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Does anyone else get a bit depressed when you consider how insignificant we are?

by jshelly 11y ago

pklausler 11y ago
Nah, it's more of a feeling of liberation from unreasonably high expectations.
venomsnake 11y ago
No. But with so much interesting things left to find I start to really really hate the concept of mortality :(
- grif-fin 11y ago
  I could not agree more. Everyday I wake up and I think why is it that we gave up on massive wave of research on immortality/life extension.
chriswarbo 11y ago
What makes you think we're insignificant? Maybe it's the psychology of how we (fail to) deal with different scales. Discovering new, larger, more wonderful places in the Universe doesn't make the Earth any smaller or less wonderful than it is. Our brains might "zoom out" our mental map to fit these new places in, which makes us appear smaller, but in fact it's our horizons that have grown. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_pe... there were nearly 200,000 books published in the UK in 2011. That doesn't make the works of Shakespeare insignificant.
ttflee 11y ago
Total Perspective Vortex told me that I was important.
eecks 11y ago
It just depresses me that I'll never reach an Einstein standard in any thing I do :/
- readme 11y ago
  Not with that attitude!
kamaal 11y ago
If we can keep our heads cool, and priorities right. We can get very significant. Wherever we went on earth we've colonized quickly. If we can do that to space, universe might be our backyard.
- adrianN 11y ago
  Space is pretty big tough and entropy gets you eventually.
mc808 11y ago
Most of those very subtle gravitational waves are also rather insignificant. Normally their effects would be swamped by other forces and interactions. At least as far as we know, we are the first agents in the universe to build structures that isolate and amplify those effects in a way that allows them to be perceived and appreciated. That seems pretty significant. We may also be the only means the universe has to feel proud of this little accomplishment.
auntienomen 11y ago
FWIW, I take some comfort in knowing that I can beat up the vast majority of gravitational waves.
ddingus 11y ago
I have. There is just so much out there... On the other hand, it's nice to know the world really does appear to be boundless. I mean in terms of the possible. We aren't much, but we are here and it's a pretty awesome experience. Maybe we need to be here, otherwise what is the point? I like to think there are others too, thinking thoughts like we are. Maybe that is necessary too. Maybe nobody has reached a point in their development for more, or contact to make sense. I find our time here and now bittersweet. So much is yet to be experienced and understood. But, then again, here and now isn't all bad. We have great science, new frontiers opening up all the time. Our stories of the future are fantastic, and there is still a lot of magic and wonder about us, the world, reality... We may not see the best. In fact, I say none of us will, but right now is never dull. I feel like we are just beginning to get a real grasp on reality. That seems powerful and exciting. We could have lived in much darker, harder, ignorant times. These times may be seen that way too, or they may be a peak, with a decline to come. Nobody knows, and I like it that way.
orionblastar 11y ago
Does this discovery make us insignificant or does it increase our understanding of the universe? It depends on how you look at it. You are taking a pessimist's view on things that the universe is so large and we are so small that we don't matter. If you take an optimists's view on things you'll discover that we do matter and learning new things increases our significance.
aws_ls 11y ago
I do. People compare crossing the oceans with space travel. In our present form (on evolutionary scale) we are less than equipped for that. Also I wonder, in this form as humans, can anyone really comprehend what this all means, beyond the Math and experimental confirmations? What if we are living in a simulation, and just being played?

Does anyone else get a bit depressed when you consider how insignificant we are?

by jshelly 11y ago

Does anyone else get a bit depressed when you consider how insignificant we are?

pklausler 11y ago

Nah, it's more of a feeling of liberation from unreasonably high expectations.

venomsnake 11y ago

No. But with so much interesting things left to find I start to really really hate the concept of mortality :(

grif-fin 11y ago
I could not agree more. Everyday I wake up and I think why is it that we gave up on massive wave of research on immortality/life extension.

chriswarbo 11y ago

What makes you think we're insignificant? Maybe it's the psychology of how we (fail to) deal with different scales. Discovering new, larger, more wonderful places in the Universe doesn't make the Earth any smaller or less wonderful than it is. Our brains might "zoom out" our mental map to fit these new places in, which makes us appear smaller, but in fact it's our horizons that have grown. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_per_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Books_published_per_country_pe... there were nearly 200,000 books published in the UK in 2011. That doesn't make the works of Shakespeare insignificant.

ttflee 11y ago

Total Perspective Vortex told me that I was important.

eecks 11y ago

It just depresses me that I'll never reach an Einstein standard in any thing I do :/

readme 11y ago
Not with that attitude!

kamaal 11y ago

If we can keep our heads cool, and priorities right. We can get very significant. Wherever we went on earth we've colonized quickly. If we can do that to space, universe might be our backyard.

adrianN 11y ago
Space is pretty big tough and entropy gets you eventually.

mc808 11y ago

Most of those very subtle gravitational waves are also rather insignificant. Normally their effects would be swamped by other forces and interactions. At least as far as we know, we are the first agents in the universe to build structures that isolate and amplify those effects in a way that allows them to be perceived and appreciated. That seems pretty significant. We may also be the only means the universe has to feel proud of this little accomplishment.

auntienomen 11y ago

FWIW, I take some comfort in knowing that I can beat up the vast majority of gravitational waves.

ddingus 11y ago

I have. There is just so much out there... On the other hand, it's nice to know the world really does appear to be boundless. I mean in terms of the possible. We aren't much, but we are here and it's a pretty awesome experience. Maybe we need to be here, otherwise what is the point? I like to think there are others too, thinking thoughts like we are. Maybe that is necessary too. Maybe nobody has reached a point in their development for more, or contact to make sense. I find our time here and now bittersweet. So much is yet to be experienced and understood. But, then again, here and now isn't all bad. We have great science, new frontiers opening up all the time. Our stories of the future are fantastic, and there is still a lot of magic and wonder about us, the world, reality... We may not see the best. In fact, I say none of us will, but right now is never dull. I feel like we are just beginning to get a real grasp on reality. That seems powerful and exciting. We could have lived in much darker, harder, ignorant times. These times may be seen that way too, or they may be a peak, with a decline to come. Nobody knows, and I like it that way.

orionblastar 11y ago

Does this discovery make us insignificant or does it increase our understanding of the universe? It depends on how you look at it. You are taking a pessimist's view on things that the universe is so large and we are so small that we don't matter. If you take an optimists's view on things you'll discover that we do matter and learning new things increases our significance.

aws_ls 11y ago

I do. People compare crossing the oceans with space travel. In our present form (on evolutionary scale) we are less than equipped for that. Also I wonder, in this form as humans, can anyone really comprehend what this all means, beyond the Math and experimental confirmations? What if we are living in a simulation, and just being played?