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You say it's about perspective.. And yet you at the same time write something like "how tiny and insignificant we all are, although we think different", then as
by Erlich_Bachman 7y ago
You say it's about perspective.. And yet you at the same time write something like "how tiny and insignificant we all are, although we think different", then assuming it is not in fact all about perspective, but instead implying that one perspective is somehow more true than the other.
I think that when talking about significance - the perspective is in fact very important, if not the most important factor.
My life is very significant to me, yes. An electron in a transistor is not, and a distant galaxy is not either. This is not a delusion of grandeur or a misguided complex, it is simply a consequence of my perspective. If would be foolish for me to think that a galaxy is more significant than my life is, because I only have this perspective, I will not ever be able to truly shift my perspective (other than in a daydream) into being a galaxy. I am not a galaxy or an electron, I am a human. And yes I am significant.
Saying that my life is not significant would be an attempt by me to remove responsibility for my actual life and escape something I don't like in my life and hide behind some philosophical intellectualizations.
- martin_a 7y agoYou're very right, I did not describe that thought very well and it's hard to grasp or formulate when English is not your first language. Depending on whose perspective you take, you might become more signifcant or not. The universe will probably never miss me, I will most probably not have any impact on it in the big picture at all. But yeah, I'm very significant to others and it's important to acknowledge that, although you might feel lost or insignificant when compared to a universe. (Not sure if I got it this time, but it reads more positive at least.)
- egfx 7y agoMaybe instead of perspective you meant to say scale. I’ve had this pet theory on all this called the theory of the big and small. That is all the rules of the universe are repeated at scale. Think about this virus. Maybe just like we have antibodies the earth has antibodies to get rid of pollution. Its not a new theory but I first thought of this when I saved a bee floating in a pool with a stick. To me it was a simple gesture and to the bee it was divine intervention. Maybe perspective is limited by the mind.
- uryga 7y ago> Maybe just like we have antibodies the earth has antibodies to get rid of pollution i'm curious, why would it? is (or was) there something to encourage the Earth to develop "antibodies", like evolutionary pressure for living organisms?
- egfx 7y agoYes in an interesting way, I can see how bats with very sensitive echolocation can be reading cues from the earth, exchanging stress signals and becoming stronger viral reservoirs.
- uryga 7y agosorry but idg how are bats relevant to the kind of planet-scale immunity you mentioned
- egfx 7y agoIf you think about it bats like a very specific set of parameters in their environment. If this is off balance due to pollution or electric pollution then the bats can get stressed and in essence be taking cues from the earth that things are off balance. The earth is using the bat as an incubator of the antibodies to resolve this issue.
- deusexepsilon 7y agoI was asked to keep a book of science stories. I told the book and I thought there was, I mean science news, so I used this word.