From a Cosmic Point of View
On my wall hangs a photocopy I made of an image from a newspaper: it is a picture of the Earth, taken from space. I put it up to wonder at the beauty of our planet. But above all, I put it up to remind myself to always see life in a much larger perspective. I put it up to not forget that I am part of something much greater, that the meaning of my life is therefore much greater, and that I am therefore responsible towards something much greater. I put it up in order not to get lost in the small thoughts of so much everyday life. Our lives are exceedingly improbable. Only the tiniest fraction of matter is organised as life, and only the tiniest fraction of life is human. Our existence is a piece of extraordinarily good luck. Even the fundamental constants of physics have had to be extremely finely tuned to make us possible. Winning the lottery is, by comparison, commonplace. It is not arrogance to say that, by some measures, we are the most highly-developed species on our planet. Apa...