From the smallest sub-partical to the atom to the cell to us to the planet to the galaxy to the universe. It's all just static that continuously creates a flawless image we will never see or know.
I get so sad thinking about how so many will never listen to the words of this man. We somehow live in a time where smart people are afraid of offending the stupid evil people. Its nuts.
I didn't really have any male role models in my youth, but in my early teens I came across this man, Dr Carl Sagan. His clear and rational explanation of complex issues was a guiding light for me. He also made it impossible for religion to play any part in my life from that point on.
We aren't pathetic. We are the direct cause of billions of years of stuff going on. And so far we haven't found that else where. So don't look up at the universe and pity yourself, look up at the universe and feel what's it like to be their product.
I feel alot better since I flipped that view for myself
add time and you get a much larger story. i ask people how old their thumbnail is and most answer 6 weeks or as old as i am- but every single atom of it exists since the beginning 13.8 billion years ago. all your parts have been in the big bang, later inside a sun, maybe twice or more. they flew through the universe, got cought by our suns gravity (with so many of them on the inside of earth) and in the end some come together as biology and a little later in astronomical timeunits, you are here
Sort of. Weren't some chemical elements created in the core of a star? So the atoms didn't exist as such, but the parts they are made of did (at least, that's what it looks like).
The universe is quite young in my view. It'd be easier to believe everything we believe if it was x10 or x100 older.
In the beginning, there was hydrogen and helium. It took the pressure of a star's core and chemical reactions to create other elements. And some only came into existence through a supernova, where smaller atoms were smashed together to form heavier ones. Simply magnificent.
What I love about humanity is each of us tries our best to remember the good things in our minuscule little lives. Damn the infinite darkness and sheer size of the universe, damn the forgotten billions before us and behind us, we remember the little things, each other, what made us happy, mad, and sad. In the end, we hope that we are carried on in the hearts and minds of someone we brought a smile to. Hope I remember some of you, we do have some good days. Here’s to one more I hope.
If you haven’t watched ‘A Trip to Infinity’ on Netflix, you definitely should. Besides all of the mind-bogglingly large and small things it discusses about infinity, on thing that stuck out to me was something one of the physicists said. There’s a moment he takes to describe how he felt when he gazed at the night sky as a child, and small and insignificant if made him felt. He pontificates for a few moments just on that, and how we don’t matter and everything is pointless. He finishes by saying:
"An insignificant local star, the sun" has the only life we are aware of. Do astronomers concentrate on other mostly insignificant stars for signs of Life?
The sun is significant to us for obvious reasons, but that doesn't make it significant in any kind of cosmological sense. We're not aware of life around other stars primarily because space is pretty big and that makes it hard to observe. It's pretty silly to think that we're the only ones, but it is also pretty silly to think that we'd be able to find that other life in the relatively short time we've been looking.
Does anyone know what the music in the background is? I thought of something from the soundtracks of "the expanse" or "interstellar", but haven't found the track yet.
Some people see this worldview as nihilistic, but Carl was anything but. The universe has no inherent meaning or purpose. Meaning is something that only exists in our brains. Meaning, purpose, love, justice.. those are all things that we create in our collective minds. We owe it to ourselves and each other to care, because there is no other force that will.
It's why so many turn to religion, existence is scary in that we can't understand the why or how of it.
I say don't bother, because we can't reasonably draw those conclusions right now, and won't for the foreseeable future. Focus instead on the why of your life - that's something we get to control by the actions we take and the choices we make during that life. It's like that quote by Mewtwo.
For me (not religious), it isn't the how or why that I find frightening in any way. It's the SCALE. The rational part of me understands how indescribably infinitesimal we are at scale, but when you truly to begin think about and ponder that in EITHER direction really... it's a bit spoopy sometimes.
It's why religion is able to control people, yes. It preys upon existential dread and spiritual needs. It hijacks it, prevents it. It gives you an easy, obviously false but simple answer and uses that to maliciously exploit you. There is no The answer for us to collectively find, ever, but there are as many individual answers as there are individuals. Without religious filth, people would be free and able to explore their own individual spirituality and existence.
