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| Thread ID: 149963 | 2021-07-15 11:20:00 | Pale Blue Dot | zqwerty (97) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1478736 | 2021-07-15 11:20:00 | In case we've all forgotten or never knew, here's a reminder: "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." — Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot, 1994 www.bbc.com |
zqwerty (97) | ||
| 1478737 | 2021-07-15 21:25:00 | As we have no way of investigating, the life only on earth bit is a wild guess and an example of Human Supremacy thinking, but the rest is true. | piroska (17583) | ||
| 1478738 | 2021-07-17 03:10:00 | I don't read it that way, to me it's saying this is the only place we can live for the moment. It says "the only world known so far", the key word there being known. It's not about human supremacy at all, rather it tries to make the point that we have nowhere else to go. The language of the quote displays very much the opposite of the type of thinking you suggest. | dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1478739 | 2021-07-18 23:37:00 | I think C.Sagan is saying , we only have one earth, and no where else to go. ie take care of it Humans cant really 'harm' the earth, we can only make it unpleasant for us to live here . The universe is trying to kill us anyway, gamma ray bursts , suns coronal mass ejections , large meteors and asteroids , sun cycles & changes in solar activity All of which have devastated life on earth in the past . Humans are fragile , the universe is nasty . Its a fluke we are even here today. or a miracle . When the earths magnetic field dies (and it will), we are all stuffed regardless . When the earth mag field reverses (and it will) , we are all stuffed regardless ( as its unstable during a reversal ) When yellowstone finally erupts , we are all stuffed . |
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