The Milky Way. Still think it matters that the barista screwed up your order?
My Facebook friend Staci was lamenting yesterday that she was having one of those days where she felt at odds with the universe, that she was such a tiny, trivial, insignificant speck in the grand cosmic scheme of things. A feeling she blamed on the landing of the Mars Curiosity rover, since the sheer scale of what they accomplished is outside of the comprehension of someone in their day-to-day travels. And yet, when you take a big look at it, we did little more than fire a bullet at a target across our yard. When you start to really explore the scale of the universe, that’s when it really starts to get to you.
One of her friends commented on the status update with a link to the YouTube video below. It’s called “The Power of Ten”, and it’s astonishing how quickly things start to fall into perspective when you look at things this way: what happens when you add another zero? And then what happens when you do the same thing, but immediately after a decimal? It quite quickly shows you your place in the universe.
Click here to view the embedded video.
We’ve all had that moment when we feel like the tiniest speck of dust in the great scheme of things. Perhaps it’s a video, a drawing, a quote, or a Calvin and Hobbes comic; what gives you that great feeling of insignificance?