Pale Blue Dot
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives...
There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. "
Pale-Blue-Dot Astronomers:
ReplyDeleteAlthough Ptolemy thought the Sun revolved around the Earth, he also concluded that the Earth should be treated as a mathematical point in the Universe. Now, since a mathematical point is infinitely small than a "pale blue dot," do we conclude that Ptolemy must be humbler, wiser, and "cooler" than modern astronomers? Well, maybe I'm being nasty and objective, when I should be misty-eyed and subjective. I might be a candidate for sensitivity training.
Unlike Pale-Blue-Dot astronomers, I don't try to feel-the-pain of the robbed (nor do I try to feel-the-pleasure of the robbers). To pretend to feel the pain of others is to belittle the pain of others.
From a comfortable armchair or a speaker's podium, all human trials (pains, pleasures, joys, loves, etc.) can only be reduced to a "pale blue dot" by exceptional Pride - not insightful thinking. Trying to synthesize people with their planet is called Pantheism - not Astronomy.
Best Regards,
Frank Hatch
Initial Mass Displacements
http://www.FrankHatchiii.com