the Sun.
However, that did not prevent us from getting out of there and getting life. Matter is continually mixing: some parts of it go into the suns and others come out of them. Every drop of matter, wherever it is, will inevitably have its turn to live. It will have to wait a long time. But this waiting and huge time exist only for the living and there is their illusion. Our drop will not experience the agonizing wait and will not notice billions of years.
Again they say: I will die, my substance will be scattered all over the globe, how can I come to life?
Before your birth your substance was also scattered, but this did not prevent you from being born. After every death, the same thing happens – dispersion. But, as we see, it does not prevent reanimation. Of course, each revival has its own form, dissimilar to the previous ones. We have always lived and will always live, but each time in a new form and, of course, without memory of the past.
The coming thousands and millions of years will perfect the nature of man and his social organization.
Mankind will turn as it were into one powerful being under the rule of its president. This is the best of all men both physically and mentally. But if the members of society are high in their qualities, how high is the highest, scientifically chosen of them?
The populations of other planets are inevitably organized in this way.
The powerful population of the highest planet of each solar system will have access not only to the planets of that system, but also to the whole circum-solar space. It is exploited for the benefit of the population, as is all solar energy. Clearly, one planet is a crumb in the solar system. It does not form the center. The population is dispersed throughout the entire circum-solar space. Not only each planet is subject to unification, but also their entire aggregate and the entire etheric population living outside the planets in artificial dwellings. So, after the unification of each planet, the unification of each solar system will inevitably come.
Their power is so great that they communicate with each other not only by special telegrams, but also in person, directly, as acquaintances. Thousands of years are required for this journey, but also thousands of years live other inhabitants of solar systems, for billions of years of the coming development of any planet will give the population of each and indefinitely long life.
Catastrophes of suns, their explosions, temperature increases and decreases force the population to foresee everything and know everything about neighboring suns in order to move away from the threatening danger in advance.
A union of neighboring suns, unions of unions, etc. is formed. Where the limit to these unions is it is difficult to say, for the universe is infinite.
We see countless presidents of varying degrees of perfection. And since there is no end to these categories, there is no limit to personal – individual perfection. If there are hundreds, thousands of presidents of different ranks, if an ordinary member of society is already incomprehensibly high for us, people, then how high should be the tenth, hundredth, thousandth president.
We have so far spoken only of things and beings of ordinary matter.
It contains 92 or more elements, and the latter are made up of a combination of hydrogen atoms.
So we’ve talked about hydrogen beings, the hydrogen world.
But isn’t there some other kind of matter? We have such a substance – little comprehensible light-bearing ether, filling all the space between the suns and making matter and the universe continuous.
There is reason to suppose that the suns and in general all bodies lose matter the more, the hotter they are. Where does this matter go? We think that it passes or decomposes into simpler and more elastic matter, which is distributed in the cosmos. Maybe it’s aether or other non-hydrogen matter.
But where did the suns, gaseous nebulae, and the whole hydrogen world come from? If matter decomposes, then there must be a reverse process – its synthesis, i.e. the formation from its fragments of newly known to us hydrogen matter of 92 varieties.
We observe reversibility in all mechanical, physical, chemical and biological phenomena. Is it necessary to talk about it? Who is not familiar with the phenomena of reversibility, the circular process, when what has been destroyed reappears. I mean this phenomenon in a broad sense, in an approximate and not exactly mathematical sense, because exactly nothing is repeated. In these phenomena, however, the law of conservation of energy is observed. But here the hidden potential intra-atomic energy of matter intervenes and the phenomenon sometimes becomes confused. This is how radioactivity, at first, confused scientists. Here are the simplest examples of reversibility. A higher velocity of a body changes into a lower velocity and vice versa. A liquid becomes a vapor and back again. A chemical combination occurs and vice versa. All 92 elements decompose into hydrogen and from the latter 92 elements are obtained. Organic matter passes into inorganic matter (destruction, death) and inorganic matter into organic matter.
So, probably, too, the decomposition of suns in one place is followed by their formation in another.
