How does this video make you Feel? Frustrated or Loving?

[gzeus]

I for one was moved by this. An evergreen topic:

To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[BadMojo]

I for one cried and am not ashamed to admit it. So cleansing and yet so timely too:

To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Neither. I found it slightly fascinating.

Are you sure we're watching the same video? I saw "Carl Sagan on Astrology"

[gzeus]

Neither. I found it slightly fascinating.

Are you sure we're watching the same video? I saw "Carl Sagan on Astrology"

OOOps! Fixed the link :)

Slap me over the head with a wet mullet!

It should be "Pale Blue Dot" by said author.

[Oica]

No response. I started losing interest 2 minutes in or so. Just started sounding like the same thing over and over again.

[xhaan]

OOOps! Fixed the link :)

Slap me over the head with a wet mullet!

It should be "Pale Blue Dot" by said author.

I think that might very well be the best video I have EVER seen on YT.
Thank you for sharing, it is greatly appreciated.

No response. I started losing interest 2 minutes in or so. Just started sounding like the same thing over and over again.

Um, 2 minutes in is most of the video.. and most of the point OF the video. :laugh:

[Oica]

the video is 3 minutes. If i said it repeats, then to me, it was repeating for 2 minutes.

[Maverick]

Honestly, I did not feel anything... I was thinking "I already know the earth is nothing in the universe and that we're nothing. Our existence is futile in the grand scheme of things". Not making any value judgement about the video, but just being honest about my reaction as implied by the thread title. Maybe I'm cynical and jaded though.

[Oica]

Honestly, I did not feel anything... I was thinking "I already know the earth is nothing in the universe and that we're nothing. Our existence is futile in the grand scheme of things". Not making any value judgment about the video, but just being honest about my reaction to it in response to the thread title.

why does small equate to nothing? Why can't the universe just be big?

being pessimistic toward pessimists :D "youre wrong! its good!"

[xhaan]

Honestly, I did not feel anything... I was thinking "I already know the earth is nothing in the universe and that we're nothing. Our existence is futile in the grand scheme of things". Not making any value judgement about the video, but just being honest about my reaction as implied by the thread title. Maybe I'm cynical and jaded though.

Not necessarily cynical and jaded, perhaps just calculating and practical is all.

I think if it were meant to be only an informative, technical piece, it would have been one or two concise sentences, without all the imagery and would have lasted seconds rather than minutes.

e.g. This tiny dot is our home, all we truly experience first hand, and we need to take care of it and try to get along with eachother because there is currently nowhere else to go that we know of, in spite of all the vastness of the universe.

[gzeus]

why does small equate to nothing? Why can't the universe just be big?

being pessimistic toward pessimists :D "youre wrong! its good!"


Right. It is sort of a test really. Some people find this video frustrating as their ego shatters, some find it incredibly uplifting. The video at least to me does not communicate that we are nothing, but that we are what we are in the scheme of things - lonely species drifting on a mode of dust in the middle of a very unspecial solar system in the backwaters of a very unspecial galaxy of which there are billions upon billions in the universe. We really should take much better care of one another. If everyone watched this periodically maybe there would be less wars and unkindness. Nothing is really that important.

That pale blue dot is a photograph of planet Earth made by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990 from a distance of more than 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometres), showing it against the vastness of space.

[xhaan]

Right. It is sort of a test really. Some people find this video frustrating as their ego shatters, some find it incredibly uplifting. The video at least to me does not communicate that we are nothing, but that we are what we are in the scheme of things - lonely species drifting on a mode of dust in the middle of a very unspecial solar system in the backwaters of a very unspecial galaxy of which there are billions upon billions in the universe. We really should take much better care of one another. If everyone watched this periodically maybe there would be less wars and unkindness. Nothing is really that important.

That pale blue dot is a photograph of planet Earth made by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1990 from a distance of more than 4 billion miles (6.4 billion kilometres), showing it against the vastness of space.

It's not ego shattering. The sad part is the people who don't care, the ones that kill you for your shoes, or because you looked at them the 'wrong way'. Petty.

[gzeus]

xhaan of course I didn't mean you. I meant that I have came acroos people that were frustrated at the video because their ego got shattered. Yes, isn't it amazing what we do to each other for petty gains that don't mean anything in the scheme of things.

[xhaan]

xhaan of course I didn't mean you. I meant that I have came acroos people that were frustrated at the video because their ego got shattered. Yes, isn't it amazing what we do to each other for petty gains that don't mean anything in the scheme of things.

Thanks, I think this really hits home with me because I watched I am Legend yesterday.

[Hdier]

It didn't really do anything for me. It was telling me that we were on a small, insignificant planet amongst billions of them. I already knew this. I was mostly bored the whole time.

However, during the part where he was talking about us having a 'privilaged position', I was slightly amused. I, for one, have never imagined us having a position other than what we earn, and find it a bit stupid when other seem to think that they are better than everything else simply because they are human.

