"just ask the axis"
beginning dancers learning to spin will visualize an imaginary horizon point in order to maintain their bearing, but eventually you get used to the sensation, and it is quite intoxicating & liberating!
and the whirling dervishes spin to the left, "towards the heart," ...but when i am dancing, i have always felt the need to seek some kind of balance by occasionally reversing the direction in which i spin (searching for the middle path @ the opposite extremes of experience).
most people become disturbed when they are without a common orientation for "this way up," ...aka a local vertical (not to be confused with the gravitational constant)... i wonder what aspects of this issue are related to etiquette/culture, and which are evolutionary/biological (as much as such things can be separated)?
i am often an outsider, even among those who don't fit in anywhere else ...perhaps similarly, i believe that i am one of those people who would enjoy hanging out at a 135 degree rotated orientation from the rest of the crew in zero g... as well as other forms of artistic expression in subjective orientation to fellow participants
...consider these projects principally, for example:
The Embodiment of (Micro)Gravity... Kitsou Dubois's Analogies: an Artistic and Aesthetic Experience
Kitsou Dubois (exploring the gestural, kinesthetic and proprioceptive potential of weightless dance during microgravity parabolic flights)
Noordung Zero Gravity Biomechanical Theater
The Stardance Project
Marcel.lÌ Ant·nez Roca: A mechatronic conference presenting the Dedalus project and its micro performances at zero gravity as well as the Transpermia theory.
"Research Project Number 33" (Investigating the Creative Process in a Microgravity Environment featuring Frank Pietronigro engaged in the process of creating 'Drift Painting' as scientific research to determine if creative activites might contribute to an improvment in the quality of life for people engage in long term space missions)
ars astronautica
Against Gravitropism
...and these, although in differing degrees:
Zero-Gravity Sports Centers
Transhumanism
Natasha Vita-More: Extropic Art
cosmic dancer: a space art intervention by arthur woods
the making of lulu santos' video, "todo universo"
Nui Bo: "ascended temporarily in zero-gravity, then fell back to the heavy reality."
Spermatikos Logos: Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr.'s "Gravity's Rainbow"
Pynchon Wiki: Gravity's Rainbow
"Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist, John "Jack" Whiteside Parsons" by George Pendle
in any case, i'm really looking forward to reinventing the kama sutra in zero g
"Now the one thing we didn't reckon on was space punies.
What are space punies?
Hey Jake, what are space punies?
In a world without gravity... the muscles will become dormant and whither.
Your spine will straighten and the caicium in your arms and legs will redistribute itseif in your head.
Thank you, Jake.
See... old Jake knows!
Hey Jake, what happens if you go back to Earth with Space punies?
It kills you... slicker than snot.
That's right."
- excerpted from "The Silver Miner's Tale" in The American Astronaut (thanks to kreneezoner for line correction)
so, what are the facts (as we know them) about the effects of zero gravity on human physiology?
here is a report about scientists' attempts to predict the effects of zero gravity on human physiology leading up to 1958, when Project Mercury began planning to actually launch a manned satellite,
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov has spent more total time in space than any other human being: a total of 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.
Valeriy Vladimirovich Polyakov has the record for the for the longest spaceflight in human history, staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip: 437-days, 17-hours, 58-minutes
the wikipedia entry on the health effects of weightlessness mentions the initial danger of Space Sickness (which can last 2-4 days)... but more importantly, it describes the dangers of long-term weightlessness: "The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are muscle atrophy and deterioration of the skeleton; these effects can be minimized through a regimen of exercise. Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the cardiovascular system, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, and a weakening of the immune system. Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess flatulence, and puffiness of the face. These effects are reversible upon return to Earth."
however, in the the wikipedia article about human adaptation to space, the section concerning the human anatomical 'weight bearing structures' manages to mention that, "Loss of bone and muscle make it very difficult for humans to move and even breathe under the weight of Earth's pull upon their return. The longer the flight, the more loss will occur until it will become impossible for the individual to survive the pull of Earth's gravity for any extended period of time" ...there are a few other disturbing details in other sections, which i will leave for you to discover for yourselves!
there's an article from the European Space Agency on, living in space which doesn't have much to add...