Religion gives you the comfort of being able to apologize and do things right with loved ones who died after an argument. It lets you play catch with your dad one more time.. walk holding hands with your child again after a premature death. It's why Rep politicians identify so heavily with religion. If their voters ever start to question the politicians it's like questioning their belief that the above examples will happen. They can't handle the idea that they will never see loved ones again.
Nobody has an easy time facing mortality and permanence vs impermanence. Yet not everyone takes the same path through that. Religion is just one manifestation of spirituality. Being loved, held, guided and connected is something we all want, and only for the fact that we have all the same distinct and specialized neural circuitry for that. And all other mammal brains we examined. We all choose limited either by resource access or ability, or both. Then we need to move again. And some don't.
This is true, and I recognize the security blanket that it can provide, especially having been raised in a Catholic church. My conclusion is, in many ways, informed by what my priests taught me about 'Gods plan', to paraphrase Father McInerny: You can't understand his plan, it's beyond our capabilities to do so and it doesn't matter anyways because there's nothing we could do about it. So don't bother, just focus on doing what it takes to be a good person.
The whole "divine plan" thing has always bothered me.
There's this omniscient, omnipotent god who came up with a plan for the whole universe across all time, and then created the universe to follow that plan.
This plan is morally good, and the ends justify the means.
Everything that happens is necessarily an intended part of the plan.
This means that anyone who believes this has to celebrate every rape, murder, natural disaster, pediatric cancer, etc, as a Good Thing™.
In the church I grew up in, those sinful acts were perversions of the plan by the devil/Satan/temptation/not following Jesus' life in your acts and labors. A bit of a hand wave away of things, I'll admit. I have yet to find a religious person willing to dive deep into those subjects which is one of the many reasons I've turned away from religion. I can only speak to the teachings of the Catholic church I attended, but it seems relatively common in that denomination. I can't speak to the others.
Here’s the silly thing about religion, like Christianity, but it applies to most. Think of the worst person imaginable who ever existed. People probably think of Hitler or Stalin or Mao or others responsible for millions of deaths. Those people could conceivably be in heaven, if they repented and asked forgiveness before they died. Now think of some of the best people in the world, who did great things for mankind, but were atheists or non-believers. They would be in hell.
Very interesting fact... If you consider the smallest length and the largest observable length, humans are about smack dab in the middle of it. There isn't anything odd about that other than it's hard to wrap our brains around scale.
The total mass of the Milky Way is ~ 3*10^42kg. We produce something like 3*10^10kg of cheese, and we've only had close to that level of production in the modern age. Let's be generous and say that 3*10^12 kg of cheese have ever existed. So only 1/10^30th of all matter in the galaxy is cheese. And here you are, squandering this incredibly rare resource. Give it to me, I'll keep it safe.
That only accounts for earth cheese. There may be uncountable varieties of delicious alien cheese made from a wide variety of alien lactating creatures.
Roqinn
I miss him. Such an intelligent and well spoken man. He absolutely fascinated me with the show Cosmos. Really turned me on to science.
Zalagzny
From the smallest sub-partical to the atom to the cell to us to the planet to the galaxy to the universe. It's all just static that continuously creates a flawless image we will never see or know.
ReadMyLeaders
We're just a bunch of dirty monkeys, on a rotten planet circling a no good star *rakes a drag of his cigarette*
Sonicschilidogs
Damn bro chill, the sun is our best buddy, he keeps us alive, don't be mean and call him insignificant, he is significant to me!
TMMay
I get so sad thinking about how so many will never listen to the words of this man. We somehow live in a time where smart people are afraid of offending the stupid evil people. Its nuts.
SMarkt
mites on a plum - I always say we are less than a microbe on a speck of dust on the back of an ant walking across the Gobi Desert.
