A Clutter of Electric Flying Spiders

In May I had shoulder surgery and it’s improving but I am still nowhere near ready to climb rocks so I cheer others that can climb. In this case I am talking about spiders that I have seen flying over the mountains. 

They don't have wings.  

Some spiders fly using static electricity and this is one of the coolest and perhaps useless bits of scientific trivia I have heard in quite some time. The fact that I just learned this last month indicates the bulk of societal priorities are caught in a web of mundanity. Darwin wrote about spiders flying a thousand at sea while on his now famous trip on the Beagle. He was curious enough to wonder even though he knew an answer was forthcoming. Science these days spends too much time trying to develop the next whizbang smartphone widget and not enough research to investigate just how cool this world is. I have seen electric flying spiders, most people have. My most poignant recollection of spiders was last summer up on Mount Juneau Ridge, I stopped to let my dog swim in a pond. Juneau Ridge has kettle ponds tucked into rocks and moss that make it possible for an animal wrapped in fur to run the ridge on a hot summer day and cool down by swimming. As Jane swam I laid down in the grass and noticed a clutter of spiders flying overhead, each suspended by a thread of silk.  I have seen this elsewhere and if you are looking, it's not that uncommon. I figured at the time they were carried by the wind but didn’t know the whole story at the time. I also didn’t know a group of spiders is called a clutter. The stuff I don’t know exceeds I do know by a fair margin. I don’t even know the size of the margin. I am not different than the bulk of humanity in not understanding the depth of what I don't know. My interest in electric flying spiders started when I read a journal article and watched the accompanying video. See https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982218306936

Juneau Ridge, same pond but different day.

Human ignorance is like Shroedinger's cat. The box contains ignorance, not a cat, but we cannot open the box because by definition, we cannot know what we do not know.  There are no metrics to measure ignorance. What we know is that spiders are known to climb to a high point on a mountain, point their abdomens skyward, shoot a few strands of silk upward, and fly away. Wind can help but spiders fly when the air is completely still. Spiders placed in a field of static electricity can move upward and will shoot downward when the direction of field is reversed or removed. They literally grab electricity from the atmosphere and fly thousands of feet up like Mary Poppins with her umbrella. Soon after scientists discovered this, they determined it highly unlikely that humans could use static electricity to fly. Flying spiders weigh less than an ounce. Knowing we can't use this info to further technology causes some to lose interest in HOW they incorporate static electricity to fly.  

That’s what I mean that we are often a mundane species. Not only are we earthbound (planes aren't human) but our research priorities suggest we care more about next year’s smartphone interface than we do about pure natural fascination.   

Spider taking off, (uploaded Cosmos Magazine)

Sir Isaac Newton conducted experiments where he timed the speed of rolling balls on an incline plane. He also timed the speed of rocks he dropped of the walls of Cambridge University. Newton determined that in the absence of air, a feather falls the same speed as a brick. How cool is that? It’s a myth that the Laws of Gravity occurred to Newton from apple hitting his head. Newton could teach us something and not just about physics and calculus. It’s not a myth that Newton reinvented how we see the world without any thought that his discoveries might one day help develop the next whizbang smartphone widgets. I worry that too many people are emotionally stunted because we are taught from youth that education and learning are useless if you can’t use it to make a buck. Too many people make fun of poets and philosophers and too many scientist forget that we are poets and philosophers first and foremost. Intellectual curiosity makes the human race spectacular and sets us apart from spiders. They have their thing and we have ours.

We are intellectually curious  for the same reasons we climb mountains. Neither learning about the strangest quirks of science nor climbing a mountain will bring you any more closer to winning at consumerism.  John F Kennedy said we should go to the moon for the same reason a mountaineer climbs a mountain “Because it’s there” but there is more to it. We climb mountains because we can’t imagine not climbing mountains. When I see a mountain or a rapid, no matter how difficult or 'out of my league' it might be, I ask wonder about potential lines. Intellectual curiosity is like that.  Darwin didn't know how and certainly didn't know why spiders were flying a thousand miles out to sea but he thought about how to answer those questions. You don't become curious for any other reason than it hurts to know we are ignorant and it feels so good to fill the gap. We should, I think, climb to the top of mountains, stretch our abdomens to the sky, and spread silk at least do so figuratively.  I can’t raise my arm above my head but my mind can fly away and it doesn’t need static electricity to do so. I am not sure a clutter of spiders knows where they will land once launch into the sky. Maybe I underestimate their capacity for curiosity. At least they don't watch TV.

I am intellectually curious as to why more people aren't intellectuals. It's a big question for me. I meet mental luggards and wonder if they were that kid in school that asked, "Is this going to be on the exam?" ... " How can I use this to get a job." I always wanted to throttle that kid. I sure as don't want to hire him.

Skiing is about as close to human flight as we get. 
 Douglas Island, Alaska