http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Lm6pEhykhs From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. 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. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
Pale Blue Dot
by NomadSoul 40 Replies latest social entertainment
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NomadSoul
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BurnTheShips
I'm all for human conceit, especially since it is based on reality. We have yet to discover anything in the Universe so awesome as homo sapiens.
Size isn't everything, Mr. Sagan. From small acorns great oaks grow.
BTS
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NomadSoul
Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. - Carl Sagan
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Meeting Junkie No More
I'm all for human conceit
Yes, we know...
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ProdigalSon
From what I understand, there are approximately 67 million inhabited worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy alone, and the predominant species in it is human. Although this is the case, the Earth IS INDEED special in that it is a free will planet, and many very important issues are being decided in this special time, the end of a 75,000 year cycle of evolution. The last time we had a quantum evolutionary leap, we went from Neanderthals to human embryos. We use only two percent of our brains because 10 of our 12 strands of DNA are not activated. We're about to become fully human, but the whole process may take hundreds of years. We're in unchartered territory so nobody really knows for sure how long it will take.
Many past "earths" have been destroyed by its inhabitants, and many of us were there to experience those things, but its not going to happen this time. We're moving past the cycle of needless cataclysms and heading into a far more advanced and godlike age of Oneness.
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NomadSoul
Those planets may or may not be inhabited.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. - Carl Sagan
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BurnTheShips
From what I understand, there are approximately 67 million inhabited worlds in the Milky Way Galaxy alone, and the predominant species in it is human. Although this is the case, the Earth IS INDEED special in that it is a free will planet, and many very important issues are being decided in this special time, the end of a 75,000 year cycle of evolution. The last time we had a quantum evolutionary leap, we went from Neanderthals to human embryos. We use only two percent of our brains because 10 of our 12 strands of DNA are not activated. We're about to become fully human, but the whole process may take hundreds of years. We're in unchartered territory so nobody really knows for sure how long it will take.
Many past "earths" have been destroyed by its inhabitants, and many of us were there to experience those things, but its not going to happen this time. We're moving past the cycle of needless cataclysms and heading into a far more advanced and godlike age of Oneness.
Huh? And how do you know this? Did Rah reveal it to you? And there are several factual errors in your post, on top of the crazy claims.
we went from Neanderthals to human embryos.
We never "went from Neanderthals to human embryos." They are a separate branch of the phylogenetic tree. We are not directly descended from Neanderthals (with the exception of a very small amount of possible hybridization), although we share a common ancestor.
We use only two percent of our brains
That is a common myth. Let me put you some knowledge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10%25_of_brain_myth
because 10 of our 12 strands of DNA are not activated.
Our DNA molecules only have two strands, arranged in a double helix.
What kind of nonsense have you been reading?
BTS
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james_woods
Huh? And how do you know this? Did Rah reveal it to you? And there are several factual errors in your post, on top of the crazy claims.
What kind of nonsense have you been reading?
BTS
Thank you BTS - I was just about to post the same thing, but you saved me the trouble.
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BurnTheShips
Thank you BTS - I was just about to post the same thing, but you saved me the trouble.
Modified my post above with purty pictures. It's amazing people say these things in an age where Wikipedia is as free as air.
BTS
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Heaven
I love Carl Sagan! I love his voice saying "billions and billions".
"... it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
Well said, Carl.
