We are but a grain of sand...

Sep 25, 2008
7,077
Alden 50 Sarasota, Florida
All the grains of sand on all the beaches in all the oceans ...

And the politically biased zealots on Facebook think the world revolves around them
 
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Likes: Rick D
Sep 30, 2013
3,538
1988 Catalina 22 North Florida
The most current estimates I have seen put the number of planets in the known universe somewhere around 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's twenty three sextillion, or twenty three times ten to the 21st power.

It is absurd to believe that we could be completely alone in such an unimaginable vastness.
 
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Likes: Will Gilmore
Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
politically biased zealots on Facebook think the world revolves around them
It does!

But, it revolves around each of us. We are each at the very center of the universe. After all, in a universe with no limits, it is equidistant to all edges, no matter where or who you are. Does that have any significance to anything important, though?
Uni-centric and egocentric seem to be the same thing, for most of us. We all are there, right in the center. It's too bad we think that's what's important.
I am speaking in general terms, of course. There are ALWAYS:p exceptions.

I couldn't care less who GOD loves the most. When the infinite offers any amount at all to me, it is still vast beyond my needs.

Think about it mathematically. Where there is only 1. Where no exceptions, no space, no gaps exist, such as we are taught is God's love. By extension, the makeup of all the Universe, where breaking down every particle we find less and less stuff and more and more space, until there is nothing identifiable but "the Ether", just as the egocentric believes himself to be all that is of value, then 1 is the same as 0.

In the end, we don't exist at all, we just think we do.

- Will ("the mystic", Dragonfly)
 
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Aug 2, 2009
637
Catalina 315 Muskegon
I truly am at the center of the universe.

If the universe is infinite, then it has to extend to infinity in any direction I turn. Therefore, am I not at the center?

You may bow down to me now.
 
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Likes: Will Gilmore
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
The most current estimates I have seen put the number of planets in the known universe somewhere around 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's twenty three sextillion, or twenty three times ten to the 21st power.

It is absurd to believe that we could be completely alone in such an unimaginable vastness.
Tantamount to having a distant cousin somewhere that you've never met. So what if we aren't? Changes nothing about life on Earth.
 
Jan 2, 2017
765
O'Day & Islander 322 & 37 Scottsdale, AZ & Owls Head, ME
The most current estimates I have seen put the number of planets in the known universe somewhere around 23,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. That's twenty three sextillion, or twenty three times ten to the 21st power.

It is absurd to believe that we could be completely alone in such an unimaginable vastness.
God put all those there to keep us humble.
Too bad we’ll never know if there’s life on any of them, let along visit them. They are too far away. Star Trek did our generation a great disservice by showing the Enterpise hopping between galaxies within a episode.
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
God put all those there to keep us humble.
Too bad we’ll never know if there’s life on any of them, let along visit them. They are too far away. Star Trek did our generation a great disservice by showing the Enterprise hopping between galaxies within a episode.
The Enterprise never visited another galaxy in the original series Star Trek. It was once on its way to Andromeda with the Kelvins, but then turned back before getting far. There were a couple of extra-galactic sojourns in Next Generation, I believe; but those did not amount to much and were due to extraordinary circumstances/events.
 
Jan 2, 2017
765
O'Day & Islander 322 & 37 Scottsdale, AZ & Owls Head, ME
The Enterprise never visited another galaxy in the original series Star Trek
I stand corrected, but my point still holds. Even hopping to the nearest planetary system cannot be done in many lifetimes.
 
Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
I stand corrected, but my point still holds. Even hopping to the nearest planetary system cannot be done in many lifetimes.
No one will ever visit Oz; Neverland (except as a theme park), or travel the human vascular system in a miniaturized capsule--but what does it hurt to explore the concept? However, the overwhelming message of Star Trek IMHO was "globalization"; perhaps some would hold that that has been the "disservice." There was as much politics in there as there was science fiction. Think about the episodes "The Omega Glory", "Patterns of Force", and "A Private Little War" as examples; but there are others.
 
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Jan 2, 2017
765
O'Day & Islander 322 & 37 Scottsdale, AZ & Owls Head, ME
What troubles me is how many, otherwise intelligent, people believe that we can “save mankind” by somehow loading everybody onto a rocket ship and pioneering to another hospitable planet (when our sun dies or “global warming” heats up).
Maybe science fiction writers are to blame, but there’s a lot of bad science floating around.
 
Oct 19, 2017
7,733
O'Day 19 Littleton, NH
Don't know about Global Warming but it's likely we will have the technology and be long gone by the time our Sun blows up.
I would like to consider the idea that "saving" Mankind and "perpetuating" Mankind aren't necessarily the same thing.
- Will (Dragonfly)