Jun 9 2012: Wow Owen, that is really an amazing insight, and something I had never even considered. I will try to use it as my new awareness overlay :)
Jun 9 2012: I think it is awe inspiring that we are all here together, right now, at this moment in time and space.
The probability of a sun and "goldilocks" planet like ours ever forming seems to be really... well, rather small. That Earth has all the right geological and chemical conditions for life to begin also seem to be pretty darned lucky. The odds that self aware forms of life like us could ever evolve seems to be almost (but not quite) miraculous. Yet, here we are. Of course, in a century (or 2 perhaps :) everyone that we know and love will be dead and gone forever. Everyone you every loved, everyone that shaped who you are, or moved you to tears. In several billion years our planet will no longer support life, but the universe will stretch on continually for unimaginable epics.
When we look around at other people on the street we are looking at the culmination of a truly unimaginable set of circumstances. If we could ever truly understand how awe inspiring this is I imagine we would just drop everything and embrace eachother in the streets... clinging together like life rafts on a vast and endless ocean...
Knowing all this, it is still nearly impossible for me to chat to the stranger next to me on the bus.
:)
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A reply on Conversation: What is the most awe inspiring fact you know?
A comment on Conversation: What is the most awe inspiring fact you know?
The probability of a sun and "goldilocks" planet like ours ever forming seems to be really... well, rather small. That Earth has all the right geological and chemical conditions for life to begin also seem to be pretty darned lucky. The odds that self aware forms of life like us could ever evolve seems to be almost (but not quite) miraculous. Yet, here we are. Of course, in a century (or 2 perhaps :) everyone that we know and love will be dead and gone forever. Everyone you every loved, everyone that shaped who you are, or moved you to tears. In several billion years our planet will no longer support life, but the universe will stretch on continually for unimaginable epics.
When we look around at other people on the street we are looking at the culmination of a truly unimaginable set of circumstances. If we could ever truly understand how awe inspiring this is I imagine we would just drop everything and embrace eachother in the streets... clinging together like life rafts on a vast and endless ocean...
Knowing all this, it is still nearly impossible for me to chat to the stranger next to me on the bus.
:)