Forums → The Tavern → Our Insignificance

well if weve gotten this far in evolution to the point we're smart enough to figure all this stuff out then we deffinatly have something to be proud of dont you think?

well if weve gotten this far in evolution to the point we're smart enough to figure all this stuff out then we deffinatly have something to be proud of dont you think?

We don't deserve to think highly of ourselves. We're nothing.

Assuming, of course, that there aren't other species out there that have evolved much better than ourselves, and are amazingly smarter.

The fact that we can think are nothing means that we have to be something, it means we are self aware, that we know that we are.

Also, just because giant non biological balls of gas are bigger than me I should feel as if I'm less?

well think about it. we have ipads dude...... come on do you have one or have played on one? those things is sweet

We may be insignificant, but at least out of all 9 planets in the solar system, we're most likely the most developed

But this is why I love astronomy though. I'm interested by the fact that there's something out there that's larger or greater than we are. Maybe I have ADD, but that's pretty cool :l

But we consider ourselves something and thats good enough for most people. Do you think the ant looks up at us and considers it insignificance?

But we consider ourselves something and thats good enough for most people. Do you think the ant looks up at us and considers it insignificance?

Of course, this is once again assuming we ARE smart. While we may be intelligent compared to other species on our own planet, we may be less than retards to other species on other planets.

Logically, no. It was just to give you a sense of how small and how little effect we have on the universe at all. More subconsciously, than anything.

Image is scaled. Coincidentally, I was looking at the exact same comparison model last week for school.

I can't say much seeing as we aren't exactly aware of what is out there. The universe's sheer vastness can't be fully appreciated. For now, we are the masters of our own world.

If this is supposed to induce feelings of depression upon the realisation that I am insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't have much effect. No sadness, just awe.

I'm still waiting for those aliens.

Ants don't have the brain power to consider much of anything, BTW.

I don't need to concern myself with things outside of my own piece of the universe.

If this is supposed to induce feelings of depression upon the realisation that I am insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't have much effect. No sadness, just awe

But we can have profound effects on human life, I don't need to concern myself with things outside of my own piece of the universe.

I honestly couldn't care less about how we effect our own lives. Our own lives are ridiculously short, and I doubt our species will have any grand effects that effect anything for more than a million years, if that.

In regards to our intelligence, and the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, I'm reminded of something I heard watching some video. The analogy was posited that man did not bother to attempt to converse with a beetle because the beetle cannot understand, nor does man care what a beetle may be thinking because we are so much more 'intelligent' and sophisticated. It is a possibility than other intelligent life in the universe may regard us in much the same way as we regard that beetle.

Given the number of universes which have had billions of years longer than ours to form and evolve, it really is not a huge stretch of the imagination to think of a world which has evolved life far more complex and intelligent than anything we could ever conceive.

To quote Lawrence Krauss: "The universe is a huge place, and rare things happen all the time."