Different PsOV on the PBD

Whenever we talk about the Pale Blue Dot in CoPhi, someone invariably says they find it depressing to contemplate our smallness in the vast uncharted cosmos. I used to be surprised by that reaction, now I'm just reminded that all my talk about the endless varieties of PsOV we ought to co-philosophize about, in order to deepen our mutual understanding and tolerance, is more than just talk. So, we talk about it.

The brain that contemplates is, as the poet said, wider than the sky. When we place ourselves in that frame, with the "You are here" arrow to orient by, doesn't it seem as if the universe shrinks to fit? Or that the place we call home expands? Doesn't the cosmic perspective, internalized, shared, and transmitted to as much of the next generation as can be reached, begin to transform us into a more cosmopolitan species with that much greater a chance of living long and prospering? Doesn't something like a global consciousness begin to suggest itself? Can't we begin again to entertain the possibility that humans are in fact capable of greatness?

Depressing? No, for me the vision of our little pixel, our fraction of a dot, our mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam, is  uplifiting, inspiring, horizon-stretching, challenging. And beautiful, like the only home we've ever known.



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