In 1993, American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist and author Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) had mentioned that the Earth was not an insignificant blue dot from a distant point, as mentioned, quite often. After NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft sent some images of the Earth from space, he stated: “From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.“

In his publication ‘Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space’ (1994), Sagan wrote: “The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilisation, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.“

Indeed, the space is that vast. From there, the Earth does look like a pale blue dot. Even 39,000 years ago, relatives of the human beings used to roam around on this beautiful blue planet. Today, they are not here, as they became extinct… perished, in other words. Scientists are still trying to find why and how human beings survived, while other creatures disappeared from the face of the Earth. Perhaps, the ability of human beings to make large groups help them survive. One may say that it was the beginning of Groupism. Researchers are of the opinion that the ability of people to communicate with others, and to adapt to changing climates had helped them survive. Hence, people managed to live in snow-covered Europe, on the high mountains, in the wetlands of Bengal, or in the jungles of Indonesia 40,000 years ago! They not only survived on the Earth, but also managed to rule this planet mainly because of mutations, integration and adaptation to the environment.

Interestingly, human beings are insignificant as compared to space. Often, they forget that their survival depends only on mutual exchange of knowledge. The spread of knowledge and science has brought them closer, and also improved the quality of life. In the absence of the practice of knowledge and science, evil thoughts shall continue to influence human beings. Then, people shall destroy nature, as well as lives on the Earth. Of course, we shall not be there to experience it.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das