Pale Blue Dot

[TSK]

This photo and Sagan's quote resonate so hard with me. If only we could all think in the context of humanity as a whole, maybe we could prevent our demise. Imagine what humanity could actually accomplish if we had worked together for the common good.

Taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of

approximately 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles, 40.5 AU)

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again 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

[ANNEE]

Love the original video of Pale Blue Dot.

Should put things in perspective -- but not everyone accepts awareness.

[argentus]

I really hope humanity survives.   I admit, I'm not entirely certain we deserve to survive.   I think individuals are good people, and small towns mostly work together;  I know that the small town I grew up in is mostly the same and there isn't any rampant racism or crime or other horrible human attributes to speak of.  

I think that cities are unnatural.   I think that when you put several creatures together in close proximity, that quite naturally creates strife and violence and even horror.  I have lived in several cities, and loved it at the time, but I also recognized the unnaturallness of it, that people could prosper and be wealthy at the same time and within miles of people literally starving to death or living on the streets.  

I am hoping for an evolution of spirit, in which we choose to NOT war with each other over religious or socialogical or melanin level differences.  [pedantic rant redacted]

[Brogdel]

Iconic picture.

[putnam6]

I love this and always have.... PERSPECTIVE

I paraphrase George Carlin we are nothing but bacteria and carbon lifeforms formed on dirty wet and dry ball blazing through space. We had better enjoy it while we can.

[Video: https://youtu.be/FRcxjprhTGM?si=JNoU4CxT0cT-L00v]