Since reversibility is so common, why should it not also be allowed in the case of the destruction of hydrogen matter. It is converted into energy, but we must think that energy is a special kind of the simplest matter, which sooner or later will again give the hydrogen matter known to us.
What is the very atom of hydrogen, the beginning of all known matter?
It is created by the elapsed time, which is infinitely great. Consequently, the atom is infinitely complex. Hydrogen had simpler parents, even simpler grandparents, etc.
Isn’t this similar to the origin of man? Weren’t his ancestors more and more simple as we move away from our time. Man’s ancestor is hydrogen, and his closer ancestors are 92 elements. But man is only a few hundred million billion years removed from these ancestors. That’s so short compared to infinity! What are the ancestors of hydrogen, if we take them back a few decillion years?
In short, if we divide infinite time into a series of infinities, each of these infinities will correspond to its own matter, its own suns, its own planets, and its own beings. Each epoch in relation to all previous ones is grossly material, and the same epoch in relation to subsequent ones is ephemeral. They are all material, but conventionally, because of the extreme difference in the densities of these worlds, some may be called spiritual, others material. With respect to our hydrogen world, all previous epochs are spiritual. And ours, when the infinity of time passes and the epoch of more dense matter comes – will become spiritual. It is the same, but it is relative.
Is there anything left of the previous epochs: simpler matter, light etheric beings, etc.? We see light ether. Is it not one of the fragments of primitive matter? We see sometimes extraordinary phenomena. Are they not the result of the activity of surviving intelligent beings of other epochs?
Is it possible that there are traces of them? Let’s take an example. Our terrestrial creatures began to emerge as the Earth’s crust cooled. But some of them grew to higher animals, and others remained the same infusoria and bacteria, as they were, the time that passed the same, but what a difference in achievements. So, maybe, a part of the substance of each epoch left a certain amount of peculiar to it matter and peculiar to it living beings.
It turns out that among us and simultaneously with us there are innumerable other cosmoses, other beings, which conventionally we can call immaterial, or spirits.
What are they: are they perfect or do they represent ugly phenomena like our unfortunate earthly animals?
We have already proved that the mature intelligence of our epoch, emitted by the cosmos, eliminates everything imperfect.
So, our hydrogen epoch encapsulates the beautiful, the strong, the powerful, the intelligent and the happy. I am talking about the general condition of the epoch. Also the mind of other epochs has highlighted one good thing. So we are surrounded by perfect spirits.
Another question: do they have influence on us and on each other? In fact, the spirits of different infinities are all material. But matter cannot help but influence matter. Hence, the influence of spirits on us and on each other is very possible. A crude example: the wind stirs the water, the oceans change the land.
Can we turn into these spirits and live their lives? Matter either complicates or decomposes. Both are happening at the same time and always. The more time passes, the more chance there is of producing different matter: simpler or more complex. In the first case, spirits may emerge from our matter; in the second case, denser matter than hydrogen may emerge. Of course, the most possible and closest is the emergence from the 92 elements. The second is the emergence in the elements of the nearest infinity. Even more time is needed for the emergence in the elements of the second order infinity, more distant, etc.
Let us summarize the above
A. Organic life is widespread throughout the universe.
B. The most important development of life does not belong to Earth.
C. The intelligence and power of the advanced planets of the universe, make her drown in perfection. In short – its organic life, with imperceptible exceptions – is mature, and therefore powerful and beautiful.
D. This life to every creature seems continuous, since nothingness is not perceptible.
E. Everywhere in the cosmos there are widespread social organizations which are governed by presidents of different dignities. One president is higher than the other and thus there is no limit to personal or individual development. If every mature member of the cosmos is incomprehensible to us, how is the president of the 1st, 2nd, 10th, hundredth rank incomprehensible?
F. The infinity of elapsed time makes us assume the existence of a number of more peculiar worlds separated by infinities of a lower order. These worlds, becoming more complex, have left some of their substance and some of their animals in a primitive form. They are perfect in their kind and may be called conventionally, on account of their lovely density, spirits. We are surrounded by somnas of spirits of different epochs and can turn into them as well, although it is infinitely more probable to arise in the form of dense modern matter. And yet we are not guaranteed against transformation into conditional spirits.