[Antares]

It didn't really do anything for me. It was telling me that we were on a small, insignificant planet amongst billions of them. I already knew this. I was mostly bored the whole time.

However, during the part where he was talking about us having a 'privilaged position', I was slightly amused. I, for one, have never imagined us having a position other than what we earn, and find it a bit stupid when other seem to think that they are better than everything else simply because they are human.

He didn't say that we have a privileged position. He said that "the delusion that we have some privileged position are challenged by this pale light." I think he meant that for generations, we have thought that everything revolved around earth. Humans do think that they're better than anything else. In fact, some humans think that they are more 'human' than any other, or at least some other human beings. Remember humans are the only species with 'souls'? And we are made in the image of the creator? Many superpowers at one time (for instance, China) thought that they are in the center of the Earth and that others are barbarians? How often were 'barbarians' used to describe outsiders in the course of history? The delusion is still with us today. We are allowed to kill animals just as smart, if not smarter than us, aren't we? How many dolphins and whales have we killed so far?

[gzeus]

Some reactions are quite interesting...

[elsdfr]

I liked the music :thumbsup:

[Antares]

Some reactions are quite interesting...

That reminds me... I should probably get that book. I've been hunting for his Billions and Billions in every English bookstore I can find (I'm not sure what section it's in, but from my observations so far, many bookstore don't even have a science section), but none of them have that book! I'm currently reading Cosmos and I've read a little of Demon Haunted World.

[Hdier]

He didn't say that we have a privileged position. He said that "the delusion that we have some privileged position are challenged by this pale light." I think he meant that for generations, we have thought that everything revolved around earth. Humans do think that they're better than anything else. In fact, some humans think that they are more 'human' than any other, or at least some other human beings. Remember humans are the only species with 'souls'? And we are made in the image of the creator? Many superpowers at one time (for instance, China) thought that they are in the center of the Earth and that others are barbarians? How often were 'barbarians' used to describe outsiders in the course of history? The delusion is still with us today. We are allowed to kill animals just as smart, if not smarter than us, aren't we? How many dolphins and whales have we killed so far?

Sorry, I actually new that he wasn't saying that we were, simply that many of us thought we were. I didn't mean to express myself in such a poor fashion.

[Pkz]

It got boring and eventually I annoyed myself because of his constant repetitions. He would reiterate points constantly. Count all the times he says "every". I just got frustrated and turned it off.

This may be partly because I am in a harsh mood right now.

Wait, watched it again now. After the "every" parts are over the video actually is rather nice.

[Ijz]

How does this video make you Feel? Frustrated or Loving?

Neither really, if anything it made me feel a bit lonely and humble seeing how small our planet is and how vast our universe. But then again, that was probably the intent of the video...

Oh, is it just me or did the earth seem to rotate in some pictures?!?

[OmegaPsi]

It made me feel 'Meh'...I sure some of you can understand that feeling.

[danalaina]

neither.

i was faintly annoyed, as i usually am with things remotely space-themed. no logical explanation for that...it's just a genre i dislike.

the rest is nothing new.

[qwerty]

To me at least it left me with an image from the hitch hikers guide. When zaphod is to be killed by being shown his place in the universe.

At the end of the day I exist, on a single planet, a small fraction of a piece of dust in the universe. What are the chances of that happening; makes me think I'm lucky to be alive

[Capt57]

Great video. I love Carl Sagan, I think I've read all his stuff. In fact he really got me hooked on science books.

Since then I think I've read hundreds. This video just makes me smile because essentially it is my core philosophy. As far as being unimportant in the grander scheme of things...well it certainly seems that way at this point in time. However, I'm not sure if intelligence in the Universe will play some powerful distant role in its fate. In fact, if we were to expand the idea of evolution on a cosmic scale and we were to go with the idea of multiple Universes coming into and out of existence. Then could it be that the formed Universes that are most likely to produce life are more likely to reproduce themselves?

This would put "intelligence" as a force in the Universe, an actor to play some distant role. Even though right now that intelligence seems to exist nowhere that I can see, except this forum ;)

I like this theory because it offers an explanation of the anthropic nature of this Universe without putting man in an elevated spot; just intelligence. So then to answer the BIG QUESTION, "why the Universe, why not nothing" you can say because a Universe with something...matter, intelligence, popcorn, is simply better at reproducing itself for some reason. That to me seems like a reasonable answer.

[Blendy]

I for one was moved by this.

I also found this video moving. I guess if I had to identify how it left me feeling, I'd say peacefully reflective. I like things that remind me of my mortality and ultimate insignificance. There's a certain comfort and freedom in knowing that none of the stuff we concern ourselves with on a daily basis really matters, in a cosmic sense. It's always helped me to let go of the BS and appreciate my life as it is, right now.

[Firelie]

That was incredibly boring.