We Live on Another Planet
We Live on Another Planet…in Another Universe altogether!
I know this may just sound like the tag line to a science fiction movie, or just some clever verbal sophistry, but let me assure you that it’s true. We don’t live on the planet that you imagine we do. We actually live on another planet.
The mental picture of the planet in your mind, made up only of facts and media images of the Earth and the stars, is vastly different from the direct perception of the planet, with the immense universe of stars in which it exists. Enabled by the sense of presence that comes with seeing it with your own eyes, they are indeed, two different planets, with radically different implications for how we live our lives upon them.
Recognizing this seemingly simple and obvious fact, and coming to fully realize the vast difference between the mentally created image of our planet, and the direct perception of its physical reality, will change our perspectives on many of the most important issues and challenges facing the world today; challenges like catastrophic climate change, nuclear war, and a host of humanitarian crises. It may in fact change our perspectives in ways we can scarcely conceive of today. This is why the space experience, more widely known today as the Overview Effect, is at its core a shift in worldview, or paradigm of the world.
Thomas Kuhn, arguably the most influential Philosopher of Science in the 20th Century, brought the concepts of paradigms and paradigm-shifting into our culture, while remaking our understanding of scientific theory change. He went so far as to say that “…when paradigms change, the world changes with them…it is rather as if the professional community had been suddenly transported to another planet.” While the ‘another planet’ wording is obvious, what is not so obvious is that the Earth seen from space is like seeing another planet since we have only our conceptual/media image of it.
The brilliant futurist philosopher/designer, Buckminster Fuller, creator of the geodesic dome, said that for most people, despite every school child knowing that we live on a planet; day to day, our internal sense of the world is as a huge flat plane. He said that the differences between these two models of a world are so different, that it accounts for the inappropriate and destructive ways that we deal with both the natural environment and other peoples. So he coined the term “Spaceship Earth,” creating the metaphor of all of humanity being the crew. Since all our actions affect the Earth, our “spaceship,” and its life support systems, it is imperative that we all identify as members of the same “space ship,” spaceship Earth, and make our decisions accordingly.
Astronomer and noted astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, is frequently quoted as saying, ““Once a photograph of the Earth, taken from the outside, is available... a new idea as powerful as any in history will be let loose.” Hoyle was quite aware that the grandeur and mystery of the universe was not captured in photographs, but he also knew that seeing photos of the stars, and the Earth, would add new, more visual information to our mental picture of the Earth, bringing a new sense of reality to the previously schooled knowledge of our planetary existence.
But just as we once accepted merely the intellectual knowledge of our planetary existence, we have come to accept that the ubiquitous photos of the Earth, that are among the most reproduced pictures in photographic history – are conveying to us the reality of the Earth, and our planetary existence. They are not.
The Experiences of the Astronauts
How can I say this with such assurance? Because we have a handful of renowned individuals who have seen the planet Earth with their own eyes…the astronauts! And since the beginning of human space flight, both astronauts and cosmonauts have been telling us that seeing Earth directly, in the context of a universe of stars more numerous than you imagine, often changed their perspectives on many of the same areas of emerging global challenges that world-change leaders (those working to mitigate these challenges), are stridently calling to our attention
For all of these issues are impacted by the very nature of our planetary existence. Many astronauts have also suggested that if enough citizens could experience seeing the Earth themselves (perhaps especially world leaders), these same changes would begin to be part of how we all see the world. This would be taking Hoyle’s photo and Fuller’s spaceship metaphor to its ultimate conclusion; seeing the reality for oneself literally changes your mental picture of the world, and does so in such a way that you are more readily aware of the reality of global, or better, planetary issues. This is the Mission of the Center for Planetary Identity. In my next few entries, I will explore the cognitive science underlying this shift in worldview, the terms and concepts that will help us communicate it to the larger culture, and the technological and artistic tools and techniques that will bring a greater reality to the many millions who will not go into space, as well as better prepare those who do, to more reliably access this important shift.