and NASA's divsion previously known as Human Adaptation & Countermeasures didn't provide much more detailed information online, either... (their Non-Exercise Physiological Countermeasures Project online info was mostly bureaucracy); but the division now known as Human Health and Performance has some decent info on Human Factors in Spaceflight
and this looks like an important area for research:
Sex, Space and Environmental Adaptation: A National Workshop on Research Priorities on Sex Differences in Human Responses to Challenging Environments
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute has a decidedly optimistic outlook, highlighting all of the potential benefits of human adaptation to space...
but there does seem to still be a great deal of confusion throughout the years about the condition known as asthenia, which reminds me of a certain condition which was behind the story known as "The Yellow Wallpaper" ...q.v. this psychosomatic medine journal article, "Asthenia-Does It Exist in Space?"
...but this is perhaps the magnum opus of research by NASA on the issue (which I just found in my research, this morning 012815 @ 10:33 am CST)... which at least recognizes the limitations that NASA has in analyzing the issue, while it links to a fair amount of useful resources from around the rest of the world on the subject:
Perspectives on Asthenia in Astronauts and Cosmonauts: Review of the International Research Literature
It's worth noting that they mention one possible way for the DSM to perceive the existence of asthenia as possibly "a psychological or psychosomatic/psycho-physiological analogue of chronic fatigue syndrome" ...and if we read closely enough, it may be possible to infer that exercise & novelty may go a long way towards treatment of such a condition (and let's also look at the possible beneficial psychological effects of space travel, like salutogenesis, et alia)
with all of this talk of the hazards of insanity in space travel... i must post the infamous ren & stimpy episode, "space madness"
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8cwqzp
hmmmmm... considering all of these indications of significant long-term risks & the lack of real answers available, i was beginning to wonder if maybe we're better off just sending bananas into orbit? ...well, they are yellow, after all ;~}
but oh, wouldn't you know it... just when I thought that there was a serious lack of information on the web regarding these crucial issues:
AHA... EUREKA!
NASA's Human Research Roadmap (previously known as NASA's Bioastronautics Roadmap) appears to be a fairly exhaustive resource for answering questions regarding human adaptation to space travel.
let's see where we can go next with this exploration?
and meanwhile, i wonder... does anyone want to invest in a reasonably affordable simulation of the future?
iFLY now has vertical wind tunnel recreational facilities all over the place, now (in 2015)!
ADDENDUM: I have just been informed of pertinent current events (sometimes, I can be a little behind on breaking news)...
13 June 2006 Hawking Says Humans Must Colonize Space
08 January 2007 Stephen Hawking Hopes to Go Into Space
01 March 2007 Stephen Hawking to go weightless in April
and, bizarrely enough, The Austin American Spaceman Statesman had this as the top story in the Metro & State Section, today:
ACC students board NASA plane to do experiments in (almost) zero gravity
both of these civilian opportunities to experience weightlessness are produced by airplanes (like the Weightless Wonder, or "Vomit Comet") travelling in long parabolic arcs, first climbing in altitude, then falling, in such a way that the flight path and speed correspond to that of an object without propulsion and not experiencing air friction.
--
December 3 2010, 10:40:43 UTC
Living aloft: Human requirements for extended spaceflight
http://www.archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19850024459
--
April 23 2011, 18:33:53 UTC
The 6 Weirdest Dangers of Space Travel
http://www.cracked.com/article_19158_the-6-weirdest-dangers-space-travel.html
--
December 17 2011, 05:07:27 UTC
...how long would it take us to get to the nearest habitable planet, 600 light years away?
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone
http://www.space.com/13821-nasa-kepler-alien-planets-habitable-zone.html
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like world orbiting a star like our Sun in its "habitable zone" - at a balmy 22C.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655
how long would it take us to get there (600 light years away)?
600 light years converted to kilometers = 5.7 x 10^15 km ...Traveling at Solar escape velocity, which is around 58,741 kph (near the limit of our conventional rocket tech, anyway)... it looks like it would only take 11,077,185 years to get there, in that case!
So, if we outfitted a space ark with enough people & resources & tools to travel there for that many generations... I wonder what we would have evolved into by that time?
