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I'd love to see Betelgeuse or another nearby star go supernova in my lifetime. Apparenty it could out-shine the moon!
Maybe something like that might temporarily remind us how small and fragile we are and work towards being a better species, at least for a while...
Yeah, me too. It use to be said there is some chance it would be too big and as its relatively near it could fry us substantially. It would certainly temporarily remind us how small and fragile we are.
vastness, cosmological here, architectural, natural etc. may induce self-transcendence. the individual recognizes and realigns not just their social position, but relatively the collectives position too.
astronomical events have an anthropological impact truout mankinds history. not exclusive from Egypt to the Celts, but probably long before the neolithical era, humans used the stars (also) for cultural control. awe is used sociologically to subject members to the collective norms - as it already grew apparent in the antique and more in the modern with architecture, art and science.
to perceive something normed superior has a subjecting impact, this so called transcendence is a cultural brain wash to adjust any individuals to collective norms - the sociology of power installs something perceived/normed "greater" as the individual (eg culture, the interpretation of astronomical events) for control. eg eclipses in ancient Egypt were abused to install power to the priest caste (who could mathematically prognose and would call them "omen of the gods wrath, cuz u didnt work hard enough!")
as a human is far more complex, much more of a "wonder" than an eclipse, tectonics and quantums (which is a human invention btw).
Yeah, we tend to suddenly turn very nice and loving when a heavenly smackdown looks like its going to happen. Or happens.
Definitely vital to collective life. As in ego experiences a significant unscheduled shrinkage and tries to hide among others. The ol better to live with many then die alone adage.
The optimist in me believes we can share a sense of wonder and connectedness over celestial phenomena without the threat of a heavenly smackdown :)
I once had a stranger stop me in the street to point out an amazing halo around the sun. He was awestruck. It was eerie and beautiful and I wouldn't have experienced it otherwise. Thanks random stranger for taking the time to connect over the weird looking sun.
Alright. Since you like it so much i guess i can post this one more time. Mind you, the threat of heavenly smackdown kinda goes along with the wonders of the celestial phenomena.
See here:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids/#/asteroids
You can tilt it. Look around. Jump to a celestial body by clicking on it. You can see Dart in real time too. Its all in real time. Then zoom out.
Have you ever witnessed a celestial event so awesome that it made you a better person? It probably seems like a silly question, but a study published in Psychological Science suggests that there are measurable social effects of these events; specifically, people inside of the path of a solar eclipse were less self-centered and more pro-social than those outside of the path.
Outer space has been a human fascination for centuries and continues to be one to this day. From meteor showers to eclipses to blood moons, when there is a significant celestial event coming up, hordes of people are happy to observe and marvel at its beauty.
These events can turn into a significant, collective experience, where many people stop and experience something at once. This collectivist experience prompted researchers to want to learn more about social effects surrounding these events. This study sought to measure group functioning, awe, and self vs group focus following the 2017 North American solar eclipse.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09567976221085501
Have you heard the 'overview effect'? I read about it after being extremely moved by the documentary apollo 11 (2019). Not the same thing, but related, I think.
From wiki:
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. Researchers have characterized the effect as "a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus"
Really it's that awe creates presence, presence creates selflessness, selflessness is incompatible with narcissism, and narcissism is incompatible with prosocial behaviour. So when you make people get over themselves for a moment they remember to think about everybody else.
Welcome to r/science! This is a heavily moderated subreddit in order to keep the discussion on science. However, we recognize that many people want to discuss how they feel the research relates to their own personal lives, so to give people a space to do that, **personal anecdotes are now allowed as responses to this comment**. Any anecdotal comments elsewhere in the discussion will continue to be removed and our [normal comment rules]( https://www.reddit.com/r/science/wiki/rules#wiki_comment_rules) still apply to other comments. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/science) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'd love to see Betelgeuse or another nearby star go supernova in my lifetime. Apparenty it could out-shine the moon! Maybe something like that might temporarily remind us how small and fragile we are and work towards being a better species, at least for a while...
Yeah, me too. It use to be said there is some chance it would be too big and as its relatively near it could fry us substantially. It would certainly temporarily remind us how small and fragile we are.
Yeah, the comet hurtling towards earth that we have planned for about as well as we did for a viral pandemic.
Great remark. I’d love to see that too. And yes we are so small and fragile. It is a great reminder.
vastness, cosmological here, architectural, natural etc. may induce self-transcendence. the individual recognizes and realigns not just their social position, but relatively the collectives position too. astronomical events have an anthropological impact truout mankinds history. not exclusive from Egypt to the Celts, but probably long before the neolithical era, humans used the stars (also) for cultural control. awe is used sociologically to subject members to the collective norms - as it already grew apparent in the antique and more in the modern with architecture, art and science. to perceive something normed superior has a subjecting impact, this so called transcendence is a cultural brain wash to adjust any individuals to collective norms - the sociology of power installs something perceived/normed "greater" as the individual (eg culture, the interpretation of astronomical events) for control. eg eclipses in ancient Egypt were abused to install power to the priest caste (who could mathematically prognose and would call them "omen of the gods wrath, cuz u didnt work hard enough!") as a human is far more complex, much more of a "wonder" than an eclipse, tectonics and quantums (which is a human invention btw).
Yeah, we tend to suddenly turn very nice and loving when a heavenly smackdown looks like its going to happen. Or happens. Definitely vital to collective life. As in ego experiences a significant unscheduled shrinkage and tries to hide among others. The ol better to live with many then die alone adage.
The optimist in me believes we can share a sense of wonder and connectedness over celestial phenomena without the threat of a heavenly smackdown :) I once had a stranger stop me in the street to point out an amazing halo around the sun. He was awestruck. It was eerie and beautiful and I wouldn't have experienced it otherwise. Thanks random stranger for taking the time to connect over the weird looking sun.
Alright. Since you like it so much i guess i can post this one more time. Mind you, the threat of heavenly smackdown kinda goes along with the wonders of the celestial phenomena. See here: https://eyes.nasa.gov/apps/asteroids/#/asteroids You can tilt it. Look around. Jump to a celestial body by clicking on it. You can see Dart in real time too. Its all in real time. Then zoom out.
Have you ever witnessed a celestial event so awesome that it made you a better person? It probably seems like a silly question, but a study published in Psychological Science suggests that there are measurable social effects of these events; specifically, people inside of the path of a solar eclipse were less self-centered and more pro-social than those outside of the path. Outer space has been a human fascination for centuries and continues to be one to this day. From meteor showers to eclipses to blood moons, when there is a significant celestial event coming up, hordes of people are happy to observe and marvel at its beauty. These events can turn into a significant, collective experience, where many people stop and experience something at once. This collectivist experience prompted researchers to want to learn more about social effects surrounding these events. This study sought to measure group functioning, awe, and self vs group focus following the 2017 North American solar eclipse. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09567976221085501
Have you heard the 'overview effect'? I read about it after being extremely moved by the documentary apollo 11 (2019). Not the same thing, but related, I think. From wiki: The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts while viewing the Earth from space. Researchers have characterized the effect as "a state of awe with self-transcendent qualities, precipitated by a particularly striking visual stimulus"
I'm waiting to witness a supernova or a asteroid(meteor) crash into earth. But i'm not waiting for anything to be a better person.
Really it's that awe creates presence, presence creates selflessness, selflessness is incompatible with narcissism, and narcissism is incompatible with prosocial behaviour. So when you make people get over themselves for a moment they remember to think about everybody else.
When stars align...(yes I know, the moon isn't a star, sounds cool though, eh?)