Thursday, August 31, 2023

90 year old William Shatner went to space - this is what he said on return

 “Last year, I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.


"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced.

"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet.

"This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness. I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."
-- William Shatner, actor

The fantasy our species is going to survive by leaving a planet with temporarily diminished capacity for generating biology, and go to a planet with zero capacity for generating biology, is proof biology is massively underappreciated. The fact biology exists at all is a nearly incomprehensible miracle. Perhaps the incomprehensibility of it explains how otherwise smart humans think living life on a non-biological rock is even possible.

3 comments:

  1. So true. We are destroying a wondrous planet that we barely know

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  2. Shatner is remarkable in so many ways. I hope his awakening can become our awakening!

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