Translator: Alberto Rojo Reviewer: Javier Yunes
A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for a TV show.
They called me a while earlier to do my makeup,
and the makeup artist, Margarita,
whom had seen me in previous videos,
asked me: "What's your sign?"
"Positive," I said, teasing her a little.
"Come on, don't be a smart aleck," she said,
"I'm sure you know what your sign is."
"And why do you want to know my sign?"
I asked, teasing her again.
"Because signs say a lot about a person," she said
"but you're a scientist,
so I bet you don't believe in astrology."
"And why do you think that scientists don't believe in astrology?", I asked her.
"To be honest, I don't really know", she said
"because there is a lot of science in astrology.
Science isn't just something you learn in a university", she said.
"There's plenty of arrogance amongst scientists
that discredit Astrology
without realizing it's just a different science from the one you learned."
You're right, Margarita,
when you speak about scientists' arrogance,
that they're pretty selfish.
But science, as a collective endeavor
is of great humbleness,
with mechanisms of fraud control
and academic dishonesty.
And there is just one science
I mean, science is like a game,
with its set of rules.
And just like there is one soccer
and one tennis, there is one science.
I could refer to soccer as chess,
but Lionel Messi would not agree.
And even more, Margarita, I said,
I think that astrology
does not agree with certain features
and certain rules
that define scientific knowledge.
"Such as?", she replied.
An important difference, I said,
is the attitude
of the scientific community
towards its discipline,
compared with the astrologers' community.
Astrology did not revise its theory
as new knowledge was incorporated,
and as new unresolved problems appeared
among theories of the time.
Astrology is indifferent to puzzles,
and refuses to compare itself
with alternative theories, I said.
"And what would be an alternative theory for you?", she said.
In a good tone, right?
Psychology for example.
Don't you think possible
that my personality is determined
by my genetics,
or by my surroundings,
rather than by a distant star
whose light I see today
but that didn't even exist when I was born?
Furthermore,
statistics from big populations, mostly from the Northern Hemisphere,
show distinct traits for different dates of birth.
Libras
tend to be more balanced than the rest.
Is that due to the constellations?
Or is it that at the end of the harvest, the nutrients are better
and winter diseases have not yet arrived?
Everything points to the latter.
Or those born in September,
in average tend to be more successful.
Is that because they are Virgos?
Or is it that the school schedule
starts in September,
and those born in that month are the oldest of the class,
are more self-confident and in average
have a better cognitive development?
"But Alberto,
Astrology has equations,
you are a scientist, it should interest you."
Yes, it is true that physics uses mathematics,
and mysteriously, math is the description,
the language to describe the regularities of the world.
But not everything mathematical is scientific.
I could decorate a cake with equations,
and that would not make it a scientific cake.
(Laughter) (Applause)
Or, I can use sophisticated algorithms
for Kabbalah
or to win at a Casino.
Mathematics is a language,
and nonsense can be expressed in any language
In Physics we compare theory with evidence
and if prediction and theory disagree
we revise the theory.
Physics is vulnerable to be proven incorrect.
"OK, kind of..." said Margarita, looking at me
"but the Moon has an effect on the tides, doesn't it?"
"And we are water
so it must have an effect over us."
It is true, there is an effect,
but quantitatively insignificant, I said to her.
If I take into account the Moon's size
and its distance to the Earth
the gravitational effect over me
when the Moon crosses the sky
is the same gravitational effect of the (Buenos Aires) Obelisk
when I cross the 9 de Julio Avenue.
The number is the same.
And with the planets the effect is even smaller.
Those effects are ignored by astrologers.
"Not quite", said Margarita.
"There are a lot of fake astrologers around."
"What you have to do
is watch So-and-So's video, a genius,
a very prestigious guy."
So I grabbed my cell and started downloading the genius' video.
(Laughter)
And meanwhile she googled me,
and read that I was born on February 15th.
(Laughter)
"You had to be an Aquarius!", she said.
(Applause)
But, you know, I'm not really an Aquarius.
She looked at me and said "What?"
Days and nights don´t last the same, I said
This is due to the tilt in the Earth's rotation axis around itself
with respect to the revolution plane of the Earth´s orbit around the Sun.
Without such tilt
days would last the same as nights,
there would be no seasons.
Now, even with that tilt
there are two special days during the year
where that needle is perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun.
Those are the equinoxes
The only two days in a year
in which the day lasts the same as the night: equi - nox.
In Ptolemy´s time
during the equinox in March
on the other side of the Sun
there was the constellation of Aries,
and that was the starting point of the Zodiac.
Now, it happens that this invisible needle that points to the Northern Star
is not strictly fixed
but, due to subtle gravitational reasons
it describes a cone,
and the tip of that cone
completes a full circle
in 26 thousand years.
This means that every two thousand years
the equinox is displaced by 30 degrees,
which corresponds to one month.
