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Well it’s certainly significant to its inhabitants, perhaps the single most significant place in the universe (to inhabitants of Earth). From a cosmic perspect
by nkrisc 2y ago
Well it’s certainly significant to its inhabitants, perhaps the single most significant place in the universe (to inhabitants of Earth).
From a cosmic perspective, however, it is rather insignificant.
Of course, the idea of “significance” is pretty meaningless without context or a perspective, so naturally it ends up being quite subjective.
- chgs 2y agoIs life, specifically intelligent life, signiant on a cosmic scale? If so there’s a strong chance that Earth is the most significant place in the galaxy at least. It’s possible we’ll screw ourselves up before we make it to other star systems, but of we do manage self sustaining interstellar ships then within a cosmically tiny amount of time humans, or the evolved dwacwndents, will occupy every star in this galaxy. Maybe that’s common, maybe that’s insignificant on a universal scale, maybe reaching the level of development humans have is quite common, but it’s quite possible that Earth is, or will be, very significant on a galactic scale if nothing else.
- nkrisc 2y agoMaybe. Maybe not. We really just don’t know. If sentient life is vanishingly rare on a cosmic scale then there would some significance to Earth (currently). But it is otherwise pretty insignificant. Even if we’re significant on a galactic scale, that’s a long way from cosmic significance. Even our galaxy is pretty insignificant on that scale.
- lo_zamoyski 2y agoThis is where philosophical training helps. People here flippantly conclude whether something is significant or insignificant without defining what significance is and how to determine it. Question begging and bad assumptions abound. "Pale blue dot" talk is ultimately an intellectually vacuous appeal to confusion and emotion. It strives to seem profound, but it only manages to approximate a silly deepity.