Awe
This is a pretty cool video about how going into space affects astronauts: http://www.upworthy.com/some-strange-things-are-happening-to-astronauts-returning-to-earth?g=2&c=ufb2
It is pretty profound to hear these astronauts, from early in the space exploration age to fairly contemporary astronauts, talk about how awesome (and in the traditional sense of that word) it is to be able to look at the planet. I particularly like the commentary from the astronauts more than the comments from the philosopher, but that is mostly because I know I am somewhat prejudiced.
The thing that struck me is that, even in our "advanced" age, astronauts can still be blow away by something. In the current day, we see images of the Earth and other planets from space on a fairly regular basis. And yet, the astronauts STILL are struck in a very deep way by what they see when they go out into space. One of the astronauts described it with the terms awe and awesome, and pointed out that she had a deeper understanding of those words now.
So I can imagine that one day space travel will be common place, like flying on a plane is fairly common place. Then looking onto the planet and the stars and the sun will be lovely and fascinating but may not be as awe-inspiring as it currently is. This initially made me a little sad.
But, it is a nice thing that human beings are limited in what we can know/do/etc. No matter how much we "advance" and learn, there is still always going to be something we have no clue about. So there is aways the possibility for awe.
It is pretty profound to hear these astronauts, from early in the space exploration age to fairly contemporary astronauts, talk about how awesome (and in the traditional sense of that word) it is to be able to look at the planet. I particularly like the commentary from the astronauts more than the comments from the philosopher, but that is mostly because I know I am somewhat prejudiced.
The thing that struck me is that, even in our "advanced" age, astronauts can still be blow away by something. In the current day, we see images of the Earth and other planets from space on a fairly regular basis. And yet, the astronauts STILL are struck in a very deep way by what they see when they go out into space. One of the astronauts described it with the terms awe and awesome, and pointed out that she had a deeper understanding of those words now.
So I can imagine that one day space travel will be common place, like flying on a plane is fairly common place. Then looking onto the planet and the stars and the sun will be lovely and fascinating but may not be as awe-inspiring as it currently is. This initially made me a little sad.
But, it is a nice thing that human beings are limited in what we can know/do/etc. No matter how much we "advance" and learn, there is still always going to be something we have no clue about. So there is aways the possibility for awe.
posted by Matty Lau at
5:29 AM
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