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Today I got my haircut by a large woman with an even larger hairdo. She did an OK job, which is good, because I have a job interview tomorrow at a hi-fi audio store. Hopefully it goes well! I have some bad news to report as well, namely that I am an ass and didn’t realize it. I didn’t tip my hairdresser, because I didn’t know that it was customary to tip them. This stems from the fact that I’ve only had my hair cut by people who aren’t family members or friends a few times in my life. So to that mystery woman, sorry I didn’t tip you. You probably said dirty things about me to your coworkers after I left, and you were right to do so. I’ll tip next time, I promise. Thanks to Madalene for informing me of my faux pa.

As many of your probably read, NASA finally ended communication with the Pioneer 10 spacecraft today. The craft is now 12 Billion kilometers from Earth, well outside the solar system. They are still able to detect it’s carrier signal, but they are unable to lock on for telemetry. Additionally, Pioneer 10’s radioisotope power source is probably reaching the end of its lifetime as well. As Pioneer 10 falls silent, it will fly as a ghost ship, arriving at the great red star Aldebaran in about 2 million years.

The Pioneer series spacecraft were relatively simple, but were solidly built. Pioneer 10 completed its primary mission objectives, including flybys of Jupiter, in its first 21 months after its launch on March 3rd, 1972. It has been a great workhorse since then, and it has been said that NASA really got their money’s worth on that one.

In a time when troubles here on Earth are pressing, there is a tendency to take our interest off the skies. There is too much to worry about here, we feel, and we look away from space exploration, and look to war/social problems/economic issues, etc. I’d like to put forth an idea put in my head by the late great Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize winning physicist with unique and amazing views on science. He saw science not as something you do in a lab with grant money, but as something you do because you have a desire to learn. A desire to uncover the great mysteries of the universe. He never felt that he had to justify his research in terms of practical applications. While much of his work resulted in practical applications, and even nefarious applications, including the atomic bomb, he never tried to define his research on those terms. Practicality, he felt, was not part of science. Science is about recognizing that the universe is an amazing place, filled with beauty and wonder, and recognizing that we don’t know but a tiny fraction of all there is to know about it. Each bit we peel back, each time we learn a little more, we see something more wonderous than we had seen before. We learn that no matter how sure we are of something, that there could be a discovery just around the corner that could prove us all wrong. Doubt keeps us humble, and keeps us flexible. When we perform research that has no outright practical application, we aren’t wasting time, or wasting money. We are expanding our knowledge, and honing our ability to separate truth from fantasy. Richard was wary of anyone who claimed they had all the answers, in any subject, because he knew that no one has all the answers. By reminding ourselves through scientific discovery that answers come through careful examination and creative new ideas, we remind ourselves to be more humble in our lives, and to base our political, personal and moral decisions on the idea that learning comes through personal experience, and careful examination of evidence, rather than straight from a book, or from a leader’s mouth.

Richard didn’t realize it at the time, but his philosophies are very Buddhist in nature. Buddhism has no dogma, no absolutes. The Buddha himself continually reminded his followers that they shouldn’t take anything he said as the truth, unless they learned through experience and contemplation that it matched their views and understanding. When people ask the Dali Lama for advice, he gives suggestions, but only suggestions. He says, “This is what works for me, and I have seen it work for others. Try it if you like, but if it isn’t right for you, or you think it should be changed, please do so.”

I’m rambling, but the point I want to make is that space exploration isn’t useless. We might get practical benefits from it in the future, but the reason it is valuable isn’t because of the promise of riches, but because of the opening of the mind that occurs when we peel back more layers of this wondrous universe. Pioneer 10 was one of our first successful attempts to reach out into the sky. When I imagine what 12 billion kilometers looks like, and I imagine a piece of humanity hurtling into deep space, carrying a seed of knowledge and exploration, I’m filled with awe at the vastness of the universe, and I feel renewed in my desire to uncover even a fraction of its secrets. Its a reminder that we still know so little, a reminder to be humble when we think of political and religious leaders (and even some scientific leaders who have perhaps lost sight) who claim to have the solution to all the problems. A reminder that knowledge comes only when we leave ourselves open to doubt. When we feel like we know everything, we turn a blind eye to the truth.

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