{"id":915,"date":"2009-01-01T08:32:45","date_gmt":"2009-01-01T15:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/?p=915"},"modified":"2015-09-26T11:11:10","modified_gmt":"2015-09-26T18:11:10","slug":"the-pale-blue-dot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/01\/the-pale-blue-dot\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pale Blue Dot"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Photo credit: Big Sky Astro Club (http:\/\/www.bigskyastroclub.org\/pale_blue_dot.htm)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carl Sagan on the Pale Blue Dot<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there \u2013 on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.<\/p>\n

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.<\/p>\n

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.<\/p>\n

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.<\/p>\n

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carl Sagan on the Pale Blue Dot: Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic … Continue reading The Pale Blue Dot<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[122,134],"class_list":["post-915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-astronomy","tag-earth"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pioCd-eL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5552,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/upcoming-events-ohs-tapr-dcc-nymf\/","url_meta":{"origin":915,"position":0},"title":"Upcoming events: OHS, TAPR DCC, NYMF","author":"Jeff","date":"September 1, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"photo credit: adafruit[\/caption] There are three major events of interest to open source hardware and makery folks this month: The Open Hardware Summit is this Friday (9\/6) in Cambridge, MA. \u00a0I'll be there with Chris Gammell of the Amp Hour. \u00a0Tickets are still available. The 32nd annual\u00a0Tucson Amateur Packet Radio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Events"","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"OSHW summit goodie bag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/5029437385_356544f009.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/08\/code-by-charles-petzold\/","url_meta":{"origin":915,"position":1},"title":"Code, by Charles Petzold","author":"Jeff","date":"August 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Andrew Milmoe of Make:SF recommended Charles Petzold's book Code to me several months ago to help me refresh my knowledge of computer architecture as I dive into embedded systems development.\u00a0 I finally finished reading it this week and thoroughly enjoyed it.\u00a0 Code is both a history of the computer as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books and Resources"","block_context":{"text":"Books and Resources","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/books-and-resources\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=mightyohm-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0735611319","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1748,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/diy-tivo-ir-blaster\/","url_meta":{"origin":915,"position":2},"title":"DIY TiVo IR Blaster","author":"Jeff","date":"April 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently I discovered that our local cable provider will soon be discontinuing analog cable service for most channels. \u00a0 Because of this they are forcing encouraging customers to get new cable boxes and upgrade to digital cable. I hate cable boxes.\u00a0 More than just another piece of equipment to find\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"DIY TiVo IR Blaster","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3477836908_bc02a1a13c.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4664,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2012\/02\/pimp-your-geiger-add-a-superbright-led\/","url_meta":{"origin":915,"position":3},"title":"Pimp your Geiger: Add a superbright LED","author":"Jeff","date":"February 9, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/mightyohm\/6848906141\/in\/photostream Want to give your MightyOhm Geiger Counter Kit a little more sparkle? Replace the ordinary indicator that comes with the kit with something special - a superbright LED! Here's how: Step 1: Order some really bright LEDs Superbright LEDs are available from most common electronics distributors, such as Jameco,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Kits"","block_context":{"text":"Kits","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/kits\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=mightyohm-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000ARPULW","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1128,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2009\/02\/hals-lab-standalone-weather-station\/","url_meta":{"origin":915,"position":4},"title":"Hal’s Lab: Standalone Weather Station","author":"Jeff","date":"February 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Hal created a neat project by taking parts of my Wifi Radio project and repurposing them to do something completely different.\u00a0 His Standalone Weather Station changes the color of an LED based on the weather forecast for tomorrow.\u00a0 If temperatures are trending warmer, the color changes towards red. Colder -\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mightyohm.com\/files\/flickr\/3136684274_175ec87345_m.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":480,"url":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/building-a-wifi-radio-part-3-hacking-the-asus-wl-520gu\/","url_meta":{"origin":915,"position":5},"title":"Building a Wifi Radio – Part 3, Hacking the Asus WL-520GU","author":"Jeff","date":"October 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third part of an ongoing series about building a low cost, open source streaming internet radio.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t already, check out part one and part two for some background about the project. Hacking the Asus WL-520GU Wireless Router: In the last part of this series, I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Electronics"","block_context":{"text":"Electronics","link":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/category\/electronics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.awltovhc.com\/image-3238164-10440897","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=915"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":965,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/915\/revisions\/965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mightyohm.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}