A Dose of Perspective

Think about the immensity of the universe. Our planet is the home of nearly 7 billion people, trillions of other animals, and every single life sustaining resource we all depend on. Still, Earth is a very small, insignificant looking spec amidst everything else suspended in time and space. It revolves around a star that could fit one million Earths inside of it. That star, our Sun, could fit in the largest known star 70 quadrillion times. That's two decimal places larger than hundred-trillion. Next to it, the Sun looks like a single pixel on a computer screen. VY Canis Majoris, as it's known, resides right here in the Milky Way Galaxy. With billions of galaxies in the known universe, and likely billions more we are not yet able to see, it is almost certainly not the largest star in existence. Stars like VY Canis Majoris and the Sun are only two of an estimated 200 billion to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way. Not to mention that each galaxy is separated by tens of thousands of light-years. Earth is nothing more than a subatomic partical of the universe. Doesn't that make you feel like one of  Dr. Seuss's Whos, floating around on a single spec of dust or a snow flake? The word insignificant doesn't even come close to describing to how all of that makes me feel.

Europa

Mankind's ego has been in a constant state of check ever since Nicolaus Copernicus popularized the idea that Earth is not the center of the universe, and rather that it revolves around the Sun. Discoveries like that just keep coming and changing the way we think about ourselves. One demotion after another, Earth is now holding onto one of its very last attributes that makes it the most special spec of them all. That is, of course, being the only dwelling place of life. Some scientist still believe that, if not now, then perhaps at some point life could have existed elsewhere here in our own solar system. Maybe on Mars. Maybe on Jupiter's moon, Europa, which appears to have a surface made entirely of ice. If lifeforms, even single celled ones, are there then they are probably just about everywhere. If intelligent lifeforms are ever found, or if they ever found us, our ego would just be crushed. But, it could happen. Maybe. We want so badly to be the only or the most important or the best. The chosen ones. However, when all of the incredible numbers about the sheer size of the universe are closely considered... that odds are against it. There are even such lofty ideas as our entire universe being confined inside of a single electron that helps to make up some organism larger than what we could ever even comprehend. No matter how crazy thoughts like that sound, they are important to put our existence in prospective.

Even in the face of such overwhelming knowledge there is a place for optimism. We are not as small as it gets. Remember that 200 to 400 billion stars that share the Milky Way with us? Well on November 2, 2009 National Geographic said "Each cell in the human body contains about one hundred times as many atoms as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy." Oxygen, the most abundant element in the human body, has 8 protons, neutrons, and electrons. Those electrons are nearly 2,000 times less massive than the protons. Now it is believed that electrons might be made up of even smaller particles. So really, humans are somewhere in the middle row of the universe's class picture. Maybe we are kind of significant.

Bulgarian astronomer, Dimitar Sasselov pointed out in his speech at a TED convention in 2010 that while in terms of size and location we may not seem very important, in terms of time we are not so minuscule. It's projected that the entire universe is about 14 billion years old, and Earth has been sustaining life for around 4.5 billion of those years. That's not really all that young. Very noticeable the timeline of everything, and that's enough for me.

Not too hot, not too cold: The Goldilocks zone

Besides, think about all of the things that had to go just right for humans to even be here right now. Aside from being the perfect distance from the Sun for liquid water to exist, there are countless other factors that have went into our survival. If the massive meteor that ultimately killed off all of the large dinosaurs, and forced the little guys to downgrade into birds, hadn't hit Earth, mammals would have never had a fighting chance. We would have never walked upright, developed frontal lobes or opposing thumbs. We wouldn't have created written languages, art, sports, cars, Nike shoes, nuclear bombs, chewing gum, or government. We owe our everything to a lot of different stuff. We may have been put here by God to be his chosen ones or by the wonders of science to join the ranks of many other lifeforms scattered throughout the cosmos, and maybe it was some mixture of the two; whichever way, it is nothing short of a miracle.

So, no matter where we are or how small we are, we're still pretty important. Which makes our home planet and everything we do on it important. Let's start prioritizing things around here. It's time to live for a cause, and not for money or pride or material happiness. We have been here long enough, and have became so smart that we can see these things. We know that we're made out of countless, tiny particles. And we know that we are one of countless, tiny particles that make up the universe. Humans are right in the middle, and as far as we know we're the only one of those things that is aware of itself or of the others. That's pretty cool. Let's strive to be the very best humans we can be. Worldwide. We could achieve the most equal society in modern history.

Do not just question Authority, question everything.