Universe | Cosmos.

If you were to introduce ourselves - humanity - to aliens in outer space, how would you describe us? What would you say to them?

I. Pale blue dot

"We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every 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.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known." - Carl Sagan,  excerpt from a lecture titled 'The Age of Exploration' in Cornell University in 1994 & Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.

The inspiration for this post came from a recent conversation with my friend the other day. We were talking about our childhood memories and the book called 'Cosmos' by Carl Sagan which was an international bestseller/classic in the 90s. I was reminded of my long-forgotten old passion: Cosmos! which often accompanied this feeling of being lightened up and uplifted!!!

When I was little, I was very much into the Universe thanks to my mum and dad. My dad was into stargazing and Astronomy. After his work and on weekends (until his work became too busy), he used to drive me out to the mountains and fields to watch the sky through the lens of his custom-made telescope from Japan. In that small corner of the lens, there laid the Universe - Moon, Jupiter, Mars, other star systems, etc. Back then, there wasn't YouTube or Google and the only way you could get information about the Universe was through some imported NASA photos, space magazines and books. To me, the Universe looked like magic!

My mum was also into spirituality, philosophy, Sci-Fi, and life outside of the Earth, and until I left my family to study abroad in Canada, I grew up surrounded by lectures and books about these topics in South Korea.  

Naturally, I developed a fascination with Cosmos and started to dream about being an astronaut. I studied quantum physics and Astronomy from primary/elementary school till high school in a gifted student program. Rumors have it unfortunately, my dream had to come to an end after visiting Kennedy Space Center and trying their 'zero gravity simulator' as soon I realized that I am not fit for the rigorous training. However, this is the topic that used to light me up! and I was excited to be reminded of my old passion that I have forgotten about for a long time since I embarked on my journey in finance a decade ago.

The telescope is still at my parents' place covered in dust and I look forward to a day when I can have my dad explain the magic of the Universe to my future children as we go on a small star exploration together.

So, going back to my question at the top, what would you say to aliens if you can leave a letter to them? Here is what NASA did if you want some inspiration.

II. The Golden Record

NASA placed an ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2, a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

III. Book Recommendation

If you are looking for new inspiration for some books and haven't read Cosmos yet, I highly recommend these two books Cosmos by Carl Sagan (here is my book summary)  and Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan. The books may help you visit your memory lane unexpectedly. :)  

IV. BGM

Here is some good background music while you are reading these books to get started: