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Pale Blue Dot
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Here we are: That "fraction of a dot". Can it really be said that humans are of any major significance? Sure, life is an amazing self-replicating arrangement of mostly carbon based molecules, and it's very interesting to look at, but is there any real significance to it? I don't mean to spark a religious debate, as would happen on any youtube video remotely related to the subject.
10 more years!
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-07 14:55:55 |
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You're question, as I understand it, is: "Are humans significant?" This is an incomplete question. Significance is not objectively quantified. There is no meaning to the term "real significance" with out a subjective perspective. In my subjective opinion, humans are very significant. 
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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by
 
on 2007-10-10 00:01:19 |
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.\__/. agree with gendou~sama!!! humans are very significant!!! life is meaningful and significant!!! please think positively, be optimistic!! and that's just a youtube video -_-lll   |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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| Earth changes every day with the organisms that live on it. Even if it is just a little dot, it's still amazing. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-13 13:11:30 |
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If you look at it materialisticly, yeah... that's pretty insignificant. I know what you're talking about. But since we have such an impact on the world we live in, and the extent of human reach has gone so far so fast, yeah, I think humans are pretty dang significant. All things in life are significant. They can grow to be big things, even if they're not considered big while compared to the extent of the universe. In other words, math is useless. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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by
 
on 2007-10-14 15:58:04 (edited 2007-10-14 15:59:40)
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Maths are useless when it comes to attempt to compute human emotions. It sure can assist medical science to catscan the brain but it cannot govern our thoughts! A blue dot, like a grain of seed, can be clumped into an amazing creature. Like a seed grown into a sturdy, eldest tree in the world. Without evolution, a dot will be a dot for the rest of life. There'll be no beings, no history, no evolution, no meaning and importance of Planet Earth. A DOT with NO POINT. A human made of carbon molecules is not important, what's very important is humans can put things into effect--- be it a wonderful event or a terrifying outcome--- humans make history, humans found art, science, maths and communication skills, humans create beliefs which can cultivate into norms within societies and humans create music! Humans create anime! And you can imply that the less significance of human existence is nothing to be appreciated of? Read over what I say there, and you'll attempt to plan how to live in physics alongside humanity. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-16 19:53:27 |
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i don't think humans are at all significant, at least not until we gain the ability to start removing all those dots or reaching and influencing them in some major way... so i guess that means colonisation or destruction on a galactic scale would be the only thing that would make us significant  |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-17 08:04:41 |
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@rocketg- Start removing those dots, influencing them in some major way... you know those things can possibly (but can't be fully guaranteed) made by scientific advances, which humans did that. You think humans are not significant at all? o_0 Well, colonisation is a part of human history, which it's the history of mankind that makes humans significant in this world. We are the ones that are capable to develop our mentality, physicality and other skills and talents way beyond animals, insects and marinelife. Also, we humans must appreciate Mother Earth, where we are the only ones that can protect the environment for a greener, cleaner life in this world. We have the duty to protect flora and fauna. Not all humans are born evil, greedy and cold-hearted. So the significant part of humans would be there are some humans want to bring better, beautiful future for our next generation and ourselves in this world. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-18 01:34:06 |
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^ the ability to do amazing things on this one little world, though possibly worthy of mention, is certainly not significant in my opinion. Just think about it, the number of planets and stars in this galaxy, and the number of galaxies in the universe, certainly something restricted to one planet, or one solar system as is the case, has not even in the value of a grain of sand in relation to the entirity of existence. That's my way of looking at it at least. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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In nature order becomes dis-order. yet broken symmetrie leads to structure. And even chaos may sprout its own creations. Complexity -I think- in contrast to entropy is very valuable. We as humans create (/constitute) a large degree of complexity in a very dense space. We are very dynamic and regretably vulnerable. Taking all this in account plus our rich elemental composition would make us almost priceless as matter in motion. Too bad of our enormous waste-heat output. Though, still have to see myself a more fascinating organism. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-21 09:59:36 |
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I love the first four lines of your post, marzad~ very enlightening. 83 But hold on, what do you mean by 'enormous waste-heat output'? Is it an example on how humans use the resources? |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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In the line of reasoning I meant that in nature we have only so much to work with and no more. Even with all the new physics I don't think we will ever be able to do away with the laws of thermo-dynamics. There is not much in this universe that can be considered real waste accept for dispersed heat, which is the lowest and most useless form of energy. Even all the toxins and radio-active waste we produce aren't any real problem for life or existence in itself. But waste-heat is what will "some day" be the end to all of us. So to awnser your question (what I almost forgot): I just think it's a shame that we could never (at least so it seems at this point) prolong the life of this universe by maintaining order or recondensating (just making this up at the spot so don't pin me down on it ;D ) it. Like a physics-author wrote: I't better stop writing now because I'm creating more disorder (in waste-heat) just thinking and typing than I am ordering this world with these (at least partially) sensible words. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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on 2007-10-23 13:44:31 |
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@marzad o(0_0)o Whoah, best reply ever. You are one wise guy to me. |
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Re: Pale Blue Dot
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@w00t0s *smirking* Well thanks. But off coarse I feel a bit like a cheater. Being a student in philosophy I'm pretty well in my element in thése forum-topics. You won't be finding me in most other threads, like in the physics-topic, where people would mop the floor with my smart-ass mouth. anyway, While my own philosophical opinions are usually very anti-humanistic (or rather post- / trans-humanistic), béing a human myself I think we're the most important thing in existence (especially ME ;D ). But we should always remember this as being very subjective when it comes to seriously thinking about other life, the world and beyond. For the somewhat more specific question "are we significant?", there being a subtle difference between significant, important and meaningfull. Well, I think the most down to earth awnser would be: we are becomming more and more significant as we are ever more in a position to interact with our environment plus us continiously expanding of this reach. But this increase in significance is mere absolute and even if it is a lot, may still be negligeable compared to some other things. There is a very likely chance that there are (somewhere,when-ever) things (beings?) that increase far more rapidly in (this kind of) significance than we do, making our rélative significance peanuts. So "are we meaningfull?" Well, semantically we are. The words "human" and "mankind" stand for real things: us. We are particularly meaningfull in this sense because (unlike many other lifeforms) we even have meanings like "individual" and denoting words for them we call "names". And likewise we act meaningfull talking about ourselves and other things. But we are meaningfull even in an other way. We humans have mental content, whatever it really may be. Lets contént with the idea that at least we all have phenomenal experience: we don't register some color, we SEE red or blue. We don't just have some vibrations going into our ears and down some neurological pathway, we HEAR things. There are robots with some function like touch on their fingertips, but we actually FEEL it as well. That is what I mean when I say that humans are more meaningfull than -say- a beachpebble. Though this is still a point of much debate between philosophers and along with them all the different scientists of mind and brain. Well then, "are we important?" Like I said: to us, we are (must be!) the most important there is. But besides us... what standard should one adopt to awnser and even interpret this question? I just dunno... I sometimes ponder over this: if we would ever create something which does exáctly the same as we do (like some A.I. or whatever) and really to all extents the same stuff, but better in all of it. Or some aliens land which are júst like us but better, would we give up "our place"? Would we be willing to cease to exist as humans so something better can take our place and dominate this world and do the things we used to do? Well, I don't think we would... I sure as heck won't! So again, whatever importance is, whatever for, whatever we are... We think ourselves it very much so! |