AShartInTheWind
We're only the center of the observable universe because Earth is the only vantage point we have.
gaggedandgooped
Carl Sagan:
idiotsonfire
The fundamental arrogance of religion should make it a laughingstock. We may be small, but we can understand that.
idiotsonfire
That gives us a unique ability that so far, nothing else in the universe has; the capability to understand and examine our presence here.
idiotsonfire
Doing that is so much more compelling to me than making up a fairy tale about some godthing that loves us and created everything.
TsubakiTragic
I didn't really have any male role models in my youth, but in my early teens I came across this man, Dr Carl Sagan. His clear and rational explanation of complex issues was a guiding light for me. He also made it impossible for religion to play any part in my life from that point on.
LenneSamunai
We aren't pathetic. We are the direct cause of billions of years of stuff going on. And so far we haven't found that else where. So don't look up at the universe and pity yourself, look up at the universe and feel what's it like to be their product.
I feel alot better since I flipped that view for myself
sircowdog
I see now where Hugo Weaving got the inspiration for how to talk as Agent Smith.
Huor
There are other pieces of music, you know. There's also a great song called NO MUSIC.
idiotsonfire
There's also a great way to make a better comment. For you, I'd suggest "No comment."
Huor
Well, you're certainly setting a fine example.
inthepines
So... Can we have your liver?
EntropyReign
EntropyReign
GregorMadnill
doctorId
SMarkt
add time and you get a much larger story. i ask people how old their thumbnail is and most answer 6 weeks or as old as i am- but every single atom of it exists since the beginning 13.8 billion years ago. all your parts have been in the big bang, later inside a sun, maybe twice or more. they flew through the universe, got cought by our suns gravity (with so many of them on the inside of earth) and in the end some come together as biology and a little later in astronomical timeunits, you are here
SMarkt
that is such an awesome story, you are a brilliantly bright moment in a breathtakingly beautiful story.
lovingspace
Sort of. Weren't some chemical elements created in the core of a star? So the atoms didn't exist as such, but the parts they are made of did (at least, that's what it looks like).
The universe is quite young in my view. It'd be easier to believe everything we believe if it was x10 or x100 older.
SMarkt
In the beginning, there was hydrogen and helium. It took the pressure of a star's core and chemical reactions to create other elements. And some only came into existence through a supernova, where smaller atoms were smashed together to form heavier ones. Simply magnificent.
lovingspace
Exactly.
fastjeff
What I love about humanity is each of us tries our best to remember the good things in our minuscule little lives. Damn the infinite darkness and sheer size of the universe, damn the forgotten billions before us and behind us, we remember the little things, each other, what made us happy, mad, and sad. In the end, we hope that we are carried on in the hearts and minds of someone we brought a smile to. Hope I remember some of you, we do have some good days. Here’s to one more I hope.
MeshHatMafia
If you haven’t watched ‘A Trip to Infinity’ on Netflix, you definitely should. Besides all of the mind-bogglingly large and small things it discusses about infinity, on thing that stuck out to me was something one of the physicists said. There’s a moment he takes to describe how he felt when he gazed at the night sky as a child, and small and insignificant if made him felt. He pontificates for a few moments just on that, and how we don’t matter and everything is pointless. He finishes by saying:
MeshHatMafia
“But, then I fell in love”.
It made me smile and reminded me that no matter how stupid everything can be sometimes- there always someone or something that makes it all worth it
SpikesGuns
yeahhedugit
"An insignificant local star, the sun" has the only life we are aware of. Do astronomers concentrate on other mostly insignificant stars for signs of Life?
EstoyPoopis
https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1eWQ2M2kzZjVlaWExenA2dzA5eHU3NXgzdDVraHZkaDZjZmFpbXB0cSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/urZvVFIs7faso/200w.webp
flail
The sun is significant to us for obvious reasons, but that doesn't make it significant in any kind of cosmological sense. We're not aware of life around other stars primarily because space is pretty big and that makes it hard to observe. It's pretty silly to think that we're the only ones, but it is also pretty silly to think that we'd be able to find that other life in the relatively short time we've been looking.
