--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Sal Sunshine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Apr 3, 2008, at 12:41 PM, hugheshugo wrote: > > > I like to be optimistic and think there is millions of planets with > > life out there but I wouldn't be surprised if we were the only > > intelligent creatures, it really is a fluke that we got this smart. > > Just think of the string of events that all had to happen to lead to > > us being the only animals in the history of earth with consciousness, > > it's got to be billions to one against. > > > > But we don't know what we don't know. I really hope the place is > > teeming with life and we make contact in my lifetime, just a radio > > signal would do for me, I'd die happy knowing there is someone else > > out there. Not because being alone is too painful, but because I'm > > incurably romantic. Does that sound weird? I can't tell. > > Not at all, I'm a romantic too. But it's just that with some things, > sometimes a cigar really is a cigar, and it's nice to be able to let > go of what > seems to be a hopeless hope. But I can understand not wanting to as > well. > > Everywhere else is deader than disco. > > Great line, BTW--man, that's dead! (I hate disco.) > > Sal >
I'm glad you don't think it's weird, I logged on again just to try and justify it if you did. But I'll expand on it anyway now I'm here ;-) There's just something about looking through a telescope at the night sky that really gets me. Looking at pictures in a book or on the net just isn't the same as having the actual light thats travelled billions of miles form an image in your mind. All the planets look amazing, I know it's my mind adding special effects but it all seems so serene and stately, always moving but always predictable and was always there all the time waiting for us to discover it. It's a gobsmackingly amazing place we live in and nobody knew til Gallileo thought to look at the sky one night, inagine being the first to see all that, what trip he must have had. My favourite things to look at are galaxies, they're all so far away that light left them before the human race even existed, and light travels at 180,000 miles per second! over a year it really covers some ground. The closest galaxy to us, Andromeda, is 2.9 million light years away, it's the furthest thing that can be seen with the naked eye. I like to think of a ray of light leaving there, when proto-humans were still getting the hang of walking upright, travelling across the void while we developed language, culture civilisation and technology, finally flowing down my telescope and streaming into my eyes, it's a beautiful sight, the combined light of 4000 million stars. You can see objects so far away that mammals were just a twinkle in Mother Natures eye when the light you see left them. It blows my mind. It's not weird is it? Of course not, it's wondrous. But Saturday Night Fever is one of my favourite albums. That probably is weird.
