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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Science Re: A Brief Moment of Wonder

Posted by Charles Mudede on Wed, May 20, 2009 at 5:09 PM

Not wonder, Golob, but horror. To see this planet from space...

From orbit: Night pass over Australia, the city lights give stunning signs of life on our planet within the darkness of nighttime

...such a view of the whole certainly would not inspire in me thoughts about its beauty but its mystery and monstrous aspect. To think that the planet is 8000 miles in diameter, but we humans only live on a surface that has 11 or 13 miles of variation. We are nothing on this planet. We live in the grooves of something that is in reality very smooth, and wants to become smoother.

Comments (18) RSS

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I must agree with you on this, Charles, only to add that wonder and horror are very close cousins.

I'm of the mind that Apollo 8 was the real birth of a vibrant environmentalist movement....

Posted by Jonathan Golob

on May 20, 2009 at 5:33 PM

Actually, the only reason it wants to be an oblate spheroid is due to mass.

Bring on the planet-killing asteroids!

Posted by Will in Seattle

on May 20, 2009 at 5:41 PM

right on @1. Why do you have to be such a killjoy, Charles? There's no not___but___ here. You're right. It is terrifying, but so is looking at the stars and realizing how big the universe is and how small we are. But it's also deeply awesome (true sense) and wonder-full. Since I know you have a major hard on for the "authenticity" of poetry, let's see what Rilke (translated by Barrows and Macy) has to say (First Elegy):

"I cried out, who
in the hierarchies of angels
would hear me?

"And if one of them should suddenly
take me to his heart,
I would perish in the power of his being.
For beauty is but the beginning of terror.
We can barely endure it
and are awed
when it declines to destroy us.
[...]"

Posted by notsnarkyever on May 20, 2009 at 6:00 PM

Also (and I apologize for the constant double postings; it annoys me, too) why do you keep presuming to know what nature wants? Papa Nietzsche said of the Stoics that they were doing violence to nature by forcing their philosophy onto it and then admonishing us to copy their version of nature. The world is exactly as wrinkly as it wants to be. No more no less. If we have to anthropomorphize it, anyway, that is.

Posted by notsnarkyever on May 20, 2009 at 6:03 PM

Earth is smoother than a cue-ball. It's true. But it isn't round enough which is very disapointing. So screw wonder and terror. I'm going with disapointment that the Earth is not round enough. Stupid oblate spheroid Earth!

I'm also disapointed that we're an insignificant part of that spheroid. We're just a dirty wet film of anti-entropic complexity scurying around a mostly molten ball of metals. We should be more grand than that. I'd rather we were a bunch of moon sized robot fortresses eating the surface of neutron stars for breakfast.

But I'm most disapointed that there are astronauts that tweet on twitter.

Posted by Toasterhedgehog on May 20, 2009 at 6:49 PM

"But I'm most disapointed that there are astronauts that tweet on twitter. "

Really? I'd say that is probably the only good use for Twitter. You must follow Perez Hilton or something.

Posted by twitter is for twits unless you are an astronaut on May 20, 2009 at 7:18 PM

no really, "Alienz, you guys! :-O"
gah.

Posted by pissy mcslogbot on May 20, 2009 at 7:46 PM

Actually in this post Charles stated simply and directly a feeling he had. To me it sounded authentic (in a way that his big-worded tautological posts don't). As to the "killjoy" protest -- well, life, the universe, societies, politics, people, art, history, everything is more complex (and more interesting) than you are able to see if you don a smiley-face mask, or urge this of others.

Posted by PC on May 20, 2009 at 7:53 PM

@6 Parez/Paris Hilton is the most bestest person on Earth!!!! 11!!!!!@1 (I forgot which was which)

I don't really get Twitter is all. An astronaut twittering is like a congressman twittering. It's shameless pandering to youth culture. It's like Michael Steele using hip hop vocabulary when he is not a part of hip hop culture, and it makes him sound like an idiot.

Nevermind. I'm sure twitter is awesome.

Posted by Toasterhedgehog on May 20, 2009 at 8:50 PM

"and wants to become smoother." Charles, are you suggesting that the forces of erosion are stronger than the forces of orogeny? My sense is that there is a fairly well-studied balance between the two.

Posted by two shoes on May 20, 2009 at 9:14 PM

Chaz, Why do I picture somebody following you around with a trumpet and a mute going "mwah ahhh". Charles Downer

http://www.hulu.com/watch/19280/saturday…

Posted by TheMisanthrope on May 20, 2009 at 9:29 PM

Wonder has little to do with beauty. Wonder is how one reacts to the sublime, and there is always something horrible about the sublime, or at least radically unsettling.
What wonder there is with regard to beauty is when it is considered in the context of a whole which is itself sublime, when one sensese the precariousness or capriciousness of its existence.

Posted by kinaidos on May 20, 2009 at 10:35 PM

@10 You beat me to it, and I learned a new word.

@5 You made my day. Thank you!

Charles, nice post.

Posted by David from Chicago on May 21, 2009 at 7:01 AM

This planet and nature created us. Whatever our "fault"s as we see them, we move and live as this DNA dictates.

Posted by Vince on May 21, 2009 at 8:00 AM

The Earth is also dry as hell, especially compared to a moon like Europa, which is thought to have oceans up to 62 miles deep covering the entire planet.

Posted by Greg on May 21, 2009 at 8:24 AM