SgtFumble
Does anyone know what the music in the background is? I thought of something from the soundtracks of "the expanse" or "interstellar", but haven't found the track yet.
nour926
Interstellar song.
SgtFumble
OK, found it. It's "Day one" on the "Interstellar" soundtrack.
carlsagansghost
If you want more like it, check out the Apollo soundtrack by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. It is masterful.
SgtFumble
Will do, thx.
pullingsixty
Music For Airports was always a favourite in college in the early eighties
carlsagansghost
So good.
flail
Some people see this worldview as nihilistic, but Carl was anything but. The universe has no inherent meaning or purpose. Meaning is something that only exists in our brains. Meaning, purpose, love, justice.. those are all things that we create in our collective minds. We owe it to ourselves and each other to care, because there is no other force that will.
hintoriousbig
*No other force that we know of
ThinkThisOut
There’s an inherent reason. There was always a start and finish and all the events leading up to it. That has nothing to do with the human race though
RubbleTrouser
The apathetic and indifferent Universe does not care whether anything lives or dies. The dinosaurs and many other life forms found that out.
bloxxing
in the unfashionable western spiral arm...
fastjeff
JustAName00
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1cTFmNnNrMjA0c2wyMjhucHRrdmg1ODRweDJpN3loaXozMjVndXdtZiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/HhSSwKZTZRDbKcjWqO/200w.webp
Guidocat
You are one hoopy frood
jimhotep
I knew Carl at near the end of his life, I sure do still miss him.
redtruck
I used to miss him. I still do, but I used to, also.
Jen519
One of these days I want to make a pilgrimage to see his resting site.
SnarfyMcSnarferson
Ive been there, placed a blue marble upon it
Jen519
That's wonderful.
MostAwesomeDan
It's why so many turn to religion, existence is scary in that we can't understand the why or how of it.
I say don't bother, because we can't reasonably draw those conclusions right now, and won't for the foreseeable future. Focus instead on the why of your life - that's something we get to control by the actions we take and the choices we make during that life. It's like that quote by Mewtwo.
ScrippyChan
For me (not religious), it isn't the how or why that I find frightening in any way. It's the SCALE. The rational part of me understands how indescribably infinitesimal we are at scale, but when you truly to begin think about and ponder that in EITHER direction really... it's a bit spoopy sometimes.
GloveFullaVaseline
Agree. Also, there is no why to life. Be kind, help each other. That's it.
Goldensands
It's why religion is able to control people, yes. It preys upon existential dread and spiritual needs. It hijacks it, prevents it. It gives you an easy, obviously false but simple answer and uses that to maliciously exploit you. There is no The answer for us to collectively find, ever, but there are as many individual answers as there are individuals. Without religious filth, people would be free and able to explore their own individual spirituality and existence.
Uselesstoy
Religion gives you the comfort of being able to apologize and do things right with loved ones who died after an argument. It lets you play catch with your dad one more time.. walk holding hands with your child again after a premature death.
It's why Rep politicians identify so heavily with religion.
If their voters ever start to question the politicians it's like questioning their belief that the above examples will happen. They can't handle the idea that they will never see loved ones again.
picselator
Nobody has an easy time facing mortality and permanence vs impermanence. Yet not everyone takes the same path through that. Religion is just one manifestation of spirituality. Being loved, held, guided and connected is something we all want, and only for the fact that we have all the same distinct and specialized neural circuitry for that. And all other mammal brains we examined. We all choose limited either by resource access or ability, or both. Then we need to move again. And some don't.
ElAburrimientoMePuede
No offense but I don't understand this notion of "why", there is no "why" and we don't need that artificial burden either.
MostAwesomeDan
That's kind of my point
crimpitdown9001
Why not who? With the brief existence each of us have, why not just focus on who? Who am I? Who do I want to be? Who will i become? Who will remember i existed? Who cares? I live my life to others' expectations, but always question who do I want to be at the end.
https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1aXhheW53cGp2NGV3ajRmNzUxbm92Y3BnZXBqZXJvNHBid2xlNW5iNSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/UvPLmzkAyUeXu/200w.webp
foreverinchains
A lot of people would rather have a made-up, obviously false answer than have no answer at all.