Just for perspective... Here's what primates looked like 11ish million years ago:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/the-11-million-year-old-primate-discovered.html
Of course, we would have to find some way to conquer the space punies, too...
"Hey Jake... What are space punies?"
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/114684.html
And although there may be a number of ways to travel that distance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel
I was contemplating use of the generation ship model
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship
(perhaps we could just download our brains into silicon matrices & not have to worry about that pesky organic stuff)
And while we're at it, we should bear in mind what Stephen Hawking said about aliens, right?
http://www.space.com/8288-aliens-exist-stephen-hawking.html
Just remember... Cthulhu ain't as cute & cuddly as people seem to think!
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/66020.html#cutid6
--
October 11 2015, 09:40:13 UTC
Fortunately, there are other side effects of space travel that are considerably more beneficial...
http://web.stanford.edu/group/astrobiology/cgi-bin/?page_id=1433
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4411.pdf
Salutogenesis
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/asma/asem/2005/00000076/a00106s1/art00009?crawler=true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_and_sociological_effects_of_spaceflight#Positive_outcomes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salutogenesis
And the overview effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect
http://www.weareplanetary.com/overview/
http://vimeo.com/55073825
http://vimeo.com/60234866
Which relates to some other ideas that aim to give our little home for humanity some kind of hopeful context in this vast cosmos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
Although we should perhaps keep in mind the limitations that our cultural context, worldview & confirmation bias may create for us
http://www.academia.edu/5995107/Rethinking_the_Overview_Effect
Ultimately though, I am with Greg Stafford's interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft, on these issues...
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/169847.html
"My theory about why 'The Call of Cthulhu' and Lovecraft's fiction resonate so strongly with people," (Greg) Stafford says, "is that despite being set in an arbitrary, impersonal, cruel universe, they show that small, individual acts of dignity and goodness are possible." - from _Return of the Weird_ by Zack Stentz
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.02.97/cover/horror1-9701.html
--
February 29 2016, 09:33:26 UTC
i look forward to more specific research to be done now that we have evidence of gravity waves
http://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave
--
October 19 2022, 02:41:01 UTC
It seems that even the 90 y.o. notoriously prickly William Shatner had some things to learn from his experience going into space!
...I looked down and I could see the hole that our spaceship had punched in the thin, blue-tinged layer of oxygen around Earth. It was as if there was a wake trailing behind where we had just been, and just as soon as I’d noticed it, it disappeared.
I continued my self-guided tour and turned my head to face the other direction, to stare into space. I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years… but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold . . . all I saw was death.
I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.
Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.
I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things-that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.
It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.
I learned later that I was not alone in this feeling. It is called the “Overview Effect” and is not uncommon among astronauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Michael Collins, Sally Ride, and many others. Essentially, when someone travels to space and views Earth from orbit, a sense of the planet’s fragility takes hold in an ineffable, instinctive manner. Author Frank White first coined the term in 1987: “There are no borders or boundaries on our planet except those that we create in our minds or through human behaviors. All the ideas and concepts that divide us when we are on the surface begin to fade from orbit and the moon. The result is a shift in worldview, and in identity.”
It can change the way we look at the planet but also other things like countries, ethnicities, religions; it can prompt an instant reevaluation of our shared harmony and a shift in focus to all the wonderful things we have in common instead of what makes us different. It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart. In this insignificance we share, we have one gift that other species perhaps do not: we are aware-not only of our insignificance, but the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant. That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/amp/
and the whirling dervishes spin to the left, "towards the heart," ...but when i am dancing, i have always felt the need to seek some kind of balance by occasionally reversing the direction in which i spin (searching for the middle path @ the opposite extremes of experience).
most people become disturbed when they are without a common orientation for "this way up," ...aka a local vertical (not to be confused with the gravitational constant)... i wonder what aspects of this issue are related to etiquette/culture, and which are evolutionary/biological (as much as such things can be separated)?
i am often an outsider, even among those who don't fit in anywhere else ...perhaps similarly, i believe that i am one of those people who would enjoy hanging out at a 135 degree rotated orientation from the rest of the crew in zero g... as well as other forms of artistic expression in subjective orientation to fellow participants
...consider these projects principally, for example:
The Embodiment of (Micro)Gravity... Kitsou Dubois's Analogies: an Artistic and Aesthetic Experience
Kitsou Dubois (exploring the gestural, kinesthetic and proprioceptive potential of weightless dance during microgravity parabolic flights)
Noordung Zero Gravity Biomechanical Theater
The Stardance Project
Marcel.lÌ Ant·nez Roca: A mechatronic conference presenting the Dedalus project and its micro performances at zero gravity as well as the Transpermia theory.