So in reality, now,
those born on March 21st
are not an Aries but a Pisces,
and I, born in February,
am not an Aquarius but a Capricorn.
And even more,
if two people are born
in the same place
the same date
and the same time
but one year apart
they differ in their cosmic coordinate
by 22 thousand miles.
That means that there is no uniqueness
between the moment of birth and the position of the stars.
Margarita didn´t express any interest.
(Laughter)(Applause)
So,
I started watching the genius' video
(Laughter)
It caught my attention
his use of evidence based information.
The guy says:
"The universe has existed for 15 billion years,
there are billions of galaxies, the universe is expanding."
That is recent information,
which is part of the revision of the scientific view of the world,
that didn't modify the astrological view.
And that is a crucial point in pseudoscience:
the use of current scientific information to validate an ancient view
already discarded by the scientific view of the world.
Then the genius says: "Everything is connected with everything",
importing, or smuggling, an idea from quantum physics.
One of the fundamental contributions of quantum physics
is that particles are indistinguishable.
So why discriminate
between an atom from a distant star
and an atom from an object in our surroundings?
Because astrology is supported by the Aristotelian notion
that we are the focal point of the universe,
and that the celestial world, in its cosmic purity
is different from the terrestrial world
made of fire, earth, air and water.
But today we know that this isn't true. Everything is made of atoms.
A Carbon atom from a distant star
is identical to a Carbon atom from my skin,
and to a Carbon atom from a rock in Mars,
and a Carbon atom
from the plastic case of a kitchen appliance.
That is to say,
the influence that an atom from Saturn´s ring can have
over my destiny
is the same as the influence from my grandmother's blender.
(Laughter) (Applause)
So if we take into account the total interconnection,
I would not only have Saturn in seventh house,
but will also have my washing machine in Aries.
(Laughter)
And I'm serious.
Moreover, today we know that we are not the only planetary system.
There are other planets with stars,
and we are part of those plants' skies.
And just like they, hypothetically, determine our fate,
we determine theirs.
Margarita says: "Hmm.
But isn't there faith in science?"
In fact, she was making a subtle observation.
Because in science we accept
without proof,
that mathematics is the language
that describes the regularities of the universe.
So, I said, partly yes.
"You see?", she said.
(Laughter)
Yes, you are right.
But it is not a faith in the biblical sense,
of Hebrews 11:1, where faith is "the evidence of things not seen."
As science inquired into the anatomy of the cosmos,
it exposed
a causal skeleton way richer and more complex
than the one posed by astrology.
And thanks to that knowledge, today we have
satellites, vaccines against polio,
cell phones, electricity,
anesthesia for toothaches.
Which means,
astrology, after all,
does not pretend to be a faith based system,
it is rather a faith disguised as science.
"If I am an Aquarius I'm creative."
That line uses a cause and effect relation.
Or "it is practically impossible
that a Moon in Libra
opens herself completely
to her ascendant in Scorpio
from two and a half years of age."
What is the basis of such a statement?
that I took, verbatim, from an astrology conference.
To me it is based on the idea,
pretentious to some extent,
that the universe cares
about my existence and my psyche
when in reality
each progress made by science emphasizes our insignificance in the Cosmos.
I'm not special
I am just one more being, from just one species
from just one planet
in the vastness of a Cosmos
which is completely indifferent to me.
That is the lesson of astronomy,
which, at the beginning, was related to astrology,
but from which it gradually distanced itself
stripping itself away from gods and magical thinking,
and not because there isn't magic
in reality.
Yesterday's magic is today's technology.
You know what I think Margarita?, I said.
I think that part of the responsibility
is in an education system
that instills the idea of science
as something rigid, cold and irrevocable,
rather than bringing us closer,
it separates us from the poetry of reality.
Science is like precision mining
of world's mysteries,
that enriches our sense of awe,
that connects us, and unites us.
The joy of understanding
can be deeply spiritual, Margarita.
"But Alberto, astrology was really helpful to me!"
I perfectly understand, Margarita.
Music for me is helpful
as a language that touches my emotions.
But I can't ask a Bach prelude
to cure my herniated disc.
But when I am euphoric
or melancholic
or sad,
a Bach's prelude
gives me great peace and relief.
So, I understand you
when you use astrology to re-signify the past
or calm anxieties about the future
that you cannot fully understand,
but Margarita, I ask you personally
do not use astrology for things to which it does not apply.
Astrology will not help us
find new sources of renewable energy
or help us build a bridge.
So, don't use it to decide the date of your appendix surgery
or other important decisions of your life.
Please, do not use it for that.
See looked at my with mild approval
while she removed the apron because I had to go to the interview.
I felt that we had reached a point of convergence.
We said goodbye
kindly
and I walked towards the corridor,
and as I was walking away I heard her say: "Alberto,
you have the Moon in Leo, I bet you."
(Laughter)
Thank you.
(Applause)