Our Pale Blue Dot

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GenjiLim
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Ever since I became acquainted with the work of Carl Sagan, his words, compassionate demeanor, and appreciation, understanding and reverence of the cosmos have become an integral part of how I have grown and developed my perspective about life and humanity's role in the universe. In his TV series, Cosmos, his description about the processes that theoretically took place over billions of years in order for humans to have come into being made me appreciate how amazing our species is. Based on what we've been able to observe about the universe, it seems to be extremely unlikely that lifeforms evolve to the point of gaining sentience and the intelligence necessary to study the cosmos in all its beauty. To quote Sagan: "We are a way for the cosmos to know itself."

It is Sagan's work that has made me appreciate and treasure our species' existence, and, in turn, increase my pre-existing drive to make the world a better place. I gained even more gratitude for what I was and what I could do with my creativity, intelligence, and skills, and at the same time, I wanted to help others gain this appreciation as well. On top of that, I learned of another way to view our collective experience and history: to see ourselves from a cosmic perspective, where our entire history is a mere blink of an eye, and the impacts of any given human's lifespan, no matter how devastating their actions might have been, is but a small drop in a vast, chaotic ocean of events.

From this cosmic perspective, we humans are only microscopic specks on a tiny rock orbiting a relatively ordinary star. The rest of the worlds in the cosmos, inhabited or not, wouldn't even have the slightest care if we were to wipe ourselves out tomorrow. And the graveyard of a planet we leave behind will be for other, more advanced civilizations to discover (if they manage to do so before our sun melts the Earth's surface in about 5 billion years), and they will be left to wonder who we were, how we lived, and what led to our world's destruction. If a person were to maintain this perspective, I may be so bold as to argue that even the end of our world would not be "the end of the world."

But, (at the risk of being mistaken to our great misfortune) let's take comfort in the fact that our civilizations' collapse and/or species' extinction is, as of now, quite unlikely. As bleak as the future may seem, one thing we can take comfort in is that there will always be brilliant, kind, and generous people. Human beings are extremely adaptive and can accomplish nearly impossible feats when we put our minds to it and work together. Even in the wake of the most catastrophic events, strangers have always come to the aid of others who have lost everything to help them rebuild their lives. There will always be goodness to see in others; there will always be examples where people demonstrate their love and respect for each other's humanity in the most unlikely circumstances.

So, to my dear watchers, friends, and anyone else who took the time to read these ramblings of mine, please recognize my appreciation for you. I'm grateful to share this existence with you; to connect with you by giving you my thoughts, my art, and my ideas; to give you a glimpse at who I am at my core, and to enjoy this crazy life together. I implore you not to lose sight of what's important in your life and what makes you happy, and never stop striving to make the world a better place.

- Genji
Related:
Vlogbrothers (YouTube) : My Post-Election Thoughts
Carl Sagan. Pale Blue Dot reading (YouTube) : We Humans Are Capable Of Greatness
© 2016 - 2024 GenjiLim
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Duke-of-Donuts's avatar
Duke-of-Donuts
We have to work harder than ever to fight the up coming battles, but it is worth it, it always is. The only thing I can think of in this bleak moment in history, it's always darkest before the dawn.