Jul 11 2011
The Mind-Bending Known Universe
I’d like to take a break from our usual funny movie and TV videos to showcase something that I truly think everyone should watch. It’s a six minute video crafted by the American Museum of Natural History, and it shows a complete map of the known universe, from earth to the furthest point we know exists. We cover sci-fi here frequently, and so I think this is pretty relevant.
More importantly though, it just makes you stop and think how small we really are. When you see our world, our universe rendered in this way, a few things come to mind. We are all pretty insignificant when it comes down to it, with all of our petty problems and fights here on earth. We should be dedicating resources to exploring this vast unknown, not pulling funds from places like NASA to fund wars and bailouts.
And lastly? You really think we’re alone, amidst everything you can see here? It isn’t possible. And if not, what does that do to your life philosophy?
Probably too many deep thoughts for a Monday morning.
More Unreal Posts
The first time the earth was put into understandable perspective relative to the rest of the universe was the last time I believed in any sort of intelligent design. With all the other systems, stars, and planets out there the chances of there NOT being life outside earth are slim to none. And it most certainly does make you feel insignificant.
Hawking believes we are here by sheer chance and I agree with him. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, though, because believing that we exist in a world developed by chance makes you feel lucky to even be alive. It makes it easier to forget about the little things that might bother you. It makes you more thankful just to simply exist. And it also makes things deemed good or bad by our general human culture go completely out the window because it really is all relative.
Beautiful. Truly beautiful.
Yeah I remember seeing this before, but with a “Muse” song in the back ground. Definitely a beautiful video.
And yet, you can go just as infinitely small inside the construct of our human form, down to the cell, to the atom, to sub-atomic particles and beyond. How could an existence so finely crafted not fill anyone with joy
Sure makes you feel pretty little.
“Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show Great Job” sums it up pretty well:
http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/291/8/e/tim_and_eric_big_bang_gif_by_ellidegg-d31267d.gif
(none of my own work).
Kubrick had it right!
I love stuff like this, and it is very important to know what’s out there, or if we’re alone….BUT, I hate reading all this “relativity of size alone is the measure of importance of life” nonsense. Just because the world is insignificant to the rest of the known universe does NOT make it, us, or anything that’s ever happened unimportant at all! It’s the crutch of simpletons to reduce life to it’s basic form of mere matter just because of size. It’s the same as saying that a disease couldn’t kill you because it’s smaller than “you.” Or, rather, like saying that a kiss is unimportant because it only involves the lips and not everything that we are. Can anyone truly, at the end of their lives, say that their lives had no meaning because we’re cosmically small?
I guess we don’t have a moon. At least I didn’t see it.