“Extraterrestrial intelligent life may be almost ubiquitous. The apparent failure of such life to interact with us may be understood in terms of the hypothesis that they have set us aside as part of a wilderness area or zoo.” John A. Ball, The Zoo Hypothesis, Elsevier Science, 1973.
I like this hypothesis – puts humans into perspective cosmologically.
When we realize that we are insignificant in the cosmological, geological, and time realms, perhaps we can begin to come to grips with just who we really are.
There are those who believe we are “created in the image of God” – although it seems to me more likely that god is created by man in his (man’s) own image in an attempt to create a false sense of importance (we like feeling important, you know). This perspective seeks to implant humanity at the pinnacle of importance cosmologically – as “children of God” we are more important than all the trillions of stars, billions of galaxies, millions of galaxy clusters, and the infinite space we call the universe – as well as countless life forms yet to be discovered by us (refer to opening quote).
Turn the negative emotions and energies of others into a beneficial force.
My point is that we NEED to feel important when we are actually infinitesimally unimportant (in the cosmological sense). As such, we tend to “bend” the truth to suit our needs – that is, we are willing to lie to comfort ourselves. And to further the illusion of importance, we squabble amongst ourselves and jockey for positions of power and influence in our societies. We believe someone is important if they are rich or famous or strong or beautiful or…
But what if one day something or someone from “out there” were to suddenly take an interest in the “zoo” and come visiting. What if they had the power to suddenly and permanently irradiate life from our measly planet (think BIG object – like a planetoid)? What then? How important would our world leaders, ultra-rich, or influential, famous people be in comparison to such a global threat.
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We are so powerless we can’t even move an object the size of Los Angeles from an intercept course with Earth even if we were to discover it years ahead of impact. We can’t even exist on another planet without life-support equipment – and then only for a VERY short time. If such an object were to put us in the cross-hairs, we’d realize just how insignificant and powerless we really are…
Can you teach a dog nuclear physics? Can we comprehend the truth? I wonder.
We measure distance in earthly units of miles or kilometers when we live in a neighborhood where the nearest sister planet is millions of such miles away; and in which the nearest solar neighbor is billions of billions of miles away – so far we measure the distances in time (a light year is the distance light travels in a full earth year). We live only an instant in geological terms. And less than that in cosmological terms. We think we are so intelligent that we seek out “other” intelligent life – in hopes we might communicate with them.
How significant are we really? I wonder.
We are, however, interesting as a specie. We emote. We envision. We care. We lie. We cheat. We betray. We laugh. We grieve. We wonder. We explore. We are infinitely curious. I wonder if it is not what we are that matters most, but what we imagine.
How significant do you think imagination is in the cosmos? I wonder.
Imagination is a doorway into another dimension. When you cross the threshold of imagination into another dimension of thought, you transcend the zoo – as there are no limits to imagination. In this one aspect we can envision and embrace the whole of all that is. We can expand our consciousness beyond the confines of the zoo. We can join the observers if we choose to do so.
We can choose to embrace our insignificance by giving up our need for importance and start now to treat each other with equality, choosing the way of peace, appreciation, harmony, and love.
Can you imagine that? I wonder.