Last week when I heard the learn'd astrophysicist I was amazed in every way that mattered. On Dec 10, I had the privilege of seeing renowned astrophysicist, Neil Degrasse Tyson speak. What he spoke about was probably one of the most humbling experiences of my life. This man spoke of the cosmic perspective, but; what exactly is this "Cosmic Perspective"?
Well not-so-simply enough; it is the perspective of human life in the universe. Before I go into depth with what this man spoke about; I'd first like to talk about how the man carried himself throughout the show. First off he is a very funny man; if he were not a genius one would believe he was a professional comedian. He had a very satirical essence about him that truly made what he said both enjoyable and memorable. Perhaps one of the things I admired most about him was how he entered the Westbury Theatre. Upon walking up to the stage he took off his shoes and began to circle the stage (The stage itself is a circular one which slowly revolves throughout the show). He made himself comfortable which truly speaks for his character. After he introduced himself he gave the audience an impressive fun fact. Before walking up to the stage he calculated exactly how long the edge of the stage had to be in order to travel at the speed of light (Over 26 million miles in diameter). He also is not very opinionated; he does not once share his opinion with the audience but rather shares scientific fact with the audience.
As I mentioned previously the experience was very humbling. This is because the "Cosmic Perspective" is one which speaks of substantial insignificance in the grand scheme of things. Now before passing judgment there is a reason why I say this. Human nature tells us to be egotistical; selfish and blind to the needs of others. This is very apparent in American society today with our rugged individualist ideology. So in order to share this cosmic perspective with us, Neil Degrasse Tyson explains human Egoism in life on Earth. He does this by explaining what we are as a species.
Have you ever looked at an old science textbook and looked at a ecosystem web? Notice how it will sometimes show a white human male as the top of the pyramid; then as the web goes farther and farther down you see spiders, tigers, and whales all scattered about in a random unimportant order? Neil explains exactly why that is human egoism at it's worst. There is no argument that humanity is a successful species. He showed the audience the best web in science. He shows a cylinder web that begins the moment the earth was created some four billion years ago. The web shows us where animals, plants, and fungi separated in the timeline. A little fun fact Neil shared with us was that we are more closely related to fungi than we are to plants. Meaning that we can call a mushroom cousin before we can to a dandelion (I told you he was satirical). I love this because it truly puts the individual into a perspective most would otherwise not have thought about. It causes us to question our own importance which people desperately need.
Next Neil blows up the image closer to humans; this web is incredibly large and detailed so it is hard to see individual species without blowing the image up. He explains that since this web is so detailed and that since there are millions of species living on our planet; it would be impossible to place all the species on the web. Because of this the web only has about 3,000 of the world's most successful species on it. When looking at the blown up image we see that right next to human beings are mice and rats. As you could imagine this was a very surprising truth. The audience erupted In laughter as our perspective or the world was widened and our egoism slightly deflated. It was a brilliant moment; but the point remains that we are slightly more successful than mice.
I just find that so incredibly eye opening. Even with all of our innovations; from fire and the wheel to splitting atoms and landing on both the moon and mars we are only slightly more successful than a pest. It causes one to question exactly how special are we in the grand scheme of things? What makes us so special in our eyes? This is only the beginning. However there is so much more to discuss about the cosmic perspective; which is why I will make this a weekly series. Every week I will discuss and explain another topic brought up at this enriching experience. Today I talked about human egoism in retrospect to other forms of life on Earth. Next week we will discuss Humanities insignificance in regards to the rest of the universe.