"Research Project Number 33" (Investigating the Creative Process in a Microgravity Environment featuring Frank Pietronigro engaged in the process of creating 'Drift Painting' as scientific research to determine if creative activites might contribute to an improvment in the quality of life for people engage in long term space missions)
ars astronautica
Against Gravitropism
...and these, although in differing degrees:
Zero-Gravity Sports Centers
Transhumanism
Natasha Vita-More: Extropic Art
cosmic dancer: a space art intervention by arthur woods
the making of lulu santos' video, "todo universo"
Nui Bo: "ascended temporarily in zero-gravity, then fell back to the heavy reality."
Spermatikos Logos: Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr.'s "Gravity's Rainbow"
Pynchon Wiki: Gravity's Rainbow
"Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist, John "Jack" Whiteside Parsons" by George Pendle
in any case, i'm really looking forward to reinventing the kama sutra in zero g
"Now the one thing we didn't reckon on was space punies.
What are space punies?
Hey Jake, what are space punies?
In a world without gravity... the muscles will become dormant and whither.
Your spine will straighten and the caicium in your arms and legs will redistribute itseif in your head.
Thank you, Jake.
See... old Jake knows!
Hey Jake, what happens if you go back to Earth with Space punies?
It kills you... slicker than snot.
That's right."
- excerpted from "The Silver Miner's Tale" in The American Astronaut (thanks to kreneezoner for line correction)
so, what are the facts (as we know them) about the effects of zero gravity on human physiology?
here is a report about scientists' attempts to predict the effects of zero gravity on human physiology leading up to 1958, when Project Mercury began planning to actually launch a manned satellite,
Sergei Konstantinovich Krikalyov has spent more total time in space than any other human being: a total of 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes in space.
Valeriy Vladimirovich Polyakov has the record for the for the longest spaceflight in human history, staying aboard the Mir space station for more than 14 months during one trip: 437-days, 17-hours, 58-minutes
the wikipedia entry on the health effects of weightlessness mentions the initial danger of Space Sickness (which can last 2-4 days)... but more importantly, it describes the dangers of long-term weightlessness: "The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are muscle atrophy and deterioration of the skeleton; these effects can be minimized through a regimen of exercise. Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the cardiovascular system, decreased production of red blood cells, balance disorders, and a weakening of the immune system. Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess flatulence, and puffiness of the face. These effects are reversible upon return to Earth."
however, in the the wikipedia article about human adaptation to space, the section concerning the human anatomical 'weight bearing structures' manages to mention that, "Loss of bone and muscle make it very difficult for humans to move and even breathe under the weight of Earth's pull upon their return. The longer the flight, the more loss will occur until it will become impossible for the individual to survive the pull of Earth's gravity for any extended period of time" ...there are a few other disturbing details in other sections, which i will leave for you to discover for yourselves!
there's an article from the European Space Agency on, living in space which doesn't have much to add...
and NASA's divsion previously known as Human Adaptation & Countermeasures didn't provide much more detailed information online, either... (their Non-Exercise Physiological Countermeasures Project online info was mostly bureaucracy); but the division now known as Human Health and Performance has some decent info on Human Factors in Spaceflight
and this looks like an important area for research:
Sex, Space and Environmental Adaptation: A National Workshop on Research Priorities on Sex Differences in Human Responses to Challenging Environments
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute has a decidedly optimistic outlook, highlighting all of the potential benefits of human adaptation to space...
but there does seem to still be a great deal of confusion throughout the years about the condition known as asthenia, which reminds me of a certain condition which was behind the story known as "The Yellow Wallpaper" ...q.v. this psychosomatic medine journal article, "Asthenia-Does It Exist in Space?"
