Friday, July 15, 2011

Pale Blue Dot



Últimamente el espacio exterior y su aparente infinidad han atraido nuevamente mi atención.


Es por eso que me volví a encontrar con un texto escrito por Carl Sagan (un Astrónomo muy reconocido). Estas notas de Sagan reflexionan sobre una foto sacada por la zonda espacial Voyager I (el objeto humano que más lejos ha llegado -Se dice que alrededor del año 2025 saldrá de nuestro sistema solar-). Esta imagen, que también les dejo en este post, muestra al planeta tierra. Pero lo más increíble es que esta foto está sacada desde millones de kilómetros (más de 6 mil millones de kilómetros, pueden imaginarlo).


Realmente, con mi mente y existencia finita, este tipo de asuntos me sobrepasa.


Este es el escrito de Sagan (va en inglés):

"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again ar 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, on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.


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 of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.


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


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


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."


Básicamente, nosotros somos mucho menos que ese pequeño pixel... MUCHÍSIMO MENOS.

Algunas cosas que esto me despierta (para el que quiera leer):


1- Cuidemos lo poco que tenemos. Nuestro planeta, al igual que nosotros, es frágil. Y en comparación con la vastedad del universo, es aún más pequeño que nosotros. Por ende, debemos y tenemos que cuidar nuestro hogar. Es nuestra responsabilidad.

2- Siendo seres tan pequeños. Nuestra vida es sólo un suspiro. Disfrutémosla, pasémosla bien. No nos preocupemos por nimiedades. Hagámonos querer y queramos.


Este es mi pequeño rescate del escrito de Sagan. Espero que hayan disfrutado, ustedes también, de estas reflexiones del gran astrónomo.


Termino el post con una vanalidad: ¿No les da leer este texto, mientras escuchan el demo del post anterior? Sobre todo les recomiendo. And the Stars were Dimmed out.

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