Hence we can see the infinite complexity of the phenomena of the cosmos, which, of course, we cannot comprehend in due measure, i.e. it is even higher than we think. As the mind expands, knowledge increases and the universe is revealed to it more and more.
Fluctuations, doubts, questions.
There are phenomena that can only be explained by the intervention of other beings. For example, a reasonable and moderate appeal to the higher powers is performed by someone, especially when the petitioner has gained their favor and really needs support. From our point of view this is, if not quite clear, possible.
But here is how to understand help from deceased relatives and high people who have passed away from our lives, when you turn to them, tormented by misfortunes and injustice? According to our theory they live a blissful life, but they lose all their past and you among them. Therefore, there is no point in turning to them.
How can they help us?
It is possible that they, taking another image, remain observers of our life. But who will help them to point out their kinship, if they themselves, like all others, have lost their past?
And the kinship itself has no meaning beyond the grave. One man, of a very good life, told me that he always received help in his sufferings from his relatives. But when he wanted to make sure of it unnecessarily, making experiments, he immediately lost support, i.e. he did not receive a response.
Are our comforting conclusions (monism) quite correct?
Does not something of man, some part of his earthly nervous life, remain after death? But then we must allow the same for all animals, though in the most varied and inferior degree. Modern science cannot recognize the possibility of such remnants, i.e., remnants of memory from any existence. Finally, if it were possible, we would have a memory of innumerable past existences in the present life. This is inconceivable because no memory can contain the infinity of past sensations.
It is possible that help is given not by relatives (which makes no scientific sense), but by other beings seeing our suffering. This is quite permissible. We only think on relatives, and it is not about them.
I have worked a lot on the expediency of nature and have come to a positive conclusion. It is a long topic and deserves special research. Someday I’ll share my work.
But if the Universe is expedient, why not to allow, though absolutely incomprehensible for us, but useful for mankind.
So on Earth, bad deeds find retribution that comes naturally out of themselves. But there are also crimes that go unpunished until death. Everyone knows this and therefore does not refrain from doing bad things. Expediency and the common good require that man should fear the slightest deviation from the truth. It would be good if he were assured of retribution after death, a steady retribution at all costs. It would deter many from crime. It is good, useful, expedient. But since it is, why shouldn’t it be!
Scientifically, retribution seems impossible to us; ethically, it is a different matter.
Also useful would be rewards for exploits – by all means: if not in this life, then in the next. From our scientific point of view, we have them (monism). It is only unpleasant that these rewards are given indifferently to both the perpetrator and the selfless worker.
How to suppose, for example, that the perpetrators of imperialist wars receive the same reward as Galileo, Copernicus, Giordano Bruno, Gauss, and so on. How many victims and executioners… and the result is one happiness and perfect life after death for all. The idea of rewards is useful, but not scientific.
In terms of expediency, however, it is acceptable.
Different faiths spread the idea of rewards and punishments. Many believed in them, and so the idea was useful at one time.
And now the masses believe them. However, science cannot confirm them.
It is possible that they, having played their expedient role, will be dissipated by knowledge, and replaced by some other beliefs, acting also in favor of a good life. For example, gratitude to nature, which promises supreme bliss. Gratitude, delight of the future posthumous life can also serve to refrain from evil, as well as the fear of punishment.
Many people beg the higher powers for forgiveness and a better posthumous destiny for their loved ones: parents, spouses, children, friends. They don’t really believe, but their love for their relatives causes them to alarm the higher powers. Many rationalists cannot detach themselves from such prayers. Science considers it pointless, since all the dead, indifferently, must be immersed in the perfection of the universe.
We doubt science as well. Some innate instinct makes us-though vaguely, not firmly, hesitantly-believe in the reasonableness of our prayers. Of course, science is constantly evolving, does not stand in one place, has not said the last word. Just in case, people do as if incongruous, not believing also in science: in its infallibility and finality. In any case, if we are wrong, there is no great harm from such mistakes.
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