MostAwesomeDan
This is true, and I recognize the security blanket that it can provide, especially having been raised in a Catholic church. My conclusion is, in many ways, informed by what my priests taught me about 'Gods plan', to paraphrase Father McInerny: You can't understand his plan, it's beyond our capabilities to do so and it doesn't matter anyways because there's nothing we could do about it. So don't bother, just focus on doing what it takes to be a good person.
foreverinchains
The whole "divine plan" thing has always bothered me.
There's this omniscient, omnipotent god who came up with a plan for the whole universe across all time, and then created the universe to follow that plan.
This plan is morally good, and the ends justify the means.
Everything that happens is necessarily an intended part of the plan.
This means that anyone who believes this has to celebrate every rape, murder, natural disaster, pediatric cancer, etc, as a Good Thing™.
Religion is poison.
MostAwesomeDan
In the church I grew up in, those sinful acts were perversions of the plan by the devil/Satan/temptation/not following Jesus' life in your acts and labors. A bit of a hand wave away of things, I'll admit. I have yet to find a religious person willing to dive deep into those subjects which is one of the many reasons I've turned away from religion. I can only speak to the teachings of the Catholic church I attended, but it seems relatively common in that denomination. I can't speak to the others.
foreverinchains
That just means that whatever Satan does is also part of the plan.
GreatLarry
Here’s the silly thing about religion, like Christianity, but it applies to most. Think of the worst person imaginable who ever existed. People probably think of Hitler or Stalin or Mao or others responsible for millions of deaths. Those people could conceivably be in heaven, if they repented and asked forgiveness before they died. Now think of some of the best people in the world, who did great things for mankind, but were atheists or non-believers. They would be in hell.
dinahmoe
So when you think about it, I'm not really eating that much cheese.
Drix1942
Context matters, dumdum, but yes, a pound of cheese a day still doesn't matter. :)
HandoB4Javert
TheGreyGryphon
Very interesting fact... If you consider the smallest length and the largest observable length, humans are about smack dab in the middle of it. There isn't anything odd about that other than it's hard to wrap our brains around scale.
SumDumGuyOG
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1YWIyY2djb2U3Y3U4dXpmdWhsY3ZjNWxkMzkwcmp3ZHl3d2V0NmxybiZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/kC8N6DPOkbqWTxkNTe/200w.webp
TheRealCrimesJohnson
No, but it would still be nice of you to share
SkittishLittleToaster
Fucking lol'd!
McPuffinStuff
https://imgur.com/pl0xDLq.jpg
FudgeLicense
Eniff
How can fiveheads be real if our eyes aren't real.
MuffinProof
But you're eating too much
KuldFyt
The total mass of the Milky Way is ~ 3*10^42kg. We produce something like 3*10^10kg of cheese, and we've only had close to that level of production in the modern age. Let's be generous and say that 3*10^12 kg of cheese have ever existed. So only 1/10^30th of all matter in the galaxy is cheese. And here you are, squandering this incredibly rare resource. Give it to me, I'll keep it safe.
zollies
Is that where the answer 42 comes from?
KuldFyt
*has ever been cheese
HenryLongfellowIII
That only accounts for earth cheese. There may be uncountable varieties of delicious alien cheese made from a wide variety of alien lactating creatures.
forcefulpuspus
https://media0.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1bGx2amNhaHZkN3YyejhxZ2lhb3ZwcWJncm50aTFzM2F0ZWVhZXZ6NSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/eEK9Hp9nAXtZDhoXbK/200w.webp
egoAristippos
This is the sort of discussion that prevents me from going completely off the internet.
Thanks! 🙏
TuckerCarlsonWarnedYouTheredBeGirlsLikeMe
it's always a good time when we start discussing alien tits.