...but this is perhaps the magnum opus of research by NASA on the issue (which I just found in my research, this morning 012815 @ 10:33 am CST)... which at least recognizes the limitations that NASA has in analyzing the issue, while it links to a fair amount of useful resources from around the rest of the world on the subject:
Perspectives on Asthenia in Astronauts and Cosmonauts: Review of the International Research Literature
It's worth noting that they mention one possible way for the DSM to perceive the existence of asthenia as possibly "a psychological or psychosomatic/psycho-physiological analogue of chronic fatigue syndrome" ...and if we read closely enough, it may be possible to infer that exercise & novelty may go a long way towards treatment of such a condition (and let's also look at the possible beneficial psychological effects of space travel, like salutogenesis, et alia)
with all of this talk of the hazards of insanity in space travel... i must post the infamous ren & stimpy episode, "space madness"
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8cwqzp
hmmmmm... considering all of these indications of significant long-term risks & the lack of real answers available, i was beginning to wonder if maybe we're better off just sending bananas into orbit? ...well, they are yellow, after all ;~}
but oh, wouldn't you know it... just when I thought that there was a serious lack of information on the web regarding these crucial issues:
AHA... EUREKA!
NASA's Human Research Roadmap (previously known as NASA's Bioastronautics Roadmap) appears to be a fairly exhaustive resource for answering questions regarding human adaptation to space travel.
let's see where we can go next with this exploration?
and meanwhile, i wonder... does anyone want to invest in a reasonably affordable simulation of the future?
iFLY now has vertical wind tunnel recreational facilities all over the place, now (in 2015)!
ADDENDUM: I have just been informed of pertinent current events (sometimes, I can be a little behind on breaking news)...
13 June 2006 Hawking Says Humans Must Colonize Space
08 January 2007 Stephen Hawking Hopes to Go Into Space
01 March 2007 Stephen Hawking to go weightless in April
and, bizarrely enough, The Austin American Spaceman Statesman had this as the top story in the Metro & State Section, today:
ACC students board NASA plane to do experiments in (almost) zero gravity
both of these civilian opportunities to experience weightlessness are produced by airplanes (like the Weightless Wonder, or "Vomit Comet") travelling in long parabolic arcs, first climbing in altitude, then falling, in such a way that the flight path and speed correspond to that of an object without propulsion and not experiencing air friction.
--
December 3 2010, 10:40:43 UTC
Living aloft: Human requirements for extended spaceflight
http://www.archive.org/details/nasa_techdoc_19850024459
--
April 23 2011, 18:33:53 UTC
The 6 Weirdest Dangers of Space Travel
http://www.cracked.com/article_19158_the-6-weirdest-dangers-space-travel.html
--
December 17 2011, 05:07:27 UTC
...how long would it take us to get to the nearest habitable planet, 600 light years away?
NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in Habitable Zone
http://www.space.com/13821-nasa-kepler-alien-planets-habitable-zone.html
Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like world orbiting a star like our Sun in its "habitable zone" - at a balmy 22C.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16040655
how long would it take us to get there (600 light years away)?
600 light years converted to kilometers = 5.7 x 10^15 km ...Traveling at Solar escape velocity, which is around 58,741 kph (near the limit of our conventional rocket tech, anyway)... it looks like it would only take 11,077,185 years to get there, in that case!
So, if we outfitted a space ark with enough people & resources & tools to travel there for that many generations... I wonder what we would have evolved into by that time?
Just for perspective... Here's what primates looked like 11ish million years ago:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/the-11-million-year-old-primate-discovered.html
Of course, we would have to find some way to conquer the space punies, too...
"Hey Jake... What are space punies?"
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/114684.html
And although there may be a number of ways to travel that distance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel
I was contemplating use of the generation ship model
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship
(perhaps we could just download our brains into silicon matrices & not have to worry about that pesky organic stuff)
And while we're at it, we should bear in mind what Stephen Hawking said about aliens, right?
http://www.space.com/8288-aliens-exist-stephen-hawking.html
Just remember... Cthulhu ain't as cute & cuddly as people seem to think!
