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A special welcome to our incoming IB Grade X1 class, who are already working with teachers on our Pre- IB Introductory Course. ALL STU...
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Each Grade 11 Student will post 100-150 words as Personal Reflection inspired by their visit to the Art Exhibition. Our Central Knowledge ...
In our obscurity, in all this vastness there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.' This is something that caught my attention in the video. Here, Carl Sagan describes how dangerous human nature can be and cruel people are to one another. Through this, he emphasises on appreciating one and another as well as the ‘pale blue dot’.
ReplyDelete‘Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark’—> this quote denotes the immeasurable vastness of space and our undeniably-small place within it. Carl Sagan diminishes ‘our imagined self-importance’ and ‘delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe’ by emphasising our insignificance in a vast, cosmic arena.
What do Carl Sagan’s ideas tell us about the truth of our humanity? Do emotion, faith and language create a barrier between us, causing an animosity between people? Does imagination, intuition and reason bring us together? How does History shape our faith and emotions towards a person?
And the final question arises: Could the natural sciences unite us in not only being kind to each other but also to preserve and cherish the ‘pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known’.
Both videos lend a very shocking and real perspective to life as we know it. The planet and the source of everything I've ever known simply disappeared into the infinite space as the lens of the video widened. The insignificance of the planet and our lives is often difficult to accept and come to terms with. As shown by the video, 'conceit', which has driven the majority of our history and our lives appears irrelevant in this vast context. Therefore, it raises a very interesting question. The perspective presented in the video refers to the pointlessness of this conceit and using this viewpoint to cherish the limited life available to us. Arguably, the insignificance of our 'pale blue dot' suspended in the universe could also excuse the same 'conceit' by making the construct of morality inapplicable and irrelevant. The idea of this freedom was something I found extremely exciting and worthy of reflection.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interesting post, sir.
ReplyDeletePerspective changes everything, and this beautiful video proves it as a good case study. Using that perspective of comparing the size of Earth with Saturn, mad it look so insignificant. But the question that I come to think about is whether God really did choose existence to inhabit this planet of such size... The only solution to this video is merely appreciation, of the things that we have and use in our everyday lives. If everyone on the planet saw one another as the "pale blue dot", everything would change! What really matters is the way of knowing that we use to share our knowledge, language, emotion and reason are the most common of them. Do these stop us, or inhibit us from being efficient social animals in today's universe? If everyone understands the situation from the natural science area of knowledge, then everyone will realise that it is the use of the ways of knowing that make each of us so different and unique just like small, minute "pale blue dots" in an entire universe.
Earth is the only planet that is known to sustain lifeand by now it is extremely clear that we need external forces in order to survive in the long run. the quote "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark" shows how earth is just a small spec compared to the universe and the mere existence of earth in this vast universe is insignificant in comparison to the survival of the universe.
ReplyDeletecarl sagen makes us believe that language, emotion and faith creates a barrier between the human race and this brings us one step closer to destruction and intuition and reason can help prove that the barriers can be broken and we can unite if we want.
According to me, it is us who are capable of saving the only known home to living beings by breaking the barriers that separate us and save the "little blue dot"
These two videos which primarily focus on the area of knowledge of The Natural Sciences, especially Astronomy and question the history of the universe and how important the existence of human beings really is and has been from the beginning of humanity. It uses Sense Perception as way of knowing to help strengthen its argument by making the listener focus on the little blue dot and other various historical images in the picture. These images are mainly paintings and other art forms which come under the area of knowledge, The Arts.
ReplyDeleteCarl sageb also wisely uses Reason as a way of knowing to bring about the of illusion/delusion and purpose that humans have convinced each other of and seeks the truth in them. He also uses Reason to distinguish between human beings that unite together to form Earth itself.
Through this video , Carl Sagan throws light on the concept of the ‘pale blue dot’ which really urges one to think of many different things including the existence .The question “How do we know what we know ?” constantly repeats itself in ones mind throughout the video.
ReplyDeleteIn the very beginning of the video he mentions “try to believe that god created the whole universe” . Using the different ways of knowing especially language, emotion , sense perception and intuition one can raise questions based on religion , an area of knowledge, about how we have to “try to believe in the existence of god . Knowledge questions such as “To what extent can one believe that god has made the universe through the use of emotion, sense perception and language as a way of knowing.” Carl Sagan also showed how there everyone has multiple different perspectives of a god that is only one in number but has taken many different forms on earth. Using reason and intuition one could definitely argue that that the knowledge that we have received is extremely diluted which once again raises another question over the extent to which we should believe in the validity of things.
He also explained how we human beings are just a small part of the earth living on a small part of the ‘pale blue dot ‘which is an even smaller part of the universe . Once again such an intriguing concept causes people to think about the very purpose of existence through the different areas of knowledge and ways of knowing .
I was interested by Carl Sagan's description of Earth as a 'pale blue dot' because it showed me how we can view our planet from so many different perspectives. The video helped me realize the role of our confirmation bias in allowing us to believe that we are at the center of the universe. Since the 'lights in the sky' are a constant feature of our lives, and seem to be rotating around us, it is easy to believe that they were put there solely for our benefit. The video suggests that it is human nature to 'crave privilege' and a 'satisfying demonstration of our importance'. This is evident in the fact that we chose to have our gods resemble us in appearance. This increases our sense of self importance as we can then consider ourselves to be 'created in God's image'. The video ultimately helps us recognize how knowledge evolves with the acceptance of evidence and new theories proposed by the various areas of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteThis video provides us with a new perspective on life and the basis our existence. The earth as we know today is full of conceit and us humans have made this our world. However the Earth is a mere "pale blue dot" which within a few billion years will cease to exist. Once the earth ceases to exist, there will no evidence that we humans existed. Evidence of our existence will disappear. One idea that really interested me was the fact there could have been so many planets like Earth that harboured life, however ceased to exist in history and thus we would never know anything about it. "The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena" and all the bloodshed and deaths that have occurred in the process of becoming triumphant in the history of the Earth have all been done to become "The momentary masters of a fraction of a dot." This puts into perspective the pointlessness of the process to gain triumph over others as they are still governed by a vast celestial body and nothing can be done to prevent the Earth from ceasing to exist or controlling these celestial powers.
ReplyDeleteThis post is really interesting as it uses our sense perception to show us the reality of our own existence. The comparison of earth a small blue dot in front of a gigantic Jupiter created sense of isolation in my mind and made me think whether we are as important as we assume or we are just a tiny non existent dot in this universe. This develops a new and distinct perspective on human
ReplyDeleteexistence using Natural sciences and sense perception. Showing earth to be a tiny speck in this collosal cosmic universe, and the cosmic history somewhere highlights the reality for me. Just the way scientists had assumed that the universe worked for us and were in synergy the supporters of our existence, shows how we humans always assumed ourselves to be extremely important. We'll the reality is that we are small dots on a pale blue dot in the universe. Knowing the fact that there are other Unidentified planets and solar systems in our universe raised the question
"How can we know with certainty that humans are the only living race in the universe" the answer is we don't. The way earth is structured to support human existence poses as another mystery. Is there someone bigger who controls our universe, who has supported our environment, how did we come into existence? Choosing God considered as a superior power to resemble us confirms the tendencies of us as humans to assume importance. This video uses several ideas and techniques to highlight a bigger question which interested me - Manav
“The delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe” is a line that really caught my attention while watching the video. Seeing our world from such a distance makes us seem quite insignificant and inconsequential in the vast scheme of the cosmos arena. All the misconceptions regarding the conflicts fought in the past, which were considered to hold some “importance” slowly began to disintegrate. However, I agree with Carl Sagan but only to a certain extent. On what basis can size determine the value or meaning of something? Despite the fact that people may march into pointless wars, there is also some purpose which motivates people to march for good causes such as liberty, equality, peace, etc. Are all these causes insignificant for the sole reason that the Earth looks like a “pale-blue dot” when viewed through the lens of the entire cosmos? All-in-all, I found this video extremely interesting to ponder and reflect upon since it changed my perspective of looking at the Earth - Not as a remarkable planet that sustains life but as an unsubstantial ”pale-blue dot.”
ReplyDeleteI truly cherished this video as it enforced the ideal of unity against the grand scale of the universe and against the magnitude of existence itself. I enjoyed the existentialist ideas that Sagan reinforces, inclusive of the inescapability of human obscurity, as reinforced by the fact that the Earth, in the video, is simply rendered as a "pale-blue dot" against the vastness of the universe.
ReplyDeleteCarl Sagan has used the beauty of changing the power of the lens that represents our perspective. He has zoomed out the lens of perspective and made us realise how all the worldly complexities simply form a "pale blue dot". It is interesting as to how something so complicated (Earth with all of its complicated affairs) can be a very small part of the bigger picture - the universe.
ReplyDeleteThis can also lead us to understand as to how something is not just a "pale blue dot" and there is more to just a "dot" than what it appears. We just need to zoom in using our lens of perspective and explore the complex nature of a "dot".
Another interesting idea discussed in the two videos was how we as humans tend to base our sense perception on our own arrogance. This raises the knowledge question: "To what extent is sense perception a reliable way of knowing in terms of personal biases playing a role?"
Does this also apply to all experiential knowledge? So do we all have biased versions of knowledge? Can such biased versions of knowledge be considered as being knowledge in the first place?
These questions got me thinking a lot. I think that Carl Sagan has beautifully taught us the importance of looking beyond the "obvious" and also not allowing our personal biases to be involved while we are on the search for more knowledge in a particular field (Natural Sciences: Astronomy in this case).
This further interests me as there is a dilemma of whether one should use their own perspective or not while gaining knowledge. Personal opinions and perspectives can help us develop our own version of knowledge, which may not be acceptable in the AOKs such as the Natural Sciences. However, not using our own perspectives while in the search of knowledge limits us.
On a whole, I believe that these two videos have introduced to various amazing knowledge questions and aspects of what consists and what does not consist of knowledge.
Thank you sir for these great videos!