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/66020.html#cutid6
--
October 11 2015, 09:40:13 UTC
Fortunately, there are other side effects of space travel that are considerably more beneficial...
http://web.stanford.edu/group/astrobiology/cgi-bin/?page_id=1433
http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4411.pdf
Salutogenesis
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/asma/asem/2005/00000076/a00106s1/art00009?crawler=true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_and_sociological_effects_of_spaceflight#Positive_outcomes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salutogenesis
And the overview effect
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect
http://www.weareplanetary.com/overview/
http://vimeo.com/55073825
http://vimeo.com/60234866
Which relates to some other ideas that aim to give our little home for humanity some kind of hopeful context in this vast cosmos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceship_Earth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
Although we should perhaps keep in mind the limitations that our cultural context, worldview & confirmation bias may create for us
http://www.academia.edu/5995107/Rethinking_the_Overview_Effect
Ultimately though, I am with Greg Stafford's interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft, on these issues...
http://aethyrflux.livejournal.com/169847.html
"My theory about why 'The Call of Cthulhu' and Lovecraft's fiction resonate so strongly with people," (Greg) Stafford says, "is that despite being set in an arbitrary, impersonal, cruel universe, they show that small, individual acts of dignity and goodness are possible." - from _Return of the Weird_ by Zack Stentz
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/01.02.97/cover/horror1-9701.html
--
February 29 2016, 09:33:26 UTC
i look forward to more specific research to be done now that we have evidence of gravity waves
http://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave
--
October 19 2022, 02:41:01 UTC
It seems that even the 90 y.o. notoriously prickly William Shatner had some things to learn from his experience going into space!
...I looked down and I could see the hole that our spaceship had punched in the thin, blue-tinged layer of oxygen around Earth. It was as if there was a wake trailing behind where we had just been, and just as soon as I’d noticed it, it disappeared.
I continued my self-guided tour and turned my head to face the other direction, to stare into space. I love the mystery of the universe. I love all the questions that have come to us over thousands of years of exploration and hypotheses. Stars exploding years ago, their light traveling to us years later; black holes absorbing energy; satellites showing us entire galaxies in areas thought to be devoid of matter entirely… all of that has thrilled me for years… but when I looked in the opposite direction, into space, there was no mystery, no majestic awe to behold . . . all I saw was death.
I saw a cold, dark, black emptiness. It was unlike any blackness you can see or feel on Earth. It was deep, enveloping, all-encompassing. I turned back toward the light of home. I could see the curvature of Earth, the beige of the desert, the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. It was life. Nurturing, sustaining, life. Mother Earth. Gaia. And I was leaving her.
Everything I had thought was wrong. Everything I had expected to see was wrong.
I had thought that going into space would be the ultimate catharsis of that connection I had been looking for between all living things-that being up there would be the next beautiful step to understanding the harmony of the universe. In the film “Contact,” when Jodie Foster’s character goes to space and looks out into the heavens, she lets out an astonished whisper, “They should’ve sent a poet.” I had a different experience, because I discovered that the beauty isn’t out there, it’s down here, with all of us. Leaving that behind made my connection to our tiny planet even more profound.
It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered. The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness. Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna . . . things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind. It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.
I learned later that I was not alone in this feeling. It is called the “Overview Effect” and is not uncommon among astronauts, including Yuri Gagarin, Michael Collins, Sally Ride, and many others. Essentially, when someone travels to space and views Earth from orbit, a sense of the planet’s fragility takes hold in an ineffable, instinctive manner. Author Frank White first coined the term in 1987: “There are no borders or boundaries on our planet except those that we create in our minds or through human behaviors. All the ideas and concepts that divide us when we are on the surface begin to fade from orbit and the moon. The result is a shift in worldview, and in identity.”
It can change the way we look at the planet but also other things like countries, ethnicities, religions; it can prompt an instant reevaluation of our shared harmony and a shift in focus to all the wonderful things we have in common instead of what makes us different. It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart. In this insignificance we share, we have one gift that other species perhaps do not: we are aware-not only of our insignificance, but the grandeur around us that makes us insignificant. That allows us perhaps a chance to rededicate ourselves to our planet, to each other, to life and love all around us. If we seize that chance.
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/william-shatner-space-boldly-go-excerpt-1235395113/amp/